Customer Reviews

Birdman and the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I surely dont see how someone can say this is terible.I remember these as a child and they always made me happy on saturday morning.I was always glued to the set and didnt move.I guess the packaging is subpar and you need to put some effort into getting the disks out.No big deal i say as watching these again will be well worth it.Sometimes you find packaging like this but oh well,im just greatful to be able to own them and leave it at that.

For those that don't remember, Hanna-Barbera ruled Saturday Mornings from
7:00 am (Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel/The Impossibles/Frankenstein Jr.) until
1:30 pm (Johnny Quest) in the 1966/1967 time range.

The most interesting point I wish to make is this:
All three major networks had Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Stranger still, I
don't remember ANY of them clashing with each other during the day!

In Los Angeles, one could flip from chs. 2 (KNXT - now KCBS/Columbia)to
4 (KNBC/National) to 7 (KABC/American) and catch about all of their
cartoons. (I seem to remember Birdman airing on Ch. 4 at the time)

Birdman - It was never said, but he worked with 'our' US Government in
battles with the bad guys. As Communism was big in the 60's, the over-
tones were crystal clear.

The Galaxy Trio - Interplanetary Police who did battle with all kinds
of criminals.

This show wasn't my favorite Hanna-Barbera Animated show (that honor is
reserved for The Herculoids (which aired on CBS) and Mighty Mightor
(which also aired on NBC), but I enjoyed it enough back then to want
to buy it now ($20/US)! It still garners a Five-Star rating!

Now this is a truly good choice. Can't wait for the release date. Wow.
All 40 Birdman cartoons, and 20 Galaxy Trio cartoons presented as complete shows. For years we've laughed at the way "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" poked fun at this show. Now we can see the original Super Hero action that inspired it all.
Semi-regularly, throughout the series, you'll see winged Super-hero Birdman gain powers from the sun's energy, and take on F.E.A.R., a criminal organization which sometimes does its own dirty work, and sometimes employs super villains like Nitron, Dr Freezoid and Murko the Marauder.
Unique to the time (1967), they introduced a new character "Birdboy" in the later Birdman episodes, and developed him well, as he assisted Birdman in return conflicts with Birdman's old foes like Dr Millenium and Vulturo.
The Galaxy Trio stories are a fantastic outer space sci-fi Super-hero concept. Meteor Man (an elastic enlargeable hero), Vapor Man (who can turn into various gasses, as well as fire them from his hands), and Gravity Girl (who can reduce or increase gravity) fly through space in their ship Condor 1, defeating many foes. In particular, the music used in "Space Slaves" and "Peril of the Prison Planet" will make me keen to play them again and again.
LET'S HOPE THEY REPEAT THIS GREAT IDEA THEY'VE DONE, BY RELEASING THE 1972 "SEALAB 2020" SERIES which inspired the more recent satire "Sealab 2021".

I only wish Birdman and the Galaxy Trio had stayed around for longer. I would have liked to the the Galaxy Trio especially have a more expanded role and longer cartoons. But as it stands this collection of both Birdman/Galaxy Trio are more than ample to tied me over and give me something else to remind me of some really great cartoons back in the day...not that isnt like that now. Its just more than i identified with. I remember seeing both the Birdman and GT being aired on Cartoon Network awhile ago. If not for that i probably would've forgotten about them altogether.

Thankfully i didnt and i bought this nice collection and priced well also. Its not a bother with the packaging to me, i never had a problem getting the discs out. Being for when this cartoons were made the quality is pretty decent. It's not going to be spectacular these cartoons were done back in the late 60s. Even still they hold up well to the things available today. Cop this classic cartoon series and it will give you a good idea of what Hanna Barbera brought to the table in terms of cartoon presentation and just all around good times for TV viewers for any and all ages.

Hoping to capitalize on their phenomenal hit series Space Ghost & Dino Boy (1966), Hanna-Barbera presented viewers with the similar yet cool-in-its-own-way series Birdman & The Galaxy Trio (1967) the following season. Armed with solar rays & shield and eagle sidekick Avenger, Sun god Ra-inspired Birdman battled earthbound villainy, typically at the request of contact Falcon 7 while elemental heroes Galaxy Trio comprised of Meteor Man, Vapor Man and Gravity Girl (not unlike the Terrific Trio from Batman Beyond Season One episode "Heroes"), engaged in intergalactic struggles on behalf of the Galactic Patrol. Though Birdman failed to live up to the success of Space Ghost, reruns on Cartoon Network/Boomerang and the hit spin-off show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law helped to renew interest in the forgotten hero. Featuring superb design work by late great artist Alex Toth, music by Ted Nichols, a solid voice cast including Birdman himself, Keith Andes and exotic environments, Birdman & Galaxy Trio - The Complete Series ably provides tons of soaring retro fun and non-stop action '60s Hanna-Barbera style. This 2-disc (420 min.) set features all 20 episodes from the series in its original three-segment form (1 Galaxy Trio sandwiched between 2 Birdman segments); Full-Frame (1.33:1) video; English audio; Closed Captioning; plus the following Special Feature: "Birdman: The Forgotten Hero." Considering the lack of remastering and the age of the show, the picture and sound are fairly good, despite some noticeable debris. Unfortunately, like the Space Ghost & Dino Boy set, the two discs in this set are dual-sided, so there's next to no chance that you'll get a set free of scratches. Luckily, they are, for the most part, only surface scratches and in no way interfere with the playback so you'll want to thoroughly screen both discs (in a timely manner) before returning due to defect. While there is no segment selection screen for the episodes, there are chapters for the segments which you can skip through using your remote.

