Posts Tagged Cartoons
CHILDHOOD REVISITED – Gargoyles “Her Brother’s Keeper/Reawakening”
Posted by kjohnson1585 in Animation, Childhood Revisited, Television, Writing on August 12, 2013
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what exactly fans were clamoring about when they praised Gargoyles as the pinnacle of Disney Afternoon animation. Sure, I like the show – heck, I like it a lot – but I didn’t quite grasp how and why the fanbase rabidly exalted Gargoyles beyond its nostalgic reputation as a “dark” Disney action-cartoon. Yet suddenly, here comes “Her Brother’s Keeper” and “Reawakening” to shut up my misgivings. Two fantastic episodes not only finish up the first season of Gargoyles, but by focusing on relationships, both familial and communal, and questioning the notion of trust, loyalty, and motivation, they also push the show in a new direction. Alliances and “clans” are no longer permanent or meaningful. Anyone can turn on you. In the end, all you have is those you can trust, and even that can be shaky at best.
“Her Brother’s Keeper” is strictly about those family relationships. The primary focus is on Elisa and her brother, Derek, both of whom work for the NYPD, but we also get a look at the relationship between Lex, Brooklyn, and Broadway (who are brothers in their own way) as well as the sibling/criminal relationship between Hyena and Jackal, “former” members of the Pack. The thing about relationships is that, as potentially strong as the bond can be, it’s important to remember that the people within the relationship are individuals. And these individuals are working their damnedest to connect to each other to make the relationship work, while at the same time, struggling to maintain their own sense of identity. Most TV shows don’t deal with the latter half of this statement, but Gargoyles does, making this episode both poignant and significant towards the overall story. It also helps the show overall by adding much needed levity and comic playfulness to overall show, since prior to this episode, the comedy was really regulated to “HAHA BROADWAY IS FAT AND EATING”.
Elisa enlists her brother to tail Xanatos via helicopter; Lex, Broadway, and Brooklyn squabble over a video game; Hyena and Jackal plot to steal a trinket called the Coyote Diamond. Each group have their own mini tête-à-tête, and the Elisa/Derek one is the most significant. There’s a sense that Elisa and Derek haven’t been on the most friendliest of terms, made a bit more tense with Elisa making Derek following a freed man. Contrast that to the sharp but endearing relationship between Hyena and Jackal, who taunt each other but definitely possess a more likeable rapport. They slather over the Coyote Diamond, prepping to steal it for Fox (who is in jail with Wolf, while Dingo, apparently, is in Europe), but Xanatos arrives to buy it. As he prepares to leave, the two Pack members attack him, yank the diamond, and haul tail. When Elisa and Derek confront them on the roof, Jackal nearly bazookas them, but Xanatos knocks the shot off its trajectory. The tail of the copter is hit but Derek lands it safely, while Jackal and Hyena flee.
Here’s where things get interesting. Xanatos offers Derek a job, and much to Elisa’s chagrin, he contemplates it. Not only is Elisa concerned about Xanatos’ real plan behind his offer (knowing who he truly is and what he’s capable of), there’s concern about Derek’s direction in life. The Mazas are police officers through and through, so while the father agrees with Elisa to convince Derek to stay in the force, the mother fully supports Derek’s decision to leave. All the arguments are sound and everyone is correct in their own way – no one is neither right nor wrong. Elisa, however, is so desperate to keep Derek away from Xanatos that she comes very close to admitting the truth of the gargoyles to him, but he doesn’t want to hear it. Derek decided to join Xanatos, muddying up an already complex situation.
