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Gargoyles: Outfoxed
Reviewed: 09/08/2013
...By A Black Haired Owen Burnett.
Well; we come to another episode with two character debuting and I remember parts of this episode and hating it even as a kid. The story is Goliath trying to keep Fortress II from crashing at the hands of David and Fox; however, the president of Cyberbiotics never forgets and probably never forgives either. So; is this episode any good? Let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode is written and story edited by Cathy Bates. Animation is done by Hong Ying Animation in Suzhou, China. I believe this is my first crack with Hong Ying for rant purposes and works for DiC cartoons. That does not help my confidence levels any. I hope Hong Ying leans towards Koko Entertainment and not towards Sae Rom animation; if you catch my drift. While Sae Rom is still around; Koko and Hong Ying don't seem to be around anymore.
Opening Moment #1: The complete recap of every episode Fox has been in; from her THE PACK~ days to her being married by David Xanatos in Vows. Talk about running the gambit of random imagery here; it felt like a 2007 TNA recap. Not good.
We begin this one at Castle Wyvern AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as there are lots of clouds in the sky; and we cut to Travis Marshall (and his lime green tie) on television again in the foreground talking about the new airship that Cyberbiotics has made as it is named the Fortress II. Travis wonder if Fortress II will suffer the same fate as Fortress I which crashed into the harbor last year as we see footage from Awakening Part Five of the men getting out of Fortress I. As usual; they gloss over the deaths. What a surprise?! Also the CEO of Cyberbiotics is Halcyon Renard who is reclusive. Yeah; because his parents named him after a light bulb. That isn't exactly genius material, do you not think? Hal has given consent to have Travis interview a guy named Preston Vogel who clearly looks like Owen Burnett; only he has black hair and black rimmed glasses. Geez; this takes recycling Fry clones in Rescue Rangers to really silly levels. Preston Vogel is voiced by Peter Scolari who began his career as Kookie in Take Off in 1978 as Barney Tremble. He then appeared in Goodtime Girls (Benny Loman), Bosom Buddies (Henry Desmond/Hilde Desmond), Baby Makes Five as Eddie Riddle, and Newhart as Michael Harris. Gargoyles is hi DTVA debut and his only appearance. Girls (Tad Horvath) and White Collar as Zimmer The Keymaster is his most recent credits. He has 88 acting credits, 23 Self credits, 2 director credits (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids The Series, Newhart) and one production credit to his resume. Not much to see here. Preston explains to us that this airship is fully automated and being personally manned by Preston and Hal themselves. They are doing it as a precaution to protect their workers while we see that Fox (in a SWANK red shirt) watching from the living room that used to be the world for Hudson and Bronx. Yeah; that is so rubbing it into your elders eh? So Travis asks about rumors that if Fortress II goes down; would that mean that Cyberbiotics will die with it and Preston claims that this is two questions and the interview is over as he walks away to Fortress II. I'll take that as a yes to both questions. And the airship is using Cyberbots by the way in case you thought I would miss that.
So Fox turns the television off just as David comes into the living room and David sounds jovial anyway. They embrace as Fox seemly has a plan for something and we cut back to into the cockpit of the Fortress as Preston Vogel is standing guard as we see the Cyberbots doing their jobs. They are the least serious robots I have ever seen in my life as one of them has cyan blue trim and works like C3P0. So Preston pushes a button on the console and informs Hal that everything is in place as we see Hal in is console room with vampire like fingers and a red suit. He's at least 95 years old and only three years younger than Hulk Hogan today. He tells Preston that he doesn't want anyone compromising this test run today. Okay. Halcyon Renard is voiced by the late Robert Culp (passed away in 2010) and according to IMDB: Tall, slim and exceedingly good-looking American leading man Robert Culp, a former cartoonist in his teen years, appeared off-Broadway in the 1950s before settling into polished, clean-cut film leads and "other man" supports a decade later. Hitting the popular TV boards in the hip, racially ground-breaking espionage program "I Spy" (1965), he made a slick (but never smarmy), sardonic name for himself during his over five-decade career with his sly humor, casual banter and tongue-and-cheek sexiness. Though he had the requisite looks and smooth, manly appeal (not to mention acting talent) for superstardom, a cool but cynical and somewhat detached persona may have prevented him from attaining it full-out. He was born Robert Martin Culp on August 16, 1930, in Oakland California. The son of attorney Crozie Culp and his wife, Bethel Collins, who was employed at a Berkeley chemical company, he offset his only-child loneliness by playacting in local theater productions. Culp also showed a talent for art while young and earned money as a cartoonist for Bay Area magazines and newspapers in high school, but the fascination with becoming an actor proved much stronger. He attended Berkeley High School and graduated in 1947. The athletically-inclined Culp dominated at track and field events and, as a result, earned athletic scholarships to six different universities. He selected the relatively minor College of the Pacific in Stockton, California primarily because of its active theater department. Transferring to various other colleges of higher learning (including San Francisco State in 1949), he never earned a degree. After performing in some theatre in the San Francisco area, he moved to Seattle and then New York in 1951.
