A frequent criticism of cartoons of the 1980’s is that a lot of them were, primarily, half-hour toy commercials. I always found that criticism to be a little bit degrading, considering that there were a lot of talents that put those shows together. Could one consider G.I. Joe “Worlds Without End” to be the 1980’s equivalent of “The Age Of Apocalypse?” Sure. And, heck, half the characters in that story didn’t even get corresponding action figures.
Sometimes, though, a cartoon of that era meets the stereotype, but it does it in such a way that you can’t help but love it. Such is the case with Sky Commanders, recently put out by the Warner Archive in a complete series manufacture-on-demand collection.
I actually had one of the toys – R.J. Scott – and I loved it because the whole “swing on the line” thing was cool, but also, it was on scale with my M.A.S.K. figures. I had always wanted to see Sky Commanders the animated series, but never got a chance to… until now.
Sky Commanders has a series of heroes and villains who are all out to find a particular element in the mountains. There’s a lot of cable-swinging, and a lot of collapsing mountain, which makes you wonder why these characters don’t just walk or climb someplace, or, heck, use jet packs. But then there wouldn’t be much of a show, would it?
Not degrading the actual writers who worked on this, but that’s basically the entire concept. There are occasionally character conflicts, but really, it’s just about them sliding across a cable someplace, with different toys from the line factoring in. It basically comes across as the kind of story I would come up with, at age 8, playing with toys. And that’s actually a great thing. I found it to be a lot of fun.
The voice talent – and I noticed famed voice director Andrea Romano on the crew credits – is familiar, with the narrator for the opening titles sounding like the NBC voice of the 80’s. The music is also very 80’s. The characters are made to have accents that almost come off as ridiculous in an attempt to be international, but again, it’s part of the fun.
Sky Commanders is not the best series to come from its era but I probably had more fun with this set than a lot of other 1980’s cartoon DVD releases. If you grew up at a time when this was the thing, you’d probably love it too.
Sky Commanders is available NOW from the Warner Archive. Here’s a clip:
Purchase this DVD from the Warner Archive and hopefully we’ll get more releases like these!
