Product Details

• Actors: Sam Vincent, Kathleen Barr, Scott McNeil, Cathy Weseluck, Ward Perry
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Bandai
• VHS Release Date: May 25, 1999
• Run Time: 66 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000ILFJ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,141 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dearth Voyd, the ruler of the dark side of the universe, wants to turn the human world into a place of violence and evil!! However, a huge meteor falls upon Flower-Fruit mountain giving birth to Kongo, a monkey made of stone! Kongo, now sets out on his quest to fight evil and restore order to a desperate land. Episodes 1-3

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Sci-Fi-esque take on Journey to the West, March 1, 2002

By	Bradford Daniels (Redmond, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anyone who grew up in Britain or Australia duing the late '70s and early '80s will probably remember a great live action TV series called "Monkey!" (produced in Japan, and dubbed into English by the BBC). The theme song to that series was a '70s disco tune called "Monkey Magic", which is where this series gets its name.

Both series, however, are based on one of the great classics of Chinese literature, "Journey to the West". That novel (written about 500 years ago) was a fictional retelling of the stroy of XuanZang, the real life 7th century monk who brought the "mahayana" Buddhist Sutras to China from India.

The original book was both extremely violent and extremely complex. Both aspects come through fairly well in this animated series, and the Monkey King translates well to this setting.

If you find yourself wanting more when you finish watching this series, consider one of the excellent books available from Amazon in translation...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Animated Series Ever Made, August 24, 2001

By A Customer

Monkey Magic is literally the best animated series ever created. The animation is lushly detailed, the characters quirky and captivating, and Kongo, the title character, is an AWESOME character ... event though he is the protagonist, he has a dark side, and the series keeps you guessing as to whether or not he is really a "hero" or not. The only problem was that this series was canceled after only 13 episodes! With the enthralling story, the diverse cast of characters, and the beautiful animation (not to mention the wonderful theme song!), this video is a MUST SEE.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rip off of Original Cult classic, May 30, 2000

By	Chris Tselepi (Australia) - See all my reviews

These titles are a complete rip off from the late 70's classic Monkey Magic (see actual web-site)...it featured a monkey/man, a pig/man, a fish/man and a priest who was supposed to be a young man and was actually acted by a woman. Everyone they met on their travels was either a demon or a mortal or animal/human (in the shape of a human yet had certain characteristics of the particular animal they played and generally had magic powers also.....the series was very humourous and badly dubbed from Chinese to English (this added to the humour)....I am shocked to see Amazon sell this cheap imitation instead of the original cult classic....Maybe you guys didn't get this in the US, however it is still played on cable channels today in Australia and peaked around 1982-1986 on one of the major commercial channels