Return to the Planet of the Apes

I remember seeing this as a kid, and I finally got myself a copy of the complete series on video. The cartoons series is a laugh to watch now, especially since some of the language used may not be politically correct according to year 2000 standards. Nether the less, the series was fun to watch. The whole cartoon tv-series focuses on a "cat and mouse chase", whereby three stranded astronauts are chased across the four corners of the earth by superior intelligent apes.

I don't care about the subpar animation. I grew up in the 70s and I bought this DVD set and I have to tell you it is transported me magically back to 1975 when I was a 10 year old boy who love the planet of the apes movies, had planet of the apes toys and played planet of the apes outside. Anybody that complains about the animation or the storyline, they're missing the point. The most important thing this animated series does is take me back to my childhood during a kinder gentler hipper groovier time. 😁

i just sat through all 13 episodes. what wasted potential. i love the apes movies, and it IS good for a Saturday morning cartoon show. it seems to have been written for a more adult audience, and actually came on after the live-action show was cancelled. on a positive note, it runs as one continuous storyline, rather than each episode being self-contained. it's the adventures of 3 astronauts (bill, jeff and judy) who crash land on future earth, apparently after the events of "beneath the planet of the apes". "brent" is even mentioned when they come across nova, who is still wearing brent's dogtags. but the future is different now. the apes suddenly have a complete technological civilization, including a huge built-up city, automobiles and radio & TV stations (i loved the scene with the ape farmer driving his hay truck through the country listening to "i'm going humanoid over you" on the radio).judy is nabbed and held by the psychic human "underdwellers", while jeff and bill try to rescue her and help the primitive humanoids living aboveground escape from the gorilla armies. but, it just drags so painfully in places, and the animation is just dreadful. in most scenes, all that moves is the mouth of the character speaking. there are also only 4 or 5 people doing all of the voices, which gets tiresome fast. hearing henry corden (the 2nd voice of fred flintstone) doing all of the gorilla voices is kind of funny, however.

This was a great cartoon series (for its time) and a fine sequel to the original series. As in the original novel by Pierre Boulle, the apes have a technologically advanced society, with tv, radio, and self-propelled vehicles. The episodes were generally exciting and well written. Unlike most cartoon series, the characters evolved as the series progressed. There were continuity links to previous episodes. The art direction was outstanding; a given as it was handled by Doug Wildey, creator of Jonny Quest.

If there is a fault with the series, aside from some of the dialogue, it was the voice acting. It often came across as flat and emotionless. But, the plots often made up for this flaw. It was certainly the equal of the live tv series; better in some ways, as it wasn't constrained by construction budgets. They could realize an advanced world, without having to build the sets.

This is definitely worth seeing if you are a fan of the Ape series. Now, if only it would be released, officially, on DVD.

Let's talk about the good. Very little. A few interesting ideas, but this takes place in an alternate reality Planet of the Apes. The producers went the cheap route, giving the apes vehicles and human artillery. The color palate was limited, as were characters expressions. I'll add in having them land in a mercury looking space capsule was really cheap. Wouldn't it have been as cheap to draw the Taylor ship from the movies? This really doesn't fit in with the existing timeline at all. As I said, since IMDB won't give a zero rating, but insists on 600 characters, this wasn't a good show in any sense, but, in some ways it was better than the live action show. It lifts a few ideas from the movies, "Bright eyes", being one, and friendly chimps being another, but again, some of the ideas are straight out of the 1950's. Barely worth a watch.