As mentioned before, Xanatos never has a real, final plan. He has objectives, or perhaps goals to accomplish along the way, but he’s not aiming for anything in particular. Discovering this “goal” before its too late certainly would take precedent, so Elisa enlists the gargoyles to follow Xanatos and Derek around. Good thing, to, since they’re attacked by Jackal and Hyena in their own flying machine. Jade Studio does the “additional” animation here, and it looks surprisingly lively, with an emphasis on facial expressions, giving things a slightly cartoony edge, which works a lot better than it may sound. The gargoyles make short work of the Pack’s copter, snagging the controls, which is followed by a goofy crashing sequence with the G3 struggling to maintain control of it. I love the mini conflicts between the G3 as well, who argue over how to handle the Pack, what to do with the helicopter, and so on. They parallel Elisa’s family turmoil, albeit in a more comic fashion – Brooklyn’s “You and what Starfleet?” response to Lex is a nice in-joke to the cast being mostly from Star Trek – and Jade has a lot of fun with faces and line readings.
Elisa confronts Fox in prison, who reveals the whole thing – and once again, Xanatos had everything planned (he told Fox to order Jackal and Hyena to steal the Coyote Diamond and attack himself so he could manipulate specifically Derek to get on his side, in a play for Elisa). Apparently he even told Fox to tell Elisa all this info. From her own mouth to Elisa’s ears: “You haven’t got a clue. You’re so far behind him it’s pathetic.” As I mentioned before, the show uses Xanatos in a “master criminal in a glass cage” capacity far too often, but in its defense, this was back in 1994 when the concept wasn’t so worn out. (But, it’s still ridiculous.) The important line is this: “He doesn’t have to hide his plans from you. And there’s not a thing you can do to stop him.” Xanatos must always seem to be in control – but again, he was stopped before, and often, so even Fox has bought into the illusion, like Derek.
The gargoyles track Xanatos and Derek to the former’s retreat, where Jackal and Hyena are waiting. They almost kill the two but – BOOM – helicopter. The G3 manage to fix up the Pack’s own chopper and use it against them, winning the fight and saving their lives. I’m a bit disappointed in how easily they beat the two Pack members – you’d think the could put up more of a fight. Regardless, some big reveals follow suit – mainly that Xanatos indeed told Derek about the gargoyles, of course with some little white lies to make it seem like the whole thing was a just a BIG MISUNDERSTANDING between them. Derek and Elisa fight again, only for Goliath to stop them cold and rant about the importance of family. It’s a bit cheesy, but it makes sense, since Goliath lost his entire clan. To him, it is literally all he has left, which becomes much more important to remember in the next episode, “Reawakening.” So it works here.
The episode ends with snow falling. “Winter is coming.” Elisa gives Derek a recording of the conversation she had with Fox and tells him its up to him to listen to it or not. Back at the clock tower, the gargoyles go to perch as the sun rises. The G3 forgive each other and make amends as they turn to stone. Behind them, Eliza holds her onto her jacket, alone, against the snow-covered backdrop. Her own brother has gone to the darkside, and their relationship is strained. The one human person she could genuinely trust is no longer by her side. She is alone, and the final shot of the episode – her standing on the clock tower, tiny and alone – speaks wonders.
Then comes “Reawakening,” a powerful episode that brings up the question the gargoyles’ purpose. Before, it was about survival and understanding. But now what? After losing so much, what reason is there for the gargoyles to go on? Hudson repeats a phrase that has been part of the clan since the castle days back in 994 AD: “A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air.” The G3 even repeats it, mockingly. But it strikes a cord in Goliath, especially when Elisa mentions that her job as a cop is to “protect and serve.” This intrigues him enough to go with Elisa out on patrol. Protection is what the gargoyles do, and he is looking, perhaps, to scratch that instinctual itch. This also explains why the gargoyles fight along side the humans who trivialize them at best and mistreat them at worst – their need to protect outweighs any desire for a positive reputation.
