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Gargoyles: Shadows Of The Past
Reviewed: 10/05/2013
Avalon Tour Prologue: The Rise Of The Awakening Zombies!
Welcome to the Avalon World Tour ladies and gentlemen (and Gargoyles purists) as we begin this lovely tour with a stop at Castle Wyvern just after Hakon and company destroyed everyone. Can Goliath finally put his revenge attitude to rest for good? Or will the ghosts of betrayal continue to haunt his very existence? Well; let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode is written and story edited by Michael Reaves. The teleplay is done by Michael Reaves and Brynne Stephens. Animation is done by Walt Disney Animation Japan with additional services done by Jade Animation, Nakamura Productions, Takahashi Productions, Light Foot, Studio Robin and Studio Cats. I also note that this episode was directly done in Japan like the pilot is which is downright odd considering that Avalon and City of Stone were done the usual way and done by overseas animators outside of Japan. I'm guessing this episode was done with Awakening beforehand which indicates that some planning was done by the creators.
Opening Moment #1: Recap of Awakening Part 2 when Goliath is pissed off at Captain/Hakon for betraying him; with Princess Katherine at the cliff. Then we focus on the ending shots of Avalon Part Three where Tom is shouting that Avalon takes them where they need to be; not to where they want to go.
We begin this one at the cliffs where the ocean surf is pounding on them. So we pan east as thunder storms are ravaging and we see the boat coming in containing Goliath, Eliza, Bronx and Angela. So we do a sequence where they are heading towards a cave and Angela comments about it being always summer in Avalon. Umm; even summer can have storms like this, mostly late summer. Then near the cave; there are some green tornadoes. Now; Eliza asked where they were and Goliath just claims that he is at his home. Huh? How does he know that? Anyhow; we get the boat spinning around for a bit on the rough seas; and a thunderbolt that misses the boat by a mile. The boat finally manages to get in between the tornadoes and into the cave. The boat rides and lands on the beach inside the cave. Eliza calls this an E-ticket ride as Angela wants to wait out the storm and then return to Avalon to try again. Ummm; didn't you hear what Tom said madam? Goliath points out that they were at low tide and when high tide comes the cavern will be under water; so they must move to higher ground. Then it starts to rain which Eliza claims that they are under water either way. Heh. So we walk up the beaten path as Eliza nearly slips and must hold onto the walls to steady herself. So Eliza ducks a rock and then we head out of the cave to a look off spot looking over the sea. Goliath turns around and looks up and apparently sees the site where Castle Wyvern is. Eliza jumps onto Angela's back (lucky her...) and they all climb up and now Bronx almost slips. So we head to the top of the cliff as everyone climbs up and over. Goliath looks around and is in shock because he can see Castle Wyvern in front of him for all to see. So they are at the site in 995 ADish. He also sees a lot of crumbled stones in the background as Eliza asks what is wrong and Goliath states that it's nothing but shadows. We see a lizard walking around alone as Bronx sniffs the ground like Scooby Doo. So we look around for a bit as Goliath notices a large tree with a hole on the bottom of it as he addresses it as where the rookery was; and Angela was an egg at the time.
Angela walks forward as Goliath explains that he was hatched here along with his brothers and sisters inside the rookery and Angela was an egg before the Magus and Katherine took them away to Kenneth's kingdom. Then Angela proclaims that this is beautiful as more lightning strikes and we hear a ghostly voice which is calling out for Goliath; and it sounds like...Demona? Bronx howls and Goliath is in such shock that he cannot move at all; as if he were a stone statue. Then a thunderbolt strikes and it hits the hallowed tree and sets it on fire (Avalon Part Three with Magus' magic stick). All Demona sezs is to come to her as Angela shouts to Goliath that they cannot stay here. Eliza asks Goliath about some caves and Goliath snaps out of his space out state and we walk towards the entrance to a cave. Goliath stops for a moment to get his bearings back and then they walk inside where the cave is all neon greenish in color. What is the obsession with neon green in this cartoon? It's like Quack Pack with the purple color. Goliath notices a broken ax on the ground and inspects it as he explains that this is the cave of the Archmage and apparently; Hakon knew about this place. Goliath relates the story of having to choose Princess Katherine's life over revenge which Angela points out that this was the right choice in hindsight. Goliath still wanted revenge which surprises Angela; and then we hear Captain Of The Guard and Hakon yelling blame at each other in which the voice echoes inside Goliath's head. Bronx growls as Angela and Eliza are not thrilled to be seeing this as we get more lightning; and Eliza calls this creepier than the morgue at midnight. No? Really?! Angela claims that Bronx senses something and then we see Angela and Bronx walking over to another entrance and noticing the door trim is filled with strange hieroglyphics. Eliza comes over to feel the stone so to speak. Goliath explains that this is the lair of the Archmage as Angela asks what the cravings mean as Goliath looks at the picture of the Archmage attacking the gargoyles with "Lightning Come"; and he hears voices in his head and sees himself in the hieroglyphics coming alive and menacing. He is spaced out again.
