N. Shaffer writes...

This is just a brief post to let everyone (especially the folks at Disney) know how wonderful the first season of Gargoyles DVD set is. I got it for Christmas and have watched it at least three times since then, hooking a new generation of kids too young to have seen the show during its original airing. I'm particularly glad the decision was made to keep "Deadly Force" in the set, instead of removing it entirely for its 'excessive violence'. That episode truly highlights the danger of guns, and I was very proud that my young nieces and nephews were able to grasp that concept immediately. I am waiting with impatience for the release of seasons two and three; they definitely have one sale already in the bag. Thank you.

Brian writes...

It's funny how you would bring up "Ask Greg" in the commentary on the fifth episode of the five-part pilot. You've asked us to review the DVD so I'm going to give mine. I'll try to touch base with the same elements I have reviewed at Amazon.com, and if I don't get to them all, oh well. I'm only human.

Anyway...

First all, I have to say I like how much better it looks compared to when it was aired on television. I know, duh everything looks better on DVD than it does on television. But being able to see it in it's original, unedited form. I haven't seen it like that for a very long time. That is definately a plus.

I put the disc in, skip the introductory crud, and the first thing I see is the animated menu. I don't know how many times I just let it run through, I mean it is that good. I have never seen anything like it. Now getting back to the introductory crud, Power Rangers? How the hell did Disney ever have anything to do with Power Rangers? Ok, back on topic...

I start the whole thing through beginning with the five-part pilot. I like having all the key elements to the story unlike what The Heroes Awaken VHS that I got for Christmas nine years ago lacks. Back then I found that to be a disappointment. Another great disappointment that has been taken care of very well is Deadly Force. Not only is it there, but Elisa is lying in the pool of blood on the kitchen floor too. Not a single element has been booted out, and we can thank Disney for finally righting this wrong. If you ask me, justice has finally been served.

The audio commentary on the five-part pilot, though identified as spoilerish by a few others that have viewed it, tells of how this great idea came to pass and how the five-part pilot sets the stage for the upcoming events through the second season. I thought it was well done. Hearing the comment about the show pitch and seeing the tape that pulled through definately puts this rule of thumb into perspective - Don't you dare quit. Quitters only gain nothing.

Now for the part that says, "Where's the beef?" Viewing the part on the Gathering is the closest I've been to one. And according to a comment I have found here somewhere about costing $800 just for the trip, it's the closest I'm probably ever going to get. I'm like, dude, it costs that much $$ just to get there? As if I wasn't furious enough that I've never been to one. No plan D here. I'll have become a gargoyle long before I have the dough to cover all those expenses. Since all I have for this is beef I think I'll move on.

I would like to see the second season come out, but I feel there are a few things about it that need to be addressed. Compared to the first season, which has 13 episodes, the second season has a long string of 51. In order to put this on DVD, there are two possible outcomes. We would either find it on a set of four discs, or on a set of two double-sided discs. I think the double-sided ones would be better because it would fit in a regular case instead of a big monstrosity. Either way, it'll be a bit pricey but worth it. So a word to the wise - now is the time to start saving up for it.

Tom Lahr writes...

Hello. I wasn't sure where to put this so I decided to submit it this way. I heard that in Febuary talks will be held to decide if Gargoyles season 2 and onwards should be put on DVD, and that people should write brief reviews of the show that could be shown to execs and such to show why we need season 2 on DVD. I should probally start with the fact that I didn't watch the original broadcasts. For some reason I just "missed" the show. However I had seen a few episodes prior to my DVD purchase due to the fact that Disney still shows Gargoyles every so often. I had high expectations when I bought the DVD, due to the fact that Gargoyles has a HUGE fanbase, just like Family Guy, one of my other favorite animated shows. Let me tell you, the DVDs didn't dissapoint. I loved everything about the show, from the beautiful choice of colors used to animate night in Manhattan to the brilliant script and acting. The only thing I would want different in the 2nd season boxset is MORE COMMENTARY! I found the commentary on the first 5 episodes facinating, and if the 2nd season had commentary on (hopefully most of) the episodes I would be estatic! I don't want to ramble any further, but all I can say is that I want more! I never got the chance to see how the series progresses, and a Season 2 DVD release would finally let me see how the series plays out.