Studying under famed teacher Herbert Berghof and supporting himself during this time teaching speech and phonetics, Bob eventually found work on the theatre scene, making his 1963 Broadway debut (as Robert M. Culp) in "The Prescott Proposals" with Katharine Cornell. He eventually returned to Broadway with "Diary of a Scoundrel" starring Blanche Yurka and Roddy McDowall in 1956 and with a strong role in "A Clearing in the Woods" (alongside Kim Stanley) a year later. He earned an off-Broadway Obie Award for his very fine work in "He Who Gets Slapped" in 1956, and also appeared in the plays "Daily Life" and "Easter". Gracing a few live-TV dramas during his New York days, he returned to his native California for his first major TV role. It was an auspicious one as post-Civil War Texas Ranger "Hoby Gilman" in the western series "Trackdown" (1957). He earned widespread attention in the series that based many of its stories from actual Texas Ranger files, and the show itself received the official approval not only of the Rangers themselves but by the State of Texas. The series led to a CBS spin-off of its own: "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958), which made a TV star out of Steve McQueen. From there, Culp guested on a number of series dramas: "Bonanza" (1959), "The Rifleman" (1958), "Rawhide" (1959), "The Detectives" (1959), "Ben Casey" (1961), "The Outer Limits" (1963), "Naked City" (1958) and "Combat!" (1962). He also starred in the two-part Disney family-styled program "Sammy the Way Out Seal" (1962), which was subsequently released as a feature in Europe. He and Patricia Barry played the hapless parents of precocious Bill Mumy and Michael McGreevey whose "adopted" pet animal unleashes major chaos in their suburban neighborhood. During this time, Bob began to seek lead and supporting work in films.
Despite his co-starring with Cliff Robertson, Rod Taylor and the very perky Jane Fonda (as her straight-laced boyfriend) in the sparkling Broadway-based sexcapade Sunday in New York (1963); playing Robertson's naval mate in the popular John F. Kennedy biopic PT 109 (1963); recreating the legendary "Wild Bill" Hickok in the western tale The Raiders (1963); and heading up the adventurous cast of the Ivan Tors' African yarn Rhino! (1964) (which included Harry Guardino and the very fetching British import Shirley Eaton), Culp wasn't able to make a serious dent in the medium. TV remained his best arena and gave him more lucrative offers, professionally. It rewarded him quite richly in 1965 with the debonair series lead "Kelly Robinson", a jet-setting, pro-circuit tennis player who leads a double life as an international secret agent in "I Spy" (1965). Running three seasons, Culp co-starred with fellow secret agent Bill Cosby, who, as "Alexander Scott", posed as Culp's tennis trainer. The role was tailor-made for the suave, Ivy-League-looking actor. He looked effortlessly cool posing in sunglasses amid the posh continental settings and remained handsomely unflinching in the face of danger. It was the first U.S. prime-time network drama to feature an African-American actor in a full-out starring role and the relationship between the two meshed perfectly and charismatically on screen. Both were nominated for acting Emmys in all three of its seasons, with Cosby coming out the victor each time. Filmed on location in such cities as Hong Kong, Acapulco and Tokyo, Culp also wrote and directed certain episodes of the show He also met his third wife, the gorgeous Eurasian actress France Nuyen, while on the set. They married in 1967 but divorced three years later.
