Return to 50 Webs
Disclaimer#1: All images, characters and material is (C) 1990/1991 Walt Disney Company and is being used without permission. The webmaster has made sure that no money was made in the creation of this web page and that all material used here is used with the up most affection and respect to the Walt Disney Company and the Tale Spin Team.
Disclaimer#2: The views expressed here are solely the views of the webmaster and no one else. The webmaster has no intentions to change anyone's minds about a particular subject and respects the views of the viewers. Comments about this and other editorial can be E-Mail at gweagle@eastlink.ca or signing the Cloudkicker guest book.
Gargoyles: The Thrill Of The Hunt
Reviewed: 07/23/2013
Changed Into The Thrill of Lexington VS. THE PACK~!
So after a semi-bittersweet pilot (in that the gargoyles won; but lost their female lead gargoyle in the process, and got stabbed in the back by Xanatos and his Goliath look alike robots) which I thought was great; we go into the "episodic in nature; but with enough continuity to make it as a serial as we now focus on the goofballs of the Wyvern Clan. And we break the ice on this story arc (which I dub the "Trio Of Goofs Arc") as Lexington wants to meet his new idols known as THE PACK~! Yeah; that is exactly want they are called. And of course; since they are humans; they attack the gargoyles like a bunch of thugs. So let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode is written, teleplay and story is edited by Michael Reaves. Animation is done by Walt Disney Animation Japan. Additional services were provided by the following: Animal-Ya (who did backgrounds) and Jade Animation.
Opening Moment #1: Non-narrated opening used here. Geez; I thought that they would have stopped using it now that almost all the footage of Awakening has been shown. I guess they don't start using the narrated one until season two. No recap here either.
We begin this one with a far shot of NYC before sunset as we zoom towards Xanatos' castle skyscraper as we head into the lobby as the elevator opens open and out comes Eliza and Owen who apparently was not arrested for conspiring against the gargoyles with Xanatos. Lovely. Owen leads Eliza towards the castle grounds as Eliza asks why she is allowed back here despite his boss getting busted. Owen claims that Xanatos harbors no ill will or grunge on her. That sounds so Shere Khanish of him as we head to the top castle tower as the sun completely sets and the gargoyles all live again! Owen takes his leave as soon as they wake up and Goliath's look on him is that he is not amused to see him; but that's all he does. Eliza claims that she came here because it's a slow night as Hudson and Bronx bail somewhere to watch television (as per their gimmick now it seems) and the goofballs fly off the tower stage left. Eliza wonders why they are in a hurry; and Goliath claims that they are charmed by the wonders of television. And the way Keith David said it was priceless; as he is still breaking the word in. He doesn't seem to mind what kind of wasteland television can be. Then again; it's nothing compared to his experience with danger, so I guess it's a matter of "television might be terrible; but at least we aren't in it!". Somehow; that will turn out to be wrong. Anyhow; Goliath is happy that the castle is theirs and Xanatos is beaten. However; Eliza has to be the bearer of bad news because Xanatos only was charged and convicted of "Grand Theft Diskettes" and only got a six month sentence in prison. Eliza claims that they were lucky to not get it suspended; but his legal beagles will likely cut that down too. The guise of this is that David still owns Wyvern Castle much to the white eyes anger of Goliath. Eliza wants him to find somewhere new to sleep because they are in danger now. Goliath dismisses the notion that he needs to leave the castle and walks out as Eliza is not amused by this claiming that his head is as hard as stone even at night. No one ever accused Goliath of being a mental giant that is for sure.
So we head to the castle living room with Hudson and Bronx watching television again. At least these two have a lot more energy than most of the Quack Pack character ever had; and that INCLUDES Donald Duck! So they turn on the television and the screen spirals and shows the words THE PACK~ in red letters. Oh; this has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever, no siree! So we capture some footage of the pack which are a band of human tough guys dressed up as metallic furries with bad attitudes and bad looking bronze claws. One of them is brown haired and thin with what appears to be THREE small kunai's on his left calf. He elbows a ninja and like all B-level ninja movies; they go flying. Which is basically a signal that this is a cartoon. Hudson is trying to change the channel; but either doesn't know how, or someone hacked his remote; or someone is hacking the signal...Somehow; it has to be all three at once with Lexington doing the deed since he was first to notice that it's THE PACK~ when the goofballs enter the room; which makes no sense at all since they were clearly flying AWAY from the castle. Idiot logic break! Boy the FPS shot of the screen is terrible and has the same background that Disney would fix when Plunder and Lightning was in syndication. One of the pack males is female with brown hair with golden armor and leopard skinned shoulder pads (those have to be hell to draw) as she and the male Pack member squash a ninja with a yellow wooden pole. And I just realized that this is Gargoyles' mockery of TMNT; and despite the fact that I do not like these type of jokes because it makes the creators look weak willed, this is actually the most subtle form of mockery and thus there was at least some creativity behind it; so good for them. Hudson is not amused that it's on all the channels (so the remote is either hacked; or the signal itself?) as Lexington wonders why he's annoyed since he likes THE PACK~! Hudson agrees that he likes THE PACK~; but not every night. So we get more ninja squashing from THE PACK~ as one of them is a male tough guy like thug with a brown, vented-style Mohawk and green gloves throw a ninja star which makes a big ass saw blade explode (Ahh; so he's the one who censored the buzz save scene in Act III of Plunder and Lightning?).
