Gargoyles

[Del Murder]

Who has watched this show? If you haven't, watch it. This is a another great product of the 1990s 'golden age' of animation (along with Batman TAS, X-Men, Spider-Man, Animaniacs, Duck Tales, etc.). It's a wonderful show with a rich and detailed mythology of its own. I love how bits and pieces of the past come out slowly and there's many 'ah ha!' moments throughout the series once you realize why something exists or happens in the present time. It's an animated show but has very adult themes and can be enjoyed by all ages.

Unfortunately, the whole series isn't on DVD or Netflix, but you can torrent it if you look around.

I could watch this show all day. And I just might.

[Slothy]

This show is literally one of the best TV series ever made, and while I agree that it's part of that animated 90's golden age, I have to sat it's quite a bit better than X-Men or Spider-Man were.

[Del Murder]

I have a soft spot for Spider-Man but yes I definitely agree. The production value and writing of this 'kids' show is astoundingly good.

[Slothy]

I've got a soft spot for Spider-Man as well (except the last season) and X-Men. Particularly X-Men's ability to distill decades of stories into that show, but you're right about Gargoyle's writing. It's definitely up there with shows like Batman TAS in that you don't have to be a child to enjoy it, but with its long running story arcs and sometimes fairly serious story lines it holds up extremely well as an adult in much the same way shows like Animaniacs had a lot to appeal to adults as well.

[Jinx]

I used to love this show and watch it all the time as a kid. But that was about 17-18 years ago, so I can't really remember much of it, other than it being awesome.

[Shlup]

All the 90 shows I've attempted to watch have been on YouTube. And, yes, that includes Gargoyles.

[I Took the Red Pill]

It was my favorite show as a kid. I haven't ever gone back and watched and of it. I probably should, thanks for the suggestion.

[CimminyCricket]

I use to be addicted to everything gargoyles. I had multiple Goliath action figures (my favorite was the one whose wings expanded with the flick of a switch). I had a few of the other characters but not the whole set. I don't think I ever found Hudson.

[Jiro]

I used to love this show and watch it all the time as a kid. But that was about 17-18 years ago, so I can't really remember much of it, other than it being awesome.

This. It's notable as being a 'cartoon' that my dad used to love watching too, so I imagine that it had a lot of value to a more mature audience as well. I should try to watch a few episodes again, though, if it's as good as it sounds. I'm disappointed it didn't seem to enter pop culture history as much as other things I watched at the time.

[Shorty]

Oh man, Gargoyles is great. And completely agreed about the golden age of animation! I downloaded the entire thing of Batman TAS a while ago and was thinking about doing the same with Spider-man, but if it is on youtube then hell yeah I will watch it there.

[Slothy]

Getting a serious urge to rewatch this and other old 90's cartoons now. Luckily I rewatched Spider-Man and X-Men already quite recently. Maybe I'll rewatch the also excellent Beast Wars along with Gargoyles.

[Araciel]

Sure will

Also to a lesser extent, Pirates of Darkwater, Conan The Adventurer, Exosquad

[Shorty]

Hijacking shoutout to Mighty Max which belongs in with these 90's animated shows.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I use to be addicted to everything gargoyles. I had multiple Goliath action figures (my favorite was the one whose wings expanded with the flick of a switch). I had a few of the other characters but not the whole set. I don't think I ever found Hudson.


I'm pretty sure I have that Goliath figure, or at least one very similar in concept. Such a good show.

[Calliope]

Where are you up to? I might start watching this today, I'm acquiring it now. You should wait up if you're not miles ahead already. I'm looking forward to all of the Puck stuff, and anticipate being sad about Hudson's blind friend and pretty stoked about The Pack.

"Should we take them to a vet, a doctor or a mechanic? Hurr hurr!"

It's a highlight of my job when I'm at work and a kid gets out Animaniacs/Ducktales/Gargoyles/Batman. Don't forget Batman of the Future, Freakazoid or Tiny Toons though, kids! Blow it all up!

Remember when we had ~matching gargoyles livejournal avatars~?

Okay, this thread is threatening to make me late so I'm gonna go grab coffee before I do my volunteer work!

[Slothy]

Hijacking shoutout to Mighty Max which belongs in with these 90's animated shows.

Damn straight. And Reboot too while we're at it.

[Freya]

Man I loved his mullet. Awesome show, I had toys.

[Del Murder]

Where are you up to? I might start watching this today, I'm acquiring it now. You should wait up if you're not miles ahead already. I'm looking forward to all of the Puck stuff, and anticipate being sad about Hudson's blind friend and pretty stoked about The Pack.
I'm only two episodes in. I wanted to wait to see if my wife wanted to watch it with me and she worked yesterday.

[XxSephirothxX]

If you have roommates and/or a group of friends over, here's a fun way to spend like 2 hours: Use your Apple TV/Roku/whatever to look up every 80s and 90s cartoon intro you can think of on Youtube and watch it. So many of them are awesome or terrible in an awesome way. You'll get the nostalgia rush from TMNT and Gargoyles and so on, and the "What were they thinking?" laughs from Sewer Sharks and shit like that. That was the last time I saw Gargoyles.

[Del Murder]

Gargoyles wasn't awesome in a terrible way, though, it was awesome in an awesome way!

[Calliope]

No, it IS awesome in an awesome way!

[Jinx]

Damn it, Del. I'm torrenting now. Guess I know what I'm watching when I'm done with The 4400.

