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Gargoyles: City Of Stone, Part One
Reviewed: 08/31/2013
Sadism: The Demona Macbeth Story!
All right kiddies; we begin the second disc of Gargoyles Season 2 Part One with the most important story arc of the series as we have the true back story of Demona and Macbeth as Macbeth wants revenge and Demona wants to rule the world as per her admission in the last episode of disc one. Also; remember what I said about the importance of revenge in this series? It all comes to ahead here. Is this the epic story that makes Gargoyles deserve it's lofty status? Or is it just another David Xanatos SWEVERE? Let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode is written and edited by Michael Reaves. Teleplay is done by Brynne Stephens and Lydia C. Marano. Animation is done by Koko Entertainment Limited.
Opening Moment #1: We recap Enter Macbeth mostly with a brief shot of Demona in the beginning saying that humanity is their enemy; and the great "Know her? I named her!" line from Macbeth before Goliath gets WARNERED and drops into the dark room below.
We begin this one AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) in NYC as police are surrounding a bank. Damn; even this show is stooping to using bank robberies as a plot device. Police helicopter comes in and Eliza runs in with her gun as Matt Bluestone is behind the police car as this has been going on all day and he wants to go in. Eliza refuses saying that they have ID hostages inside and to keep trying to play mediator. So Matt gets the megaphone and talks about tired people making bad choices which brings out a purple haired female with a machine blowing him off about this sacrifice being worth it; and then shoots an actual bullet shooting gun at the police car as it only hits the hood of the car. And then they change to cyan blue lasers on the closeup shot for absolutely no reason whatsoever; including laser sound effects. Way to go Gargoyles; way to go! All the police scatter as Matt asks Eliza if they are seeing things their way and Eliza states that they aren't; but they will as four shadows of gargoyles fly in the sky and we head inside the bank near the vault as there are five hostages; including three little kids in Donald Duck sailor suits. Also; the other two are Brendan and Margot as there are a number of army like thugs with guns. Basically; meet the demands and nothing happens; otherwise, we have dead meat. So all the gargoyles minus Hudson and Bronx (watching television again? For goodness sakes Hudson; when are you going to go see Jeffrey about reading?) break down the wall and we have a laser fight as the purple haired terrorist tries to lock herself in the vault; but Goliath breaks down the vault door and she is forced on her ass in fear. Guns gets smashed and terrorists get sacked including one that looks like Hammer from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Purple haired terrorist pleas for mercy and Goliath proclaims that she has more to fear from her own cowardice than with him.
So Goliath drags her out as Margot and Brendan are scared to death. The three girl children in sailor suits (and with the same Kath Soucie voices) all proclaim that life is precious and if they don't heed it; then they are no different from her. Goliath takes offense to being compared to the purple haired terrorist (and by the way, terrorist has been used since Super Ducktales; and in Darkwing Duck so it's not new) ; but the three girls are not talking about her; and then we go to Goliath's reaction and then the children disappear. Margot and Brendan claim that there are no children and thus only the gargoyles saw them which makes absolutely no sense. I'm guessing that the couple did see them; but their fear crippled their ability to remember seeing them. Brooklyn's comment about being embarrassed over them "gushing" all over them which is just plain idiotic. Anyhow; we head in the skies over NYC with Demona flying around with a scroll of paper in her hand and cheery music. That just comes out wrong! Then we HIT THE FLASHBACK~ as we head to 994 Scotland and replay the scene where Goliath unbandages his hand after it was cut by a sword in Part One of Awakening. I still think the "without any help" part is false bravado on Goliath's part. Then Goliath leaves and then we see Demona blowing off Captain because Goliath ruined everything. Speaking of ruin; what the hell did you do to Demona's face Koko?! See; they wanted the gargoyles to leave; so they return to an empty castle. Captain claims the plan can still work as he'll signal Hakon to commence the attack on morning as Demona gets in his face because they are helpless in the daytime. Captain claims that he swears the gargoyles will be safe. HAAAAAAAAAAAAA~!
