Gargoyles (1994)
Perhaps the last great untapped Disney property? The first 5 episodes are basically a movie about how medieval gargoyles were actually genuine protectors of the castle by night, and only turned to stone during the day. Due to human betrayal and a magical curse, we find that a small clan of gargoyles has survived through the dark ages and has now been resurrected by this Tony Stark-type figure named David Xanatos. Exactly what his agenda is and whether the gargoyles can trust him is one of the major plot points of the series, and his character and narrative is so well-written that it actually invented a writing trope: "
The Xanatos Gambit!"
I've been on a bit of a run here where I use my morning coffee time to let my sleepy brain catch up on all these kids cartoons that were better than they should have been. This is for sure another one of those, where the first batch of episodes -all written out in a master story plan by creator Greg Weisman and main writer Michael Reeves- are unimpeachable. They were part of this new wave of darker, more serious kids shows that had been inaugurated by
Batman: The Animated Series and otherwise would never have gotten made. The excuse for the suits was that they could -in a very kiddified way- deal with issues like accidental shootings and drug abuse and racism, things that kids do actually encounter but don't have any primer for. This could be that primer.
But of course the broader story is that the series gets to do real drama amongst all the cartoon action, with an overarching
Phantom of the Opera tragic romance at its core, as well as a plethora of Shakespearean references, from characters to plots to actual quotes. You might not be able to get away with this in the average cartoon, but it helps when you have actual stage and screen actors coming on to do the voice-acting and sell it. Keith David as lead gargoyle "Goliath" is absolutely iconic, and then over the course of the series, virtually every major
Star Trek The Next Generation actor except Patrick Stewart voiced a major role on the show. And many of the
Deep Space Nine actors, to boot! It's genuinely amazing how much drama and real heart they put into these little 23 minute episodes.
The problem was, the show was a victim of its own massive initial success. Disney executives immediately wanted to spin the show off and expand it into multiple worlds, multiple shows, multiple theme park attractions! They demanded a doubling of the batch of 2nd season episodes, with not enough time to do it, so the story had to be farmed out to other writers and directors based on only loose notes from the main writers. The result is that much of that feels like filler, and it didn't help that Disney couldn't get it animated fast enough and so shipped out the duties to other studios, some of it then looking rushed or cheap. The season then had airing delays and lost a lot of its audience. By the time the show came back for, honestly, a
killer finale: literally nobody behind the scenes was happy.
Greg Weisman wrote Disney a pitch for a restructured season 3, which they happily took and then parted ways with him. They put different people in charge and aired a shortened, simplified season 3 with new branding. It's honestly not bad at all (despite some outraged, neckbearded fans online) but never hits the heights of earlier, and does feel a bit like it's not moving any major story forward anymore. There's more a sense of it being very episodic and repetitive like most cartoons, rather than a grand narrative. It was canceled, but the fan adoration has lived on. Weisman has a new comics series out for it that is considered "canon", and news of movie scripts for a live action film keeps circling around. I could potentially lose my proverbial $#*! if that happens, but I also am dubious about Disney spending the time or money to get the CG and story right. I think it needs the weight of a "serious" filmmaker like Kenneth Branagh or Ridley Scott to get the epic scope right that lives up to
the iconic opening song....
