Flash Gordon

This was the best adaptation of the classic comic strip by Alex Raymond. The series captured both the look of the strip and faithfully adapted the adventures. The 16-part serial format of the first season created added excitement. You had to tune in the next week to find out what would happen. This was almost unheard of for Saturday morning fare. Each episode built on the previous one, with each adventure covering two episodes. The series reached its finale with the final part. A second season followed, but with twelve minute episodes, and featuring a comic relief dragon called Gremlin. Needless to say, it didn't survive.

Filmation was one of the cheaper animation houses. They produced such cartoons as The Archies, The Groovie Goolies, and Fat Albert in the 70's; and He-Man and She-Ra in the 80's. They were known for their use of stock footage and cheaper voice artists. Their previous pinnacle had been the Star Trek cartoon, featuring the voices of the original cast. Flash gave them a new milestone. Filmation used rotoscoping, a technique where live actors are filmed, and animation is traced over their movements. This gave the characters more fluid movements in many of the action scenes. The design work for the series was a nice blend of Raymond with some Star Wars updating; ironic, since it was Flash Gordon that inspired Lucas to create a sci-fi movie.

The voice work was quite good, at least the equal to the original movie serials and better than most of the performances in the Sam Jones film. Robert Ridgely gave Flash the right All-American voice, with Allan Oppenheimer (voice of Skeletor in He-Man) as Ming and Zarkov. Diane Pershing gave a light touch to Dale, although she was still mostly just there to be rescued. Melendy Britt gave a very sultry voice to the vixen Aura.

The series main fault was the overuse of stock footage, which could get annoying. The same Hawkmen were disintegrated, the same ship gets hit in the tail section, the robot soldiers always line up the same way, etc. Still, the stories were good enough to keep you from dwelling on this. Also, the broadcast standards and practices kept the series from having the characters in too much jeopardy. Ming's soldiers were robots and his ships were remotely piloted. However, Hawkmen did disappear, or disintegrate and Barin's ships would as well. Since it was shown that those ships were piloted by humans, it could be assumed that they were killed. They did allow monsters to attack, but they always seemed to be buried under rubble, and never killed. The only other major fault is that the series begins with the Earth trio already orbiting Mongo, with no explanation as to why. This would be cleared up later.

After the series had been broadcast, a feature version was shown in primetime, on NBC. It included a new opening, establishing how everyone got to Mongo, and included new scenes and voice work. The time period was set at 1939, during the Nazi invasion of Poland. Mongo was given a connection to Hitler. Actually, the feature had been commissioned first; thus, the more detailed backgrounds and fuller animation. The series was commissioned after screening footage from the feature. The feature was used to provide the stock footage for the episodes and wasn't fully broadcast until later.

This was one of the best Saturday morning cartoons of its era, but, its ratings were never that good. It was retooled for its second season and then quietly disappeared. It later turned up in limited video release and on the Sci-Fi channel. It's worth viewing if you can find the episodes or feature from tape traders. The commercial videos only covered a few episodes.

Filmation's Flash Gordon is a richly realized, beautifully animated serial, a highpoint for television animation. Few animated series have even managed to approach its grace. Prior to it, perhaps The New Adventures of Huck Finn comes to mind, and after, IMO, it's only challengers have been Bravestarr (latter-day Filmation work), Don Bluth's The Pirates of Darkwater, and Batman: The Animated Series.

This version of Flash Gordon is unmatched, by either the wonderful 30s serial, or the camped up but fun Dino Delaurentis version, released the same year.

Filmation captured perfectly the splendor and spirit of Alex Raymond's strip, utilizing (for 1979) the best technology could offer: Body rotoscope, fx animation, moiré patterns, rotoscoping over motion control shots of model ships. The end result? A 16 chapter serial, which, while flawed with repetitive (at times) animation, delivered non-stop action, breathtaking animation and artistry with a truly "full" look and feel to it. Filmation managed this with their earlier Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, basing it partly on the work of comics artist Burne Hogarth.