So we head to a far shot of the castle as Demona swoops down noticing Desdemona and Othello going to their perch; and tries to talk to them; but notices the Vikings have shown up already. Demona then waves it off and goes over to the perch near a torch as the sun slowly rises and then she swoops over the cliff and lands on the sandy beach and kneels. We then get footage from the finish to Awakening while Hakon attacks the castle and smashes the gargoyle; we see Demona slowly turn to stone and sheds a tear just before the stone statue is complete. We fade to black and return to nightfall as Demona lives again with red eyes glowing. She climbs up the cliff and back onto the castle walls proclaiming that human rule in the castle had ended. She looks around calling for her gargoyle allies; but there is no answer. Demona then notices the crumbled stone statues and she panics. She screeches like mad in pain and that ends the segment eight minutes in. What a freakin idiot this Demona is?! It's difficult to have sympathy for someone when she refuses the speak up about the Vikings coming up. Kit's shedding a tear in Plunder and Lightning Part Three was more sympatheic simply because turning on his family was the only way out for them. Sure; it had extreme consequences that Kit brought on himself; but the alternative would have had worse results. Here; if Demona simply spoke up, even if most of the gargoyles died, a few would still be around and Demona would look a lot less of a psychopath and make her human hating a little more justified. Still; a great way to introduce the back story; even if it's influenced by Batman: The Animated Series way of doing flashbacks.
After the commercial break; we head back to the castle as Demona is sobbing on the castle ground in front of the shattered gargoyles. She then notices a shadow and it's Goliath flying as Demona bails down the steps into the castle and then flies away from the castle claiming that she cannot face him. Why? You couldn't just say: "I went on a long walk on the beach and I lost track of time and turned stone before I got back." to him? I mean; that would make sense at least, and make you look less of a psychopath. Anyhow; we replay Goliath's "angel of the night" sequence and then we wait about two hours later (No Spongebob Narrator joke) before Demona returns and all the remaining alive gargoyles are turned to stone at night and she is shocked and appalled as she teases admitting guilt on herself; and then turns into complete psycho by implying that the humans did this to them. Which is in fact true sadly. Although Goliath asked Magus to cast the spell on him anyway. Demona hears horses neigh and looks over the ramparts to see the Magus placing the gargoyle eggs in a hay filled wagon and then he leaves on horse and wagon with Princess Katherine and Tom. What happened to Mary? Demona slowly claws up the castle walls to the top as she kisses her finger and places them on Goliath's lips and then kisses Goliath on the forehead while shedding a tear and then flies away from the castle. So we head to a barren like forest and then pan down to a bunch of Scottish houses as a blond haired teenager in garb with devil like horns on the hair is blowing off his parents for doing chores like Kit Cloudkicker from Flight School. He addresses himself as Gillecomgain which Openoffice doesn't see as a name; but it's still ultra cool. I'll call him Gill because it's shorter to type. Anyhow; he hears horses neighing in the stable and he walks into the stable (Demona is clearly inside since the shadow of her tail is showing); grab a pitch fork and demands the thief to come out. That proves to be a stupid move as Demona comes out with fruit and claws Gill right in the face; blows off the humans for betraying them (despite Gill doing absolutely nothing to deserve it) and then she runs out.
Gill holds his face in his hands and yes; he bleeds. Again; this is not shocking because any wrestling fan will tell you that this is routine; even when wrestlers went against company policy on blood. So we return to reality (no, not really) as Demona is flying in the skies and she lands in front of Pack Media Studios. We head inside as David Xanatos and Owen are prepping up some broadcast machine as they say this it is ready to go as Demona blows them off. David tells her to relax because this machine can override cable and broadcast television. So everyone who reads books, listens to radio and surfs the net are safe. I suspect you didn't think this plan all the way through huh? David asks about keeping her end of the bargain and shows the scroll which is a spell stolen from the Grimorum (Magus' spell book which is inspired by the Great Book of Gummi) which I suspect is from Temptation. Which begs the question: Why now after nearly 15 episodes? That question cannot be answered; do not think too much. So Owen mans the camera and David tells him listen or look; but not both as he leaves. Apparently; this spell is designed to sap one minute out of every human being in America and by sunrise; she'll regain her youth. Which is so stupid and contrived that this has to be a lie. So Demona chants her spell of doom in Latin as there is a lot of wind in the studio. Hurricane force winds I might add. Geez; I know Demona's a psychopath; but a windbag? Owen protests this and then gets shell shocked for no reason. Demona grabs him; and plops him in a chair and ties him up to the chair because he's the tricky one. Huh. So Demona checks the video camera and turns the broadcasting on as Eliza is in her apartment as there is a western movie on (B&W of course) and then it instantly overrides to Demona chanting her spell. Eliza clicks on the remote and gets the same thing; and then instantly runs out despite the fact that she listened to it AND saw it clear as day. Bad, bad logic break there fellas.