[Faris]

Oh man, I loved this show growing up. I fondly remember the VHS movie that came with the board game.

47860

That's really all I remember about it though.

[Calliope]

Matching sets activated!

I finished watching "The Awakening" yesterday. It's unusual for a kid's TV pilot to span five episodes! Or any pilot, really.

[Raistlin]

Oh man, I watched Gargoyles all the time as I kid. I liked Spider-Man and X-Men more, but the last time I saw Gargoyles was when I was really young, so I haven't seen how well the show holds up.

[fire_of_avalon]

I had a love/hate relationship with this show because some of the story arcs took so so so long to move along and weren't as good as the others. The Macbeth/Avalon storyline was probably my favorite. My favorite gargoyle was Brooklyn and I don't know why.

[Rostum]

I remember liking this show. Downloading!

[Loony BoB]

Definitely remember this fondly, yeah. Gargoyles, X-Men, Transformers, TMNT, Ghostbusters, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, DinoSaucers, Dino-Riders, Denver the Last Dinosaur... man, that was good TV.

[Jinx]

Denver the Last Dinosaur... man, that was good TV.

Oh yeah, that's that show that teaches that gay love is cool, right?

[Slothy]

It always bothers me a bit when people use the acronym TMNT because I'm never sure which show they're talking about. Obviously there's the original from the 80's/90's, but there's also the excellent series from the early 2000's that was actually called TMNT.

[Loony BoB]

I'm referring to the original TMNT. You know. The good one. The proper one. The better one.

[Slothy]

The one from the early 2000's was a damn good show though.

[Elskidor]

I watched episodes here and there, and really need to revisit the show from start to finish one of these days, because I love that era of cartoons. X-Men and Batman were my favs of that time period.

[Kossage]

Gargoyles was one of those series I only ever saw glimpses of as a kid. It wasn't until years later that I managed to watch it online, and I recently rewatched the whole show (sans some of the non-canon Goliath Chronicles episodes from Season 3).

The show's stood the test of time quite well and although the plotting doesn't seem like much now, it's still quite impressive on its own right and has that nice Weisman feel which many of his later shows imitated but with (somewhat) lesser success. I enjoy the several shoutouts to Shakespeare as well as other Renaissance era English literature, and Weisman's love of these shows, such as how Macbeth's mythos and several others are woven into the storyline. Puck in particular is a riot whenever he appears in his several, ahem, forms. ;)

Goliath and Eliza's story arc is abrupt at times and then goes smoothly, and the finale of season 2's final "Hunter's Moon" episode is a must see as it ties so many things together as far as their respective stories and the overarching storyline are concerned. Xanatos is quite an interesting character on many levels, and his plans do have nice complexity to them at times (except for that one time when he outright lampshades it). The main Gargoyles (and Eliza) all get fleshed out, and even a later group members gets some nice development down the line. The antagonists are memorable, each with their own quirks and mannerisms. Demona in particular has a great storyline, and you understand where she's coming from, and flashbacks help flesh out her personality.

Although the Avalon and World Tour stuff was interesting to see, I do think that the show's greatest strength lies in its urban setting and it discussing beliefs, moral choices ("Alone" being a rather heartbreaking example and has such weight to it when you hear just that one word; you'll know what I'm talking about when you see that scene). Many of the stereotypes of cultures from abroad were almost insulting during the World Tour, but then again, this was an American kid's show in the 90's so you take what you can get. I did like discussion about gun violence among other things; it's rare to see the consequences of such in kid's shows before or after as most of the time you see these futuristic guns and whatnot. The genetic manipulation thing just makes me roll my eyes, but at least Tim Curry as Sevarius was there so spice things up.

This brings me to voice acting. For the most part it was quite good, the actors really growing into their roles over time. Many have that interesting quality to them, a kind of quirk, which gives them personality. When you hear a voice, you know the character you're dealing with. And then there's the music which is quite catchy in many places; the main theme in particular has this dark, brooding yet hopeful tone to it which lovingly depicts the Gargoyles' struggle in this unfamiliar future (present) world they've ended up in. Kudos to the composer for that.

Gargoyles is definitely a show worth watching. It has its flaws, but it's definitely among the highlights of the 90s shows that I've seen, and I'm glad I watched it. :)


I finished watching "The Awakening" yesterday. It's unusual for a kid's TV pilot to span five episodes! Or any pilot, really.

Actually, a few Disney animated shows from the early 90s and so had multi-episode pilots. Just look at, for example, "Darkly Dawns the Duck" from Darkwing Duck, "Plunder and Lightning" from TaleSpin and "The Treasures of the Golden Suns" from DuckTales. It would be nice to see this kind of mentality return to animated shows although thankfully we have stuff like Avatar and Legend of Korra which give us even more interwoven story arcs (kind of like tGA now that I think of it). ;)

[Jinx]

Aight, let's do this.

[Ayen]

This thread is making me feel old.

I was a kid when Gargoyles came out and I can't believe that's all the way back to 94. It was one of many, many animated shows I watched back then. My brother watched it too and had several episodes on tape.

[Calliope]

I just watched the episode "The Price", and the end of that one has always bothered me.

[Del Murder]

Haven't gotten there yet. I just finished City of Stone, which was awesome.

[NeoCracker]

God, I remember this show as well as Pirates of Darkwater. I actually played teh SNES game prior to even knowing Pirates of Darkwater was a show. :p