At this stage, the actor already had four children (by second wife, sometime actress Nancy Ashe). Following the series' demise, Culp took on perhaps his most-famous and controversial film role as Natalie Wood's husband "Bob" in the titillating but ultimately teasing "flower power" era film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), with Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon as the other-half couple who examine the late 60s "free love" idea of wife-swapping. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards (two went to supporting actors Gould and Cannon). The movie did not reignite Culp's popularity on the large screen, but it did lead to his rather strange pairing with buxom Raquel Welch in the violent-edged western Hannie Caulder (1971) and a reunion with his "I Spy" (1965) pal Cosby in the far-more entertaining Hickey & Boggs (1972), which reestablished their great tongue-in-cheek rapport as two weary-eyed private eyes. Culp also directed the film while his real-life wife, actress Sheila Sullivan, played his screen wife as well. The late 1970s produced a flood of routine mini-movies and B-pictures, the latter including Inside Out (1975), Sky Riders (1976), Breaking Point (1976), The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday (1976), Flood! (1976) (TV), Goldengirl (1979) and Hot Rod (1979) (TV). While he remained a sturdy and standard presence in such mini-movies as Houston, We've Got a Problem (1974) (TV), Spectre (1977) (TV) and Calendar Girl Murders (1984) (TV), his better TV-movie roles were in A Cold Night's Death (1973) (TV), Outrage (1973) (TV), A Cry for Help (1975) (TV) and as "Lyle Pettyjohn" in the acclaimed mini-series sequel "Roots: The Next Generations" (1979). Bob returned to series TV as stern "CIA Chief Bill Maxwell", whose job was to protect handsome Robert Redford lookalike William Katt, who starred as an ersatz "The Greatest American Hero" (1981). The show lasted three seasons.
Other series guest spots, both comedic and dramatic, included "Hotel" (1983), "Highway to Heaven" (1984), "The Golden Girls" (1985) and an episode of his old buddy's show "The Cosby Show" (1984). He was also a guest murderer in three of the "Columbo" episodes. Although he was relegated to appearing in such film fodder as Turk 182! (1985), Big Bad Mama II (1987) and Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog (1990), the 1990s offered him one of his best film roles in years as the ill-fated President in the Denzel Washington/Julia Roberts political thriller The Pelican Brief (1993). A year later, he again reteamed with Cosby in the TV-movie I Spy Returns (1994) (TV). Culp became very active in the 1960s Civil Rights movement and later became a prominent face in local civic causes, joining in a lawsuit to cease construction of an elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo and accusing officials there of mistreatment. In the long run, however, the construction was given the green light. Culp also married a fifth time to Candace Faulkner and, by her, had daughter Samantha Culp in 1982. Older sons Jason Culp (born 1961) and Joseph Culp (born 1963) became actors, while another son, Joshua Culp (born 1958), entered the visual effects field. Daughter Rachel, an outré clothing designer for rock stars, was born in 1964. In later years, Culp could be seen occasionally as Ray Romano's father-in-law on the hugely popular "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1996). His last film, the family drama The Assignment (2010), was unreleased at the time of his death. On March 24, 2010, the 79-year-old Culp collapsed from an apparent heart attack while walking near the lower entrance to Runyon Canyon Park, a popular hiking area in the Hollywood Hills. Found by a hiker, Culp was transported to a nearby hospital where he died from the head injuries he sustained in the fall. Five grandchildren also survive. He started his career in You Are There in 1953; followed by Studio One as a Male Telescreen voice. Gargoyles is his DTVA debut and only appearance. The Assignment as Blakeseley is his final credit. He has 167 acting credits; 56 Self credits, seven writing credits (Saturn Awards, The Greatest American Hero, I Spy, Operation Breadbasket, The Rifleman, Cain's Hundred and Trackdown), four director credits (Hickey & Boggs) and one producer credit to his resume.