So we head in the streets with sirens wailing as we see Eliza's red car down the street. We cut to a television store as several of the denizens watching are stoned silly. Then we see the same three characters as before; only they are middle age wearing the same absurd purple outfits; and have different color hair; but the same hairstyle. They have the same Kath Soucie voice so; I'm guessing that these are the infamous Weird Sisters. Get used to them; they are in this story arc and in stories to come to annoy the living snot out of me. I didn't know they actually have names: Luna, Seline and Phoebe. I know this because Luna tells Seline and Phoebe to have patience even though Seline or Phoebe claim that this bad stuff in another time and place is happening here again. They walk away from the television store as Luna proclaims that they have waited 975 years and they can wait a little while longer. So it's 1995 here; which means that their story begins in 1020 as we see Demona on the screen on the closeup chanting her spell and we HIT THE FLASHBACK~! To Scotland in 1020 AD. So we get a longish sequence of human soldiers guarding the storage silos and some of shots look blurry for some reason. Then they notice two gargoyle shadows with nets and all the human soldiers get pinned down by nets. We then see about a half dozen gargoyles and Demona who's face looks uglier and uglier by the moment use the spiked mace to break open the storage silos and they all steal food. One of the soldier proclaims that the Hunter will kill them for this; but Demona blows him off and MURDERS him with the spiked mace off-screen. So we scene change to a lit cave as the half dozen gargoyles and Demona are having din-din. One of the male gargoyles is tired of this BS and wants to make peace with the humans as Demona catches wind of this and grabs him. She blows him off because the humans don't want peace and she will never let them win. And we accuse humans of playing zero sum games? She drops him on his ass and then Demona turns around and at the entrance is three green female gargoyles with the same outfit and hairstyle; only different colors.
Yeap; it's the Weird Sisters. AGAIN! You would think that they would look like different gargoyles; or dress differently, but noooooooooooo...Anyhow; they have information about The Hunter of Doom. Which should be his real booking name: The Hunter of either Doom or Death. See; the hunter has a human target in Castle Moray and Demona has no idea who they are; but they are welcome among the gargoyles. They insist that she align herself with Clan Moray to fight the common enemy and they can defeat THE HUNTER OF DEATH. Demona blows it off because she needs no human allies and wants THE HUNTER OF DOOM to strike the target; so then he's open to being the prey which is her prey as we get a closeup of her face and that ends the segment 15 and a half minutes in. Well; this was certainly an interesting story; even if it makes Demona look like a vile, evil monster. By the way; the light brown gargoyle who got tired of being a thief is known as "Second" and is voiced by the same person who voices Macbeth.