Goliath points to the door trim and asks what they see and Angela claims that it's a wizard attacking a gargoyle; then Angela asks what he saw and Goliath stops spacing out and claims that he saw old memories and it's nothing. He turns around and walks away as Angela thinks that he is not telling the truth. Geez; you THINK?! Eliza assures her that Goliath is seeing bad memories that the old wounds are bleeding as bright as the new ones; and that he'll be all right. When you are seeing and hearing things for no reason; you are clearly not all right Eliza. Angela and Eliza turn around and walk towards Goliath who is with Bronx near the entrance as the storm is dying down. Eliza claims that they don't have to stay here and Goliath only states that too much of his past is alive right now. Everyone walks out of the cave except for Goliath who walks forward and then sees Hakon and Captain laughing and taunting him. Okay; Goliath has a clear chemical imbalance going on right now as Goliath goes into white eyes mode and rushes Angela and Eliza and pins them against a stone wall. Eliza and Angela plea and beg on cue as Goliath looks to be absolutely losing it and that ends the segment nearly nine minutes in. Wow; it took almost nine minutes for the episode to be exciting as most of this has been walking and voices inside Goliath's head. Not much to see here thus far...
After the commercial break; we return with Angela/Eliza being gargoyle handled by Goliath in white eyes mode and by Goliath's point of view, they are Hakon and Captain as Bronx rushes in from behind and tackles Goliath down to the ground as Eliza and Angela are free. Eliza and Angela sputter as Goliath is down and trying to recover. Angela teases being mad; but just looks sharp as Eliza kneels down beside Goliath and just sezs Goliath; but Goliath's point of view, he sees Hakon and Angela turns into Captain as they are taunting him despite Angela and Eliza not doing so. Goliath gets up and shoves everyone aside and runs into the Archmage cave proclaiming that they are in danger while he is still around. The other babyfaces run into the cave trying to call for Goliath; but no dice as Goliath into Archmage's lair. We pan up and see neon green magic energy pulsing on the ceiling of the entrance inside the cave. Angela and Eliza make it to the door trim and tell Bronx to find Goliath at once. Bronx growls and runs down the steps as Eliza and Angela follow as we go towards the Archmage's lair and see Goliath walking as the Demona voice comes back and Keith David's acting is awesome here as he yells at them to stay away as we see the ghosts of Demona, Othello, and Desdemona taunting Goliath which makes no sense since Desdemona and Othello don't really hate Goliath; well, Desdemona never did. Othello did for a time at least as Angela, Bronx and Eliza run in and Goliath invokes the LEGAL HAND OF GOD and tells them to stay away because he might hurt them. Angela cannot believe that he would do this and Goliath yells at them to go away because he cannot trust what he sees right now and runs off. The other babyfaces follow as we pan up to the images of Demona, Othello and Desdemona instantly changing to Hakon and Captain on cue. Huh; so we have a ghost shape shifter in our mists. Hmmmm; I wonder if...Nah! So we have a large fissure leading to a bottomless pit as Goliath is running on the narrow ledges and the other babyfaces are following as the ledge is getting narrower and narrower by the second forcing Angela and Eliza to slide to one side. Lovely!
