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timepiececlockI watched an hour of Gargoyles tonight, seeing as for some unexplainable reason, our cable package now includes the Toon Disney channel. This is a good website to find out all about the show: http://www.gargoyles-fans.org/
I remember watching this series in the afternoons in middle school, before it got canceled. And watching it again, I remember why I was so captivated by it.
It was so CLEVER. And... different. And.. serious. For a fantasy/action cartoon, it had such fascinatingly mature themes, and beautifully complex characters. All the villains were sympathetic in some manner-- be it the manipulative & ruthless billionaire Xanatos, turning soft after the birth of his part-fey child and pleading to the Gargoyles, who he'd betrayed numerous times, for help, or--- my favorite-- the gritty, bitter, pair of Demona and Macbeth, lives bound together for unaging eternity in a vengeance pact, who can feel each other's pain, and only be killed by the other's hands.
I LOVED this show. And I'm gonna watch it again, untl I know I've seen every episode. I liked the interesting and multi-layered characters, where the heros had weaknesses and dark sides, and the villains were fun to watch and often had scarily good reasons for their villiany. I liked the UST between the gargoyle warrior Goliath, and the human cop Elisa (who was not only a kick-ass, strong female main character that didnt' act girly and had the coolest car, but who also was NOT WHITE, but Native American Idian in ethnicity)-- the writers did an interesting thing by pretty much having them fall in love but having the characters be real enough that they knew an inter-species relationship like that was always going to be a little out of their reach (though we could tell they were in love, because one episode, if I remember correctly, was a dream/illusion where Goliath thought he was a human, married to Elisa, and that Gargoyles were only a dream in his head)--it was something that the writers wrote so that everyone, the cahracters and the audience, KNEW it, but it was never TALKED about. That was a kind fo subtlety I was so pleased to see in a cartoon (maybe I should call it an animated drama, really), that one usually didn't see fleshed out so well.
Some of the gentic experimentation episodes (like the sublot with Elisa's brother) were a bit too Batman for my tastes, but the best arcs (and there were many) in this series were the ones drawn directly from Shakespear. The series is littered with them-- from the dark, conflicted king MacBeth, to the island of Avalon, to the 3 Weird Sisters/Witches, to the fairy rulers Oberon & Titania, and on to various other mythologies of Brittain (like King Arthur) and even the Norse, like the magical talisman of knowledge The Eye Of Odin.
What I loved about this show was that it takes all these characters and plots from myths and shakespearean plays, and intermixes them with modern times, most often in the setting of Manhattan. I remember liking how this cartoon seemed so much more complicated than other cartoons, and how much more interesting I always thought it was than ones like Batman, or Spiderman, or Superman. Though Gargoyles was short-lived compared to those (2 seasons I think) series which have numerous incarnations, I liked it better.
That was probably its downfall though-- I imagine it was too complex, and unless you were a kid like me who wanted plot & intense character arcs and didn't care much about the hero gaining a new utility belt or new super-ability, it was too hard to follow. But I think that's a dumb reason to discontinue a show, even a cartoon.
The premise of this cartoon, btw, was that there used to exist 1000 years ago in medieval times a species called gargoyles-- were wer humanoid monsters (usually with bat-like wings) that lived at night and turned to stone during the day. The main gargoyles here lived in Scotland back 900-something, until through treachery and misunderstandign they were put under a curse, to sleep in stone until the day "their castle rose above the clouds." Fast forward to modern NY City, and a billionaire named Xanatos (voiced by Will Riker from Star Trek) transports their castle brick by brick (like the London Bridge was done) to the top of his skyscraper in Manhattan. SUddenly, you have a small clan of medieval gargoyles (who only live at night and are stone during the day, regardless of sunlight) in a foreign city 1000 years in the future. It's a cool series-- lots of fighting, both magical and science, and really mature themes (there was a clever episode on the danger & reality of guns, that's taken for granted in alot of animated series where cops are featured, briefly or significantly).
