Between you and me, there aren’t nearly enough cowboy-themed cartoons around anymore – especially ones where bipedal talking bulls ride around on non-bipedal, non-talking horses. I mean, how else would we get chuckle worthy sexual innuendos like “Bang ‘Em High” or “The Down Under Gang” for episode titles? You simply wouldn’t. However, thanks to comic artist/toy designer Ryan Brown, the same mind responsible for a comic about giant mutant hot dogs dressed as Halloween monsters, here we are.
Released during the early 90s, right as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hit its stride, Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa takes advantage of the two “Ms” of cartoon television: mutants and merchandising. Especially during the 90s, animated shows based around mutation were popular (again, due to the success of TMNT). In the case of Moo Mesa, it would be a meteor that would transform three unassuming steer – and the rest of the area – into “bovipomorphic” creatures straight out of the Old West.
And like the Wild West, Cowtown, as it came to be called, has it’s fair share of troublemakers and law-breakers. Luckily that’s where our heroes, Marshal Moo Montana, and his deputies, Dakota Dude and Cowlorado Kid come into play. Whenever the corrupt Mayor Oscar Bulloney or the villainous Masked Bull (actually another corrupt official, Sheriff Terrorbull) stir up trouble Montana and his boys are more than ready to stomp some cowhide. A typical episode would take something commonly seen in a western film – robbing a stage coach, stealing gold from the local mine – and put the show’s “cow-metized” spin on it.
The series itself, despite spawning a merchandising landslide of action figures, comics, fruit snacks, a video game, costumes, fake shaving kits (yep!) and ugly sweaters, was fun but unremarkable which probably explains lasting only two seasons on ABC. Still, Moo Mesa stands as a cartoon that aims to break all the rules: gun fights on a kids show, talking animals riding other non-talking animals and cowboys who are actually cow (bulls, sorry). All I can say to that is “COW, WOW.”