The first 8 chapters are virtually flawless, if you can put aside the repetition. The best among them are: "A Planet in Peril", "The Beast Men's Prey", "Vultan, King of the Hawkemen", and "To Save Earth". The serial blazes away in epic proportions: There are fighter ship battles (Ming's fleet annihilating the Hawkmen and Vultan's city is utterly brutal and has a tragic beauty), gunfights in grand palaces, exotic locations and alien creations. There is a slight, but noticeable dropoff in animation quality in the latter half of the serial (chapters 9-16), but the standards remain high, and ultimately the viewer is rewarded.

This magnificent series, and it's pilot film: Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All deserve to be preserved on DVD. Commentary from Filmation execs Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott and living Raymond relatives would be GREAT extra features.

Additional notes: Sadly, the serial gained a small, but loyal following in it's first season, the bane of many great SF series. NBC decided that, rather than give the show a bit more time to develop a larger following, that a format change was in order. The serial format was scrapped in favor of 12 minute shorts, which have disappointing animation measured against the serial, juvenile stories, and an overly cute pink dragon named Gremlin added to the cast. Gremlin is up there near the top of sickenly over-cute characters, such as Barney, Jar-Jar Binks, Gurgi (from Disney's The Black Cauldron), and Elmo. On several occasions, for instance, he blows smoke hearts.

Lastly, if you think you have seen Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All having seen the serial, better think again. The animation standards are even higher here, and while some of the footage was used in the series, the vast majority of it will be new to you. It is an overwhelming, highly recommended experience which you won't regret seeking out. While it has not been officially released, it is fairly common among video traders.

I only discovered this cartoon in 2021 during the Covid lockdown, and it was a very pleasant surprise for several reasons: it was presented as one long serial broken up into 16 chapters (at least for season 1), it features often gorgeous painted backdrops and solid animation, and had some pulpy adult themes. Pretty well every episode involves Flash, Dale and Zarkov visiting some new kingdom or meeting a new species, usually with a too-literal name like "Arboria" or "Frigia" . There's Hawkmen, Lionmen, Arborians (tree dwellers), giants, dinosaurs, etc. Ming is indeed merciless, Princess Aura a femme fatale, while all the local queens fall in love with Flash as Dale frets in the background. Well deserving of a DVD re-release.

I watched parts of the new DVD version of this series, which I remembered with a certain fondness from the time it was on the air. It starts out looking good -- but that is only because it constantly borrows footage from the much better made-for-TV movie by Sam Peeples, Flash Gordon, the Greatest Adventure of Them All. The movie version was released second, but made first. When you get to the part written by Ted Pederson, the only good thing you can say about it is that it follows the Alex Raymond comic strip. But why watch the film when you can read the strip, which has been reprinted many times? The dialog is rudimentary, the animation is pathetic. When it is not borrowing footage from somewhere else, the animation often doesn't even fit the action, or the action takes place off stage so they can reuse some footage that doesn't really belong. For example, in the underwater sequence, the characters walk underwater as often as they swim, so the animator can reuse walking footage. Have you ever tried to walk upright under water? The second season, which introduces a cowardly baby dragon who is supposed to be cute but is only annoying, is even worse. The dragon is a rip-off of Godzookie, the Godzilla sidekick. I'm sorry to say, give this DVD a pass. Watch the Buster Crabbe serials instead -- they may be cheap, but at least they are fun.

I'm watching the Flash Gordon cartoon, and it's hitting all those pulp fiction itches I needed scratched. Throw in the rotoscope and early CGI, and it's a great cartoon. The best part is that the same guy who did Skeletor (Alan Oppenheimer) does Ming (including the throwing back of the head and laughing) so it's even more glorious. I even love it when they reuse animation bits every so often.

There is a notable lack of color, but the women are presented as large and in charge, so that's pretty cool. Overall, the cartoon has aged well, and is all sorts of fun.