Gargoyles

_****½

Stone by day, warriors by night, a clan of Gargoyles protects a medieval Scottish castle during an attack by the vikings. Unbeknownst to the Gargoyles, there is a traitor in their midst.

Gargoyles was a huge part of my youth, showing me that animation wasn't necessarily just for children and proving what a solid storytelling could achieve through this medium. The excitement I felt watching this show as a child remains exactly the same watching it now as an adult, and it's a series that ages incredibly gracefully. There were many themes that went over my head as a child that I'm coming to appreciate now, and I don't think there are enough positive things to say about this show. Greg Weisman's work on this series is aces.

Unusual for an American children's program, most of the action of this episode takes place in medieval Scotland, and it's absolutely fascinating. Granted, there is a present-day cold open to the episode involving the future female lead of the series, but the third minute of the episode thrusts us a thousand years in the past and it's easy to forget that we had had a glimpse of Manhattan at all.

The music is epic and beautiful, setting the scenes perfectly whether they take place on a modern-day New York street or during a medieval viking battle. The chords convey humor, terror, victory or grief, and it all adds so wonderfully to this world that I can't imagine the series without its incidentals.

Hakon, the leader of the vikings played by Clancy Brown, is an idiot. His men voice their concern about the Gargoyles waking up during their first attack, and Hakon tells them that he's prepared. Despite the fact that the sun is setting, he orders his men to attack, and they lose the battle because the Gargoyles rise from their slumber and push the enemy army back. Later, Hakon begins destroying the Gargoyles during their stone sleep, claiming that he hasn't lived so long by taking foolish chances...aside from the idiocy he displayed during his first appearance, and ignoring the fact that by destroying their clan he will only provoke Goliath to attack him once again.

I take minor issue with the Gargoyle's accents. They are surrounded by Scottish people, and speak their language, so why is it that they have American accents? I am able to suspend my disbelief and imagine that it is a dialect exclusive to Gargoyle-kind, but there's something about Bill Fagerbakke's character that just stands out as an example of what doesn't belong in this time period. Also, as an aside, did Princess Katharine use the word 'bully?' Because that strikes me as anachronistic.

With the possible exception of Fagerbakke, the voice acting in this series is phenomenal; especially appreciated is how easy on the Scottish accents they chose to go, most likely to accommodate American children who weren't used to a healthy brogue, but it also served so as not to make a mockery of it.

I would like to see the face of the man, or men in this case, tasked with directing an animated period-drama, because that is not typical Saturday-morning fare. Saburo Hashimoto and Kazuo Terada team up to put together the first few episodes of the series, and they hit every note. There's not a moment wasted during this episode, and it's a wonderful thing; extended flashbacks are a difficult concept to manage, but Hashimoto and Terada bring everything together so seamlessly they make it seem easy.

This is not a series that was written for children, it is written first as a story and then formatted to conform to the medium of children's programming. Michael Reaves and Eric Luke worked together to form this initial outing into the Gargoyles universe and, had they been writing down to children, they would have been doing themselves an enormous disservice. The story expects its audience to keep up with it, and never explains itself or apologizes for it; Reaves and Luke assume that their viewers are intelligent enough to understand the action happening on screen and strive to challenge said viewers with a truly engaging adventure. The only change I wish had been made before going into production is the running fat joke to be known as Broadway; it's a joke typical for children's entertainment, but it's far too simple a joke for this crew and should be excised as soon as possible.

Greg Weisman's creation exceeds it's own reputation, remaining enjoyable no matter how often it's viewed on repeat; the characters are so real that you truly believe they could have existed, and the mythology is so intense that you often forget that you're watching a Disney cartoon. Gargoyles is filled with themes well beyond it's target audience and is one of the first cartoons I ever knew to grant consequences to the character's actions; this is the cartoon I would want my children watching.

Gargoyles is in the running to become the feature for Tuesdays. The series ran from 1994 to 1997 in syndication as part of the Disney Afternoon and on ABC's One Saturday Morning for a total of 78 episodes.