Visionaries: Caballeros de la luz mágica

My IMDb handle is named after one of the characters of visionaries.So that should show some indication of my feelings toward this classic.

Though it lasted for only 13 episodes, visionaries remains as one of the best cartoon shows of the 80s! Its got great characters, nice animation , supercool weapons and powers as well as one of the most exciting theme tunes a cartoon could ever have.

The pilot episode alone was one of the best pilot episodes I've seen for any television show ever,live action or otherwise..

Visionaries follows that overused 80s formula of a team of baddies vs a team of goodies, but those goodies and baddies are so interesting and their powers are so unique and imaginative that it really doesn't matter.It would have been nice to see those goodies and baddies developed over the course of another series but alas, it wasn't to be .

This is a truly great show and if you haven't heard of it - check it out !

I used to be a big visionaries fan back in the late 80's, and was slightly miffed when it disappeared into thin air. Fast forward about 18 years later and I received a DVD with all 13 episodes. It is still as entertaining as it was when I was a wee 10 year old all those years ago. I would go as far as saying it was even better than a certain animated series called Master's Of The The Universe (lets face it the animation was ropey,they seemed to use the same frames of animation for every episode and don't get me started on the damn "the moral of this story is..." style endings) that lasted for about 80 episodes,spawned a rubbish movie and is currently being revived as I write. The action takes place on the planet Prysmos a futuristic world that is thrown into disarray when the age of magic arrives, causing its inhabitants to live a near medieval existence. A mysterious wizard known as Merklyn issues a challenge I.E anyone brave enough to brave the traps and monsters in Iron Mountain will be granted magical powers. Only 14 make it and are granted a totem (an animal that represents their personalities and can therefore turn into) and a magic staff ( with which They can call on spiritual entities with names such as Destruction,Wisdom,Speed etc by reciting a poem) and are told by Merklyn to use their powers to aid the world. The lucky recipients split off into factions i.e The good Spectral Knights led by Leoric and the evil Darkling Lords led by Darkstorm Both the spectral knights and darkling lords were all rounded characters (e.g Ectar (Leoric's right hand man) a highly decorated cop in the age of science who cant seem to forget his former profession. The episode where he squares off against his arch nemesis Reekon a former master thief,with its ending showing the pair parting ways having shown each other mutual respect, is a doozy.) All 13 episodes were well written,funny,dark and gripping with top notch voice acting. The Darkling lords were always the characters that made every episode worth watching, my personal favourite being Darkstorm's snivelling serf Mortdredd voiced superbly my the former Dr Zachary Smith himself Jonathan Harris.In my opinion He deserved to be one of most memorable cartoon characters of 80's but alas it never happened the toys didn't sell particularly well and in a few short years the franchise fizzled out.

Sometimes I wonder why Visionaries remained as a rather obscure 80s cartoon, considering than in many ways it could have easily become a succesful franchise as Transformers, G.I. Joe or even He-Man.

The setting, the characters and their powers had a lot of potential to explore, and it's such a shame that almost nobody remembers this series nowadays.

This was one of my favorite cartoons growing up the late 80's. It was on Saturday afternoons as part of the two-hour block consisting of "G.I. Joe," "Transformers," and "Jem." I was captivated by the adventures of the Spectral Knights as they battled those evil Darkling Lords, as they fought each other and the various magical elements of the planet Prysmos. I think this was one of the first cartoons to have recurring sub-plots. This cartoon is definatly a treasure worth seeking out. The tapes have become rather rare, so if you see one in your video store, snap it up and become 8 again.

Of this series made, I just don't understand...

For once a Hasbro toy based cartoon with a decent plot and a great cast of Voice actors.

The planet Prismos a futuristic earth type world which is thrown back into a medieval type age when the planets suns a re-aligned causing there technology and energy sources to be rendered useless and an age of Magic begins.

Basically it's your same old Good Vs Evil story only both sides have magical totems which alow them to turn into Animals/Mammals/Insect and Beasts for a certin ammount of time, they are also given magical staffs each staff has a differn't power, Wisdom, Light Speeed, Knowledge, Strength, Decay, Destruction, Fear and Invunrability, Visionaries that did not have staffs found that they could magically power machines (which also had powers like the staffs)

The Voice where brilliant and Perfect for each of the parts.

Neil Ross (Springer/Slag (and various other voices) of Transformers Centurions and G.I. Joe) as the voice of Leoric.

The late Chris Latta (Starscream/Cobra Commander of Transformers and G.I. Joe) as the voices of Cravex and Darkstorm.

Peter Cullen (Voice Of Optimus Prime in Transformers) as the voice of Cindar

Roscoe Lee Browne (Voice of The Kingpin in the 90's Spiderman cartoon) as the voice of Merklyn/Reekon.

Jim Cummings (Winnie the poo and Tigger) as the voice of Witterquick and the Bearer of Knowledge.

Jennifer Darling (probably know for her role as Callahan in the six million dollar man series) as the voice of Virulina.

Bernard Erhard (Cy-kill's voice from the Go-Bots) as the voice of Cryotek (Cool name which was recently reused for the name of a repaint of Transmetal 2 Megatron toy (from the beast wars series) as a Robots In Diguise Toy)

The late Jonathan Harris (probably best know as Dr Zachary Smith from the 60's series lost in space (which also starred a young Bill Mumy of Babylon 5 fame) as the voice of Mortredd.

Michael McConnohie (Cosmos and Tracks voices from Transformers) as the voices of Ectar and Lexor.

Hal Rayle (Voice of Shrapnel and Snarl in Transformers) as the voices of Arzon and The Wisdom Owl.

Beau Weaver (Voice of Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic) from the 90's Fantastic four series and Octane from Transformers) as the voice of Feryl.

A great series which should along with G.I. Joe be brought into the 21st century by Hasbro by making a new series for it, granted it would'nt be the same without the likes of Chris Latta and Richard Harris but I'd love to see a Visionaries series remade possibly with CGI.

Or at least have the original episodes remasterd by Rhino and released on DVD.