Customer Reviews

The Herculoids: Complete Series (2 Disc)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As any boy who came of age in the late 60's or early 70's can tell you, The Herculoids was probably the greatest thing to ever hit Saturday morning television. In an era when funny, talking animals shows were starting to give way to more adventurous fare like Johnny Quest and various superhero shows, the Alex Toth-designed Herculoids delivered the goods better than any other series.

For the uninitiated, the show followed the adventures of humanoids Zandor, Tara and their son Dorno on the planet Quasar. A unique assortment of creatures aided them: Zok, the flying dragon; a giant with rock-like skin named Igoo; the fireball-shooting triceratops-like Tundro; and the amusing blob-like Gloop and Gleep. Trouble came (and came often) in the form of invaders for whom the planet Quasar must have seemed the ultimate prize. Hideous monsters and robots of all sorts set their sights on the heroes' homeworld, and were met with deadly resistance. You want morals at the end of your cartoon? Forget it. . .the Herculoids were going to defend their turf, and justice was final on planet Quasar.

This two-disc set collects all 18 original shows (technically, 36 episodes, since each half hour is comprised of 2 segments of 10 or so minutes each). There is a very brief featurette about the series, in which various modern artists and writers gush about Alex Toth, and celebrate the boyhood fantasy charm of the show (one commentator points out that the Herculoids was pretty much non-stop stuff blowing up). And that's the gist of the series, really: monsters, ray guns, lots of action. As a fan from childhood, I was happy to see that in today's PC world of bland animated kids' shows, The Herculoids holds up very well.

As is becoming more and more common, these Warner Archive discs are manufactured DVD-R's, meaning it is possible that customers may experience some playback difficulties in some machines. I played both discs on my DVD recorder/player and my computer using WMP with no problems. The prints used are of good quality, although the occasional debris does pop up. As classic animation remains a niche market and sells no where near as well as modern shows, I'd imagine this is the best release we'll ever see of The Herculoids. Certainly it's a no-brainer for fans. And for parents who aren't overly considered about the cartoon violence, I think it's still a fine choice, especially for young boys.

As much as I dug Space Ghost, the Herculoids were simply my favorite mid-60's cartoon! There was nothing like it (then or now). Individually strong, together invincible - and they functioned as a unit!

Simply the best (I'm 7-9 years old again - well, almost)!

Thanks for finally releasing this, I've only waited 43 years!

I rate "Herculoids: The Complete Series"...Five stars!

This is, without a doubt, the coolest 'toon to air on Saturday morning!

That said, the plots of each episode were basically the same: bizarre invaders from outer or inner space try to take over the planet Quasar. These attempts at planetary domination are foiled by Zandor, his wife Tara, their son Dorno, and their assortment of super-powered animals.

There's no need to explain the creatures' powers inasmuch as others have done so. It can only added that the series' creators came up with some highly original creations.

Much of the show's appeal also comes from the use of themes composed by Hoyt Curtin for "Jonny Quest" as well as original compositions, including one of the most exciting opening themes ever created for series television. His arrangements are excitingly fitting for a sci-fi-adventure and often incorporate jazzy themes that add to audiophile's pleasure.

The sound effects are also another of the show's pluses. Sci-fi fans will quickly recognize sounds "borrowed" from George Pal's "War of the Worlds," as well as from other sci-fi staples.

Thankfully, Warner's chose not to include the 11 episodes from the 1981 revitalization. That much-inferior show suffered from "watering down" of the violence making it more "kid friendly," a weak score, and even more "limited" animation.

The DVD compilation only has one extra: a brief documentary on the making of the series. The discs are easy to navigate, allowing the viewer to "play all" or individual episodes. There are no subtitles, English or otherwise.

With Hollywood searching its archives to "reboot" old movies and television shows, the time is right to take a look at "The Herculoids." If any show deserves the big-screen treatment, it's this 60's series.

Just think what computer animation can do with Zok's laser blasts or Gloop and Gleep's transformations!

Herculoids rules. These dvds don't play on all players including mine. These are either DVD R or another cheap dvd that does not play on all players! Important note! This plays on "play only" players. This is my second purchase of this set. I was hoping the re-release would have corrected this but it did not. It does play on my laptop though. I have a panasonic high end dvd player that plays almost everything. This is the first dvd I have ever ordered that doesn't play on my dvd player. This one does not work due to the format. I have other hanabarbara titles like Thundarr that work fine but the Herculoids is a no go. Careful not to waste time and money with this.