Kelsi Parker writes...

I was lucky enough to recieve the Gargoyles Season one DVD for Christmas, and reaffirmed my love of the show. I think I appreciate it now more than ever, since I've read some Shakespeare and no longer rely on Disney Adventures for fandom news. Through various internet linkages, I discovered your site, and think it's amazingly wonderful that you're still feeding our obsession.

Watching the show as a kid, I saw a cool story, interesting imagery, and something worth running to the television for when it came on. Watching as an adult, I still see the cool story and amazing visuals, but also the tiny details, little tidbits that are easily overlooked in a casual viewing. I would like to add my voice to those asking to see the further seasons released on DVD, as the first has only whet my appetite for more.

Jay R Kreige writes...

Gargoyles is the best show ever made. Thank you Mr. Weisman, the cast and crew, and especially Disney for taking a chance and scoring big with myself, and all those who still love the show, and those who have just been distracted, thank you.

Todd Jensen writes...

Thanks for the "Bushido" ramble, Greg!

I hadn't realized the "Awakening" parallel (at least, not the parallel with the 994 portion of "Awakening") until you brought it up (not in this ramble, actually, but in an earlier reply here at "Ask Greg"), but it certainly works for me. And I agree that Yama, fortunately for the gargs, had held on to more of his courage and understanding of the "gargoyle way" than Demona had (I especially liked the scene where he discovers to his disgust that Taro had been lying about the first visitors to the theme park being a group of schoolchildren who wished to learn bushido - the fact that he had believed that those would be the first visitors illustrates his good intentions there).

The Ishimura gargoyles remind me a little of the tengu, a race of winged beings in Japanese legend who sometimes taught humans bushido (continuing the concept that you'd used in the Avalon World Tour of tying gargoyles in with other legends, as I mentioned before).

I agree with you that Taro isn't up to Xanatos's level. For one thing, though Xanatos might get defeated, he always did so in a way that essentially preserved his dignity; I simply cannot imagine him winding up dangling from a gigantic animatronic gargoyle in front of a crowd of reporters. (For that matter, I also can't help wondering why Taro would have wanted to have the reporters show up at dawn rather than dusk to get their first glimpse of the gargoyles; if I wanted to introduce people to gargoyles in an impressive way, I'd want it to be when they were bursting out of their stone shells in the evening. That'd be much more powerful and dramatic.)

Yama's concerns about gargoyle secrecy certainly worked for me, and although he went about solving the problem in the wrong way, I can certainly agree with him about the secrecy having its drawbacks. It does strike me that part of the reason why humans fear gargoyles is because about all that they usually see of them is their charging about growling, with eyes glowing, in battle-fury - a condition that certainly makes it easier to jump to the wrong conclusion about them. Would humans be so ready to make that mistake if they got to see more of the gargoyles when they weren't simply fighting? Also, there's the danger that if you just keep secret, somebody else might reveal you to the world under less favorable circumstances than the ones that you'd have chosen (such as claiming on a news broadcast that you blew up a police station in New York). It does make one wonder whether the gargoyles have been a little too passive in working for peace with humans, just sitting around and hoping that the humans will learn to accept them on their own, rather than actively working towards it.

And I got a big kick out of the metareferencing in Elisa's "TV stars" line, and Goliath's horrified cry of "No!" (Goliath's line was made all the funnier, for me, by Keith David's reading of it - making it sound as if Goliath truly considered such a prospect a fate worse than death!)

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of "Bushido" is that it shows a community where humans and gargoyles live together harmoniously, showing that Goliath's belief that such a thing is possible is indeed accurate. (We saw a bit of that on Avalon, but that was an unusual case - humans raising young gargoyles as if they were adopted children. This is a more "conventional" community.) Hope is indeed possible.

Again, thank you for the ramble.

Storyseeker writes...

Just to let people know that I received the Garg DVD, and it was absolutely brilliant! The special features were ace, I loved watching the interviews from folks at the Gathering. It was the closest I've ever come to actually going to the convention, so it was cool to see what the place was like. It was quite funny when I saw some of the original pictures for the clan and I saw the one of Hudson, as he looked more like a dog than Bronx ever did. And all the sound and picture quality on all the episodes was excellent, I enjoyed watching the 1st season again and again and again...

