The Warner Archive, determined to make sure every animation collector has a library of good stuff, last week issued Herculoids: The Complete Series, a collection of the 1967-1969 series about a family of warriors on a technology-free primitive planet and the creatures they interact with. There’s a dragon, there’s a rock creature… but my favorites seem to be Gloop and Gleep, shapeshifters who remind me of the Shmoo from the early-80’s Flintstones cartoons.
I’m going to give a fair warning here: I’m probably not the most qualified person on Earth to be reviewing a DVD of The Herculoids. It was created before my time and I don’t have the same emotional attachment to it as I would to, say, The Jetsons or The Flintstones, or even the same-era Birdman or Space Ghost cartoons. So if I’m not as appreciative of the lore or the characters as I should be, please don’t be offended.
But what can I say about it? Most importantly, there are fantastic character designs from Alex Toth, who also designed Space Ghost and a lot of what we saw in Superfriends. I admit before looking into it I had assumed the designs came from Jack Kirby, who co-created Thor, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, and others; it turns out I had gotten things confused with Thundarr, a series created in the 1980’s with similar designs. Oops.
Though this is a manufacture-on-demand release, the episodes themselves look better than anything you’d see on TV and are surely clearer than what a kid in the 1960’s would have seen with an antenna.
Story wise, I think The Herculoids moves a little slow for me, at a pace I’m not used to. If I had been 10 in 1967 this may have been the coolest thing ever, and on the flip side I’m put off by the faster pacing of some modern animation, but this seems relatively slow but inoffensive. Some stories are easier to connect with than others, though usually it seems to be the usual trope of Herculoids vs. whoever it happens to be that has come to their planet. Week in and week out. I do love the animation, though… it’s fun to look at and clearly of a different time, and unlike cartoons that were created just to sell toys, it was obvious this was made with love.
(Please note that the “Space Stars” episodes produced in the 1980’s are not on this set)
So is it worth it? If you’re a fan of the series, by all means, check it out. If you’re a historian for old animation, again, check it out. Me? I think I’ll stick to my toy-commercial 1980s cartoons, because I love familiarity. On that note, hey, Warner Archive – any chance you have the rights to The Centurions or more Silverhawks? Those I am anxiously awaiting.
You can get The Herculoids exclusively from the Warner Archive. Here’s a clip:
