Customer Reviews

Space Angel Collection One

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

VCI Entertainment presents "SPACE ANGEL COLLECTION #1" (1962) (225 mins/Color) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) --- The '60s animated series comes to DVD with Space Angel - Collection 1, from VCI Entertainment --- This DVD has 9 complete episodes, each running 25 minutes and presented in 5 segments. Also included is "An Interview with 'Tinker Bell' ": an exclusive one on one interview with actress Margaret Kerry, the voice actress for Space Angel and Clutch Cargo, and also the original ,alter ego actor and reference model for the famous pixie from Walt Disney's Peter Pan.

Space Angel was an animated science fiction television series produced from early 1962 through 1964 --- It used the same Synchro-Vox (live action moving lips over the mouths of the animated characters lips) technique as Clutch Cargo, the first cartoon produced by the same studio, Cambria Productions --- The science fiction stories were serialized with five episodes comprising each adventure --- Voices included Ned Lefebver as Scott McCloud, with Margaret Kerry and Hal Smith providing other incidental voices.

Under the production staff of:
Dick Brown - Director/Producer
Edwin Gillett - Director of Cinematography
Clark Haas - Art Director
Wes Depue - Associate Director
Hal Dennis - Film Editor
Cliff Selkirk - Camera Operation
Vic Fisher - Camera Operation
Roy Donava - Special Effects
HI Mankin - Art
Douglas Wildey - Art
Al Toth - Art
Ray Vinella - Art
Charles Christanson - Art
Jim Mabry - Art
Sal Trapani - Art
Cecil Beard - Story
Dave Detiege - Story
Warrn Tuffs - Story
Hal Smith - Voices
Ned Lefebyer - Voices
Margaret Kerry - Voices
Oat Jearub - Voices

SPACE ANGEL EPISODES:
1.Incident of the Loud Planet
2.Expedition to a New Moon
3.The Slave World
4.The Exiles
5.Visitors from Outer Space
6.Rescue Mission
7.The Fugitives
8.The Donovan Plan
9.They Went That A'Way

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURES:
1. Episode Selection
2. Phone interview with Margaret "Tinker Bell" Kerry

Hats off and thanks to Robert Blair and his staff at VCI Entertainment --- VCI was named in Variety and Hollywood Reporter as the first company to produce and release motion pictures directly to the home marketplace --- order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- VCI are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector -- looking forward to more Nostalgic Collections --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 225 min on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment 8533 ~ (7/29/2008)

The Space Angel was one of those early sixties cartoon that came out early in the space race. As noted by others, the Space Angel was done by the same folks who did Clutch Cargo, which became a bit of cult favorite because the voice sync was done by superimposing actors' moving lips on still drawings. In effect, what you have is someone animating a comic book - good to excelent art work, but very limited animation. But, it is this wonderful art work that redeems Space Angel - notably that by Alex Toth, who helped on Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and a host of others. And really, the plots are not too bad - and the science is reasonably accurate - yeah, it gets strained at times - but really the basics are there.

So, an enjoyable trip down memory lane - the prints and sound tracks are in excellent shape! Well worth its modest price!

I just got done reviewing the 'maybe it'll be released' DVD of Marvel Superheroes '66 Collection. Disney has the rights to that collection and it seems that it's release has been delayed. We'll hope and pray it sees the light of day.

It made me think immediately of this cartoon, though, because I used to watch Space Angel and Marvel Superheroes (and Gumby as well I think) on early Sunday mornings in the Albany, NY area (can't remember which television station) back in the mists of time. I was young and it was probably the early 70s, a few years after it's original release. I was too young when it first aired, being born in 1964.

Even as I was watching it as a kid I realised that it was cheap animation. I was already watching Walt Disney and Fleischer Popeyes, so I could tell this wasn't as good, but I loved it anyway. Partially due to the fact that there were hardly any cartoons on Sunday mornings! But also because the Space theme was cool.

Thanks to VCI (no, I don't work for them) for being the company to finally release this. I would have preferred a full season set (not sure if there was more than one season), but this will do the trick in the absence of any other release.

I know that this will sell if VCI can just get the word out to adults of my generation, so best of luck to them.

Animation is expensive to make, which is why so many full-animation cartoons today are made in Korea and other places overseas. In its beginnings on TV in the late '50s, animators also had to contend with paltry budgets for an entire series, as opposed to the lavish capital for theatrical cartoons. It was widely believed that no one could make a half hour cartoon for TV. Hanna-Barbera did, beginning with The Ruff and Reddy Show, and the rest is animation history.

But it meant cutting corners, what H-B called "limited animation". In H-B and Filmation shows, it meant characters running past the same house and barber pole over and over again, and that animated heads were filmed on mostly non-moving bodies. Jay Ward, for Crusader Rabbit, made different choices, relying on a narrator to tell the story and minimize characters talking. Both Crusader and Sondac's Space Marine, Colonel Bleep, were "cliff-hanger" cartoons, broken into short segments that could be shown by a live TV host, like Captain Kangaroo or J.P. Patches, interspersed throughout a live action kids' show.

To kids of the era, this seemed like a great mix, and Nick brought it back for a short-lived, but popular show called Wienerville. The best known cliff-hanger cartoon is also one of the most loved: Jay Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle show. The advantages are obvious. Retelling "our story so far" enabled animators to reuse the same animation from the last segment. The narrator's witty and dramatic recap of "when we last left Moose and Squirrel" showed that you didn't really need to animate much if you had a winning combination of great character design and scripts that played like radio.

Cambria Productions, known for very limited animation cartoons, released a cliff-hanger series in 1959 called Clutch Cargo, drawn sort of from Terry and the Pirates in the Sunday comics, and using a bizarre technique called Synchro-vox, in which human lips were superimposed over characters heads, and which had been seen in '50s shorts in which zoo animals talked.

Space Angel, which aired from 1962- 1964, took the process further. It was in color, each 25 minute story split into five cliff-hanger segments (which made for convenient commercial breaks). Cambria minimized the synchro-vox scenes by having characters' mouths mostly covered by microphones. The design, by illustrator Alex Toth, used a lot of black, and resembles a graphic novel. The animators made the same choices as early anime like Speed Racer: animate the important parts. Thus, in Space Angel, lamps blink on control panels, a rocket fires on a space ship, and the art keeps you watching.

Space Angel inherited a space opera tradition in full swing, with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, Flash Gordon, and numerous other live action serials, themselves the offspring of space-themed radio shows. The challenge was to do it in animation. Space Angel influenced numerous later programs, including Jonny Quest, as well as live action shows like Star Trek. Taurus is a Scottish powerplant technician aboard the Star Duster. Was Scotty's role meant as a later tribute? Because Space Angel is the secret identity of pilot Scott McCloud, and works for the Earth Bureau of Investigation, there's also a gumshoe/ gangbusters angle that could generate countless dramatic plots.

Space Angel may not appeal to viewers of tech 'toons like Star Wars: The Clone Wars (or it may), but this 9 show collection will be welcomed by animation fans and historians, as well as anyone who remembers it. VCI Entertainment is finally filling the void left for so many years, and catering to the classic TV and family audience which has been so long ignored by major studios. VCI is bringing back affordable collections of great shows, like the eagerly awaited Space Angel, to viewers who remember how ground-breaking it once was, and are primed once again to stand by for adventure.

I do not know if younger viewers will appreciate the limited animation and classic "space opera" storylines of SPACE ANGEL but I grew up watching the series and I love it. A collection like this has been needed for a long time. I only hope that there will be more released. The episode selection was well done (more common episodes released by other companies were avoided.) There was one episode that I hadn't seen since I was young and two others that I had never seen- that was worth the cost to me.

These have obviously been remastered- and to an quality that I didn't think was possible given the cheap film stock of the originals and their tendency to degrade over the years. The color is unbelievably bright. Plus, there were no glitches in playing the entire DVD thru to the end.

This is a wonderful excercise in nostalgia for the older viewer- and a good introduction to the Space Angel and his universe for the novice.

Scott McCloud is the Space Angel, cruising through the far reaches of space, on missions of goodness and niceness, accompanied by his redheaded crewmates Taurus, and Crystal Mace, on the rocketship Starduster.

Space Angel (1962) was Cambria Studios' follow up to their adventure series Clutch Cargo (1959). When viewed today, these cartoons may appear to be quite crude, however they employ what were then 'new' techniques that produced some unique results.

To get things done faster than traditional animation, Cambria employed methods involving shooting moving elements (like a spaceship), against a still background. The 'Syncro-Vox' technique, where human lips were superimposed on the faces of characters, was invented by Edwin Gillette, a television camera operator. This process allowed a still image to appear to be a `live' character, with the ability to speak. Although the speaking character is capable of very limited movement, this technique greatly reduced production time.

Production of the cartoon involved combining images created in various ways. The ease which speech could be incorporated, made longer conversations common. There is often more talk than action, as shooting moving objects generally took more time. Like Clutch Cargo, each Space Angel adventure was broken up into a series of five episodes (for daily syndicated viewing). The rather slow pace of the show, fit in well with the episodic format.

On Space Angel, the 'Syncro-Vox' technique is less obtrusive, and weird looking than on Clutch Cargo. Ned Lefebver provided the voice for Scott McCloud, while Margaret Kerry voiced Crystal. Veteran character actor Hal Smith, who was Otis on The Andy Griffith Show, was the voice of Taurus.

Full scale dynamic action and movement, was not really possible using these methods, which made generating excitement a challenge. What Cambria was able to achieve, was quite admirable. The stories are usually solid, and competently presented. Space Angel was fun, and popular with kids in its day, and those same viewers as adults, are probably the target market for this release. It is hard to imagine that current generation of children, accustomed to fast paced, action oriented animation, and anime, would find the program of much interest.

Space Angel may be a thing of the past, but it looks very good on DVD. Viewing the episodes back to back, the stories flow along pretty smoothly. The nine adventures in Volume 1 are not in production order, but are arranged in chronological order. A total of 45, five part adventures were produced. Perhaps Volume 2 will be forthcoming at some time in the future.

When I started watching these shows after many years, I noticed that the narrator sounded remarkably like Otis Campbell, the town drunk on The Andy Griffith Show. I checked with IMDB.com and it listed this actor as Hal Smith. Hal Smith is listed as the voice of Taurus on Space Angel, and I am certain he also narrated it.

Yes the animation is real low budget and there are many bloopers, but it's still fun to watch.

I'M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT THERE WAS NOTHING BUT
BLACK & WHITE TV'S!!! I REMEMBER WATCHING THIS SHOW AS A KID--AMAZED
AT THE VISUALS/ARTWORK OF THE SHOW!! NOT REALIZING THAT THE GREAT ALEX TOTH
DID ALL THE WORK. NEVER--REALIZING THAT THE SHOW WAS IN COLOR!!!
I EVEN REMEMBER TRYING TO DRAW THE ROCKET!!!
I WAS FACINATED BY THE SUPERIMPOSED HUMAN MOUTHES DOING THE DIALOG.
IT'S REALLY FUN WATCHING THIS STUFF AGAIN. I REALLY HAVE'NT BUMPED INTO THIS
SERIES OVER THE YEARS.
IT JUST BRINGS BACK FOND MEMORIES WHEN ADVENTURE WAS SIMPLE & PURE-FUN!!
MIKE CLARK!!! {NUFF-SAID!!!}

Here's a series that I never thought I'd see again. SPACE ANGEL was produced in the early 1960s by Cambria, the production company that gave us CLUTCH CARGO and the execrable NEW THREE STOOGES cartoons. The unique and genuinely strange
"Synchro-Vox" technique of live action mouths superimposed on drawn characters is employed here. The animation is limited, to say the least, and drawn to resemble 1950s science fiction comics, so it's not too surprising to learn that comics stalwart Alex Toth (SPACE GHOST) had a hand in it. Said animation also betrays the "gotta have it yesterday" nature of it all, as many weird errors can be spotted throughout these episodes; I'll let you spot them all yourselves. In spite of this, however, SPACE ANGEL is really surprisingly fun, and I hope that this won't be the only volume to be released. DVD quality is fine, and the disc is reasonably priced. Recommended mostly to retro animation fanatics, though others may enjoy it as well.

9 episodes seems very paltry, especially for such ancient, low-production-value content -- At that price I would expect more like all 52 episodes. In fact, you can get the same number of episodes of Space Angel, plus 141 additional 50s-era sci-fi tv shows, for $1 less than this collection by getting the full Classic Sci-Fi TV - 150 Episodes DVD set.

Classic Sci-Fi DVD has the following episodes of Space Angel:

1. Power Failure
2. Scratch One Chimp
3. The Gladiators
4. They Went That Away
5. Cosmic Combat
6. The Light Barrier
7. Expedition to a New Moon*
8. The Donovan Plan*
9. Visitor from Outer Space*

* These 3 episodes are also included in 'Space Angel Collection One.'