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Gargoyles: Enter MacBeth
Reviewed: 07/30/2013
...And The Angle That Changes Everything!
Well; we have finally reached the end of the first month of ranting on this show and we have seen some history made: two characters bleed, gargoyle statues smashed up, a hell reference and someone nearly dying from a gunshot wound which is all against Disney's image. However; I have also saw what made TaleSpin great: maturity of the characters and a storyline that was paced beautifully and despite contrived moments in the two episodes leading up to Deadly Force, an awesome monster heel in Demona. Now it's time to introduce the second half of the biggest angle of the show; a hunter who is named after one of William Shakespeare's plays: MacBeth (hence the title). Sadly; this is also the first episode animated outside of the Japanese animation studios that have done their job in maintaining shot continuity and I fear that this could get messy in another sense. So let's rant on shall we?!
This episode is written and story edited by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Steve's resume is not much: Centurions to start with; and then Starcom, The Real Ghostbusters, Spiral Zone, Batman: The Animated Series, Street Fighter: The Animated Series, Conan & The Young Warriors, Spiderman Unlimited (his most recent credit), Godzilla: The Series and Extreme Ghostbusters. He also was in the documentaries for Xenomorph and The Hunter. He also wrote the novelization for the N64 video game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Yeap; that's it. Gargoyles is his only DTVA appearance. Animation is done by Wang Films.
Opening Moment #1: We have yet another recap of everything since Awakening Part Five and Deadly Force; thus ignoring THE PACK~ completely and Temptation along with it; thus showing how important they were to the storyline.
We begin this one with a SWANK southern pan shot of the moon in clouds towards Wyvern Castle and then head within the castle walls as the far shot makes Castle Wyvern look like cardboard; while the near shots are perfectly fine. We head into the kitchen with Broadway being a chef and tasting his own food. We then head to the living room and Hudson and Bronx are watching....Quack Pack? WHAT THE HELL?! Seriously; the television shows footage of the spot in The Really Mighty Ducks where Donald Duck is fighting with the melted cheese in the nephews' room. I swear to GOD that the scene is there. Which is amazing considering that Gargoyles was released TWO YEARS before Quack Pack was and Quack Pack should have barely past the concept stage at this point. So Quack Pack was a much longer term project at this point. Case in point: Donald is wearing his Quack Pack duds here. Unless the second run syndication of this was released in 1996/1997-ish; something is up here. Hudson is pulling his beard and Bronx is chewing his bone wondering what the hell they are watching. I'm guessing that this lack of selling means that Disney approved Quack Pack and Hudson and Bronx were the focus group. What a rib that would be...ON US! So we head to the meeting room with Lexington sitting on the table with Brooklyn sitting in a chair playing cards; and losing to Lexington when Lex shows his better hand. We pan over to the Gargoyle's version of the Great Book Of Gummi. Then we head inside the hallway of a prison as we pan over to a prison cell and see Xanatos lying in his bunk bed as he seems to be at home in his office with a computer and everything. He also has a calender as it's October 1994 and he is out of prison on Halloween night according to the circle around the 31st. Ooookkkkaaayyyy. Then we get some jump cuts of Xanatos eating prison food with the inmates. I guess NY prisoners wear light blue jumpsuits instead of orange. That looked weird.
So then we head to the area where the prisoners interact with their peers from the barricaded glass (with two way microphone imbedded in the glass) with Owen and Xanatos exchanging notes. There is one more week left and Xanatos calls this a learning experience. Owen suggests smashing the Gargoyles in the daytime; but Xanatos feels like that is a waste of excitement. Of course you do David; it makes you look like a coward; and you don't want that on your resume. Anyhow; someone comes in (I guess the video camera is still on) who looks about eight feet tall with a brownish grey beard and is wearing green security guard uniform and blue police hat. Owen checks his watch claiming that the ten minutes are up; but the guard tells him to take his time because the guard is here to make a deal with David Xanatos since he had heard of an infestation in his office. Xanatos claims that he didn't call pest control; but this big Scottish man claims that he's familiar with said pests. Xanatos asks who he is and he addresses himself as MacBeth. Thus is the start of the "Demona and MacBeth try to kill each other; but fail" angle as MacBeth was the big foil to Demona and the gargoyles themselves. In short: they both hate each other. That's all you need to know right now. And they have such a backstory that it spans a number of episodes which we discover that MacBeth is a Scottish version of El Captain from Treasure Of The Golden Suns. He has to be a rib on Scrooge McDuck. Wonder if MacBeth plays golf in his spare time like Duff McKillgan does in Kim Possible?