So Goliath runs and then stops and sees a white ball of light; and panics so much that he steps to his left and then the edge breaks and he starts to fall. Bronx runs in and chomps on Goliath's arm to stop him from falling and sadly; no blood is shown. Angela and Bronx grab onto Goliath's other arm and we struggle for a while; as Goliath watches and sees Hakon and Captain taunting him calling him a murderer, a killer and a betrayer which is hilarious considering that Hakon and Captain were the one who betrayed Goliath and killed themselves over an argument in that order. Heck; we even saw it during the recap. Anyhow; Goliath panics and Bronx is forced to let go and Goliath freefalls and takes some of the nastiest bumps this side of Kit Cloudkicker. We are talking rag doll physics in action. Angela is this close to crying as Goliath falls into the pit out of sight; but Eliza wants to climb down after him. So that is what they do and it looks more awkward to see gargoyles climbing down than climbing up. We cut to Goliath in the fissure as he claws the wall and does a flip bump over the mouth of a cave which looks like a gargoyle's skull and manages to grab onto the ledge and pants heavily. Goliath gets himself up and goes inside as we cut to a large stone structure surrounded by light and lots of floor stone spikes. This is clearly to keep Mega Man away; even though Dr. Wiley is not here. We hear Hakon's voice claiming that they have him since the ancient magic is strongest here. So we get some closeups of the structure which has lots of carvings and we pan northeast to see the two green neon lights as we discover that they are the spirits of Hakon and Captain; thus they are legit dead, but neither in heaven nor hell. Goliath is shocked; but walks forwards towards the stairs as Hakon proclaims that if there is any fight left in him; this would take care of it. Goliath makes it to the structure and touches the stone walls which contain almost the same language as the ancient Illiops; and they are lit purple. Geez; if you are going to go for neon green; go for neon green then. You just killed the continuity you were shooting for here.
So Goliath turns around as we tease the cave caving in; but the stone stuff crumbles from the ceiling and floor and goes to the ground and then the whole thing reassembles into stone gargoyles with no eyes. Goliath cannot believe this and this is impossible. Yeah; you saw them assemble before your own eyes and you are acting like they are illusions. The literal living stone gargoyles stalk Goliath as I realize that it's even funnier that people thought that the gargoyles "stone transformation" was original; when it was lifted directly from an episode of Gummi Bears where King Gregor gets a ugly imp statue as a gift from Duke Igthorn. Yeah. This ends the segment almost 14 minutes in. Well; this is more exciting than the first segment, but that's mostly due to Goliath's extreme paranoia more than anything else.
After the commercial break; we see the stone gargoyles stalk Goliath and they call him a murderer, killer and betrayer as Goliath pleas because he tried to save this clan and not destroy it. No selling abounds as Hakon and Captain put their spirits into two gargoyles and then they kick Goliath's ass as the stone walls of the monolith glow more and more purple (well; the language anyway). They pound Goliath and he flies into the steps as Hakon and Captain exit the gargoyle bodies and then have an argument as Hakon wants to kill Goliath outright; but Captain wants him alive because if he's dead, then he's useless to serve their purpose. Hakon decides to relent (he's catching onto listening Captain's advice I see) and decides on a proper final touch as the stone gargoyles move again and we see a stone version of...Demona? Oh; now THAT is really throwing salt into the wounds of Goliath's memories now isn't it? Now since I have already seen Demona countless times in various episodes; you would think that Goliath would see that this is all just a trick; but Goliath is so paranoid that he cannot think straight at all. And to think "Nothing To Fear" from Ducktales did a much better job in asserting fears onto the nephews, Scrooge and even Doofus because a stone Demona should have given all of this away as a scam. Stone Cold Demona wants to offer him the same gift as she was given which is death in roundabout terms as they play a shoving game for a bit. And then Goliath finally stops selling and realizes what I have known before this happened. As if the fact that they are living stone statues should have tipped Goliath off. Maybe if the paranoia had Goliath seeing living flesh gargoyles; this would have made perfect sense, but we never saw that. That is an ultra stupid logic break and it ruined an otherwise great psychology that the episode was shooting for. Demona forms a spiked mace in her arm (a clear giveaway that it's Hakon's doing) as Goliath blows them all off as not real and starts kicking the living stone gargoyles' ass.