We go to the big group pose with shining Wii background as the announcer (Jim Cummings in his Bonkers voice) state that you can meet THE PACK~ in person. Oh COME ON GUYS! This HAS to be a setup! The middle one is a brown haired female wearing red armor (with a black bra on top of it) and a strange silver/red glass eye like device on her right eye. Apparently; they are showing up at the world's most famous arena: Madison Square Garden and we get the ROLL CALL OF DOOM. The one with the red armor and glass eye is Fox; the one who looks like an old age Wolverine is Wolf. The Mohawk guy is Dingo; the brown haired female with the leopard skinned shoulder pads is Hyena and the brown haired male is Jackal according to the roll call. And so we get all the voices out of the way: Dingo is voiced by Jim Cummings and Wolf is voiced by Clancy Brown (Magnus in Kick Buttowski for the two of you who still care (names: Me and I).). As for the others.... Hyena is voiced by Cree Summer and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Summer's career began in 1983 when she was cast as the voice of niece Penny on the original cartoon version of Inspector Gadget. Her unique, throaty voice was instantly recognizable to casting agents (as well as viewers even today), who began frequently casting her in animated programs. Many of these were part of cult franchises, like The Care Bears Movie (1985) and Ewoks (1985, part of the Star Wars franchise). Audiences finally had a chance to put Summer's voice to a face when she was cast as the freespirited Winifred "Freddie" Brooks in The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World.[1] She remained a regular cast member of the show from 1988 through its end in 1993. During the run of A Different World, Summer continued working in voice acting. She was cast in the short-lived television series Sweet Justice in 1994 until its cancellation in 1995. Barring guest appearances on other live-action television shows such as Living Single and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Summer's professional work since has been limited to voice acting.
At the start of the series' third season in 1988, the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters episodes were expanded from their original half-hour format to last an hour, and the overall feel of the show was changed to be more youthful, with episodes having a lighter tone to be less frightening (even switching artistic styles from more serious to less). During the less serious segments, Cree voiced the sweet and helpful Chilly Cooper, neighborhood ice-cream woman and innocent love interest of Slimer. In all, Summer has voiced over 100 animated characters between 1983 and 2006. These have spanned the realm of video games, cartoon television series, animated films and commercials. Among her most famous roles was in Inspector Gadget (Season 1) as Penny (a role she reprised in the Robot Chicken episode "Adoption's an Option"), Tiny Toon Adventures (1990) as Elmyra Duff (which she reprised for Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain) and Mary Melody, Aka Pella in Histeria!, Susie Carmichael in Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!, Cleo the Poodle in Clifford the Big Red Dog, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Dulcy the dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess 'Kida' Kidagakash for Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom (2004), Numbuh 5 (Abigail Lincoln) and Cree Lincoln in Codename: Kids Next Door, Penelope in Barbie As Rapunzel and Miranda from As Told by Ginger, Tiff on My Life as a Teenage Robot, octogenerian villain Granny May on WordGirl and Blackarachnia in Transformers Animated (2008). In the first season Drawn Together DVD commentary she stated that she was originally hired to do the voice of Meg Griffin on Fox's animated series Family Guy, but was fired by the producers. Summer is a frequent co-star of Canadian-American actress Tara Strong, the two are childhood friends, both having grown up in Toronto, Ontario.[2]
Summer is also the voice of the Green spokescandy for M&M's.She voiced-over in the games Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and BLACK. She voiced Tandi in Fallout and was also the voice of Tatjana in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits; Lady Belgemine, Young Tidus and additional voice-overs in Final Fantasy X; Lenne/Calli in Final Fantasy X-2; Storm in Marvel Super Hero Squad; Cynder in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and Magma in X-Men Legends, and the voice of Catalina Thorn, the leader of the Cell in Crackdown 2. She also had a small role in Mass Effect. She also voices Medusa in the game Kid Icarus: Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS. She also voiced the Inca priness Micay in Pitfall: The Lost Expedition. She also did miscellaneous voices in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. Summer sang since an early age and joined her first band at 13. In 1985, she recorded the theme song for OWL/TV. In 1990, she sang background vocals on two tracks for fellow A Different World cast member Jasmine Guy's self-titled LP. In 1993 she released an album (as lead singer) with her band Subject to Change. The album was not officially released by Capitol Records because of creative differences; the records that were produced were distributed as promotions and are considered a rarity. The band, with an aggressive political message and rock-soul fusion sound, remained popular as a co-headlining act with other performers. In 1999, Summer released her solo album Street Faërie produced by and featuring guest artist (and friend) Lenny Kravitz, but the album was a moderate success. Although Summer toured as Kravitz's opening act, her label dropped her and a planned spot with Lilith Fair was canceled. The label continued to promote the album, however, sending out a four-track sampler to radio and issuing remix singles of the track "Revelation Sunshine" in Europe, with a special single specifically for Austria. Summer recorded a song titled "Savior Self" for which she directed a music video co-starring Zoe Kravitz, daughter of actress Lisa Bonet and rocker Lenny Kravitz.
