Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Gargoyles season 1 ::
by William the Bloody
The year was 1994, and Disney was dominating the after-school 3pm to 5pm television block with stuff like Duck Tales and Tail Spin. Then, along came an all grown up miracle: Gargoyles. The premise was this: one thousand years ago, 994 AD, in Scotland, creatures known as gargoyles thrived. One small clan of the gargoyles was nearly completely destroyed due to betrayal. The remaining six seek vengeance, but a grief stricken wizard casts a spell on them so that they fall asleep in their day time guises as statues until "the castle rises above the clouds." Present day, an eccentric millionaire takes interest in this castle and the legends surrounding the stone gargoyles. He buys the castle and transports it stone by stone across the Atlantic to cap off his skyscraper in New York City. Now, the castle literally has risen above the clouds, and terms of the enchantment have expired, so the gargoyles wake up... to a completely foreign and transformed world than that they once knew. This DVD collection has all of season one, which are the first thirteen episodes.
The Good: Let me just say, IT'S ABOUT TIME!! What the heck made Disney wait TEN YEARS to release this, I have no idea. In this show's brief, two season existence, it quickly secured a strong cult following, and with good reason. For the most part, and the five part pilot story arc especially, this show had high quality animation second only to Batman: the Animated Series. Gargoyles also has a lovely unique musical score sound, ripe with a heavy brass section, pounding tympanis and breathy flutes. The voice talent is also top notch, recruiting heavily from Star Trek: the Next Generation, oddly enough, for folks like Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn. All of the main five gargoyles, plus Demona, have wonderfully unique sounding voices. The characters themselves are all splendid, with unique personalities, desires and shortcomings. The ability to mix plots from the past (994 AD) and the present made for a wonderful touch. This DVD collection also boasts a commentary for the five part pilot arc, "Awakening," with the show's creators and Keith David, the voice of Goliath. It was interesting to hear them speak about the influence Gummi Bears had over the show, particularly since I had carried a secret torch for that cartoon myself.
The Bad: The occasional "generic" voice talent does indeed turn up with the likes of Kath Soucci, Jim Cummings and Frank Welker. It just sort of burns me that whenever they need a female voice with any sort of accent they go for Kath Soucci (she was also Fifi LeFume on Tiny Toons), even though she's no good at faking it. Her performances as Princess Katherine AND as Tom's mother in the 994 Scotland scenes were just terrible. Frank Welker is also the first guy they turn to when they need someone to do animal noises these days (he was Abu in Aladdin AND the horse in Mulan) and it really stinks that his dog barking gets a lot of attention as Bronx on the show. Bleh. The music is not a unique score for every episode, which is unfortunate, but they still get points for making what they had sound good all the same.
Overall, this show is one of my favorites. When I heard that it was finally OFFICIALLY available on DVD (bootleg VHS, DVD and VCD have been running amok for sometime now), I jumped at it, and it still withstood the test of time. The modern and period situations make for a superb combo that I have yet to see duplicated. Now Disney just needs to get off its butt and put out season two...
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