Meanwhile, Demona and Xanatos combine their respective proficiencies in magic and science to bring a deceased gargoyle to life. Coldstone, a light blue-skinned gargoyle who manned the castle when Goliath and Hudson went after the Vikings way back in “Awakenings.” Who Coldstone was in the past matters little, since I could chalk this up to yet another example of Gargoyle’s inability to introduce characters (the flashback tells us nothing about him), but his modern-day debut is both fascinating and horrifying. He awakens a gargoyle-cyborg, a monsterized-monster, fed with more lies by Demona. What I like about this scene (besides Xanatos’ “It’s alive!” cliche, followed by his admittance that he just always wanted to say that) is that it brings up front and center that both Xanatos’ and Demona’s methods to get Goliath have failed. They combine their efforts, re-establishing their tentative allegiance, but as the episode goes along, it becomes clear that they aren’t working for the same cause at all. Like magic and science, these two seemingly opposite forces come together for what seems to be a singular purpose, but in the end, things aren’t going to work out.
Coldstone and Goliath have it out in the middle of the street (and if there was any doubt to the existence of gargoyles to New Yorkers before, it’s all but gone here). Goliath desperately tries to talk Coldstone into seeing the truth, but it proves to be difficult. Still, he does manage to make headway, calming him down slightly before Demona and Xanatos arrive. The dialogue here is fantastic. Demona rants about Goliath’s betrayal, since to her, his actions were just as treacherous as the humans. Goliath, however, appeals to Coldstone’s leftover “humanity,” mentioning the death and sparseness of their species. Demona orders Coldstone to kill Goliath but Xanatos squashes that order. The tension between him and Demona, which was always there, begins to come out in full force. The cracks in their alliance begin to break as Goliath’s forges one with a lost clan member.
Their battle is relocated away from the center of the city to a bridge, where Brooklyn gets into a physical scuffle with Demona (clearly still pissed at her ever since “Temptation”), and a well-placed kick from Lex to the red robot gargoyles reveals the hidden Xanatos inside. Goliath and Coldstone battle elsewhere before tumbling into the icy river, and there’s a harrowing moment where Coldstone seriously contemplates letting Goliath sink and drown. Yet “cooler” heads prevail has he snags the unconscious gargoyle and rockets out of the water. One final confrontation between Goliath/Coldstone and Demona underlines the theme of the episode. Coldstone asks if that’s all there is to their existence – survival. Demona, after what she’s been through, thinks so, but Goliath refuses that train of thought. Protection is the true nature of their existence.
An errant blast from Demona’s laser gun knocks Coldstone into the river and Goliath goes in to save him. When she goes to kill the G3, Xanatos stops her, then escapes with her when Hudson, Bronx, and Elisa arrive. Lord knows they won’t be having tea and crumpets when they land, and next season looks to be a doozy, with Demona and Xanatos’ alliance in shambles and Coldstone missing when Goliath comes up empty handed. These events give Goliath focus and a new sense of purpose – to protect not only his clan, but the entirety of New York City. He has found his calling. New York is officially his place, his home.
“Reawakening” is bookended with a thug running inside a small grocery store. The first time he’s there to rob it, like he has so many times before. The last time, he’s in a panic, returning the stolen money after a threat from the gargoyles themselves. There’s a small moment in the middle where Matt Bluestone speaks to the poor grocery store owner about the robberies, and where Elisa has a talk with Goliath about why such a man would stick around after being robbed so many times. The man is important to the community. He’s needed, for without him, there would be no one else to provide the community its food (and yeah, it’s kind of a BS concept since Manhattan is filled with places to shop, but they make it work). Goliath understands that all to well. The city needs him, and in some way, the he needs the city.
GRADE: “Her Brother’s Keeper” A-/”Reawakening” A
I will be on vacation this weekend, but when I return, I shall continue with season two episode recaps. See you in two weeks!
