Saturday, August 18, 2012

Gargoyles






Now here is a show that has only improved with age. Fantastic adventure involving a group of castle gargoyles who were placed under a sleep curse. After 1000 years they are awaken in modern day New York City where they continue their job as defenders of the night.

Staring the great Keith David as Goliath this is voice acting of the highest order. You can also recognize Clancy Brown as the leader of the vikings, Marina Sirtis as Demono and Jonathan Frakes as Industrialist Michael Zanatos. Vocal talent was one thing that Disney never skimped on back in the day and that raises the quality of this series beyond many that came before it.


The animation is top notch as is the development of the characters and their relationship to each other. Frakes plays Xanatos as both villain and hero and I like that the show eventually took him into the direction of heroism. I have the action figure of Xanatos in his gargoyle armour that looks pretty cool.


The stories were complex and several story arcs could be contained in a single episodes. The multi-part episodes (like the pilot) play out like full length animated adventures. Shakespearean themes played a large part in the over all development of the story.

Is the third season the show changed it's name to The Goliath Chronicles and we saw fewer Gargoyles as Goliath travelled the world searching for more of his kind with the daughter he and Demona had together.




You can follow the links on the You Tube to watch the entire pilot and many of the individual episodes.

5 comments:

Brothermidnight said...

I love Gargoyles. someday Im going to post pictures of my Gargoyles figures.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

Greg Weisman was creator and head writer on this show and he carries the torch for quality animated programs having done great work for Sony's "Spectacular Spider-Man" animated series as well as the serving as the showrunner on "Young Justice".

See if you can spot the Gargoyles cameo in this Spidey episode of his:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0WAXQBIETU

He also worked as a creative consultant for another cartoon for Disney called "W.I.T.C.H.". I haven't seen this show yet, but I'm interested in learning more about it.

Nathan said...

I believe Brent Spiner also did voices on the show. It looks like Disney just walked into the set of Star Trek: TNG and asked how many people were interested.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

The complete list of Star Trek Alumni on Gargoyles is quite fascinating, and it makes me wonder how Keith David was never in any episodes of any Trek series.

Aside of regulars like Jonathan Frankes and Marina Sirtis and the previously mentioned Brent Spiner you also had guests like Michael Dorn, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichlos, David Warner, LeVar Burton, Avery Brooks, Colm Meany and Paul Winfeld. Patrick Stewart was offered the chance to voice King Arthur for a string of episodes, but had to decline due to other commitments.

Also there were many other great celebrity voices on board like Clancy Brown, CCH Pounder, Jim Cummings, John Rheys Davies, Alan Cumming, and even Tim Curry!

Kal said...

All great voice actors. Half of what makes an animated series great for me are the voices.