My Review of Gargoyles · 1:39am Mar 16th, 2022
My TV Show Rating Score:
5/5: It is an awesome show!
4/5: It’s a good show with minor flaws
3/5: It’s overall okay/guilty pleasure
2/5: It’s bad but not awful
1/5: Look, up in the sky! It’s super bad!
0/5: MY EYEEEESSS!!!
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another TV show review for tonight! I finally have the opportunity to express my thoughts and analysis on this massively popular Disney cartoon of the 1990s simply entitled: Gargoyles. Despite the fact that I have never watched this show before, I consider this as one of my favorite cartoons of all time and definitely one of the best Disney shows I’ve watched. The first time I came across this series was by researching Keith David’s voice acting career since I was eager to check out more of his voice-over work; thus, I happened to come across this show. Seeing that he apparently played the main character of the series and seeing just how large the voice cast was—having a number of talented voice actors I’m familiar with—I was instantly hooked to check it out. After binge-watching the show back in January or December, I’ve grown attached to the show.
This is about a race of gargoyles (creatures who are stone by day and are awake by night) who have been betrayed by a human ally they trusted and experienced the loss of most of their kind. This band of ancient gargoyles are led by Goliath; following are Broadway, Brooklyn, Hudson, Lexington, and their pet Bronx. Thousands of years later, they awake from their spell-induced stone slumber thanks to multi-millionaire David Xanatos who later on becomes one of their primary archenemies. Now the gargoyles, with the help of their human friend Elisa, have to adjust to life in the modern world they have awakened to and fight off villains who threaten the safety of innocents.
Guys, every episode was fantastic in every way. The story is profound, well-written, heartfelt, and entertaining. The characters are intriguing and are full of personality that all progressed naturally as the story unfolded from seasons 1-3. Not to mention the amazing voice acting the performers provided for the characters they played. Keith David’s voice role as Goliath is probably the best animated performance he has done so far in his career. That gentleman knows to do intimidating villains and also know how to voice gentle, heroic father-figure leaders like Goliath. The chemistry Goliath had with Elisa was heartwarming and was well-written that didn’t feel forced or contrived. Towards the end of the series, they start to have some...feelings for each other. To me, it’s a little weird but not terrible at all.
I’ve likewise enjoyed the vocal performances of Bill Fagerbakke as Broadway, Jeff Bennett as Brooklyn, the late Ed Asner as Hudson, the vocal effects of Bronx from Frank Welker, Clancy Brown as Wolf and Hakon, and Jonathan Frakes as Xanatos. Gosh, the cast was just perfect for this series!
I especially enjoyed the villains in this show. Demona was and is one of the best cartoon villains in animation history. Her motivation made sense and her reasons for her evilness were rock-solid. I like how they set her up to be one of Goliath’s most persistent enemies after she lived her life as his former mate. The fact that she used to be his soulmate only to betray him later during the series premiere makes her even more intimidating. Marina Sertis did a great job voicing her. I do feel sort of sorry for her since she has a strong negative view on humanity and refused to look at the bright side of things that it caused her pain in the long run. She refused to let go of the past and put it behind her. Hmm, that reminds me of some other villains I know.
Xanatos was likewise a force to be reckoned with. He reminds me so much of Lex Luther from the DC animated universe. His charisma, physiological manipulation, pride, and lawful evil were all interesting to look at. However, he does have a softer side: he cares about his wife and child and will do anything to protect them as husband and father. Even though he’s a villain, he has standards. So I’m glad they added an extra layer to his character and did not make him a generic bad businessman stereotype most TV shows overuse nowadays.
Throughout the course of the show, we see how the gargoyles try to protect humanity after everything they suffered thousand of years ago. Elisa was living proof that not all humans are actually bad or devious as the ones who destroyed most of their kind. So I liked how they fleshed-out our main characters in all the episodes they featured in and revealed new gargoyle characters in season 2. Although it is a bit disappointing Disney cancelled the show, season 3 did serve as a conclusion in more ways than one.
Overall, this show is awesome! I have no other words to describe just how epic Greg Weisman and Frank Paur made this series. This gets a mighty 5/5!
“We are defenders of the night! WE ARE GARGOYLES!”
Sorry it got cancelled, buddy.
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Why apologize? It’s fine, man. Haha.
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I just felt sorry for you, pal.
I used to love this show.
I loved this show when it was on the air.
However, I feel that Season 3 suffered a great deal in writing quality as the writing team knew it was the final season and they let their standards slip.
In fact, many super-fans tend to disregard the 3rd season. Several fans got together and, after getting some hints from the writing staff about what they had planned, wrote 3 more series and 3 spin-offs as fanfics. Most people consider these fanfics to be better than the 3rd season.
That said, the 2 main seasons are perhaps one of the most well-written cartoon seasons that use series-long plots.
I have 2 more points.
1) It was stated by the head writers that this series was written to compete with Batman, the Animated Series both in tone and quality. I think that if more people had watched this, it would have been a 5 or even 10 year series (similar to how big the DC animated universe became). I am of the opinion that many people saw the word Disney and thought it was going to be a childish cartoon (like Gummi Bears or Ducktales or even some Disney movies).
2) This cartoon was one of the first to introduce the concept of the sympathetic villain. What I mean by that is that you can understand and, in some way, sympathize with, the villain in terms of their motivations, reasonings, etc. This was done at the same time that concept was being done to Mr. Freeze over in Batman, the Animated Series. I think this represented a significant shift in how writers decided to write villains for several years afterwards.
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Interesting to know. I, however, actually enjoyed the third season like the two previous ones and found nothing wrong with it. I could see some differences between them, but it’s not something to be angry over.