Rambo: The Force of Freedom
So....it seems that back in 1986 they made a cartoon about Rambo????
That a questionable decision. I mean, I'm a casual but solid fan of the films (the first 4 of 5 anyway, I never caught the last one) but, at least in the first two movies First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Pat II the character is very much not of the all-American G.I. Joe knockoff variety that they're pushing in this intro. I mean the story of a disillusioned Vietnam War vet with major PTSD and elite special forces skills who goes on a one man rampage against the rural police force that engages in police brutality against him as part of their casual harassment of the homeless is indeed compelling - it's just not the sort of thing you tend to see in children's cartoons created entirely to sell toy lines.
It is such an obvious rip-off of the classic 80s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon (which I watched a lot as a child of the Reagan era) and I guess my issue is just the crazy disconnect between that rah-rah "we're # 1!" vibe and the deeply critical/jaded/anti-military-industrial-complex vibe of the first Rambo movie (which eventually did morph into the very "Cold Beer, Big Guns, Kick Ass" vibe of Rambo III so maybe it's not that divergent after all. Just thought it was weird that this existed and that I never heard of it.