The activists who would go on to ruin broadcast television for children no doubt had this show in mind as an example of how NOT to do things; twice every week in back to back ten minute or so episodes, villains would invade the Herculoids' domain (or the domains of friends) on the Planet Amzot, from other planets, from other domains on the same planet, from underground, and once from the future. In response the Herculoids would kick their butts! No agonizing, no attempts to understand why they were hated, no "Can't we all just get along?", just lots and lots of villainous machines and minions being smashed or blown up and villains being defeated and sometimes even killed because they had violently barged in where they didn't belong. Though nobody was rubbing your face in it, there was a clear Cold War theme running through it: except when they were riding to the rescue of similarly attacked friends, the Herculoids were just minding their own business in their own land when some villain decided they were in the way and had to be eliminated, and the Herculoids (quite naturally for the time, it only looks odd from today's warped PC perspective,) responded with maximum force and terminated the problem with extreme prejudice. Of course no gore was shown but there were lots of crashes and explosions where not a trace was left behind. Occasionally villains would return alive and spoiling for a rematch (with the same outcome) in later shows, or Zandor would opine that maybe we hadn't seen the last of them yet, but even so it was an impressive body count for a Saturday morning kid's cartoon show.
At the core were three barely dressed, primitively armed (energy rock slingshots and Zandor's Captain-America-like shield) humans: Zandor, Tara, and Dorno. Then came the human intelligence or better beast friends who were so devoted to them: Zok, the laser ray dragon; Igoo, the giant rock ape; Tundro, the 10-legged, energy rock firing rhino; and Gloop and Gleep, the formless, fearless blob creatures. What made the fighting so interesting to me then and now was the tactics. The beast Herculoids were generally invulnerable to attack while the humans were not, but the villains were not pushovers. The trick was finding the right combination of beast powers and tactics to solve the problem: Zok was triple laser Death from Above along with scout and fast transport, Tundro was grenade launcher and Ramming Speed along with armored transport (at least from the front), Igoo was super powered Punching and Throwing and Weaponizing found objects (he made and deployed a boomerang successfully in one memorable scene.), Gloop and Gleep were Special Teams, the ones the villains could never even partially counter and as the only ones truly capable of defense of others, served as bodyguards for the humans. (One of their most spectacular exploits came in "The Crystalites" in which they teamed up to become a rescue tank.) The best show of all IMHO, containing the two best episodes, was number 11. A creepy episode about giant soldier ants "Destroyer Ants" was followed by the creepiest villain of all in "Swamp Monster".
The Alex Toth designs were quite wonderful though the animation was quite limited. The music and sound effects were recycled from the
Jonny Quest
show, including the voice actor who played Race Bannon (Mike Road) now being the voice of Zandor.
Defects? Well, in watching the shows straight through, the repetition becomes a lot more apparent, and attempts to vary the formula were not always successful (The Herculoids meet knockoffs of the ancient Romans complete with Emperor Neron in the somewhat embarrassing "The Gladiators of Kyanite" and knockoffs of the Vikings in the considerably better "The Raider Apes"). With no time in the episode to spare for such things to be ferreted out Zandor usually knows the villains and their nefarious intentions on sight so we can get straight to the fighting.
The Sexism: This show is nearly a half century old, and it shows, particularly in its treatment of women. There are only three female characters in the whole show: one is a scenery chewing villainess (Queen Skorra), one is a helpless (if brave) rescued hostage (Princess Serena), and the third is Tara, Zandor's wife and Dorno's mother, whose primary contribution to the fighting is to require one of the Formless Wonders (Gleep or Gloop) to be detached from the main force in order to guard her and/or to be captured by the villain and have to be rescued. Even when brainwashed into being "Ruler of the Reptons", Tara doesn't get to do anything. Now, to the creators' credit that changes in both episodes of the last show. For once (well, twice) there is no, "Tara, you, stay behind, and Gloop/Gleep, you stay behind and guard her."
In "The Island of the Gravites" Tara not only accompanies the army to the battlefield, but Zandor directs her to scout ahead on Zok's back. In the meantime, Zandor manages to get himself captured, and Tara herself leads the rescue party, without any lip from her son. Then in the following episode "Malak and the Metal Apes" Zandor and Gloop sneak into the enemy fortress while Tara commands the other Herculoids to break into the fortress and join them. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
The series was revived 14 years later in 11 episodes as part of
Space Stars: The Complete Series
, and while these are at least watchable, they have had the mindful violence toned down and replaced with a more mindless peacefulness. Frankly, the only change one can honestly call an improvement is the conversion of Tara from useless impediment into equal partner in the battles for their home, but it comes at too high a price.
Note: The only extra in this bare bones collection is a short documentary "The Herculoids: The First Family of Planet Quasar", which is mostly gushing by animation historians and younger animators inspired by it.
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Top reviews from other countries
A. Felipe Gonzalez Barroso
Nos son discos originales.
Reviewed in Mexico on July 28, 2018
Robert Knight
Required Saturday morning viewing.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2015