The video was screened online, but the track was never made available commercially, nor was it distributed to radio. A number of Summer's portrayed characters (animated or otherwise) are singers or sing songs within the soundtrack of a show. The character of Susie in All Grown Up! was portrayed as a singer with real talent, allowing Summer to sing in the role.[3] Summer also sings the opening theme song for All Grown Up!. The character of Foxxy Love in Drawn Together was a singer, with songs like "La-La-La-La-Labia" and "Crashy Smashy", Numbuh 5 from Codename: Kids Next Door sang a lullaby to lull babies to sleep. Elmyra Duff as she sang in many times on Tiny Toon Adventures. She co-performed lead vocals in the song "Cool Kitty" with Tara Strong, which accompanied a cartoon called Class of 3000, directed and written for Cartoon Network by André 3000. She started her career as Penny in the first season of Inspector Gadget in 1983. The Little Mermaid the Series is her DTVA debut as Pearl; then was Alto/Young Saxophone in Bonkers, Prince Louie in Jungle Cubs, Princess in 101 Dalmatians The Series, Savy SL2 in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Tessa/Vanessa James in Pepper Ann, Penny Descartes in The Weekenders, a cameo in Kim Possible, Peabo in The Proud Family, Rayna in The Buzz on Maggie, Ember in WITCH and Nature Fanatic in The Replacements. Xiaolin Chronicles (Wuya), Beware The Batman (Bethany Ravenclaw), various characters in Word Girl, various characters in Pound Puppies 2011 edition, and Thunder in Thunder and Lightning are her most recent credits. She has 212 acting credits, 16 Self credits, one of each director, writer, producer, Cinematographer, and composer (The Inlaws And The Outlaws in 2005), and sang the theme song for Animal Man in 2012.
Jackal is voiced by Matt Frewer and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Frewer was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Gillian Anne (née German) and Frederick Charlesley Frewer, a Royal Canadian Navy officer.[4] He was raised in Peterborough, Ontario, and trained at the famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating from its three-year acting course in 1980. He portrayed the artificial intelligence character of Max Headroom in the 1980s, starring in a British-made science fiction TV movie of the same name (1985) followed by The Original Max Talking Headroom Show (1987) and an American series based upon the 1985 movie, entitled Max Headroom (1987–88). He also portrayed the character in other media, including a series of television commercials for "New Coke", as well as the single and music video for "Paranoimia" by Art of Noise. Frewer starred as Dr. Mike Stratford in the CBS situation comedy series Doctor Doctor (1989–91). Frewer appeared in such films as The Fourth Protocol (1987, with Joanna Cassidy), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, with Rick Moranis, Amy O'Neill, Carl Steven, and Mark L. Taylor), National Lampoon's Senior Trip (1995, with Nicole de Boer), and the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Frewer was nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2000, one for a guest appearance on Da Vinci's Inquest (a series which starred Nicholas Campbell) and another for his work on the series Mentors. He was a regular on the Syfy original series Eureka during the show's first two seasons, playing eccentric Australian animal expert Jim Taggart. Frewer has done voice-over work on several animated projects, including Batman: The Animated Series (1993) and The Incredible Hulk (1996–97). Frewer played Case Manager Matt Praeger in the Canadian Sci-Fi series PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal from 1997-2000; the series was created by and starred Dan Aykroyd.[citation needed]
In 2009, Frewer played the retired villain Moloch the Mystic in the film adaptation of the comic book series Watchmen, and appears as the White Knight in the December 2009 Syfy two-part miniseries Alice, based upon Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Frewer starred as Pestilence in two episodes of Season 5 of Supernatural.[5] Frewer has appeared in more Stephen King adaptations than any other actor.[citation needed], with roles in The Stand, Quicksilver Highway, Riding The Bullet, Desperation, and Bag Of Bones. On February 7, 2013 it was announced that Frewer would be cast in the science fiction drama Orphan Black as Doctor Leekie. He started his career as a senior in Lords of Discipline in 1983. Bonkers is his DTVA debut as Peter Blaine and went on to do Quack Pack (I know I did Tasty Paste; but that was during Easter Sadism so there was no tribute to him), Mighty Ducks as Dr. Wally Pretorius, Hercules The Series as Panic and Mickey Mouseworks as Toymaker (and later in House of Mouse as both Panic and Toymaker). Falling Skies (as General Bressler), and Orphan Black as Dr. Leekie. He has 114 acting credits and 13 Self credits to his resume. He also wrote and produced an