Thursday, May 03, 2007

THURSDAY THEME SONG: GARGOYLES

Welcome back to Thursday Theme Songs! It feels great to be back and I have a fun month planned for all of you! This month's theme is "Narrative Theme Songs". These are theme songs that have talking over the music, usually by the main character, telling you the plot of the show. Our first theme song is the Disney cult classic,

Gargoyles


Goliath and the clan
Created by Greg Weisman, Gargoyles had an interesting life of ups and downs. When the show was in development in 1993 Disney had never done a serious, sci-fi drama before. They didn't know if people would buy into it but they let Weisman do his thing and the result was 13 episodes that aired during the 1994-1995 season. The show dealt with many difficult subjects, such as victims of gun violence, and got the attention of many parental groups who were torn between liking the message and not thinking it was appropriate material for a children's cartoon.

The show's main characters are a group of Gargoyles who lived in medieval times. They were stone by day and warriors by night, sworn to protect their home, a Scottish castle. By they were put under a spell that turned them to stone until the spell was broken hundreds of years in the future, our present.


Goliah SMASH puny robot!
Fans of Star Trek got into this show because of the multiple Star Trek actors who lent their voices to the characters. Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner are just a few of many.

This is also the first serial show for Disney. Fans got into the show because characters changed and grew, people switched sides, and major continuity made the show interesting to watch. The writers often brought in elements of Norse history, King Arthur history and even elements of Shakespeare.

Gargoyles became a huge hit and Disney asked for another season. So Weisman and his crew set out to make another 13 episodes. But Disney didn't want 13 episodes, they wanted 52! Could Weisman pull it off? You bet!


Elisa and Goliath
Weisman left the show after its second season but the show lived on for two more seasons called Gargoyles: the Goliath Chronicles. The animation team changed, giving it a much softer, Little Mermaid feel to it. The stories also changed and the fans we not happy with the way many of the characters changed. The series ended in 1997 with a total of four seasons, 78 episodes.

The loyal fan base lives on to this day with people all over the world writing fanfiction and making their own continuations of the stories. An annual convention called Gathering of the Gargoyles meets where people can meet other fans, voice actors, the production team and dress up and have fun.

This theme song is the second season theme in which they added narration by Keith David, aka Goliath.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, man, I used to live for this show. I remember it started when I was in 6th grad, 4:30 every Friday. Dad would pick me up from school so I could get home in time to watch it.

I was completely addicted. I even subscribed to the comic book - the only comic I ever "collected" - and endured the mockery of being the only kid in 7th grade to be hooked on cartoons.

Watching that intro sequence again sent chills up my spine. Thanks, and sorry I'm a year late on the comment.

Anonymous said...

I was in primary when this came out!!! I'm still addicted to it to this day!!! I think they should bring this back, the message this would give to the kids today would be way better than some of the stuff they have on t.v now!

fadsjahgdsgadfadsfasdgadharerhdfgmkgfksfd said...

Possibly the best cartoon ever, i wish they'd make a feature length movie of it.