After the commercial break; we head to Castle Moray which has lots of torches and then a closeup of a chess board as a female red haired girl checkmates her loud father who is wearing the same clothes as David was in Vows; only with a headband around his gray hair. He is so impressed by this young lass as she is addressed as Gruoch. Finally; we have our first new voice talent at 15:37! Gruoch is voiced by Emma Samms and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Samms first played Holly Sutton Scorpio on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital from 1982 to 1985.[4][5] With Samms choosing to leave the series amicably to go to ABC's Dynasty, her character Holly seemingly perished in a plane crash.[6] On May 15, 1985, Samms appeared in the fifth season finale "Royal Wedding" as Fallon Carrington Colby, a role originated by Pamela Sue Martin in 1981.[7] The character was immediately transplanted into the new Dynasty spin-off The Colbys for two seasons (1985–1987), until reintroduced back into Dynasty in the September 23, 1987 eighth season premiere "The Siege - Part 1." Samms remained with Dynasty for two seasons until its last episode on 11 May 1989. She later returned for the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. After the show's run, Samms did some films which failed to get her noticed. She stayed with television. In 1989, Samms made a guest appearance on the sitcom, My Two Dads playing Marcy Bradford, the deceased mother of Nicole Bradford (Staci Keanan) and the woman whom the two fathers (Paul Reiser; Greg Evigan) fought over.[citation needed] "Fan favorite" Samms had been so popular at General Hospital that Holly was brought back from the dead in January 1992 after a seven-year absence.[6][8] She stayed in the role until 1993,[5] during this time also playing Holly's lookalike half-sister Paloma, a heroic revolutionary. In 1995, Samms appeared as the villainous Grayson Louder in the prime time soap opera Models Inc., a spin-off of Melrose Place, both produced by former Dynasty producer Aaron Spelling.[9] Emma Samms (on right) with Dynasty co-stars Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham in London, 2009. Samms appeared in four episodes of the BBC series Holby City in 2003, and had a small run on the BBC daytime series Doctors in 2005.
She made a seven-episode return to General Hospital as Holly in February 2006. After serving as a presenter (alongside General Hospital co-star Tristan Rogers) for the Daytime Emmy Awards on 28 April 2006, she reappeared on General Hospital for a three-week run starting 1 May 2006, and then again on 30 June 2006. She subsequently stepped into the BBC Children in Need reality series Celebrity Scissorhands as a hairdresser from 3 November to 17 November 2006. On 20 September 2007, Samms guested on the long-running ITV series The Bill as drug addict Ella Winstanley. Most recently, she made a brief return to General Hospital starting 15 May 2009.[10][11] On July 17, 2009, Samms appeared on chat show Loose Women. Samms is due to perform in Shall We Dance, a dance revue of musicals by Richard Rodgers, choreographed by Adam Cooper who stars, alongside his wife Sarah Wildor. The show is being staged at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. She returned again to 'General Hospital' for a week in March 2012. She started her career as Princess Zuleira in Arabian Adventure in 1979 and then as Candy in Yesterday's Hero. Gargoyles is her DTVA debut and only appearance. Vendetta as Sandra Vickers is her most recent credit. She has 47 acting titles, 58 Self credits and one writing credit (His Bodyguard) to her resume. So we see two males at the dinner table which is filled with food still. The one on the right is an orange haired guy with the full mustache and beard wearing the same colored cufflinks as the old man playing chess. The guy on the left is wearing green with white sleeves. So we discover that the orange haired man is Bodhe while the chess player is Lord Findlaech (which is a really funny booking name). Bodhe sounds like Captain; so he voiced by the late Edmund Gilbert; while Findla is voiced by the same guy who voices MacBeth. And the young prince is a young Macbeth actually as Bodhe dares Macbeth to play chess with Gruoch and Findla agrees to it and dares Macbeth to outdo him.
So Macbeth makes it to the table as Macbeth is clearly having issues with professionalism as he looks and sounds awfully awkward. So Macbeth sits down (young Macbeth is voiced by Jeff Bennett) and Gruoch gets the chess pieces off the board and it's clear that Macbeth is having eyes for Gruoch as Bodhe and Findla are exchanging notes on Prince Duncan being king and ruling Castle Moray. They both agree that while Duncan is unsettling; they hope for the best and Findla will swear loyalty to Duncan showing off his medallion to us as Bodhe looks surprised. We get more chess playing and both Gruoch and Macbeth blush at each other. So Bodhe comes over and that stops the blushing as Findla orders Macbeth to show the guest their quarters. Macbeth, Bodhe and Gruoch all get up and leave the royal table as Findla finds the bottle of red wine; and it's almost empty. He claps to his kitchen lad servant; but there is no response. Findla blows him off for sleeping on the stove again; and then turns around and the kitchen door opens and we see a masked man with a black hood, clothes and a black mask with red claw marks on them. It's clear to anyone with an IQ above 30 that this is Gillecomgain thanks to not hiding his scars. So Findla calls for the guards and there is no response; so he throws the tray of food and uses it as a shield as we slash for a while. Funny animation mistake: On the close up shot near the door; the sword is cutting right into the metal; but on the very next shot, there is no damage whatsoever to the tray and the sword is nowhere near the tray to cause damage. So we take it outside as Macbeth returns and notices Findla and Gill fighting outside (Gill is voiced by Jim Cummings by the way) so he gets both sword from the emblem seal above the fireplace. As this was happening; Gill swipes the tray away which is BS&P'ed because we already shown him cutting through the tray and would have killed Findla right there. Yeap; they are going for the Disney death here.