episode to PSI Factor: Chronicles of The Paranormal. Fox is voiced by Laura San Giacomo and according to IMDB: Laura San Giacomo was born November 14, 1962 in West Orange, New Jersey, to MaryJo and John San Giacomo. She was raised in the nearby city of Denville. She went to Morris Knolls High School in Denville, where she got the acting bug and had the lead in several school plays. Laura got a Fine Arts degree, specializing in acting, at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (Pittsburgh). After graduation, she moved to New York. During the late 1980s (1987-89) before starting her film career, she appeared on "Spenser: For Hire" (1985), "Crime Story" (1986), "The Equalizer" (1985), "All My Children" (1970) and "Miami Vice" (1984). Her breakout film was her first credited role in Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989).
The movie won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prize, the Palme d'Or. Laura received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association's New Generation Award and a Golden Globe nomination for her role. Next, she was Kit De Luca in Pretty Woman (1990) (1990) opposite Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The film won the People's Choice Awards for Best Comedy and Best Film. On stage, Laura has appeared in many theater productions. She was on the Los Angeles stage in the Garry Marshall-Lowell Ganz production of "Wrong Turn at Lungfish", in "North Shore Fish" (WPA Theatre), in "Three Sisters" (Princeton/McCarter Theatre, New Jersey, 1992) and in "Beirut" (Off-Broadway, Westside Arts Theatre, New York City, 1987). She also starred in "Italian American Reconciliation" (Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City, 1988) and "The Love Talker" (Off-Broadway in 1988). In regional theater, Laura was in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", "As You Like It" and "Romeo and Juliet". She also starred in "Crimes of the Heart". During the early 1990s, she was busy making movies (Vital Signs (1990), Quigley Down Under (1990), Once Around (1991) (where she played Holly Hunter's sister), Under Suspicion (1991), Where the Day Takes You (1991) and Nina Takes a Lover (1994)). In 1994, she also appeared in Stephen King's television miniseries, "The Stand" (1994). During the mid 1990s, she also provided her voice to an animated series "Gargoyles" (1994). Offscreen, Laura got married to Cameron Dye in 1990 (and divorced in 1998). They had a son, Mason, in 1996. Having a child influenced Laura to make the transition to television. She started in the sitcom "Just Shoot Me!" (1997), which also starred George Segal (as her father, Jack), Wendie Malick, Enrico Colantoni and David Spade. Television gave her a more regular work schedule and less traveling. The series lasted for seven seasons and 148 episodes.
She appeared in all of them together with the other four regular cast members. After "Just Shoot Me!" (1997) was canceled in 2003, Laura appeared infrequently on television and in feature films. She was the narrator for "Snapped" (2004), a true crime series. In 2005, she appeared in two feature films (Checking Out (2005) and Havoc (2005)). In 2006, she was reunited with her "Just Shoot Me!" (1997) co-star Enrico Colantoni in "Veronica Mars" (2004), where she played Harmony Chase for three episodes. In September 2006, she secured a starring role in "Saving Grace" (2007) as Grace's (Holly Hunter's) best friend, Rhetta Rodriguez. Laura continued to play the role through all three seasons. She started in 1987 as Sharon in Spenser For Hire. Gargoyles is her only DTVA appearance; in fact her only cartoon appearance ever. She has 47 acting credits and 20 Self credits to her resume. The Mentalist as Miriam Gottlieb is her most recent credit. So we end this with the announcer saying that they will appear at MSG and Lexington likes them because they are warriors like them. And soon enough; he is going to wish that they were fake too. So we head to a hanger which is called THE PACK~ Media Studios; and then we get a sky shot of the entire obstacle course and staging area where they film their shows and it looks awfully good. Sadly; the character animation is really weak as Fox and company seem to have no faces (!!!) on the far shot. Wolf is complaining where lifting weights while Fox is punching and kicking the punching bag while blowing him off because this is easy see. Yes; THE PACK~ are training like professional wrestlers. I'm SHOCKED that only Wolf seem to be on the juice. We get some subduing of dummies (geez; doesn't that just write itself) with ropes for a time waster and then a brown ninja jumps in and does back flips. I thought that Owen came in since the build indicated that it was Owen; but it's just one of the show's stuntmen which Fox addresses as Harvey. So Wolf stops dead lifting and walks to the arm weights and does some for a while; all while complaining about the lack of action he is getting despite the fame and the cash.