MacBeth is voiced by John Rhys-Davies and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Although appearing sporadically on UK television in the early 1970s (for instance, as gangster Laughing Spam Fritter opposite Adam Faith in Budgie), Rhys-Davies first gained widespread popularity for his performance as Praetorian officer Naevius Sutorius Macro in I, Claudius. He then began to appear more frequently, and not just in the UK, with roles as a Portuguese navigator Rodrigues in the 1980 television miniseries Shogun, based on the novel by James Clavell, and in the Indiana Jones movies. In 1989, Rhys-Davies also starred in another James Clavell adaption, Noble House, set in Hong Kong, in which he plays Ian Dunross' corporate enemy, Quillian Gornt. He has since appeared in numerous television shows and miniseries, including Agent Michael Malone in the 1993 remake of the 1950s television series The Untouchables as well as a leading role in the television series Sliders as Professor Maximillian Arturo from 1995 to 1997. He also appeared in Reilly, Ace of Spies in 1983, made several appearances on Star Trek: Voyager as a holodeck version of Leonardo da Vinci, starred as an ally of James Bond in The Living Daylights and appeared in the movie One Night with the King. Davies has played the character Porthos in two separate projects; a two-part episode of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and the Hallmark Channel movie La Femme Musketeer. He has also appeared in a number of Sci Fi Channel original movies. In 2004, he starred in The Privileged Planet, a documentary that makes the case for intelligent design.[6] He is also known for his popular portrayal of the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The cinematography of the films was aided in that Rhys-Davies is tall—6' 1", compared to the actors playing hobbits at around 5' 6".[7] Therefore, whereas his character was supposed to be short, he was properly in proportion compared to the hobbit actors.
Had he been of more similar height, shots of the entire fellowship would have required three camera passes rather than two.[8] Rhys-Davies is the only one of the nine Fellowship of the Ring actors who did not receive a tattoo of the word "nine" written in the Tengwar script. The other members of the cast (Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, and Elijah Wood) got the same tattoo. Rhys-Davies' stunt double (Brett Beattie) got the tattoo instead as Rhys-Davies was disinclined to get one himself.[9] Rhys-Davies suffered severe allergic reactions to the prosthetics used during filming, with his eyes sometimes swelling shut. When an interviewer asked him whether he would consider returning to the role for the film version of The Hobbit, he said, "I've already been asked and to be honest with you, I wouldn't. I have already completely ruled it out. There's a sentimental part of me that would love to be involved again. Really I am not sure my face can take that sort of punishment any more." He added that this time around "They've got a different set of problems... because you've got 13 dwarves, a whole band of them... You're trying to represent a whole race... You're trying to do for dwarves what 'The Lord of the Rings' did for hobbits". In addition to voicing the Ent Treebeard in Lord of the Rings, Rhys-Davies has also lent his distinctive deep, Welsh voice to many video games and animated television series, including playing the role of Hades in Justice League and numerous times in Gargoyles (1994–1996), as the character Macbeth. He appears in the full motion video cut scenes of computer games including Ripper (as Vigo Haman) (1996), Dune 2000 (as Noree Moneo) (1998), and the Wing Commander series (as James "Paladin" Taggart). He also lent his vocal talents to the games Freelancer (as Winston Tobias) and Lords of Everquest (both in 2003) and the game Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, which was released with his narration on a CD-ROM version in 1995.