So Macbeth runs in and throws a sword to Findla; but Gill swipes it away in midair much to the disdain of Findla. So Gill runs in between and we duel! We have a wicked sword fight; it was great. Macbeth was losing as the windows open as Bodhe and Gruoch notice Macbeth; and Gruoch calls for Macbeth which is stupid enough on it's own; but Macbeth is distracted as Gill swipes the sword away from him. Gruoch leaves; much to the panic of Bodhe as Findla grabs Gill from behind while Macbeth rushes in to pry the sword from Gill's cold, but alive hands which is much more difficult that prying it from someone's cold dead hands. Gill boots Macbeth in the midsection and he goes flying and collides into Gruoch with a really good bump. No male on female contact? What no male on female contact? Findla shoves Gill into the rampart which stuns him as Findla gets the sword. And he does the stupidest thing possible: He rushes him right in front of the opening which leads to the ground below; and so Gill backflips Findla over the castle rampart and he falls into the darkness to shield the fact that he fell onto the ground dead. Yeap; Disney death. Gill goes over in tears realizing that his dad is dead and Gill goes for the kill on Macbeth and in comes Demona to break that up. Of course; she just wants revenge on THE HUNTER OF DEATH and the HUNTER OF DOOM wants revenge. Like we don't know it's Gillecomgain; since his red scars are clearly showing. So we get more fighting as the sword goes flying and Macbeth grabs it. He rushes in calling Gill a murderer (The Wuzzles said that in 1985 in the second episode of that series. Remember that.); but Gill shoves him away and Demon tail swipes him over the ramparts; but he's holding on to dear life as Gruoch grabs his hands; but she's too small and they are about to go over the edge. Demona then starts having second thought about going after Gill; and then after teasing a "F*** Humans!" moment; she then goes over and grabs Gruoch and manages to save them both as Gill escape. Demona is hissing and pissed off of this as Gruoch thanks her and Demona just simply sighs and flies off. Well; that was interesting.
So we head to Edinburgh Castle as we head to the royal hall with a black haired man in the same clothes as Findla (how ironic?) pacing around as Gill enters the room and the prince wants to know about Findla whom he officially addresses as Gillecomgain which should be no surprise to anyone. He takes the mask off to show the scars which are a lot less red than the mask. You know; if you wanted to keep the suspense; the animators should have had red scars on the mask to begin with because that telegraphs the person behind the mask if anyone was paying attention to the storyline. Gill shows the medallion and proclaims that Findla is dead; but Macbeth is not. The prince is Duncan by the way and Prince Duncan is voiced by Neil Dickson and according to IMDB: Dickson has balanced a career on stage and film since graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in his native England. After several seasons in repertory throughout the UK, Dickson made his West End debut in London under the direction Sir John Gielgud and opposite Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Massey in "The Gay Lord Quex". He then created the role of Dean Rebel in the Mermaid Theatre production of "Trafford Tanzi", which brought him to the attention of the producers of NBC's 12-hour mini-series "Anno Domini (A.D.)" where he co-starred opposite Ian McShane, Susan Sarandon, James Mason and Ava Gardner. This led to Dickson playing the title role of James Bigglesworth in the Royal Premiere Film of "Biggles: Adventures in Time". Continuing to star in features and MOWs, Dickson finally arrived in America to star in the Universal TV series "She Wolf of London". Since then he has been seen in David Lynch's "Inland Empire", "Time Cop2", "Lost Lake", "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" and such TV series as "Chuck", "Alias", and "Sliders".
