Ain’t DVD a wonderful thing?
Work is slow today and I don’t have any classwork to speak of yet. So while browsing around, I noticed that Gargoyles Season 1 is on DVD!
It’s 13 episodes, and I’m tempted to buy it for the first five alone. It was all one plot, and amazingly done. For a mid-90s Disney cartoon, this was hardcore stuff. Blood was shown! gasp! The battle scenes weren’t glossed over either, and there was some pretty dark subject matter at times.
If you want to get more of a plot summary, check out this review of the set.
When this first aired, I remember it was on at 2:30 in the afternoon. I routinely arrived home from school at about 2:35. As a result, I didn’t get to see very many complete episodes. But what I did see hooked me. To my 6th grade self, this was my first exposure to the idea that animation could go beyond kiddie shows.
I had the opportunity a couple years ago to watch a good chunk of the series on old VHS tapes. While not every episode as wonderful as my memory made the show out to be, the best ones are still spectacular. The ones dealing with Shakespeare and Arthurian legends were always among my favorites. There was this whole grand epic feel to the show that is rarely duplicated. One episode in particular sticks out: Goliath was mystically thrown back in time to the Blitz of London. He met up with some 1940s gargoyles and it went from there.
Plus, it had Keith David doing the badass voice of Goliath as only he could.
I really want to buy this set, but I’ve got enough waiting to watch as it is.