He also made a voice role on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance as the character Jherek, and narrated a documentary called The Glory of Macedonia. John Rhys-Davies' voice can be heard on the 2009 documentary Reclaiming The Blade.[10] [11] In the narration, Rhys-Davies explores swords, historical European swordsmanship and fight choreography on film, a topic very familiar to him from his experiences in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where his character Gimli wielded an axe in many scenes. In 2004, he was the unknowing subject of an internet prank that spread false rumours in several mainstream media sources that he was scheduled to play the role of General Grievous in Star Wars Episode III.[12] Rhys-Davies is the narrator of The Truth & Life Dramatized audio New Testament Bible, a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, fully dramatized audiobook version of the New Testament which uses the RSV-CE translation. In 2011, he presented KJB: The Book That Changed The World, which features him reading diverse snippets from the King James Version. He began his career in 1964 as Gareth in Crossroads. Gargoyles is his DTVA debut and then he was Oberon in Mickey's Mouseworks and House of Mouse. Lantern City (Desmond Wilhorn), Silent Choices (Tulio), The Half Dead (John Simmons), Time Lapse (Mr. Bezzeredes), To Have To Hold (Governor Yeardly), Golden Shoes (Burt), Beyond the Mask (Charles Kemp), Prisoners of The Sun and 100 Degrees Below Zero are his most recent credits. He has 220 acting credits to his resume, 34 self credits, and wrote two episodes of Sliders and the movie Tusks in 1988.
So we scene change to the sun setting shot as we see a black trench coat wearing MacBeth out of nowhere walking behind the statues. Wait; so there is going to be no buildup to this? That's really lame! I mean; should this be happening later on? Why now? And suddenly; Eliza walks up on crutches demanding answers to this outrage. I also notice that he's wearing police like armor underneath the coat too. Eliza flashes her badge and wants to discuss it downstairs. MacBeth claims that she cannot keep a secret since he knows about these creatures anyway. Owen is spying on a computer monitor of the scene somewhere in his office while it is officially nightfall and the gargoyles live again. The blue-green lighting in this was awesome; but Wang Films screwed up the spot because when they did the west pan shot of the gargoyles; they show Hudson last. As the gargoyles wake up; Hudson crumbles and then the camera cuts to Goliath showing up in whiplash fashion. The gargoyles notice him right away as Lex asks if he is a friend of hers. MacBeth offers for them to leave and go to his house; which Goliath refuses outright without a second thought. MacBeth claims that he must insist as he brings out his weapons because he wouldn't stoop to killing them during the daytime; which once again, a heel ignores Owen's sound advice. Broadway runs in to grab MacBeth's arm because he hates MacBeth's attitude; or something. MacBeth grabs him and throws him into Hudson and they take the bump over the ramparts and take a wussy bump onto the grass below. So MacBeth throws the PEARLS OF DOOM onto the ground (speaking of stealing plot devices for my fanfics...) and they blow smoke (the bad health joke is dead folks; deal with it...) as everyone coughs. MacBeth puts on the X-Ray goggles and it appears he's teasing kidnapping Eliza; so Bronx runs in to annoy MacBeth; but cannot see and bumps into Lex who is rubbing his eyes.
So MacBeth shoots his gun which brings out the red electric net which fries Lex and Bronx; knocking them down to the ground and wrapping them up. Then we get more wussy bumps as MacBeth does a really cool stomp move on Brooklyn as they go over the ramparts and to the grass; but the on-screen bump is so wussy that the boot and the face of Brooklyn does even appear to cause any damage. Lame animation by Wang Films. Brooklyn gets the red electrical net for his trouble and then Goliath tries to fly down; but MacBeth shoots him with a laser that misses Goliath; but hits the castle wall and the forces knocks him down. Owen watches Goliath fall and head out of the office. MacBeth then kicks Goliath in the head as soon as Goliath gets up and he flies into the power supply and that is set on fire. Owen run in with white cloth to inform him that Xanatos wants the place defumigated; but not destroyed. MacBeth agrees and decides to take the fight to them elsewhere. So he brings out his remote control (out of nowhere) to hook the nets and bring the wounded gargoyles into his conveniently placed sci-fi spaceship. Yeah; this is not exactly a good debut for MacBeth so far. Goliath recovers as he goes after MacBeth on the staircase while selling an injury during that time; then as MacBeth gets into his ship; Goliath jumps on the ship and bangs on the cockpit glass as he has stop selling the injury. So MacBeth basically uses the button and that allows the ship to be zapped with blue sparks and Goliath gets fried and drops like fly with a good bump onto the ground. Eliza hobbles over as Broadway and Hudson are just getting up and recovering. MacBeth flies away from the castle and that ends the segment seven minutes in. Well; that was pretty short and not so sweet...