Tumblr Tuesday – 08/06/13
Posted by kjohnson1585 in Animation, Comics, Film, Television, Writing on August 6, 2013
Not a lot of personal tumblr posts today, so I’ll just drop some links to some cool stuff I’ve reblogged:
— Proof that we need to knock off the thinking that cartoons are “so bold” getting away with adult gags:
http://totalmediabridge.tumblr.com/post/56904987872/unsuccessfulmetalbenders-i-was-just-watching
— It’s not a coincidence that the fast food workers’ strike is occurring five years after the 2008 stock market crash:
http://totalmediabridge.tumblr.com/post/56907444145/fast-food-strike
— Celebrities ought to be recognized for their “best” roles:
http://totalmediabridge.tumblr.com/post/56997235864/i-want-to-totally-freak-out-when-i-celebrity-in
— A cute Bowser/Peach comic that runs contrary to my hatred of Bowser/Peach shipping stories:
http://totalmediabridge.tumblr.com/post/57488732532/eclipticafusion-well-rushed-and-late-for
— And speaking of shipping, a case to get rid of the trigger of all shipping completely:
http://totalmediabridge.tumblr.com/post/57153172269/just-your-average-superman
CHILDHOOD REVISITED – Gargoyles “The Edge/Long Way to Morning”
Posted by kjohnson1585 in Animation, Childhood Revisited, Television, Uncategorized, Writing on August 5, 2013
I want to say two things. First, I am DEEPLY sorry for the mistaken spellings of several of the characters’ names. I immediately went back and fixed them all. I’m not sure how I made that mistake – I think I subconsciously combined “Elisa” and “Maza” to create “Eliza,” and I couldn’t begin to tell you how I misheard “Dracon” for “Deacon” – but there is ultimately no excuse. I promise to pay extra attention to that in the future. Second, even though my grades and tone of reviews may not reflect it, I want to emphasis that I enjoy Gargoyles quite a bit. It’s an exciting, deep show, and the action is almost always a thrill – even if Wang’s animation was less than stellar in “Enter Macbeth.” While I personally wish Xanatos had a clearer motivation, I’m fairly okay with him as a figure who seems to delight over multiple characters battling over each other. Beyond that though, critiques are critiques, and I will call them out when I see them. And so it goes with “The Edge/Long Way”.
It’s a good thing I brought up my concerns about Xanatos, too, since “The Edge” pretty much goes out of its way to explain him. And while I’m not one hundred percent on the full explanation of the man’s psyche, I think the effort behind it works well enough for me to buy it. “The Edge” asks, “Who is Xanatos, and what is his place in this growing complex situation with the gargoyles? With the Pack, Demona, and Macbeth coming in, kicking ass, and taking names, what role does a spoiled, rich human have in all of this?” The answer may surprise you.
Or maybe it doesn’t. “The Edge” begins with a minor, seemingly innocuous scene where Owen bests Xanatos in a martial arts sparring match. Xanatos mentions that Owen has been practicing, and the scene ends with a phone call. It’s a bit of misdirection, one that presents a calm “set up” scene, a typical day in Xanatos’ life upon his return home from prison. It’s particularly clever since it’s followed by “normal” scenes of the various gargoyles just getting by in their new home in the clock tower, which happens to be on top of a building that is on top of the police station. This… is kind of a stretch, but I’ll allow it.
Here is the most important thing you need to know to understand Xanatos: his outer shell is confidence perfected. Xanatos rarely, if ever, exudes surprise, anger, failure, confusion, or self-doubt. ESPECIALLY self-doubt. His pride and reputation is paramount; the man has turned projecting control into an artform. Control, and the pursuit of control, is not only Xanatos’ MO – it is his reason for existing. He must be in control, and, barring that, everyone has to think he is in control. That is made clear in a minor moment, where Xanatos takes offense at a seemingly innocent question about his donation of the Eye of Oden to the museum. Is he offended? Or is he faking it? Xanatos makes it unclear, but the point is that he wanted the journalist and the crowd to perceive that reaction.
Perception is key; he who controls the public controls the world. It’s most likely why Goliath reacts with pure rage, seeing that smug-as-fuck Xanatos on the screen act holier than thou, and the reporter brown-nosing him on TV, knowing full well what the man has done. Goliath has lost so much – his wife, his clan, his era, and his castle – and the culprit of the latter is just sitting there, on TV, after a half-assed prison sentence, and he’s cracking wise about tax write-offs? The gargoyle STORMS out of the room, and it seems like Goliath is about to unleash his anger on Xanatos once and for all. I kind of wish the scene itself made that clearer, since the episode never explains where Goliath goes in that rage – it’s misdirection without actually misdirecting the audience anywhere – but I certainly understand where his anger is coming from.