Hyena and Jackal make fun of him; but Dingo agrees with Wolf as he pats his stomach because the cushy gig is making him become a fat guy who wouldn't last a minute in a Central American war. I wonder if he's referring to the civil war in Guatemalan Civil War which went on for two more years after this episode aired. I'm guessing that the original line was the GCW when it first ran; but was considered either too offensive or too dated for Disney to handle and it was made more generic. Wolf talks about birds flying, fish swimming and wolves hunting as he throws the dumb bells right at the wall and despite arcing towards the floor in one shot; they manage to break down the wall which clearly looked too far away. Fox proclaims that if they want action; then she has something as she walks over to a parcel and opens it to reveal photos. She explains that there is no reason why they have them; nor a return address. As THE PACK~ (Get use to them; they are in this series a lot, more so when FOX...I'll keep that a secret for now.) look at the photos; they are clearly footage from Goliath kicking Xanatos' Goliath look-a-like robots. I should also mention that the table top Fox puts the photos on is pink colored (!!!). Fox claims that she heard rumors from the Daily Tattler (So there is a newspaper called that in NYC...or was it the Daily News and the newspapers got pissed off about it and threatened to sue?) that gargoyles were coming alive. Wolf blows it off claiming that this means gators are in the sewers. Still; Fox points out that there is still a chance at some real action and they have to reveal this later since they have a public appearance anyway; and financial obligations come first in the entertainment world. So we scene change to AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) with a shot of the full moon. And then we pan down to Madison Square Garden as THE PACK banners are up and they look like a grade one student did the stuff. It looks so unprofessional for some group that is supposed to be big in NYC. So we head into the arena as the crowd is popping for them like new Disney fangirls pop for the Jonas Brothers. As least THE PACK~ are somewhat compelling; despite being a boy's wet childish dream.
We pan up to the rafters as the goofballs of doom are literally hanging from the rafters. The one time where Gorilla Mansoon's infamous catchphrase was a legit shoot. Seriously; is it any more fictional than pro wrestling? Lexington is giddy about watching THE PACK~ and Brooklyn wants him to ease up. Good luck on that one Brooklyn; you will soon be seduced by Demona next episode. So the announcer announces THE PACK~ (Jim Cummings in Bonkers' voice again) as the stage has spotlight and the background is actually only slightly better than the posters. Yeap; THE PACK are just a more diverse version of the Jonas Brothers; only with violent tendencies. So we get more smoke as THE PACK appears like Drake Mallard in a group of full of himself mallards. The animation team rears it's ugly head again as Fox and Hyena have no mouths. Considering that they are female; that is the sort of unintentional message you DO NOT need (Fox and Hyena are silenced because they are females with no mouths; while the males clearly can speak and have mouths. How can that not be sexist?) in a show marketed to children. Although at least it's not Sunwoo Animation and a little kid unintentionally gets tickled in the groin. They throw up their gang signs as the crowd pops loudly for it because they like violence and bad B-movie ninjas ass kicking; or something like that. And speaking of ninja ass kicking; here come the brown clothed ninjas with katanas which the announcer sells it as if this is a bad situation; and the crowd gives them heel heat. I just love the psychological projection here from the announcer claiming that the ninja's fight without honor; but THE PACK~ does. It's funny considering what happens later. And THE PACK~ kick the ninjas' assholes once again with ease and weapons of their own as Lex is really enjoying this. I would enjoy seeing Dingo tying up ninjas and banging their heads together; but how did the gargoyles get in without security noticing them? Anyhow; Lex would love to meet them as he has his hands over his ears to drown out the noise. Broadway yawns and Brooklyn does something as the show is over and Broadway is in Tummi mode again. Lex tells them to go on ahead and he'll catch them later. Hmmmm....
So Broadway and Brooklyn fly away stage right; which should be tons difficult since there are no wind currents in the arena to guide them. THE PACK~ are walking down the stairs towards the dressing room as Wolf proclaims that it's another day and another half million dollars. Then they hear pipes banging and they look up as we see Lex in the pipe works on the ceiling and then jumps down as Jackal tries to get his gun set up; but Lex has come in peace. He introduces himself while Wolf gets elbowed in the ribs by Fox because Wolf thinks he's smaller than in the pictures. Fox goes over and charms Lex as Lex wants to know how she knew about them. Fox lies that she found out from rumors and news reports; and she was hoping that these rumors were true. Wolf then gets an idea and proclaims in a sarcastic manner that they would love to meet his friend who is the bigger gargoyle they spoke about earlier. Lex proclaims that this can be arranged and that ends the segment nine and a half minutes in. Pretty good thus far and I'm into THE PACK~ already. Well; Wolf and Fox anyway; although Fox's real show stealing hasn't even begun yet. Now you don't suppose THE PACK~ is going to turn on Lex from the get go now don't you think?