After the commercial break; we get a far shot of the castle as Eliza is on Goliath's case about leaving the damn castle; and Goliath continues to no sell the deal. See; the story is: Eliza cannot defend the castle during the day and Xanatos is hiring freak jobs to do the job on the gargoyles; but Goliath refuses because this is the only thing left to him as his clan is gone and the trust is gone. Goliath orders Hudson and Broadway to guard the castle and he flies off into the sky. Yeah; that's a good idea Goliath. MacBeth beat your group six against one and you expect to win one on one now. At least bring Broadway with you. And while I'm at it; I find Eliza holding her gun while on crutches is really, really dumb. Eliza is getting frustrated at this as Hudson and Broadway have finally agreed with Eliza on this; but they cannot go against Goliath's orders. Eliza states that Hudson's loyalty is noble but even Hudson knows now that this is no longer their home as we pan north to the moon in the sky. So we get a really awesome long sequence starting with the moonlight reflecting the water and then we pan north to MacBeth's castle and then inside as there are various Middle Ages paintings from various plays; along with almost naked statues and stain glass windows; including two with gargoyles on it. Amazing enough; one of them shows a shadow version of DEMONA!! Lovely. So we head into the basement so it looks like something out of TMNT 1987 as we see Bronx, Brooklyn and Lexington in separate cages as they ponder about MacBeth's connection to one of Shakespeare's plays that Goliath was reading. Funny how they call William a "new" writer too as they wish they were reading at this point. We then see MacBeth in the control room with multiple monitors spying on them for fun.
Then we head down the hallway with Eliza, Hudson and Broadway walking down as Eliza wants Goliath to see that he has no choice now. They enter into Xanatos's office as I discover in the hallway conversation that they want to get Magus' spell book of doom which is still under lock and key; and still looking intact despite Demona tearing three pages from it; and also the lock has been replaced. As they make it to the stand; Owen steps in proclaiming that he cannot allow them to steal Xanatos' property. Hudson asks who is going to stop them; and Owen takes down Hudson like a bad habit. HAHA! Now THAT is funny! Owen brings out his gun which looks like it was stolen from Eliza; but Eliza uses her crutch to knock the gun out of Owen's hand. Broadway then grabs Owen and throws him away and apparently; he threw his glasses away too! Owen takes the best bump in this episode thus far as Broadway grabs the gun and crushes; thus breaking his promise that he would never touch a gun again. To be fair; he didn't shoot the gun. So Hudson breaks the logic and opens the glass casing. He grabs the spell book and proclaims that they will be going now as the babyfaces leave. Owen gets his glasses which apparently are shatter proof and just stares there like a Shere Khan wannabe. So we head back to the basement as Bronx is in one cage on the right and Lex and Brooklyn are in the second cage on the left. Bronx is trying to sleep while Brooklyn is doing this stupid "touch the red sparking cage over and over again" which is so Patrick Star like; I swear to god that Broadway was supposed to be in there instead of Brooklyn. Brooklyn is clearly doing this to torment Lex into giving them a plan as we continue this dumb crap; and suddenly, the lights start to go out for a moment. Lex deduces that the electrical powered cage require so much power that releasing it allows the lights to go out. Therefore; all they have to do is divert enough power to the cage in order to stop Bronx's cage from being powered and Bronx breaks out. However; the only things they have in the cage are Brooklyn and Lex themselves. Yeah.