So we get a longish flight sequence with dust as Fortress 2 goes into the air as we see Preston doing nothing and the gray/cyan blue robot is gone. We see orange robots fiddling with stuff as the airship thrusts forward and we head into the NYC skyline. On a rocky perch in the foreground we see Goliath and Eliza together. Eliza asks if this is even necessary and Goliath proclaims that there is no underestimating David Xanatos for being scum because Goliath remembers Awakening all to well. Now remember the final episode of Teddy Ruxpin I ranted on where it was a clip show. Well; the next three minutes or so is clips from Awakening; only the continuity here is dead on. Yeah. I'm skipping this scene because it's basically footage from a previous episode I ranted on. So we head back to reality (no, not really) as Goliath proclaims that no one knows what Xanatos has planned for this one as he wants to tail behind it to make sure nothing bad happens. Eliza understands as Goliath flies into the air and follows the Fortress II. We get a Mode 7 like sky background as Eliza tells Goliath to be careful. Listen; I get that critics want movement in every scene; but it makes no sense to move the sky when there are no clouds in them. So we go to Goliath following Fortress II and then inside as Preston notices the console beeping. He pushes the button and there is a computer screen showing Goliath flying as Preston has no clue what it is on the radio to Hal so Hal claims that this is not unexpected and wants the Cyberbots to take over security measures. So we cut to outside where Goliath is flying and the tailsection of the fortress opens up and out comes yellow robots who was shaped like really bad hornets. That amused me as they shoot more lasers at Goliath and some of them hit as Goliath's acting is so bored that it's clear Keith David did not want to do this episode. The "this stings" line was just plain off to me. So we get about a dozen or more Hornobots (I'm shocked Hal didn't name them as such) and they finally shoot enough lasers to knock Goliath out and Goliath free falls.
So the Hornobots swoop down and invoke the TENTACLES OF DEATH to wrap around Goliath's limb and they haul him back into Fortress II. So we scene change as Goliath is in cage and Preston clearly forgot to electify the bars as Goliath easily breaks through the bars; but the green robots of doom show up and shock Goliath again. The doors open and in comes Hal and Preston as we discover that Hal is in a machine like wheelchair which looks similar to Professor Xaiver's in X-Men. So we talk as Hal accuses Goliath of being Xanato's Gen-U-Tech creation which Goliath denies. Okay; Goliath wins that one. So we go back and forth in this one as Hal continues to show footage of Demona and Goliath breaking into Fortress I and destroying it. The story of this is: Goliath claims that he was duped by Xanatos; but Hal doesn't care because Goliath won't admit to his guilt of causing Fortress I to crash and destroyed it. And since Demona is no longer available to take responsibility for causing most of the damage; it falls on Goliath. Okay; I don't get the point of Goliath acting like he did nothing or was duped because his whining just annoys me and makes me feel sympathy for Hal in general. So Goliath yells that a gargoyle roars and he breaks through the prison cage and heads for Hal as Hal proclaims that he's trembling in his chair. Then we get a really stupid spot as Goliath merely stands there as Hal uses his chair to shoot a laser which nails Goliath and causes him to drop dead like a fly. Yeah; it's okay to destroy two green robots; but stand there for no reason when a human is in a chair. I mean; you couldn't animate Goliath rushing towards Hal and Hal shoots the laser while Goliath was in mid air? Damn; I do not like this episode now.
Preston apologizes for his mistake to not use a high security cell. Hal is happy for this refreshing act of responsibility and wants him to correct the mistake; but Preston's cell phone rings. Hal decides to let Preston have his call as he drives away stage left. As the doors close; Preston puts his cell phone into the conveniently placed computer disk slot and it shows the living room with...Fox?! Huh? So they exchange notes on the Swiss Bank Account as Preston proclaims that the plan is a go with one slight difference; which Fox dislikes. Preston claims that this will be a pleasant change as some orange robots arrive to grab Goliath as Preston calls him the perfect one to take the blame to end the segment nine and a half minutes in. Yes folks; this episode is going to be mostly talking and finger pointing. Why did they bother with this is beyond me?! At least the animation hasn't let me down...yet.