After the commercial break; we return to the castle tower as all the gargoyles except for Lexington are here. Hudson proclaims that he always cuts it close when it comes to dawn; despite the fact that Goliath has surpassed dawn without returning to the castle TWICE in the pilot. Methinks Hudson is an old fart case as Lexington finally arrives and lands without incident and well within the time before dawn. Goliath demands to know where he was and Lexington proclaims that he has recruited THE PACK~ as allies because he believes that they protect the innocent and are warriors like they are. He's half right; mostly on the "warrior" part even if some of them are getting out of shape. Goliath is not amused because he let them SEE him as Lexington does the Gruffi pose because Goliath made friends with Eliza Maza who is a human. OH SNAP! Goliath claims that this is different. Despite the fact that he made allies with the Captain Of The Guard and Xanatos already. Come on Goliath; give Lexington some props; and considering all the danger upcoming; you are going to need all the allies you can get. Hudson then points out that this conversation has to wait until nightfall as the sun rises. Goliath and Lex give each other the stink eye of doom as Goliath proclaims that this is not over. You don't know the half of that Goliath; and they turn to stone and we get a shot of the skyline of the city as the sun rises. Then we get a flash of white light and then it's nightfall again as Lexington does one of the best speeches I have ever heard so far in DTVA. Lex explains that he hasn't revealed any of their secrets to them (except reveal himself) and he's not stupid. Compared to Broadway and Brooklyn, yeah. Others? Not so much. Anyhow; Lex wants Goliath to meet them before he passes judgment on them and even Hudson thinks that this is a decent idea since they fight evil ninjas. Lexington goes on about finding kinder spirits and giving them a chance; because failure to do so well mean that they will always be alone. All while Goliath does the Gruffi pose. This is the kind of speech Baloo would have given to Kit somewhere down the line in TaleSpin if TaleSpin wasn't...you guessed it...Goliath sighs and decides to let Lexington take him to meet them.
The goofballs are happy with the decision as Goliath states that he'll go with Lexington and then when everything is safe and secure; they'll let the others meet them. That's a reasonable compromise, do you not think? So Goliath and Lex swoop down from the castle top and head to the front of THE PACK~ Media Studios where they land in the parking lot. So the door is unlocked and they open it up. They head inside the hanger as it is dark and spooky which doesn't amuse Goliath one bit. Lex insists that they would be here. Then the stage lights turn on and blind the babyfaces as a grenade is tossed and Lex's eyes turn white on cue as they are bounced from the explosion. Goliath proclaims that this is a trap. NO?! REALLY?! So they run into the entire maze which is used to film the television show. So they walk in slower and look around as Hyena sneaks in and slashes Lexington from behind and he sells it as being stabbed; but there is no claw marks on Lex at all; let alone blood. Listen; I can understand being bloodless; but at least have the decency to show ANY damage. It just makes the selling of Lexington look weak. I'm just saying. Goliath grabs him; but Lex is pissed off and he runs after Hyena; much to the pleas of Goliath and then Goliath has to grab him before Lex gets killed by the protruding spikes. Lex is pissed off because this is not fighting with honor. They destroy the spikes with their bare claws in a really neat spot as Lex is in white eye mode all throughout this time. That was pretty neat actually in a subtle sense. They run some more and then the steel iron doors come down and we get the squashing press of death to waste some time as we see Fox on the catwalk with the spotlight as she proclaims that the traps are usually not lethal; but these ones are. Sadly; she forgot to make the walls about three times thicker because Goliath claws through the wall easily and destroys a generator in the process of his anger. He threw it into another six inch steel wall and it breaks through with ease. Goliath and Lex bail and manage to get to outside of the area as apparently; they locked the door or something since they go up the walls and open the sun roof to escape through.