So instead of giving up like BS&P would love them too; they give a giant middle finger to BS&P and they grab the cage bars and oversell the pain and agony of being fried by the electrical powered cage. It take Bronx about thirty seconds to realize this plan and sell it; so he finally bites through the cage and runs towards the other cage as Lex and Brooklyn simply crumble as Lex is barely able to tell Bronx to go get help. This would have been better if Broadway was the one to deduce it here because it looked extremely hilarious in hindsight. Bronx runs out of the castle without further incident as we discover that the castle is not too far from the city. Damn; I thought it was on an island. We see MacBeth at the control center looking frustrated. So we get another long flying sequence with Goliath as he is flying in the city. He perches onto a building and looks around; hearing screams and crashing. So we go to a sky shot of Bronx running in the street causing more damage with the SUPER RUBBER BALL OF DOOM from FOWL Darkwing Duck. That is just sad folks! Goliath swoops down as the denizens begin to panic as he lands in front of Bronx and calms him down. He then asks where Brooklyn and Lexington are and they bail stage left as Goliath crumbles a roof of a taxi for fun and just to rub it into FOWL High Command. That believe it or not ends the segment 13 minutes in. So yes; we have about ten minutes or so of ACTION left in this episode. At least the middle has improved; but it feels so disjointed here.
After the commercial break; we get more whiplash as we see MacBeth in the control center looking bored while having a mug of coffee and the Gruffi pose. Which at least is fitting considering that he is as rugged as Gruffi. So he looks on the monitors which now are B&W after being in color throughout most of these stalking scenes. To Kevin Johnson: You think Wang Films is bad? Just wait until you review a Sunwoo episode of anything! That'll drive you nuts. I know it drove me nuts when I saw Polly Wants A Treasure. And then just to get my goat; we see a screen from outside as Goliath is flying into view; but Wang Films is so stupid that Goliath is full colored despite the rest of it being B&W. And also it appears that Goliath is completely SEPARATE from the monitor when he is flying. UGH! Goliath breaks down the front door on cue and somehow MacBeth has teleported in front of the stairs with his gun. Lovely logic break there guys! Goliath order Bronx to find Lex and Brooklyn and Bronx bails into the house. So it's finally Goliath VS. MacBeth round one officially. Goliath goes into white eyes mode as MacBeth readys the gun proclaiming that Goliath will lose because he defeated them on their home turf; which is perfectly true. So MacBeth bails through the hallway and goes into a room and the door barricades itself; allowing Goliath to pound on it for fun. Meanwhile; we cut to Brooklyn and Lex in the cage hearing scratching noises (Did I mention Goliath was scratching the door too?) as they admit that Bronx found Goliath. Sadly; no Bronx, so this led nowhere as we head back to the hallway as Goliath breaks down that door and it flies into the wall doing no damage whatsoever to the painting on said wall. Goliath stalks MacBeth (that sounds perverted Mr. Weagle?!) but then stops because an iron gate comes down and it's the same electrical type gate used for the cages earlier. MacBeth's ship is the only thing that uses blue instead of red. Lovely. Goliath steps back and finds a suit of armor and throws it at the ease which causes the suit to melt and the sparks to fly. That looked awfully glorified for some reason.
Goliath growls; turns around and MacBeth is blocking the original entrance. He fires his electric net gun; and Goliath finds the counter to it: Throw a mini stone statue at it. The net catches it and MacBeth dodges the statue with ease. THE CHASE MUST CONTINUE as MacBeth goes into another room and seals the door allowing Goliath to bash on it for more metal bending fun. So Goliath tears through that door with ease (it was only half a foot thick) and then growls with rage because it's a dead end. Then he stops for a moment and then breaks down the wall because it's a false wall (check the blue light on the FPS shot when the wall is crumbling) and it leads to a secret passage leading to a room full of mirror. Oh great; MacBeth loved the mirrors at the amusement park so much; he has a secret room of them for no real reason. We see MacBeth in the mirror as Goliath pounces but is thrown back. Yeah; he can break through one foot thick doors; but not one foot thick glass. MacBeth is loving this as Goliath demands to know what he's so interested in them; demanding to know if Xanatos paid him. MacBeth admits that he was paid; but wanted to do it for free anyway; but doing that would have made Xanatos think that he has a secret agenda. MacBeth seems to actually appear in one of the shot as there is a reflection on the mirror and Goliath can clearly see it; but when he pounces at the mirror; it appears he is gone. Bad form there Wang Films! MacBeth then admits that Goliath is not his main target as that is merely a pawn. He wants Goliath's queen; which Goliath claims that they have no queen. Now I would have thought MacBeth was after Princess Katherine since she is supposed to be their future queen I do believe. Until I realized that the shot with the stained glass window clearly shows it as Demona; which MacBeth addresses here. Goliath demands to know how he knew about Demona; and MacBeth gets off his first true money shot line of the series before the trapdoor opens and Goliath gets WARNERED. The line you ask?