Meanwhile, two things happen. After the shooting, Elisa gets a partner, a Matt Bluestone, who waxes publicly about the Illuminati, so, yeah, he’s THAT guy. Second, a winged “thing” breaks into the museum and steals the Eye of Oden. This creates a mess, distorting the already distorted view the public has of the gargoyles (however limited), and triggers a surge of paranoia in the already rant-crazed Bluestone, who shoots at the creature but fails to bring him down. Of course, we know that the creature was a robot – we’ve seen them before, and it looks like they’re back, stronger than ever. Or are they?
Goliath and the clan confronts Xanatos, who used the robots to turn the public against them. His offer is sadly horrific: join him so they can be safe, in return for a few invasive experiments. I’m not sure why Goliath doesn’t just kill him here, consequences be damned, especially since the offer is so outlandish. (I can’t let that one go, so that’s gonna effect the grade. Yeah, don’t tell me “cause it’s Disney,” since the writers could have came up with a number of reasons where Goliath failed to kill him then and there.) But he flies away with his clan, only to get in an intense fight with three robots, including the one who broke into the museum. A vicious fight breaks out, and in the midst of the fight, Goliath says perhaps the most important line in the episode: “Xanatos does not want to destroy us. He wants to dominate us.”
Dominate, in this case, is the ultimate form of control – every aspect of the gargoyles lives is under his exploitative jurisdiction. It’s Xanatos in a nutshell, which is why, instead of killing the clan, his robots wait, expecting the clan to lead them back to their new home. Smartly, the gargoyles lure them to the Statue of Liberty for another pretty epic fight scene, and props to Broadway here as he is the one who actually figures out how to take out the new-and-improved silver robots (food be damned, Broadway knows how to throw down). When the gargoyles surround the remaining red robot, he turns tail and flies away. The gargoyles win this one, but they know they have a much tougher battle ahead of them.
More so than they think: the episodes big reveal is that Xanatos was inside and controlling the red robot the entire time. Owen says, “It would appear that your plan to learn the gargoyles’ hiding place as gone awry, sir.” Xanatos’ reply? “Not really. I have the Eye of Oden back in my private collection and the city owes me a favor for donating it, I successfully tested this prototype battle exoframe, and the most important thing… I was a little worried that I might be getting soft. But I was able to stand up against Goliath, the greatest warrior alive. I’d say I still got the edge.” There’s a lot to crib from this sentiment: 1) the city owes you shit, since you just donated it; 2) it wasn’t a successful test; 3) you really didn’t stand up to Goliath. But Xanatos truly, truly believes that there was a ton of great things from this mission, despite Owen’s direct concern being a complete failure, and yet here’s Xanatos, still confident and cool as ever. Is he right to draw such distinct positivity from the results of the fight? Or is he projecting fake positivity to his assistant in order to maintain his facade of control? Or worse: is he telling himself all this in order to justify and define his sense of control to himself? No matter what, Xanatos always must believe he has “the edge,” which in some ways makes him the most dangerous player in this game.
(Bluestone also makes a plea to find out definitively who these creatures are. This doesn’t bode well.)
Not to say Demona doesn’t have her own prowess in this game. “Long Way to Morning” focuses on Hudson, who has quietly held his own thus far but hasn’t been given a proper introduction. While I kinda wish Demona had more going for her in this episode than “shoot and kill all the things,” I am aware we will be getting more of her history in the coming episodes. Still, it’s disappointing, especially after the events of “Temptation,” that she’s just seems to be on a blind, murderous rampage. But this isn’t about her today. It’s about redefining Hudson.
