Gargoyles
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Gargoyles was a very nifty show in syndication. It was Disney's first attempt
at a serious dramatic cartoon and for the first two seasons they did phenomenally.
The stories were more mature than other Disney cartoons and often dealt
with real- life issues. They had elements of true history in them, Shakespeare
references and bits of magic and mythology. The voice casting was great and
included Star Trek actors such as Jonathan Frakes as David Xanatos, Marina
Sirtis as Demona (one of my favourite characters), Michael Dorn as Coldstone
and Taurus, Brent Spiner as Puck (another favourite of mine), and Kate Mulgrew
as Anastasia Renard (Fox's mother) and Titania (different people for technical
reasons...). Some of my favourite characters on the show were: Owen Burnett,
Mr. Xanatos' faithful assistant, 
who doesn't have much personality to speak of, but his dry wit and deadpan
delivery endeared him to me immediately. He says such funny things in such
a serious tone that it's even funnier. He's also a good fighter, though you
could never tell it to look at him. He has a stone hand because he tested
that immortality cauldron thingy for Xanatos. Owen is really Puck in disguise,
as it is revealed in "The Gathering", but I think I like him better as Owen.
Puck is sillier, sure, but Owen is niftier. Being really Puck, Owen might
really be able to move his stone hand, or that could just be the animators
forgetting that his hand is stone. Brooklyn is next in line to lead if something
happens to Goliath (wishing really hard... just kidding, I like Goliath
okay, even though he has too many action figures...). Brooklyn is a young,
cynical gargoyle who gets to say a lot of the best wisecracks in the show.
He argues with his rookery brothers Lexington and Broadway, but usually he's
a pretty nice guy and a bit of a romantic. 
Unfortunately, the objects of his desire never return his affections. Neither
Maggie the Cat nor Angela, both of whom he was clearly attracted to, were
interested in him. 
Demona is a beautiful but dangerous female gargoyle whom Goliath used to
be in love with. She was never as good as she pretended to be. It was due
to a failed plot to run the humans out of the castle and take it over that
most of the clan was smashed up and the rest put to sleep for a thousand years.
As the others slept, Demona led a small clan that looted to survive. She
made a terrible enemy early when she slashed up the face of Gillecomgain,
a young farm boy who grew up to become vengeful and hunted her until his
death, when the task passed on to his son. The family legacy continued for
a thousand years. 
Demona is linked forever to Macbeth so that neither can die until one kills
the other. The excellent multi- part "City of Stone" tells the story brilliantly
and is probably my favourite episode. Because of Puck's "gift", Demona now
turns into a human in the daytime, but as such she cannot fight very well
(Elisa can beat the crap out of her). She's much better at fighting as a
gargoyle, and in that form can face up to Goliath on roughly equal standing.
Demona's latest love is Thailog, the oddly- pigmented clone of Goliath created
by Dr. Sevarius. 
She doesn't seem to know Thailog only cares about money and is using her.
I guess love really is blind, eh? I also enjoyed Angela, daughter of Goliath
and Demona, who grew up in Avalon after the eggs were rescued by Princess
Katherine, The Magus, and Tom, Keeper of the Eggs. Angela is young and pretty,
with a child's innocence and curiosity about the world. But it's clear that
she 
inherited her parents' stubbornness and temper, and she can fight about
as well as either of them. Though the young male gargoyles fought over her
affections, it was clear by The Goliath Chronicles that she preferred Broadway.
Broadway is a young, friendly gargoyle who likes to eat, amd enjoys detective
movies. He pretends sometimes to be braver than he is, and has a secret romantic
side. 
That must be the part of him that attracts Angela, as it's hard to imagine
why else she would want to date him... sorry, that was cruel... Anyway...
Goliath is the leader of the clan. He's a big, strong, brave gargoyle with
a temper, who is practically dating Elisa. 
Goliath is a pretty cool guy, just a bit overrated, and he has way too many
toys. I find I can't hate him, however, because he's so cool, has such a
great voice, and gets to say lines like, "Please, don't fall off the building
this time." 
Lexington is the youngest of the gargoyles, and the only one with web-like
wings. He's immature, curious, and good at mechanical and electronic things.
In some ways he's naive and idealistic, but I think a part of that was lost
after he trusted the Pack, but then was betrayed and hunted by them. Hudson
is the oldest of the clan, and its former leader. 