I bought this set purely for nostalgia and I'm glad I did, but it appears that little effort went into restoring these episodes for this DVD release. The video transfer suffers from all sort's of age related debris, scratches, speckling and is nowhere near the quality of some of the other Hanna Barbera releases. As for the overall packaging and condition of the discs, some fans will definitely be disappointed.

The packaging is absolutely cheap and the quality of the discs is just plain terrible. In this set, you'll get a very cheap cardboard package and two double sided discs that sit on top of one another. The discs are very hard to remove from the package and chances are they'll get scratched, if they're not already.

I pre-ordered this set from Amazon and when I received it the discs were already full of fingerprints and scratches. I contacted Amazon customer service immediately and they offered a replacement set without question and issued an apology. When the second set arrived it was riddled with deep scratches, more fingerprints and some kind of residue on the discs making them unplayable. It's evident from this release that the company doing the DVD replicating for Warner has some serious quality control problems and they need to be addressed immediately.

As for Amazon, they resolved the problem to my satisfaction with a level of customer service I've come to expect. I wish I could say the same for Warner Studios. As for an apology, Warner should apologize to all the fans and to the people at Hanna Barbera for the way they handled this DVD release.

(Disc #1) Side A Episodes:
* X the Eliminator/Revolt of the Robots/Morto the Marauder
* The Ruthless Ringmaster/Battle of the Aquatrons/Birdman Vs the Mummer
* The Quake Threat/Galaxy Trio Vs the Moltens of Meterous/Avenger For Ransom
* Birdman Vs Cumulus/the Storm King/The Sleeping Planet/Serpents of the Deep
* Nitron the Human Bomb/The Peril of the Prison Planet/Mentor, the Mind Taker

(Disc #1) Side B Episodes:
* The Purple Moss/Drackmore, The Despot/The Deadly Trio
* The Brain Thief/Titan, The Titanium Man/Birdman Vs. The Constrictor
* Number One/The Duplitrons/The Bird Girl
* Birdman Meets Reducto/Computron Lives/Vulturo, Prince of Darkness
* The Chameleon/The Eye of Time/The Incredible Magnatroid

(Disc #2) Side A Episodes:
* Hannibal the Hunter/The Cave Men of Primevia/The Empress of Evil
* The Wings of Fear/The Demon Raiders/Birdman Meets Birdboy
* The Menace of Dr. Millenium/The Rock Men/Birdman Vs. Dr. Freezoids
* The Deadly Duplicator/Space Fugitives/Professor Nightshade
* Train Trek/Space Slaves/Birdman Meets Moray of the Deep

(Disc #2) Side B Episodes:
* The Monster of the Mountains/Galaxy Trio Vs Growliath/The Return of Vulturo
* The Revenge of Dr. Millenium/Return to Aqueos/The Ant Ape
* Birdman Vs The Speed Demon/Invasion of the Sporoids/The Wild Weird West
* The Pirate Plot/Gralik of Gravitas/Skon of Space
* Murro the Marauder/Plastus The Pirate Planet/Morto Rides Again

Special Features:
Birdman: the Forgotten Hero
Trailers

Just when I post a review for the Space Ghost DVD box set and requested the release of Birdman and The Galaxy Trio, well, if you're reading this, you'll know where I'm going.

I mean, WOW! What are the odds? Both on the same day. Man, my wallet is going to take a really serious hit on 7-17. And I hope I come across a review for the Herculoids box set as well. Seeing these two listings on the same day certainly gives me hope.

Admittedly, I'm not as nostalgic about Birdman (don't think I'd even remembered him or even heard of him up until about 8-10 years ago, don't know how I ever missed him) as I am about Space Ghost and The Herculoids, but since seeing them on Boomerang, they're now up there with those guys, as far as I'm concerned.

I won't go on any further other than to say, "Keep them coming, Warner Bros!" You're making me very happy right now.

