Defenders Of The Earth – The Complete Series:
Volume One (Animated)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: C
King
Features Syndicate had great success with licensing characters before,
especially Flash Gordon and other classic heroes like Mandrake The Magician,
The Phantom and Lothar (Mandrake’s assistant) had not been seen by the 1990s in
a while. With Superhero teams and
military teams popular in the 1980s, King continued to work with Filmation and
decided to bring in Marvel Comics and Stan Lee for Defenders Of The Earth, a mid-1980s production that tried to turn
the unrelated characters into a sort of old Teen Titans or X-Men and failed on
many levels.
The
heroes have teenaged children now, but they also have their fights, including
the return of Ming The Merciless. The
biggest problem is that all the teleplays are rushed like a Music Video, which
also serves as the same short, angry 1980s action cartoon “might makes right”
Rambo mentality that runs contrary to the Filmation aesthetic and good cartoons
in general for children of all ages. The
style never meshes with the classic characters, who are gutted out and
minimized somewhat to fit into the Rambo mold without totally being Rambo.
It is one
of the most bizarre failures of the 1980s and maybe any animated show, but as
compared to the superior 1979 Flash
Gordon animated series, all were doomed from the start trying to follow
that up. The Phantom later got his own
animated series and feature film, while further Gordon revivals crashed and
burned as of this posting.
The 1.33
X 1 image is very detail-challenged, though color can be consistent, yet I was
never happy with the final color schemes that never made sense or were very
convincing. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
is better, if not great. The combination
is passable, but not up to the best BCI/Filmation releases we have covered to
date.
Extras
include two collector’s art cards and pullout episode guide booklet with series
facts inside the DVD case, DVD-ROM printable script, bible and storyboard for
the series, trivia/fun facts section, text character profiles, interview with
the show’s creators, commentary on the pilot show, stills, storyboards for one
entire show, original demo film for the show (which was much more promising than
what we finally got) and the first episode of the superior 1979 Flash Gordon animated series already
available and reviewed elsewhere on this site.
At best,
this is a curio with respectable supplements, but is a disappointment most of
all if not as bad as the animated Flash Gordon on a skateboard!
- Nicholas Sheffo