After the commercial break; we head to the maximum security cell with more green robots and it looks exactly like the prison cell from the first pow-wow between Hal and Goliath; only Goliath is chained up as well. And damn; the background animation is horrible here. This company cannot animate moving background characters well at all. So we have reduced ourselves to Macbeth style of chain gangs. I am not going to bother recapping this crap because the same stupid crap that if Goliath was the smart one; he would just apologize and hope Hal takes the bait. But no; Goliath continues to blame Xanatos for everything and Hal doesn't buy it and rightfully so; turning him full babyface now. Apparently; Owen Burnett and Doctor Sevarius worked for Hal as well and then got taken by David Xanatos later on. Doctor Sevarius makes sense; but in terms of overall storyline later on, Owen makes less sense. So yeah; it ends with Goliath asking what Hal is going to do and Hal doesn't say a word. Lovely. Thankfully; there is a saving grace to this stupidity as we head to the gym as David Xanatos and Fox are competing in judo on the pretty blue mats. There's your 22 minutes right there folks. They use some of the lamest grunts I have heard this side of Valkyrie Profile Lenneth as David kicks Fox in the leg and she goes down. David asks if she has second thoughts as Fox somehow gets behind him and does a hammer lock as David points out that Hal is not young and Fox claims that he'll manage as she does this back flip with David in tow which somehow ends with David on his belly and Fox on top of him; which defies the laws of psychics; but still looks cool. Apparently; Fox proclaims that Cyberbiotics is hers by morning as David's cell phone rings on the table. David goes to answer it and it's for Fox; who has test results from her "doctor". Heh; Preston is a "doctor" now. A "doctor" in looking like a shape shifter. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm.. So Fox goes over and tells David that it slipped her mind. So she takes the call and we scene change to outside with Fortress II still over the city.
So we head inside the cockpit as we discover that the gray robot with cyan blue trim is V7-R9 because Preston is voice overriding the robot for a matrix upgrade. The robot stops and nods it's head before shutting itself off. Preston opens the back panel of the robot and inserts a red chip (with a white I on it) to the bottom slot and closes the panel. He tells the robot to turn on and it has blue sparks and red eyes. This is not a good sign here as he tells the robot to resume normal function and walks to the computer console with the other robots. I was hoping this would be a long sequence of Preston doing this to all the robots and then finally starting the plan; which would be a better choice than going back to Goliath and Hal finger pointing at each other and in Goliath's case, looking like a total idiot. However; since "morality rules" are the story of the 1990's we continue the Goliath/Hal nonsense because someone in creative thinks this is amusing. Considering that they needed a flashback of Awakening just to get it to the proper running time; that's a sign that this episode was sent off to die. Hal claims that we are making progress. Ummm; no you are not Hal. Let's return to the cockpit as V7-R9 is malfunctioning with blue sparks around his head as he walks around and the blue lightning shoots to the next robot and then the next robot does it to the next robot; and so on. Excellent; we are finally making progress in this story. So we head to Preston Vogel's office as Preston is sitting at his desk with a laptop computer which shows a progressing red bar. So we head back and Goliath takes responsibility for his own action 12 and half minutes in. Good; this was what he should have done about five minutes ago. Now the rest of this episode won't suck the life out of me. Hal pretty much accepts it (thank you Hal; we have progression in this plot now) as he talks about Antasisa and Janine Renard as it's clear now that he's talking about Fox and his wife. Goliath mentions the angel of the night (Demona) and Hal realizes that he does have some feelings for being hurt. So the gray robot walks in and uses his lightning head stuff on the green robots as Goliath wonders if this normally happens.
Hal proclaims that it doesn't and he calls Preston from his office and wants to know why the Cyberbots are doing this and Preston claims that the Cyberbots have been taken over the ship and won't respond to normal commands. They changed the heading of the ship and it's heading for the Cyberbiotics Tower; which Preston blames Goliath for because he brought a virus onto the ship. This is so stupid even Hal wonder how that is possible and Preston has no idea how. Here's the problem with this: If Goliath brought a virus aboard; don't you think that Hal would have his robot frisk him beforehand? I mean; if they found nothing, then how? Preston tells us that they must escape in seven minutes and Hal needs to get to the pod within six minutes; which by then; he'll use the access code and blow up Fortress II because it's all his fault for allowing it to happen as he apologizes. Plus; Fortress II will destroy his fortune and Preston is blowing up the fortress because they cannot get everyone out of the tower in time as Preston apologizes to Hal and that ends the segment 14 minutes in. Sigh.