He's a wise, experienced gargoyle who lost sight in one eye long ago, but
seems to have compensated well enough (or at least he doesn't crash into buildings
when he flies, and he can fight well enough even with it). Because he's so
old, Hudson would rather stay behind and watch television than go out on
patrol, but when needed he will venture out with the gargyles' "guard dog"
Bronx 
and help in a fight. Oddly, though all of them are Scottish, Hudson is the
only one with an accent... I don't know why. Hudson's best eps are the ones
with his blind friend, Robbins, as the two have similar life experience and
a good rapport. Elisa Maza is the nice detective who is friends with the
gargoyles 
and helps them out. She's a nice, very tolerant, and brave woman, who is
almost like dating Goliath. She's a good character, too, but sometimes I
think she needs saving too much. She is a very loyal friend and protector
for the gargoyles. I just wonder when she sleeps, between work and helping
care for the gargoyles... Elisa's entire family eventually finds out about
the gargoyles, but they are as nice and tolerant as Elisa, and easily come
to accept the creatures. Surprisingly, they're more upset she didn't tell
them before. They're also very accepting of Elisa's brother, Derek, who was
mutated into a part cat/part bat, with electrical powers, meant to resemble
gargoyles, created by Dr. Sevarius. Talon and the other mutates were first
enemies of the gargoyles, but later became friends, and took care of the
gargoyle clones Dr. Sevarius made later, in their underground home called
the Labyrinth, a maze of abandoned subway lines. Coldstone is a cyborg gargoyle
made by Xanatos' science and Demona's magic. 
He was built using parts from three different gargoyles (Othello, the personality
usually in control, Desdemona, a female gargoyle who Othello was in love
with, and Iago, the evil personality who tries to take control of Coldstone's
body) and spare parts from Xanatos' Steel Clan robots and activated by magic.
He first was mean, but then rescued Goliath while sacrificing his own life.
Later, he came back, but with the three personalities in his brain fighting
for control of the body. With virtual reality Goliath tried to go in to help,
but the only thing that helped straighten out the personalities was when
Xanatos built new bodies for Iago and Desdemona, and Puck, using Alexander
as an excuse to use magic, put their souls inside. Fox was first 
a member of the Pack, but when the others escaped prison ahe stayed behind,
and once paroled was dating Xanatos. They later married and had a son named
Alexander. Depending on which episode, Fox's real name is either Janine or
Jeanne Renard. Her father is Halcyon Renard, the rich, old guy who built
those airships, and her mother is Anastasia Renard (a.k.a. Titania in disguise).
Fox is a very good fighter, and has a personality to match her name. I think
the blue fox face on her eye is a tattoo, but wonder why adult Alex had one
in "Future Tense"? 
Wolf is a decendent of Hakon, the Viking who destroyed the gargoyles. He's
a big guy who's had himself mutated into a werewolf-like creature. His attacks
are powerful, but he's not very smart. Another pretty bad member of the Pack
is Dingo, the one with the mohawk and exaggerated Australian accent. 
Rather than be modified like the other Pack members, he just got an armour
suit. True, it is a nifty armour suit, but I can't say as much for the guy
inside... The only nice thing I can say about Dingo is that it was cool in
"Walkabout" when he helped stop the living machines that wanted to take over
the world, and then got new armour made out of those machines to go fight
crime. He never seemed like much of a villain anyway. Maybe he's a better
hero. 
I do, however, like Jackal and Hyena. Now those are villains!
They're demented, sadistic twins who have undergone cybernetic enhancement
to include such things as telescoping limbs and electronically-enhanced sight
and hearing. Jackal and Hyena get to torment their enemies in witty and memorable
ways, and say such lines as Jackal's, "Well, that's sicker than usual," and
Hyena's, "I wonder if gargoyles taste like chicken?" 
Hyena has a weird attraction to Xanatos' robot, Coyote, who leads the Pack
after Fox leaves. I guess it's understandable, since she's part machine herself,
but still I agree with her brother's "sicker than usual" opinion... Any episode
Jackal and Hyena are in, they're sure to steal every scene. After two seasons
in syndication, Gargoyles was sent to ABC network, where a watered- down
version called The Goliath Chronicles ran for only thirteen episodes before
being cancelled. The Goliath Chronicles was made mostly at a different studio
than Gargoyles. It didn't have the magical elements that the syndicated series
did, its stories were weaker, and it was usually not as well- drawn. The
few good episodes were done by some of the same people from the syndicated
run working under contract. The reason The Goliath Chronicles failed was
because it was rushed and not as well- made as Gargoyles. Unfortunately, I
am one of the few, pitiful people who can't see the Gargoyles reruns playing
on cable, because I have no cable here. Very sad. And my attempts to write
the local station have resulted only in a reply that their contract expired
and apparently they have no intention to renew it anytime soon. Hopefully
soon they'll reconsider so I can see it again soon. I miss it.
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