Macbeth: Know her? I _NAMED_ her!
This basically begins the Demona/Macbeth war in earnest now that we know who Demona was talking about before she tried to kill Goliath with the rocket launcher in Awakening Part Five. Goliath does some twist and lands on his back appearing to be dead as we get some mature lighting (at least the darkness is better concealed this time around) as we are in MacBeth's torture chamber. Macbeth appears with a torch proclaiming that he wants to capture Goliath to draw out Demona who would save her. Goliath slowly gets up and laughs in his face because Macbeth is a fool since Demona is now their enemy. And now Macbeth is pissed and throws the torch into a cauldron. So we do another lame fight; although the shots connect better this time around; as the spike rack and swinging iron cage get used for no reason. Then they throw fake punches at each other for a bit; as both "combatants" collide into the cauldron and it topples over and the whole torture chamber is on fire while the fight goes on in the background which is a neat visual that would have been better if WD-Japan was animating this. Goliath somehow loses him in the flames and then turns around and notices an iron maiden against the back wall. So Goliath goes to it and opens it up and then runs in just before the iron maiden can crush him. He notices Macbeth going through the hallway and up the stairs as he follows running; and then runs like a dog for four seconds, and then back to human running. That looked so pointless actually. So we go back to the basement as Bronx runs in and goes through the electric cage housing Brooklyn and Lexington and manages to break through. And despite it nearly frying Brooklyn and Lexington earlier; they stop selling their injuries and Bronx completely no sells everything when he broke through. What an unacceptable logic break this is?! And you would think Steven Perry would KNOW better? Obviously not.
So we head to a museum like room where hundreds of weapons and armor are on display. Let's see; 80 million sharp objects? I give 2:1 odds that Macbeth goes for the bull rope. Lots of smoke ensues as the iron doors open and in comes MacBeth who thankfully just takes a sword off the wall. So Goliath stalks him as Macbeth runs in with the sword and misses Goliath by a country mile. Goliath flies up and grabs a spiked mace and comes down as they play clash and bash for a while as we see the flames consume one tapestry on cue. As the flames surround the combatants; Goliath breaks through the sword blade of Macbeth. Macbeth then swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (blast you? That was LAME! I was hoping he would actually say "damn you" to complete the swear word cycle.) and brings in his gun like thingy which Goliath grabs and crumbles. Goliath grabs Macbeth's black coat; but forgets to grab onto Macbeth himself and he slips through his coat and bails. That looks like something Kit Cloudkicker would do to get out of explaining his past. Goliath goes all blue eyes as the room is suffering from flaming logs raining down as he looks around. He then notices the three captured babyfaces near the entrance waving to him and Goliath bails out with them as we get an extended shot of the entire castle burning like a Roman candle and it slowly crumbles right in front of the gargoyles watching it. Goliath tells them that it's time to go home and they leave. So we go to a sky shot as Lex and Brooklyn are forced to carry Bronx. Heh. So we hear Broadway's voice and we see Eliza, Broadway and Hudson on the roof top. UH OH! They are so dead now. Goliath lands and demands answers to this outrage and Keith David's acting is AWESOME here when he's in pissed off mode. Broadway calls it suicide to stay at Castle Wyvern and that Eliza has found a new place to live which really pisses Goliath off.