After the commercial break; we see Fortress 2 flying towards the tower as we head back inside the holding cells as Goliath tries to reason with Hal on claiming that Preston is lying; but Hal doesn't really care either way because it's a moot point now. Goliath breaks through the chains and proclaims that he might have destroyed Fortress I; but Hal can allow him to save Fortress 2. Hal ponders this thought over and we head to the launch pad as we get a boring sequence of Preston going to a circular pod and opening the door and heading inside. He sits down as the pod door closes and turns on the monitor and we have less than six minutes left. We cut back to Hal and he proclaims that heaven shall help us all and he opens the cage door for real. Goliath tries to get out; but the thunder bolts are shot from the green robots and Goliath is taken down. Hal tries to control the robots; but nothing is happening. Goliath then pounces and we have Goliath and the robots fighting each other which has been done to death for so long now that it doesn't have the amusing value anymore and certainly not on the level of the "human" Demona/Eliza brawl in the last episode. Goliath uses the gray robot as a shield and then takes a green robot and turns the laser onto it. Yawn. The doors open and more robots come in; so Hal uses the red laser on his wheelchair (Ummm; wasn't the laser blue when he shot it on Goliath? And it cannot be a babyface/heel thing because Hal has not turned heel yet in this episode and isn't supposed to.) and destroys the robots coming in. Hal proclaims that they have no time to waste as they must get to the command center. Hal drives out with Goliath running like a dog following him. So we head back to Preston with lots of color monitors showing Goliath and Hal in the hallway as Preston proclaims that they are wrong in thinking that they will make it to the command center and stop this nonsense. So Preston goes to voice override as the robot all allow Hal to move as long as they nudge him enough to make it to the space pods. I know this is clearly BS&P'ed because if Preston is going to turn on Hal; wouldn't he be wanting to have the robot kill him?
Anyhow; Goliath is supposed to be stopped as the robots block his way; but Goliath continues to kick the robots' ass. This goes on for a while as Hal blows this off because this is intolerable since they cannot fight all the robots one at a time and must kill them all at once. He shows a screen where there is a power source where that could destroy the robots. This sounds awfully contrived since I thought the robots were portable. Goliath asks who will change the coordinates to the ship and Hal states to leave that to him. He wheels his wheelchair to the north while Goliath goes south. We get a pointless shot of Fortress II heading for the tower to waste more time. So we head to Goliath in the power source room as the Hornobots are annoying him again; so he rips open some guard rails and smashes them into the face; including one that is an FPS shot. That was great. More pointless shots of Fortress II heading for the tower which we don't see in the first shot; but in the seconds. Back to the power source room and more Hornobots shoot lasers at Goliath. Goliath tries to throw the bots into each other; but that doesn't work. Hey idiot; throw them into the power source? It's RIGHT THERE! GOD! So we get more robots and laser fire as we head to the hallway with Hal advancing forward. More gray robots as Hal puts on the glass dome which only protects his upper body and we shoot red lasers. Meanwhile; as he is progressing, Preston is pleading with him to turn left to the escape pods; but Hal no sells. Preston proclaims that he cannot have Hal's death on his conscience; but he cannot hurt innocents either. Hal doesn't care because despite having two minutes before explosions occurs and one minute before the place sinks; he built this with Preston and if it goes down; then he goes down with it which makes Preston look worried now. This makes sense because Hal has pointed out that if the ship explodes; his fortune is gone as well. So we head back to the power source and more robot ass kicking as Goliath finally takes a gray robot and throws it into the power source in the middle and the whole thing explodes on cue. Took him long enough. This episode is too short to be a 22 minute episode.
All the robot shut off on cue as we head for the hallway as Hal is cheering victory as he opens the door and heads into the cockpit to the double computer as he goes to the left side noticing that Preston gave him 45 seconds left; but then Preston enters blowing him off as he takes the right side. Hal takes this as a sign that he didn't let him down and Preston actually doesn't officially turn on him. Wow; that was different. Since riding the Fortress 2 manually takes two people; they have eight seconds to make a sharp turn and both of them do exactly that as we get the full throttle signal and they manage to steep the ship around the tower without further incident and hiding the ship in the process. Wow; you know this animation studio sucks when they have to do something so Mighty Hercules like. So Hal breathes a sigh of relief as Goliath rushes in and goes into white eyes mode and forces Preston against the console. Hal tries to plea to Goliath to stop because the crisis has been averted. Goliath no sell as Preston apologizes for accusing Goliath of trying to overtake the ship which Goliath still no sells and then Preston finally stops and states that he wants to make a full confession which we will never hear despite Preston turning around. WHAT? He couldn't just say "I was working with your daughter sir" and have Hal shocked beyond belief? Who is booking this crap? So we head to Hal's office as we exchange notes to waste time as Hal blows off humanity for being traitors; but Goliath defends Preston because Hal won't take responsibility for depending on automations way too much since only living things can make decisions. Okay; this is fine, but this is like the same moral in From Here To Machinery; except TaleSpin did this a million times better and didn't have ten minutes of blame game going on in the background. Hal proclaims that he has a lot to consider; but he knows that Goliath has repaid his debt in full and they are even. Goliath claims that they are not; that they are friends and they shake hands to seal the deal; which is the best part of Goliath/Hal I should note.