THE PACK~ all arrive as they head outside and Goliath and Lex fly away stage left. Wolf proclaims that it's time for the hunt to begin and I don't want to be a wet blanket here; but I would have gone to commercial right here. So both gargoyles land on top of a building as Goliath seems to be fine; but Lexington is pissed off big time for attacking them like a bunch of animals which is hilarious considering that they are animal like in themselves. Goliath disagrees with the animal part because animals hunt for a reason that doesn't involve crap and giggles. Lexington proclaims that he'll never trust anyone again after this and then we hear a whistle which is so out of place that this is the obvious signal for a exploding boomerang to come in and blow up the side of the brick wall and almost killing Lexington in the process. Dingo runs in and uses the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE (and people crap on TMNT for pulling off this crap?) and ties up Goliath; but thankfully, he breaks free easily. He goes over to Lexington to see if he's all right, and Lexington is fine but still sounds pissed off. So they bail from the building and fly around as we get another hilarious logic break: Now the babyfaces are flying above the power wires and we then cut to Jackal on the catwalk throwing a dagger which cuts the power line. So this looks silly; until the animator cuts to a scene where they show the babyfaces at wire level and they get fried as a result. WHAT THE HELL?! That makes no sense! So both babyfaces fall and Goliath grabs Lex and a stairwell. They both climb up to the top of the building and Hyena laughs. And then we get the most absurd off-screen explosion I have ever seen. What is this "BS&P let us do whatever we want" I hear from people? Batman allowed a lot more than this and IT was marketed to children too. So they freefall with various debris landing on top of them and they land with a really sick MAN-SIZED bump in the alleyway as debris falls on top of them ON SCREEN. Well; at least BS&P is letting them do that. THE PACK~ walk slowly forward during the closeups and sky shot as Goliath and Lex appear to be dead and that ends the segment almost 15 minutes in.
After the commercial break; we get repeat shots of Lexington and Goliath down and out as THE PACK~ look to end this hunt; when suddenly, a family of four shows up as the kids run in and want THE PACK~'s autograph. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm sorry; I couldn't help it. That was absolutely goofy of you Michael Reaves. THE PACK~ are not amused. Well; Fox isn't; but Hyena is happy for this at least since they can be useful as cover for their evil deeds and look like babyfaces. That's actually great booking and a smart move because then; you look like the biggest hero to the humans who are protecting this family from the monsters while acting like heels in the process. Lex and Goliath should just stay down; but they aren't mental giants and get up. So the mother and father call for Billy and Susan (the two kids; Susan is voiced by Cree Summer and father is voiced by Peter Renaday. I believe the mother is voiced by Salli or Laura depending on what mood I was in when I was ranting this) to stand back and let THE PACK~ take care of this as one of THE PACK~ members states that they are monsters sent by evil ninjas. Somehow that is more accurate than it is supposed to be. So we spar and the "heels" get trashed by THE "babyface" PACK~! Lex gets up and gets a solar flare boomerang in his face. Lex doesn't even make contact and the children panic and start throwing trash on the ground on Lexington. This would have been better if Lexington actually made contact with Dingo in the first place. Then Lex turns around and growls at the kids and they bail as Dad and Mother bail with the kids. The mother claims that this looks real. Maybe because it is "real". Meanwhile; Goliath just squashes Wolf like a grape and the other members of THE PACK~ just stand there and do nothing. That was an unspoken way of showing tough love to Wolf's complaining methinks. Wolf kicks Goliath down right in front of the fire hydrant as Fox notices that the streets are deserted and wants to end this hunt now. Goliath breaks the fire hydrant and the water goes flying into the heels. Lexington joins Goliath and they go up the building through the stairwell. Same old crap huh?
Wolf throws his exploding boomerang at the babyfaces and it explodes at point blank range and while the stairwell is destroyed; it does absolutely no damage whatsoever to the gargoyles. Yeah; whatever BS&P. So they climb onto the roof from the stairs as THE PACK~ follow them. I just realized that only the eye socket of Fox is metal; and not the eye made from red glass. Sorry about that. Dingo sees a stone statue and shoots it's head off and the head drops onto the ground. See; it's perfectly all right to behead a stone statue that is real; but it's not all right to show beheading from a living thing. Or is it? More on that in later rants. So they make it to the roof as Fox is getting frustrated since this is a needle in the haystack trick. So they look around and we see on one of the shots Goliath in a stone statue pose which looked awfully cool. Jackal looks around and then notices that Hyena is missing for no reason whatsoever; but the claw glove is thrown in front of him. Dingo turns around and Lexington slaps his gun away right on cue. This leads to a really bad logic break: Fox tells them to huddle together; but Jackal panics because this wasn't in his contract. Jackal flees as Fox pleas for him to stop (because Wolf thinks they can still take them. Yeah; it's four against two still...) ; but Jackal runs to a staircase and we see shadows of Lex and Goliath mauling the crap out of Jackal. Now how did Lex get there when he was on the other side with Dingo? So Fox and Wolf (that sounds kind of like Don Karnage's real species much to Magon's denials about it) run away; but Goliath busts through the wall and blocks the exit. He grabs both heels and slams them against the roof and into the modeling room with three models and a cameraman. At midnight no less. And no one sells even pain. None of this makes any sense! This feels tacked on to me. So Fox grabs the black swimsuit model after the debris has fallen on the floor. Goliath slowly gets up and is in white eyes mode while the cameraman snaps photos of Goliath.