My second favorite character: Puck/Owen. He (bothe verisons) is too cool to even explain.
My main favorite character on this show was Demona. See here for a picture of her being nice, and here for her being not nice, with a rocketlauncher.
Demona was.... just wicked. She used to be Golaith's true love (i thin they were even married), until Goliath was cursed into sleep with the others, and she was left alone. She used to be kind and caring, until the humans whose castle they were protecting (this is all back in the past) betrayed them and invaders slaughtered her clan by smashing their stone bodies during the daylight. This turns her, a smart, wise leader, into this bitter, forever angry person that hates humans above all things, and lives for the mass destruction of them. Through a magical pact made with King Macbeth (in the time after Goliath and the others were cursed), she now lives forever, her life bound to his (they hate each other but often work together out of hate) unaging, until they kill one another. Fast forward a thousand years, and she's in modern times too, lookign the same but having aged internally while the others slept as stone. And she likes guns and she STILL hates humans--- but she also sort of loves Goliath as well, but not enough to overcome her hate.
Demona (who interestingly enough had a daughter w/Goliath named Angela) is one big ball of bitterness. She's strong, mean, manipulative, smart, but I love her cause she's got SUCH good reasons to want everyone else dead. There was even a time-travel episode where she went back in time to try to warn her younger self, but the younger Demona was so abhorred by he bitter person she'd become, that she refused to heed the warnings, and thus caused events to play out the way they did originally. Later (I think it was later), a spell causes her to live dayslight in human form (instead of stone) and the night in her original gargoyle form... forcing her to partially become what she hates.
Anyway, I like her. She's so... bitter. And so much meaner and tougher than anyone else in the room.
So, yeah, I'm pleased I can watch this show again. I watch a lot of anime but almost never cartoons anymore, so this kinda makes me feel a bit kid-ish, but not really, because the show rarely to never comes off as silly. I look at it the same way as I look at Buffy the Vmapire Slayer looking at the title/concept you may think it's made for kids... but that's just until you acutally WATCH it. I think Gargoyles was like a cartoon made for teenagers, not for little kids.
I remember watching this series in the afternoons in middle school, before it got canceled. And watching it again, I remember why I was so captivated by it.
It was so CLEVER. And... different. And.. serious. For a fantasy/action cartoon, it had such fascinatingly mature themes, and beautifully complex characters. All the villains were sympathetic in some manner-- be it the manipulative & ruthless billionaire Xanatos, turning soft after the birth of his part-fey child and pleading to the Gargoyles, who he'd betrayed numerous times, for help, or--- my favorite-- the gritty, bitter, pair of Demona and Macbeth, lives bound together for unaging eternity in a vengeance pact, who can feel each other's pain, and only be killed by the other's hands.
I LOVED this show. And I'm gonna watch it again, untl I know I've seen every episode. I liked the interesting and multi-layered characters, where the heros had weaknesses and dark sides, and the villains were fun to watch and often had scarily good reasons for their villiany. I liked the UST between the gargoyle warrior Goliath, and the human cop Elisa (who was not only a kick-ass, strong female main character that didnt' act girly and had the coolest car, but who also was NOT WHITE, but Native American Idian in ethnicity)-- the writers did an interesting thing by pretty much having them fall in love but having the characters be real enough that they knew an inter-species relationship like that was always going to be a little out of their reach (though we could tell they were in love, because one episode, if I remember correctly, was a dream/illusion where Goliath thought he was a human, married to Elisa, and that Gargoyles were only a dream in his head)--it was something that the writers wrote so that everyone, the cahracters and the audience, KNEW it, but it was never TALKED about. That was a kind fo subtlety I was so pleased to see in a cartoon (maybe I should call it an animated drama, really), that one usually didn't see fleshed out so well.