Amazing how you change over time.

When I used to watch the Herculoids, many, many years ago, I remember it quite differently than I see it with my old men eyes.

Now the Herculoids are still darn cool. Gloop and Gleep are very fun to watch. The humans though, well, vanilla doesn't cover it.

And Gods help you if you accidentally landed on their planet. A very dangerous place to be, and oddballs showing up constantly to take it over for some reason. Must be some prime real estate.

It doesn't hold up for me, unlike some other old cartoons, but a quite slice of animation history. Worth a try if you like cartoons from 40 years back.

Notoriously budget-driven and technically unimpressive, the Hanna Barbera cartoons of the 60s and 70s did not represent animation's finest hour. Let's be honest: today most are watched solely for their camp value. Well, The Herculoids had no shortage of that. But it was also a show with something more.

That "something more" certainly wasn't highly sophisticated or even entirely rational storylines. I can clearly recall at least one scene in The Herculoids where a hero and a villain in different locations appear to spar verbally without any apparent way for either one to hear what the other is saying. They just do. And quite apart from such obvious incongruities, every single episode of this show tells exactly the same story. Invaders want to take over the Herculoid's planet - or some part thereof - and The Herculoids and their human allies stop them.

But this repetitive retelling is not necessarily uninteresting. The Herculoids' planet, Quasar, is depicted as a primordial wonderland: a dense amalgam of savagery and Eden. For their part the would-be invaders are almost always depicted as far more technologically advanced than our heroes, and are generally intent on exploiting the planet for their own selfish ends. One could almost say that Quasar was the Pandora of its day. The Herculoids and their human allies invariably see off these rapacious interlopers through a combination of raw prowess, cleverness and cunning, and of course, by working co-operatively together as a team. Given that this show is a product of the late 1960s, it's hard not to see in all this the anti-colonial sentiment of the day.

But if Pandora is really Iraq, given the zeitgeist of the time in which this cartoon was made, would it really be too much to equate Quasar with Vietnam; or at least, with something as close to it as you were going to get in a Saturday morning cartoon? Taken literally, this is probably going too far. But taking the idea rather as merely an expression of what was in the minds of the writers and their viewers at the time, we are lead into a world where things are considerably more murky. What, for example, are we to make of the fact that unlike the natives of Pandora, this show's humanoid heroes are drawn not only as actual humans, but also as Caucasian? Or of the fact that these human heroes are not merely the allies of the more monstrous - and more obviously indigenous - Herculoids, but are clearly very much in charge of them? I shall leave you to explore the various layers of interpretation here for yourself.

But if we are looking for evidence of colonial or even war-like metaphors, it is worth adding that by the standards children's television, the violence in this show is unusually serious. I'm not talking here about how The Herculoids is actually drawn. On that level all of the violence is very much "cartoon violence". There is no shortage of fighting or of things getting blown up, but these are depicted no more graphically than in any other adventure cartoon. Indeed, if anything slightly less graphically; probably due to cost constraints. The more serious part is that in some episodes it is quite explicitly stated that the villain is actually killed in the end. While the death itself always happens "off camera" (typically the shot will pull back so as to merely show the villain's space ship exploding), clearly this is not standard Saturday morning cartoon fare. Although that said, to be completely fair it was also not wholly atypical of the specific crop of Hanna Barbera adventure cartoons (including Space Ghost, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and The Mighty Mightor) that came out at around the same time.

Political interpretations aside, this show is really at its most engaging on a purely sensual level. Maybe it's the vintage sci-fi fan in me talking, but I just love the way The Herculoids looks. Not the actual animation per se, which as with all Hanna Barbera cartoons of the period is extremely basic. Rather, it is the fundamental design that draws me in. Like a lot of the science fiction of the 1960s, the visuals are very much like those of 1950s era sci fi, only more lurid and intense. Once again some may feel that I am pushing my theme too far, but on a purely visual level The Herculoids could almost be described as a low-budget rendering of Forbidden Planet.