Todd Jensen writes...

Thanks for the "Sentinel" ramble, Greg!

I can no longer remember a lot of my initial responses to the episodes in "Gargoyles", but I can for "Sentinel". And what I remember most about it was this: when I saw the two archaeologists from "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time" in the "Previously On" section, I eagerly thought that the episode would have something to do with King Arthur and Griff's quest for Merlin (which I wanted to see more of), since Morwood-Smith and Duane were the ones who'd discovered the Scrolls of Merlin. And I was at first a bit disappointed when it turned out that the background mythology was Easter Island and ancient astronauts, instead - though at least it had that "Holy Grail" line. I've come to accept that since then, however (I suspect that the Quest for Merlin would have worked far better in the projected "Pendragon" spin-off, anyway, since it would be too artificial to have Arthur and Griff constantly bumping into the Manhattan clan on their search).

You can feel reassured that I never thought that the gargoyles were aliens, either before or after the episode. Mostly this was due to the fact that I'd always seen them as fantasy creatures rather than science-fiction creatures; living gargoyles are found far more often in fantasy than science fiction, Goliath and his clan originally hailed from medieval Scotland (and medieval settings fit the fantasy genre better than the sci-fi genre, though they aren't necessarily incompatible with it), their means of being brought into the 20th century involved a wizard's spell, etc.

The business with the amnesiac Elisa struck me as well-handled, although I'm afraid that I don't have anything more to say about it than you already have.

And, yep, I'm afraid that Elisa does wear her short-sleeved black shirt on the Avalon World Tour - and what makes it all the more embarrassing is that we see it on the preceding episode, "The Green"!

I will confess that, although he showed seriously faulty judgment at first, I rather like Nokkar. Despite his stubbornness in believing the gargoyles to be agents for the Space-Spawn, he also displayed a strong sense of concern over the world that he was supposed to protect. After subduing Goliath, he immediately turns to Elisa and asks her if she's all right. He trusts her enough to give her the guided tour of his spaceship. And he chooses to ask her first why she helped the gargoyles escape instead of taking a "shoot first, ask questions" later attitude - and accepts her answer, recognizing that he'd been in the wrong. It makes the resolution at the end (including his finding some new friends) all the more convincing - and makes it clear that he truly is a "protector-figure" like Goliath and Elisa.

Gingitsune writes...

I don't have a question, actually I was just directed here from another part of Station 8 were it was said you wanted commentary on the DVD. Best DVD Ever, for the best show ever created, I cannot thank you enough for creating this great series. I was fascinated by the commentary on the "Awakening" and even more thrilled when it directed me to this site. Thank you again, I cannot wait for season 2 to be released on DVD, which hopefully is in the works!

WingedBeast writes...

I recently got the DVD and there's little enough I can say about the episodes without launching into long rambles.

I looked at the extras, the commentary had a lot of nice information that put little bits in a light. Kieth David's growl not needing reverb... there are odd lengths I would go through if I could count on getting a voice like that.

But, above all, let me thank you for making the changes to the series that you did from the original pitch.

I do think that the more rounded image of the Gargoyles would have been a nice look to them. It reminded me more of the savagery of a rabbid gorrila than the Gargoyles I know which are animalistic in the proud vissage of an eagle. (sort of, I mean, Lexington is a little too cute to be eagle-esque, but there you go).

But, mostly, I like the fact that the Trio aren't just a mischevious group of kids. They're warriors from a time when you had to grow up fast. Yeah, they get in trouble and act pretty much like you'd expect brothers to act, but the seriousness in them makes the funny bits all the funnier.

Finally, best for last, thank you for making Bronx not into an ear-flapping comedy piece. Bronx is so much better as this dog-like beast than he is as something that chews on fire-hydrants.

And, to look to Awakenings, Bronx's reaction to the Trio giving him a name is far better comedy than eating various things. It's just such a perfect dog-like animal reaction, the kind that makes you think he knows exactly what's being said. If I could put words to his reaction, it would be "If you're going to name me, leave me out of it."

All in all, thank you for making the changes you did.