Some of the gentic experimentation episodes (like the sublot with Elisa's brother) were a bit too Batman for my tastes, but the best arcs (and there were many) in this series were the ones drawn directly from Shakespear. The series is littered with them-- from the dark, conflicted king MacBeth, to the island of Avalon, to the 3 Weird Sisters/Witches, to the fairy rulers Oberon & Titania, and on to various other mythologies of Brittain (like King Arthur) and even the Norse, like the magical talisman of knowledge The Eye Of Odin.
What I loved about this show was that it takes all these characters and plots from myths and shakespearean plays, and intermixes them with modern times, most often in the setting of Manhattan. I remember liking how this cartoon seemed so much more complicated than other cartoons, and how much more interesting I always thought it was than ones like Batman, or Spiderman, or Superman. Though Gargoyles was short-lived compared to those (2 seasons I think) series which have numerous incarnations, I liked it better.
That was probably its downfall though-- I imagine it was too complex, and unless you were a kid like me who wanted plot & intense character arcs and didn't care much about the hero gaining a new utility belt or new super-ability, it was too hard to follow. But I think that's a dumb reason to discontinue a show, even a cartoon.
The premise of this cartoon, btw, was that there used to exist 1000 years ago in medieval times a species called gargoyles-- were wer humanoid monsters (usually with bat-like wings) that lived at night and turned to stone during the day. The main gargoyles here lived in Scotland back 900-something, until through treachery and misunderstandign they were put under a curse, to sleep in stone until the day "their castle rose above the clouds." Fast forward to modern NY City, and a billionaire named Xanatos (voiced by Will Riker from Star Trek) transports their castle brick by brick (like the London Bridge was done) to the top of his skyscraper in Manhattan. SUddenly, you have a small clan of medieval gargoyles (who only live at night and are stone during the day, regardless of sunlight) in a foreign city 1000 years in the future. It's a cool series-- lots of fighting, both magical and science, and really mature themes (there was a clever episode on the danger & reality of guns, that's taken for granted in alot of animated series where cops are featured, briefly or significantly).
My second favorite character: Puck/Owen. He (bothe verisons) is too cool to even explain.
My main favorite character on this show was Demona. See here for a picture of her being nice, and here for her being not nice, with a rocketlauncher.
Demona was.... just wicked. She used to be Golaith's true love (i thin they were even married), until Goliath was cursed into sleep with the others, and she was left alone. She used to be kind and caring, until the humans whose castle they were protecting (this is all back in the past) betrayed them and invaders slaughtered her clan by smashing their stone bodies during the daylight. This turns her, a smart, wise leader, into this bitter, forever angry person that hates humans above all things, and lives for the mass destruction of them. Through a magical pact made with King Macbeth (in the time after Goliath and the others were cursed), she now lives forever, her life bound to his (they hate each other but often work together out of hate) unaging, until they kill one another. Fast forward a thousand years, and she's in modern times too, lookign the same but having aged internally while the others slept as stone. And she likes guns and she STILL hates humans--- but she also sort of loves Goliath as well, but not enough to overcome her hate.
Demona (who interestingly enough had a daughter w/Goliath named Angela) is one big ball of bitterness. She's strong, mean, manipulative, smart, but I love her cause she's got SUCH good reasons to want everyone else dead. There was even a time-travel episode where she went back in time to try to warn her younger self, but the younger Demona was so abhorred by he bitter person she'd become, that she refused to heed the warnings, and thus caused events to play out the way they did originally. Later (I think it was later), a spell causes her to live dayslight in human form (instead of stone) and the night in her original gargoyle form... forcing her to partially become what she hates.
Anyway, I like her. She's so... bitter. And so much meaner and tougher than anyone else in the room.
So, yeah, I'm pleased I can watch this show again. I watch a lot of anime but almost never cartoons anymore, so this kinda makes me feel a bit kid-ish, but not really, because the show rarely to never comes off as silly. I look at it the same way as I look at Buffy the Vmapire Slayer looking at the title/concept you may think it's made for kids... but that's just until you acutally WATCH it. I think Gargoyles was like a cartoon made for teenagers, not for little kids.