On an audio level too, The Herculoids really has something. Ironically, the sound effects and background music are exactly the same as those used in other Hanna Barbera cartoons of the period. As I said in the beginning, this is a studio that was notoriously budget-driven. The difference is that the in The Herculoids this stock audio catalogue is actually used rather well; or perhaps rather that its inventory of effects just fits especially well with this show's material. Either way, whoever was editing the music made especially good use of one particular fragment of electronica that recurs quite regularly in virtually every episode. Here too we could almost say that the effect is that of a low-budget Forbidden Planet. In the end, it's not this show's seriously convoluted political subtext that keeps me coming back for more. It's the way The Herculoids looks and sounds.

Overall, The Herculoids is an interesting piece of animation history, and one with rather more layers than many might expect given its simplistic storylines and technical crudity. And... if nothing else, it offers a delightful taste of nostalgia for those who grew up watching this show in 70s and late 60s.

Theo.

This is a better price and free shipping...so ordered here. Not sure why the cover image is not here...has been on the net for months. Love THE HERCULOIDS and ALEX TOTH's designs!

I've always thought that Hanna-Barbara's THE HERCULOIDS (1967-1969) not only had one of the coolest names ever, but was possibly the greatest concept for a Saturday Morning adventure cartoon ever devised.

Zantor (Mike Road) is something of an intergalactic Tarzan, living on the jungle planet Quasar with his mate, Tarra (Virginia Gregg) and son, Dorno (Ted Eccles). Unfortunately, their home appears to be the target of choice for every evil being in the universe (it's never explained why), and they are constantly besieged by armies of alien invaders, equipped with the most advanced weapon technology in the cosmos. Although this family of tree-dwellers would appear to be seriously outmatched, Zantor and his family have five secret weapons: a giant stone ape named Igoo, a flying, laser-firing dragon called Zok, an armored, ten-legged rhino/triceratops creature named Tundro, and two, shape-shifting, sentient bags of protoplasm, Gloop and Gleep. Whenever their lush jungle homeworld is threatened, these heroic monsters team up to defend Quasar and make short work of their interstellar enemies.

Extremely popular (it was repeated on the networks well into the late 70s and on cable for decades after that), and fondly remembered by those who grew up with it during their childhoods, THE HERCULOIDS is a great action/adventure cartoon - and how could it not be? A space Tarzan, heroic monsters, hordes of cool alien, robots and flying saucers/rocketships - it's got everything!

Each episode is made up of two ten-minute stories, and they're all pretty much the same, with minor variations. That repetitiveness means that the show does not lend itself to prolonged watching in single sittings - but then, it was never intended to be watched that way in the first place. Still, despite the repetitive nature of the plots, the incredible character and creature designs of comic book artist Alex Toth help keep it fresh. The man's imagination was boundless, and the variety of alien menaces that he came up with was astounding.

Long desired by fans, THE HERCULOIDS have finally made it to DVD courtesy of the Warner Archives manufactured-on-demand service. All 18 episodes of the original 60s series are included on 2 discs, presented in their original 1.33:1 "full-frame" television aspect ratio. The transfers are acceptable but not outstanding, with faded colors on some episodes, scattered occurrences of print damage like scratches and specks, and fairly omnipresent grime. In other words, no restoration or remastering appears to have been done, and these episodes look pretty much the same as they have in reruns for years. Audio is a clear but flat Dolby Digital mono. There is one extra: a brief retrospective featurette that previously appeared on Warner's SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS: THE 1960s disc.

If you're a fan of 60s Hanna-Barbara adventure cartoons - and/or this cartoon in particular - the Warner Archive edition of THE HERCULOIDS is long overdue, and should make a welcome addition to your DVD library, despite the less than stellar presentation and slightly high price. It appears to be complete, and none of the various image imperfections seriously impair the viewing experience. If you're not already a fan, I still recommend it - but bear in mind that all 18 episodes (36 stories) are almost exactly the same. The real enjoyment of THE HERCULOIDS comes from the endlessly imaginative characters/creatures and the comforting familiarity of the plot(s).

Personally, I love it and am thrilled to have it on DVD. Recommended.

Several years ago when Space Ghost and Birdman were released I waited for more HB heroes to premier the wait has been worth it. Watching the Herculoids decimate the villain du-jour w/o the bootleg graininess was a sheer joy. For any 60's Saturday cartoon buff this one is a must.

It's GREAT!!! To see the old cartoons from the sixties I'm from that time.We were really into cartoons then not like nowadays its great to see igoo the rock ape beat up the bad guys.And Zandor protect his family from danger just like old times.