Hudson and company decide to walk forward six on one to him as Hudson tells him that the castle is just wood and brick; and that home is the family that they have become in roundabout terms. Goliath teases wanting to kill them; but then relents and proclaims that he'll see them in a moment as he flies towards the castle and enters into Xanatos' office as we see Owen cleaning up the glass from the floor. Goliath comes in and basically tells Owen that they are leaving; but they will be back to reclaim the castle for them. Owen only responds by saying that he'll inform David Xanatos about it and Goliath walks out; and that was that. So in a span of nine episodes; we have seen Goliath lose 90% of his clan to the vikings, then lose 1000 years of time due to Magus' stupidity, then get screwed over by Xanatos, lose Demona's loyalty to some half truth, get screwed over by THE PACK~, get screwed by Demona, nearly lose their best friend to Broadway's moronicness and now they have lost Castle Wyvern thanks to a guy who is merely using Goliath to bait Demona who is not falling for it at all. Wow; that sounds like the NWO actually. I mean; for Disney, it works because it's the first time in DTVA history where the heels win as often as the babyfaces; but seeing it now, it is really depressing now that Goliath has basically hit rock bottom now. So we get a long sequence of a shot of a moon and then Goliath on top of the castle rampart looking around and then he flies off somewhere. Then it's morning as we see Castle Wyvern which seems to be somewhat damaged in spot it shouldn't have been damaged; but in walks David Xanatos as Owen puts the bags down and welcomes him back home behind him. Owen then produces a video cassette and puts it into a portable box; which opens into a mini television showing crappy footage of Macbeth kicking Goliath. Xanatos sees this as a new player to the game; but he'll let it go for now because he's home and that is all that matters.
So then we get more disjointment as we head to an abandoned clock tower AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we head inside behind the clock face to see Lex and Brooklyn inspecting the clock gears and Lex thinks his crack arc welding skills could get it running again; which Broadway asks why. Hudson looks around and thinks this isn't bad since they might be a spot for a television. Eliza admits that this merely a fixer upper; but with some stuff they can make it a decent home. Goliath is staring on top of the bridge looking at the clock face and basically states that regardless; it is home and they are still together and alive. Works for me since it is kind of depressing where he is now. So we get a sunrise shot of the gargoyles in front of the clock tower as stone statues; which Wang Films screws up since it was still nightfall before the rise and they were stone statues before then. We do a zoom out and that ends the episode at 21:30. Macbeth is an awesome character; but his debut was not a great first impression. It also didn't help that Wang Films screwed up half of the spots in this; but at least they have setup his battle with Demona so this will lead to better things. I'm in full agreement with Kevin; Wang Films needs to go and this is not the show to be pulling off stupid mistakes when everyone is expecting you to fell The Batman in the ratings; which didn't happen. Otherwise; the ending was good albeit depressing, and at least the fighting was better in this one compared to Temptation. *** 1/2 (70%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Wow; this episode was disappointing. Sure; I wasn't expecting it to live up to the quality Deadly Force was; but Wang Films just cannot animate this properly without screwing it up. Half of the bumps they took were wussy as hell; and Wang Films' animation mistakes were most glaring with television footage since they cannot animate those properly without screwing it up. Macbeth looked absolutely lame at first; looking like just another heel for Goliath to squash until he started blurting out his plan and it then made me realize that they are setting up Demona/Macbeth which is a much better fight in the long run. So the debut was far from brilliant; but the setup was what it was so at least I'm willing to watch Macbeth again. The finish and ending were dead on perfect since Hudson's statement about the castle being brick and wood makes a lot of sense since Macbeth and Goliath basically burned down MacBeth's castle during their fight which was better than Temptation at least. Plus; Xanatos is out of prison this time so he'll be back in the fold soon enough. Overall; this was a disappointment compared to Deadly Force; but it was the animation that was terrible in this one; and Macbeth spent way too long trying to act like a cool heel and failed to give motive to it until much later. Oh; and Steve Perry should learn that when Brooklyn and Lex crumble touching the cage bars; then so should BRONX when he eats through the cage bars later on in the episode when he was trying to free them. Okay. So we have ranted on what is the same as one DVD disc (nine episodes); and the count is five thumbs up and four thumbs in the middle. TaleSpin had nine thumbs up; and I blame that on Gargoyle's problem with introducing characters and putting them in contrived situations. It feels out of place for Hudson to be enjoying television, but I still laughed at it because of that fact. The next four episodes will end the first season: The Edge (The debut of The Eye Of Odin and Eliza's new police partner), Long Way To Morning (The official debut of the Archmage), Her Brother's Keeper (round two of THE PACK~ as Eliza tries to talk Derek Maza out of working for Xanatos), and finally Reawakening (The debut of Coldstone which apparently was brought back to life as a cyborg). An interesting set of episodes to say the least. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.