1967 was a year of love, the Vietnam War and super rock groups and of course Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. Negatives, the packaging is cheaply done, all I can say is when you take out each dvd, use lens paper, as to not get fingerprints on the two dvds. I felt W.B. could have gave the consumers of this product, better packaging. There could have been remastering of all the episodes, you could still see artifacts while watching these two dvds. Maybe it was better W.B. left the original prints the way they originally are. I know Spiderman 1967 5 dvd 52 episode set has 48 episodes remastered and some look like they were made a day ago, only 4 episodes of Spiderman have not been remastered in the 1967 set. The positives of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series, it is nice to have all the episodes of each series, there is also a really interesting documentary "Birdman The Forgotten Hero". This documentary explains the origins of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and how Hanna--Barbera had some amazing artist in thier studio during their twenty year or more, dominance of saturday mornings. I enjoy watching these cartoons, and as silly as they sometimes are I still enjoy it. The soundtrack for these cartoons may repeat itself on many Habba Barbera cartoons of this era, but I feel Joseph Barbera was a really good musician. Enjoy Birdman and the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series for what it is good clean and at times silly fun. I'm not into superheroes but man, I cant wait till Warner Brothers releases the "Fantastic Four 1967" . Despite "Birdman and the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series" negatives, I consider it a welcome release from W.B..............

Based on my dim childhood memories I had no idea how brilliantly terrible this series was. Now I'm in total awe of the myriad of tricks and plot elements utilized in Birdman to avoid doing any actual animation, while still somehow managing to convey stories. Birdman is virtually always a stationary drawing that shoots "animated" energy beams. Occasionally while flying his wings twitch a bit. Very often an action is about to happen and the camera cuts to another character in a talking head shot saying something like "Those evil robots have just walked through the doorway." Basically, any individual episode of Birdman could be animated in a weekend by a 12 year old kid who mastered Flash... if he had Alex Toth and some top notch voice actors working for him. And what really dumbfounds me is that as a kid I had NO IDEA the animation on this series was so cheap. I just thought Birdman looked cool and was mysterious because I caught his show only rarely for some unknown reason. Next to the Challenge of the Superfriends (the season with the Legion of Doom), I think this is my favorite cartoon of all time... just slightly ahead of Space Ghost.

Alex Toth was one of the most influential comic book artists in the business. He started out working on JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA superheroes back in the 1940s, and never completely stayed away from that field.

In the 1960s, he was hired by Hanna-Barbera Studios - the animation kings of Saturday morning cartoons at the time - to work on cartoon television shows and create characters and strips. While there, he created BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO, SPACE GHOST, SUPERFRIENDS, and THE HERCULOIDS.

In the 1960s, cartoons took huge budget cuts. Hanna-Barbera Studios struggled to find ways to meet the budget restrictions and still deliver exciting, fun-filled cartoons for the Saturday morning crowd. One of the ways they did this was to have similar scenes throughout a series. For example, a hero always went into action the same way, that way the establishing shot could be used over and over again.

There were also several "talking head" shots that allowed writers to establish plot and character through dialogue (which was still done quite cheaply compared to the animation) instead of action. Most kids at the time didn't really notice the changes, but if you compare the cartoons of this time period with the ones Max Fleischer and others did back in the 1930s, you'll see huge differences.

Birdman was a superhero who lived inside a cave and waited for calls to action from his contact, Falcon 7 (a one-eyed man that reminded me a lot of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Birdman had wings that allowed him to fly. His powers were solar-based, which requires him to frequently flights where the sun several times during nearly every episode. He fired solar blasts and could create solar shields to protect himself.

He was accompanied on his missions by a large eagle he called Avenger. Later, he created his own sidekick (something that most Supriano strips had back in those days - young teammates were all the rage because Adam West had Burt Ward). Birdman's sidekick was a boy he rescued from a shipwreck. He called him Birdboy, which - although not terribly invented - got the point across. Birdboy had essentially the same powers, but his wings were metal not feathers.

Most of the missions that Birdman undertook involved threats from aliens and highly organized criminals with superweapons.

Usually in a half-hour show, there were three short cartoons. Two of them were Birdman episodes that book-ended a GALAXY TRIO episode.

The Galaxy Trio was a three-man team from an intergalactic law enforcement agency. Actually, the team consisted of two men and one woman. They were Vapor Man (who could turn his body into vapor), Meteor Man (who could change the size of any part of his body and become super-strong), and Gravity Girl (who could change the gravity in an area were on a person).

They usually targeted powerful criminals or criminal organizations on different planets of the space sector they patrolled.

All the Birdman and Galaxy Trio episodes are gathered here in this DVD. When I first heard that this was going to happen, I was excited. I grew up on these cartoons. I can remember wanting to be Birdman and Meteor Man. Sadly, the cartoons don't stand up to my memories and my nine year old son was not impressed. He can watch an anime for hours, but he was giving up quickly on Birdman.

He actually prefers the new HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW episodes that still air on Adult Swim. In his new reincarnation, Birdman has retired from the superhero business and become a lawyer. The episodes often feature other cartoon characters in suggestive plotlines that lampoons them as well as the naive nature of the series back when they first aired.

Although the cartoons won't occupy the middle grade kids, they're still good enough to hypnotize the younger ones. I mean, after all this is a hero who has wings and can shoot beams. Not only that, but Birdman has his distinctive cry several times in one episode: "Biiiiirrrrrddddddmmmmmaaaaannnnnnnn!"