The Herculoids: Complete Series (2 Disc)

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.

Before there was cable television, with kid friendly channels like Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, the only way kids (like me) could get their fill of animated TV shows, was Saturday mornings. Every weekend, the big 3 networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) loaded up their Saturday morning programming slots with animated shows that would begin around 6:00AM and last until noon. In the 60's, Saturday morning cartoons were dominated by "super hero" themed shows primarily due to the growing popularity of the characters appearing in the Marvel Comics line of (comic) books and the prime time ABC (network) hit ...... "Batman", which ran on 2 consecutive evenings each week. Literally over night, animated shows that were once dominated by wise cracking, talking animals like Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Atom Ant, Ruff and Reddy, Secret Squirrel, Yogi Bear, Rocky and Bullwinkle, etc., were shoved aside to make room for super hero themed shows. Since I was an avid comic book reader during this time period, I found myself in a perfect storm of entertainment. The Amazing Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four were Marvel Comics Saturday morning offering. DC Comics gave us The Adventures of Superman, which not only featured the title character, but also showed stories featuring other DC heroes such as Superboy and his "super dog", Krypto, as well as Aquaman and Batman. The TV networks created their own (super hero) characters and featured them in their own Saturday morning shows. That group included: Space Ghost and Dino Boy, The Herculoids, The Impossibles and Frankenstein Junior. Shazzan!, Johnny Quest, Mightor and Moby Dick . The Lone Ranger and Tonto also reappeared in animated form, but this time in a "Wild, Wild West" type show that featured maniacal villains capable of creating killer robots and other sorts of diabolical devices capable of wiping out entire towns. What all of the above (chatter) is leading to is ...... these great shows, I grew up watching, are now available again for viewing on DVDs, minus the advertisements aimed at kids. (Yes, silly rabbit......Trix ARE FOR kids). I still find these shows are very entertaining and fun to watch. Each show runs approximately 30 minutes, so they make for a nice way to end the evening so I will usually watch 1 of 2 shows right before going to sleep. The good guys always win. The bad guys are vanquished and for a a half hour or so, it's Saturday morning, I'm 12 years old again, the weekend is just starting, and all is right in my world.

For me The Herculoids is part of what I consider a golden age of cartoons. That golden era also includes Bugs Bunny and his pals, the Spiderman '67 series, The Pink Panther show, and some of the other classics from Hanna Barbera. What all those series have in common is great characters, artwork, sound effects, voices, and music. There's been some other good animated series that have come out since that time but for me the above are still the best. One series that I don't think they've released on DVD yet is Hanna Barbera's Fantastic 4 which must certainly be up in the top 5 greatest cartoons of all time. It see they finally released Frankenstein Jr. last year. The Herculoids and The Fantatistic 4 have two of the prettiest girls that have ever appeared in cartoon history. One is Zandor's wife Tara who wears a dress that is only held together by a few strategically placed threads and the other is Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl. The Superman and Batman animated series from Warner Brothers also have a lot of pretty girls including Lois Lane and Batgirl. Besides Zandor probably the most valuable members of the Herculoids team are Gleep and Gloop, the fearless formless wonders. Their abilities are very versatile and have never been duplicated by any of the bad guys. I don't know if The Herculoids is shown on TV anymore and even if it is it may get butchered by the TV stations so they can cram a few more seconds of commercials in. I saw an episode of Bug Bunny one time where they screwed it all up in an attempt to edit out what I guess was considered too violent. Any kid who is stupid enough to watch Bugs Bunny and then do what they see Daffy Duck do deserves to get killed. Jeff Marzano Spider-Man - The '67 Collection (6 Volume Animated Set) Jonny Quest - The Complete First Season Frankenstein Jr. & The Impossibles: The Complete Series (2 Discs) Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series Birdman and the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series Voltron - Defender of the Universe - Collection One: Blue Lion Superman - The Animated Series, Volume One (DC Comics Classic Collection) Batman: The Animated Series, Volume One (DC Comics Classic Collection) Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection, Volume One (The Premiere Edition) The Pink Panther and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection, Vol. 6: The Inspector

One of the most underrated cartoon classics that I grew up watching. The animation is fairly basic for the era but it looks great on these discs. They dont make content like that for kids anymore. What a great archive treasure to keep for the future.

Arrived on time and undamaged. DVD excellent condition

The package was delivered on time. The product is good. Just as advertised.

I have been going back and watching shows I watched as a kid. I don't know how I missed these. A buddy of mine said I should watch them if I hadn't. Glad that I did.

The Herculoids are one of my absolute favorites! It’s awesome!

Alguien puso que no es original, quiero decir que a mi me llego perfectamente cerrada

This brings back my childhood. On Saturday mornings this was required watching. The cartoon was crisp and clear, better than when I watched on TV. However there are no commercials in it. 😉 all in all I could ask for nothing better.

問題なく見れて、懐かしく観れて良かったです。ただＢＧＭが日本と違うので☆を１つマイナスしました。

One of the best cartoon on tv to watch on Saturday. It was fill with mystery and action. For those who are unsure view it.

no trae subtitulos ni audio en español