His voice can be heard on numerous animated series including "Rugrats", "The Wild Thornberries", "Gargoyles", "Johnny Quest" and "Iron Man" as well as feature films including "Body of Lies", "Beowulf", "Aragon" and "Pirates of the Carribean". He has also been the voice of "Jaguar" motor cars, Propel water and Delphi among others. Dickson and his wife Lynda live in Los Angeles with their two daughters. He recently triumphed on stage as Stephen Wyatt's "The Standard Bearer", directed by Julian Sands both in London and Los Angeles. Neil Dickson plays the eponymous role in the continuing web series "Atwill". The pilot episode won the first Samuel Fuller Guerilla Filmmaker Award at the 2011 Buffalo International Film Festival. Prior to that he starred in the film, "Chasing Chekov", which won the BAFTA/LA Best Film Award. He had earlier played the role on stage in Los Angeles. He began his career as a Jury Foreman in Crown Court in 1976, and then as a guard in I, Claudius. Gargoyles is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Scrambled (Roman) , Smokin (Mike), Sons Of Liberty (Allister Salinger), Bad Samaritans (Silver Fox), Chicanery (Gareth Foyle) and A Haunting in Thornby (Erik) are his most recent credits. He has 95 acting credits, four other credits (ADR voices for The Omen, The Seeker: Dark Is Rising, Robin Hood 2010 and Your Highness) two self credits and one stunt credit (Blakes 7) to his resume. Prince Duncan doesn't give a crap because while Findla was a good king; as long as he's dead, Macbeth is nothing more than a poor relation. OUCH! He claps his hands and calls for a celebration as the doors open and in comes the Weird Sisters dressed up as middle age maids and servers. And they still insist on acting like TMNT clones of each other. Isn't this the sort of thing Robert Ebert criticized decades ago? Anyhow; Duncan gives Gill the stewardship of Moray as Gill likes that and we return to reality (no, not really) inside Macbeth's computer area as Macbeth puts on the Gill mask he has and turns off the computers of Demona chanting her stupid spell.
So then we see Eliza walking in the hallway as Matt wants to talk to her; but Eliza has no time for this. Matt agrees that this is getting silly because they are getting complaints for the broadcast. Eliza agrees to help Matt in a minute as she walks out. So then we head to Castle Wyvern as it's almost sunset as David gets into his black helicopter and Fox is flying the darn thing. David wants to go to Pack Media Studios at once as Fox claims that Demona's chanting is hardly compelling television. David blows her off for not resisting to watch it as his cell phone rings. David answers it and it is from Pack Media Studios and Owen who tells us that Demona has lied to them. See; the spell she claimed to cast doesn't drain anyone's power as the sun sets completely and Owen turns to stone; along with Fox in the cockpit and the black helicopter goes into a tailspin (BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!). We head to the clock tower as it's night time and the gargoyles live again! Lexington hopes this night will be quieter than last night. You are going to wish you never said that Lex as they head inside and there is a stone statue of Eliza right in the middle of the clock tower. Brooklyn gasps in horror which implies that Eliza has turned to stone which is basically a nightly version of the GOLDEN WAVE OF DEATH; only the humans are affected. That ends part one at 21:10 approx. So; after a slow start, we are progressing nicely in this one; although a few logic breaks marred the experience. Sadly; the ending for this was not the 18* ending of Awakening Part One; but it still had enough feeling to make it worthwhile. **** 1/2 (90%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Wow; that went by really fast as Koko was for the most part on it's best behavior and the storyline was dead on. I still think that the Gill thing with the mask could have been given better suspense and Demona's attempts at garnering sympathy were pretty stupid and she still looked like an idiot. I will admit that her stone spell is a great setup even though it took the entire episode to setup; because it leads to some of the most gruesome moments later on that surpass the creep factor that The Golden Goose had five years ago in Ducktales. There were a few good fights in this one and everything was good to great. So not much to complain about. Next up is part two as Macbeth and Demona become allies involved in a grand conspiracy against Prince Duncan and Gillcomegain. Fun times ahead indeed! So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.