Anyhow; we head outside as Fortress II flies around and we pan over to Goliath flying away from the ship. So we see a handglider flying high into the sky and land on Fortress II. Oh swell; now we are playing CDS in a Gargoyles episode. Lovely! So we see a black female ninja with Fox's hair so it's clearly Fox in ninja gear. She explodes a sphere which contains green acid on the roof and it eats through the metal. Fox Ninja jumps into the hole she made and is in the hallway. She walks to the cockpit as we see Hal's wheelchair and he turns around and addresses her as Jeanine. Yeah; Hal is Fox's daughter. Jeanine kisses her old man and they walk out of the cockpit towards the roof with the hole in it as Hal blows her off for being a dishonest person who married David Xanatos who is evil. Fox claims that merely asking for it is no fun to her (which is true, sadly) as Hal cannot understand why she would choose fun over honor. Fox then teases tying the rope to Hal and apparently try to kill him by hanging him; but she climbs up and informs Hal that he's going to be a grandfather because Fox is having a baby BABEE! Okay; this could work out. She kisses Hal who smiles throughout the climb out by Fox as then he is shocked. That was weird. So Fox handglides away into the foreground as the sun rises and then we see blue skies as the sun goes up and down during the whole sequence for absolutely no reason whatsoever (Hong Ying makes Sae Rom look like Disney Feature now after this episode) and that ends the episode at 21:15 approx. The ending was good; the beginning was fine, but the middle part was insufferable as the animation was horrible and the entire Hal/Goliath finger pointing was absolutely pointless to me. Goliath looked like a total idiot and Halycon looked really weak here. Golem will be better than this...I hope. ** (40%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Wow; when I saw Halycon and Goliath in the cage doing the blame game spot for at least five minutes, I knew this episode was going to stink. The beginning of it was all right in spite of the padding with the flashback from Awakening but at least it made sense to use the footage and they did it right unlike "The Mystery Unravels" in Teddy Ruxpin when they reanimated every flashback scene and all of them looked stupid. Let me say this: I muted the entire Goliath/Halycon stuff because I did not want to see two living things whine at each other about who is to blame and about integrity when it makes Goliath look like an idiot and makes Halycon project himself into Goliath. I mean; if you are a CEO of a company, how can you have integrity when profit is the only way to stay in business? It doesn't make sense and none of it was funny and I was glad they ditched it at the 12 and half minute mark. The rest of it was basically okay storyline wise and even the ending handshake was great; but the animation was really horrible in this one (capped with the bobbing sun at the end of the episode. So Rocket Robin Hood-equse). Hong Ying makes Sae Rom look like Disney Feature and it's still better than Teddy Ruxpin. The setup to Preston Vogel's aborted heel turn took forever and there was no sense of danger at the end with the ship heading to the tower because the animators cannot animate to save their lives. The ending to this was good because Fox as a ninja is awesome and she fighting David in judo was great when she did the backwards physics defying move on David. That was the best part of this episode; so it wasn't a total write off. Overall; this was a bad episode with crappy animation; an insufferable portion of blame game in the middle; a great judo scene and ending, and a good handshake finish.
So next weekend is the start of four straight weekends doing three episodes apiece. So I'll be finishing up disc two of this volume with Revelations as Matt Bluestone returns for more conspiracy theory action; then it's Double Jeopardy and the debut of Thailog. Yes folks; TNA is not the only one who has character names spelled backwards. And then to finish off the disc; it's Upgrade as THE PACK~ is back and Goliath is seriously considering a second in command to replace Hudson. Well; I knew the television watching would catch up to the old bastard. So....
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.