Hudson is a brave warrior, but in the gargoyles’ timeline, he’s old. The question remains, then, of his role not only within the clan but within the context of the show. What drives him? The answer seems to be that grey area between loyalty and guilt. “Long Way” begins uncomfortably random, when Demona just SHOWS up in Elisa’s apartment and shoots the police officer with a poison dart, demanding that Goliath confront her in exchange for the cure, before flying away. In a stroke of luck, the dart hit Elisa’s badge, saving her life. Oh, good. I’m not sure why Gargoyles struggles with their openings and set ups. This goes doubly so when, in a flashback to 984 AD, prior to the events in “Awakenings,” we see a young Katherine is laid to bed by her father, who frightens her to sleep with horror stories about gargoyles coming to get her… only to turn and greet a younger Hudson with respect and admiration. What… is this? Like, I get that the scene is supposed to explain Katherine’s earlier distrust of the gargoyles, but why in the hell would the king espouse the gargoyles’ assistance while also espousing their aversion on his own people? What kind of mix message is this? Hudson even says, “You shouldn’t frighten the girl with threats of gargoyles, my liege. We would never harm a child.” His reply? “Oh, you are too sensitive.” WHAT? Hey, Prince Malcolm, you’re a sociopath. I don’t blame this Archmage dude for trying to kill you.
“Long Way” uses this flashback – the Archmage’s attack on the prince and Hudson’s guilt about his failure to protect him – as a frame story to Goliath and Hudson’s pursuit of Demona and her plan, which, of course was a trap. The episode becomes a cat-and-mouse chase through the city, as Hudson struggles to carry an injured Goliath as Demona chases them with one of Xanatos’ laser blasters. It’s a frequently tense and exciting series of sequences, although this wasn’t animated with Disney’s usual group of studios. The good thing is that it wasn’t Wang, either, so while it isn’t animated in top-notch form, it’s still fairly decent-looking.
One of the things that I have neglecting is emphasizing the Shakespearean aspects of the show. I’m not as well-versed in Shakespeare’s works to get all the references and allegories (in case you’re curious, I’ve read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Julius Caeser). But I completely understand the approach, with its grand gestures and poetic dialogue and “epic” aesthetics, in which I use the word “epic” in its classical, literary definition. I can’t say it justifies some of the show’s flaws – awkward writing is awkward writing is awkward writing – but it does help to keep that in mind, especially when thinking about certain characters behaviors and actions. During the flashback scenes, where Hudson (who is the leader of the clan and this is awesome) recruits Demona and Goliath to go after the Archmage for the Grimorum to cure the prince, Demona speaks to her husband about usurping Hudson, who is indeed getting older and slower. Yep, that pure Lady Macbethian antics right there, always working an angle. Of course, in the present, the angle is pretty much “kill them before sunrise”.
Hudson holds onto his own though, lugging Goliath through old stages and sewers and graveyards, staying by his side despite Goliath’s protests for his former leader to leave him be. During which, flashbacks regal how the gargoyles went after the Archmage and retrieved the Grimorum, only for Hudson to be scarred by the fight in his eye. Hudson’s guilt is not only due to a deep belief in his failure to protect Prince Malcolm, it was a the slow realization that he, as a leader, could not cut it. He gave up his position to make Goliath the leader, but deep down inside Hudson must have questioned whether he was even relevant any more. So his stubborn loyalty was both out of necessity to save Goliath’s life, but also to prove to himself he was still needed. In awesome fashion, Hudson battles Demona just long enough to day break; by the subsequent nightfall, the stone healing restores Goliath and the two beat back Demona. Not only are they alive, they have an (admittedly small) advantage: Demona thinks Elisa’s dead. In this world, any advantage is promising.
“The Edge” and “Long Way to Morning” works to really set up answers to questions and work to get into the heads of both Xanatos and Hudson, both necessary to keep the show and its character motivated and invested. While not necessarily perfect episodes, they both assuage my fears and concerns of these characters, Xanatos in particular, while maintain the high-level of badass fighting that Gargoyles continues to excel at. The show is moving in the right direction, and I’m excited to see more.
“The Edge” B/”Long Way to Morning” B+