Anybody remember "Gargoyles"?

[_C_]

Man, the 90's were a great time. I think Gargoyles was way ahead of its time. It was dark, and some of the storylines really touched on adult issues. Like the episode "Deadly Force" where Broadway accidentally shot Elisa while playing with her gun. What a great way to show kids how guns are dangerous.

So, does anybody else remember this cartoon?

[Kestra]

Yes, it's up there with Batman as one of my all-time favorites.

[Takeru]

Of course I remember it, it was and still is one of my favourite 90s cartoons, I have the DVDs and have not given up hope that Disney will release the second half of the second season.
I also bought the official continuation comics written by Greg Weisman, they were great, I was disappointed the series ended after 12 issues and the Bad Guys spin-off after only 6, but it was great to get some new adventures and it was great having thr Gargoyled back in the castle living with Xanatos and Fox (I kow that technically happened in season 3 of the cartoon, but thatseason sucked and the comics ignored it, so I will pretend the cartoon ended after season 2).

My favorite characters were Demona and MacBeth, both villains but they were so interesting and layered. Despite all the bad things she did I always felt bad for Demona, she lived for a thousand years and was hunted, hated and saw more than one of her clans be destroyed. Of course some (but not all) of it was her own fault or consequences of her actions but even if she had tried to live in peace she still would have been a monster in the eyes of most humans, that's why I give her a little bit more slack than MacBeth, while I did like him his constant need for revenge was a little pathetic, I thought more than once that he should get over it, unlike Demona he could have lived a peaceful live pretty easily if he had chosen to do so.

[Mr Light]

Gargoyles was one of the greatest animated series ever! That said, I recently rewatched it, and it didn't hold up as well as I remembered. A lot more silly than I remembered.

[Vendikarr]

Mr Light wrote:

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Gargoyles was one of the greatest animated series ever! That said, I recently rewatched it, and it didn't hold up as well as I remembered. A lot more silly than I remembered.

You must have seen the third season. Go back and watch the first season and your faith will be restored.

[The Wormhole]

I do have very vague childhood memories of it. It was pretty damn good.

Of course, one has to point out that a good deal of Star Trek actors ended up doing voice work on the show. Hell, Xanatos was even drawn to resemble Jonathan Frakes.

[flavaflav]

I just finished a rewatch of Gargoyles a couple months ago. Excellent show, and definitely as good as I remember. One thing I forgot was how each ep more or less led right into the next episode and there were very few standalones. Very good voice cast as well. I would love to see live action version.

[Nagisa Furukawa]

I have vague memories of it as a kid, but never really watched it. However, after falling in love with another Greg Weisman series, Spectacular Spider-Man, I watched all of it about a year ago and I now think it's easily one of the best Western Animation series ever made. It's got pretty much everything I would want in an action-adventure series for kids; great characters, complex characterization, reoccurring plots and arcs, and a refusal to talk down to its audience.

My only real complaints are the Avalon World Tour, which starts off interesting but goes on for WAAAY too long, and of course, Season 3, aka The Goliath Chronicles, where Weisman got Dan Harmon'd. End the series with the Hunter Moon 3-parter and you're golden.

Also, Frakes and Siritis are so much better as Xanatos and Demona than Riker and Troi it's not even funny.

[Venardhi]

How it hasn't been turned into a movie yet is beyond reasoning.

[Christopher]

Venardhi wrote:

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How it hasn't been turned into a movie yet is beyond reasoning.

I was disappointed it wasn't made into a movie at the time, since so many of the cast members could've easily played the same characters in live action. Frakes could've been Xanatos, Salli Richardson could've been Elisa, Tom Wilson could've been Matt, Marina Sirtis could've been human-form Demona, Tim Curry could've been Sevarius, etc.

[Venardhi]

We all know that wouldn't have happened either way. At least now the technology exists to do them justice.

[Christopher]

Venardhi wrote:

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We all know that wouldn't have happened either way. At least now the technology exists to do them justice.

You're misremembering the chronology. Gargoyles premiered in 1994, a year after Jurassic Park came out, and only a few years after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and the Dinosaurs sitcom with their elaborate animatronic lead characters created by the Henson Studios. Any Gargoyles feature film would've probably come along in '96 or later, at which point the animatronic and CG technology would've been more than up to the challenge of creating convincing Gargoyles.

[Admiral2]

Kestra wrote:

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Yes, it's up there with Batman as one of my all-time favorites.

Ditto. A Disney cartoon that wasn't about cute talking animals for once.

[Redfern]

Unless you count Maggie Reed and the other genetically engineered feline gargoyles like Elisa's brother.

Sincerely,

Bill

[Hound of UIster]

Nagisa Furukawa wrote:

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My only real complaints are the Avalon World Tour, which starts off interesting but goes on for WAAAY too long .

The problem with the World Tour was that it was intended as a serious expansion of the Gargoyles Shared Universe. If you have been to Weisman's blog, he talks about how Eisner wanted his own fictional universe like Marvel/DC. Gargoyles was intended as the cornerstone for that. They had large unrealized plans for King Arthur, the New Olympians, the Phoenix Gate and the Illuminati.