Fox has her gun and she drags the model outside with Wolf following. They get to the sidewalk; and then apparently, the black swimsuit model manages to bail as Lexington tackles Fox down and knocks her out. Screw the no male on female contact; at least Fox can defend herself like a man! Plus; she lied to Lexington about wanting to be his friend anyway. Wolf grabs Lexington from behind and Lexington struggle. Lex: BITE HIS NOSE OFF~! Goliath gets outside and Wolf throws him aside as he proclaims that he finally has some real action. And the last eight minutes or so wasn't? So it's Wolf VS. Goliath for the right to call themselves "The Hunt" champion as Wolf breaks the ice and shoulder tackle Goliath; but Goliath claws the sidewalk to block that; and then suplex backdrops him over his shoulder which defies the laws of physics; but it still looked cool. Wolf gets up and goes for the ANIME PUNCH OF DEATH; but Goliath grabs it and crushes Wolf's hand. Goliath then back forearms Wolf and he takes a MAN-SIZED bump into the wall and gets knocked out. Then we hear police sirens as Goliath and Lexington don't have much time and they leave. I'm guessing it's almost dawn now as they fly into the sky and the police cars arrive and that is that. And I betcha we'll NEVER see them again...WINK! WINK! NUDGE! NUDGE! So we head back to the castle as Lexington is on the perch upset over allowing them to talk him into seeing Goliath and Goliath tells him to be cautious in the future. Lex proclaims that he was totally wrong; but Goliath thinks Lexington was right on the money originally and repeats everything Lexington said about finding allies and kinder spirits and refusing would remain alone forever. And even take chances like tonight. Well; it wasn't much of a risk since Goliath was smart enough to go alone with Lex to see the heels so...Oh; and Brooklyn and Broadway return as they inform Goliath and Lex that THE PACK~ has been arrested for holding the model hostage. Hudson and Bronx comes out as Hudson proclaims that he thought they were babyfaces and maybe it's best to be skeptical about what we see on television. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments.
So we see the sun rise above the NYC skyline and everyone gets on their perches and turns to stone to sleep the gargoyle sleep as we get closeup shots of all the babyfaces to waste time. Then a far shot of NYC and then we head to the New York State Pen and inside a cell room as Owen and Xanatos are exchanging notes and Xanatos basically admits that he hacked the television remotely (or Owen did); he also sent the pictures to THE PACK~ and in fact, he actually created the television show to be more than a television show. Now this scene is really stupid because while he is admitting to all this; the security guard is guarding the door and is not only in clear sight of Xanatos; but also can easily hear what he is saying since Xanatos doesn't even bother to whisper! Boy; is the justice of logic blind, deaf and dumb eh? For all the praise this cartoon gets; it does something so hideously stupid like that is really stupid. Drake Mallard level stupid! Anyhow; Owen claims that the fight with the gargoyles sucked for them; but David doesn't see it that way. In fact; the fight was very informative for him since he can use it to no longer underestimate Goliath anymore. He is certainly overestimating these guards that is for sure. That ends the episode at 21:15. This was a decent episode with a crappy ending even though it made sense from a "How Xanatos is playing chess with them" level; but come on, some of the logic in the animation in this episode and the logic of the ending is so silly. I do like THE PACK~ and they will come back; so I look forward to them. I just wish they got better logic and reasoning than this. Call it *** 1/4 (65%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; this was certainly a cool down episode to say the least from Awakening. I thought this episode was above average as THE PACK~ were a really good tweener team and they did some really neat booking here to make them look like Road Warrior-equse babyfaces (who wrestled like monster heels) and get the human crowd to pop for them and get them to hate the gargoyles monsters. I found the setup to be fine and not as contrived as Kevin Johnson thinks it is since Lexington did set it up when they were watching television with Hudson and Bronx. The fighting was okay; but the no selling was really random at times; it didn't look all that believable. Listen; I understand if you cannot show blood on a DTVA cartoon; but at least show some injuries or damage to the gargoyles, even if it is merely bruises. There were some hair tearing logic breaks; including the Owen/Xanatos meeting in prison which really annoyed me. This felt like a toned down Batman: The Animated Series episode with a hint of silliness. Otherwise; I don't have much to say negatively, so I'll end it here by saying: fine episode; but not one I would go out of my way to see again. So next up is Temptation, Deadly Force and Enter MacBeth for next weekend and this time, I can finally get back on track weight wise and ranting wise too. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.