Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Conan The Adventurer - Season One

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Conan The Adventurer - Season One



    Released by: Shout! Factory

    Released on: 7/18/2011

    Director: Various

    Cast: Michael Donovan, Michael Beattie, Arthur Berghardt, Scott McNeill

    Year: 1992

    Purchase From Amazon


    The Series:


    Those of us who remember Hanna Barbera's short lived animated series Conan The Adventurer (not to be confused with the live action TV series of the same name) will definitely get a minor nostalgia rush when we hear that classic theme song:


    “Conan, the Adventurer, Conan, warrior without fear. he's more powerful than any man, His legend spreads across the land and sea.


    Conan, the mightest warrior ever. His quest, to undo the spell of living stone cast upon his family by driving the evil serpent men back into another dimension and vanquishing their leader, the cruel wizard Wrath-Amon.


    Conan, the Adventurer, Conan, man of bravery, with his magic sword protecting the mightiest of warriors is heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee……… CONAN!”


    Now that there's a new feature film version of Robert E. Howard's most famous and enduring creation (sorry Kull!) companies are reaching into the vaults and getting in on what may or may not turn out to be a brief resurgence to Conan-mania, so it makes perfect sense that Shout! Factory would bring Conan back in cartoon form once again and ride a bit of that hype. But does the series hold up? Is at as cool as it seemed when it first aired on TV way back in 1992? No, not really, it wasn't a great show then and it's not a great show now, in fact the best thing about Conan's cartoon debut was that it got Marvel Comics to publish a comic book series of the same name (the first issue had a keen metallic cover) that featured impressive artwork by Rafael Kayanan that was obviously influenced by the early Barry Windsor Smith issues.


    But we're getting off track here - this is about Conan The Adventurer the animated series, not Conan The Adventurer the comic book. Unfortunately.


    So yeah, it should go without saying that this is a pretty watered down version of Conan here. Intended for a kids' audience, you can't realistically expect Conan to cut anyone's head off or to lay with as many women as he sees fit. He doesn't get drunk and he doesn't really play the thief either. Instead, when the series begins, Conan gets kind of pissed off when some evil wizard named Wrath-Amon freezes his family members in giant stones. Initially he sets out to right this wrong but soon a continuative narrative gives way to typical kids' show single episode storylines.


    As Conan travels about he acquires a shield that houses a phoenix named Needle who is able to pop in and out of the shield when the need arises and who loves to eat pomegranates more than anything else in life. He also teams up with Zulu, the cliché named prince of a Masai tribe who take Conan in as one of their own. He befriends a circus performer who uses throwing starts as weapons named Jezmine too, just so the series can have a female character. Later they hang out with a Shaman type named Greywolf and a Viking named Snagg as well.


    They basically go on a bunch of adventures together, try to hunt down the sinister Wrath-Amon (though he always seems to escape just in the nick of time - go figure!) and get into scraps with members of the sinister Snake Cult, so named because they worship snakes.


    While all of this is sadly quite pedestrian and predictable in nature, the series is at least entertaining and does feature some decent enough animation work as well. Nice backgrounds help to create the fantasy world that all of this plays out in and the voice work is generally decent as well. Character design is a bit too inspired by fantasy series of the past, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe being the most obvious example, but Conan still sorta looks like Conan and the bad guys are pretty cool looking.


    The thirteen episodes that make up the first season of Conan The Adventurer are spread across the two discs in this set as follows:


    Disc One:


    The Night Of Fiery Tears / Blood Brother / Star Of Sadizar / Conan The Gladiator / The Heart Of Rakkir / Men Of Stone / The Terrible Torrinon


    Disc Two:


    Greywolf Of Xanthus / Shadow Walkers / The Claw Of Heaven / The Serpent Riders Of Set / Windfang's Eyrie / Seven Against Stygia


    Video/Audio/Extras:


    Conan The Adventurer looks okay in its original fullframe aspect ratio as presented in this two-disc set from Shout! Factory. Color reproduction is good and detail is about as strong as you'd expect given the series' age. There's some softness here and there and some murkiness to a few of the darker scenes in addition to some minor print damage but none of this really takes away from the series' nostalgia so much.


    The only audio option offered up is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, there are no dubbed tracks or subtitles offered. The mix here is fine even if there isn't much to discuss in the way of channel separation. The score is a bit high in the mix occasionally, but aside from that, it's all good.


    Extras? Not a one, unless you count menus and episode selection - other than that, this release is completely barebones, which is a shame.


    The Final Word:


    Those looking for any sort of accurate depiction of Robert E. Howard's classic character will be sorely disappointed but as far as kids' entertainment goes, Conan The Adventurer is entertaining enough and it's nice to have it on DVD even if the lack of any extras is a bummer. A classic series? No, it never did live up to its potential, but it's a fun time killer and the theme song is still awesome.























    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: April 30th, 2024.
    Director: Lee Frost
    Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
    Year: 1969
    Purchase From Amazon

    Hot Spur – Movie Review:

    Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
  • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Mondo Macabro
    Released on: April 9th, 2024.
    Director: Max Pecas
    Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    Death Squad – Movie Review:

    Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
  • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Quality X
    Released on: February 28th, 2024.
    Director: Chuck Vincent
    Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
    Year: 1982
    Purchase From Amazon

    Roommates – Movie Review:

    Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
  • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Blue Underground
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Jess Franco
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
    Year: 1970
    Purchase From Amazon

    Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

    Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
  • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Saul Bass
    Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
    Year: 1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    Phase IV – Movie Review:

    Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
  • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Radiance Films
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
    Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
    Year: 1969-1972
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

    Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
    ...
    03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
Working...
X