All the statues crumble as apparently; the magic stone structure is gaining more and more purple letters as the green spirits come down in front of Goliath and reveal themselves as Hakon and Captain. So they blow off Goliath for falling to their deaths which is false of course as Hakon states that this place gives them the strength to stay here; although Captain thinks it's the strength of their hatred for Goliath. I really love after all the death references; Goliath proclaims that they fell to their doom. BS&P RULEZ~! Apparently; we discover that their plan was to make Goliath fight so much that the magical structure is glowing purple on and the magic makes Goliath double over in pain as he is selling like a madman. Hakon explains that the structure will drain Goliath of his life energy and restore their own life energy which means that the structure is a big ass Drain spell. Hakon walks over to the structure and touches it where Goliath continues to sell pain. Hakon proclaims that he can feel again which makes no sense since he is still a ghost and he should be saying this after his body turns solid again later on in the sequence. He runs to Goliath and shoulder blocks him down to the ground. Goliath appears to be having a heart attack or a baby. Can male gargoyles bear children like seahorses...*cough*Mr. Baldwin*cough*! Hakon proclaims that he has dreamed of kicking Goliath's ass as he tries the punch; but Goliath dodges in a stupid way to allow Hakon to judo throw him down to the ground. Captain looks at his solid hands as we head outside to see Angela, Eliza and Bronx have finally climbed down to the skull entrance and they hear sparks and see lights as they wonder what is going on here. Bronx growls and we head back as Goliath is actually legit dead as he's a spirit now. Hakon laughs and taunts Goliath proclaiming that they are alive now and he'll haunt this place forevermore. Goliath rushes Hakon; but since he's a ghost now, he goes right through Hakon and drops on his ass again. Goliath sees Captain asking him about life without honor and Captain looks at his hands and proclaims that he cannot let this happen again; and he turns on Hakon! Ooooookkkkaaayyy!
Captain forces Hakon up the stair and into the middle of the magical structure which looks like Stonehenge in Scotland. Goliath watches on in shock as Hakon and Captain are in the middle and Hakon protests that the fool has broken the life lines. Yeah; we are really turning into a Batman episode now. The babyfaces all run in as Hakon and Captain fight like pro wrestlers as they blow each other off and Goliath orders everyone to get back as we get the WHITE FLASH OF DEATH and the whole structure is destroyed in a really longish sequence which ends with the rumble of the structure and a partial amount of the ceiling collapsing on Hakon and Captain. We cut to the babyfaces just outside the place as it's clear Hakon and Captain are dead again as Goliath advances towards the rubble as Eliza asks who they were. Goliath states that one of them was his enemy and one of them is his friend as a white light arises from the rubble and it's Captain as he thanks Goliath for freeing him from the shackles of hate and guilt. He then disappears in a flash of light in a great spot as Captain has finally stopped acting like a bystander and put Hakon in his place. Sadly; we will see him again and I think this is the last time we will ever see of Captain in this show. I should note that Greg regretted booking an ax in this episode instead of a mace which would have been symbolic for the entire episode. Not a huge loss since Zombie Demona did that for us anyway. Eliza thinks this is going to be a long story which begs the question: So Goliath never told this part of the story with Hakon and Captain? That's stupid as Goliath proclaims that it's hundreds of years long and wants to leave this place as we go outside of the cave and it's morning and the gargoyles get in position for their poses and turn to stone. Eliza sits down beside them and we head back to the collapsed cave to hear Hakon screaming as his ghost is trapped inside what is left of the magical structure as he is screaming about losing everything he wanted to hate and that ends the episode at 21:15 approx. Started off dull and boring for the first half of this; but once Goliath started grabbing Eliza and Angela; it turned out to be suspenseful and quite awesome as Captain finally broke free of being stupid and Zombie Demona was awesome in spite of her brief appearance. So what could have been a boring history lesson turned into something exciting; but Angela still has no character development yet. **** (80%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; there is not really much to say about this episode. The first half of this was fine; but it felt dull and boring with no real heat and great animation. It wasn't until Goliath starting snaps and seeing Hakon and Captain appear that it got really, really good and while this rant was really easy to write and there wasn't much to care about; I did love Captain's face turn on Hakon at the end which gave him the revenge he wanted. And while Goliath getting his revenge was never paid off, it was probably for the best since he at least got his friend Captain back to his senses to stop feeling guilty and to redeem himself which he did in spades. I am still waiting for Angela to do anything character development wise at this point and Bronx is a Zipper at this point too. I also loved Zombie Demona with the mace; but I wish the magical structure used neon green lettering when it glowed instead of purple since neon green was the colors they were shooting for in this episode. Overall; this was a slow starting episode that got better and better once Goliath really went bonkers. Which well exceeded my expectations. Although I was hoping that they would leave with the boat instead of just turning to stone. Oh well. Next up is the first official stop on the Avalon World Tour "Heritage" as we head to Canada! Yippee! I just hope it doesn't get screwed up along the way. So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.