Gargoyles Was Disney's Batman The Animated Series--Only Less Successful

 A month or so ago I watched Disney's series Gargoyles from 1994-97ish.  I did not watch it when it originally aired because I think it was on in the middle of the day and I was in high school/college, usually with a part-time job, so I was a bit busy.  And there was no way I could have gotten anyone to tape it for me even if I had wanted to watch it back then.  I think I watched a Toy Galaxy or some other YouTube show about it a couple years ago and it sounded interesting, so when I saw it on Disney+ and didn't really have anything better to watch, I said what the hell.

Jalapeno!

As the title of my entry says, the series seems like Disney's response to Batman the Animated Series, which had premiered over a year earlier.  BTAS was a cartoon but not really a kids show as it was kinda dark and gritty and had more adult issues.  It wasn't the campy POW! BAM! BOOF! stuff of Batman 66 or Superfriends.  In the same way, Gargoyles is dark and gritty and gets really too complicated for kids, despite that unlike BTAS, I don't think they ever aired it in prime-time on a major network.  I don't think Disney owned Marvel at this point, so to compete with BTAS, they had to make their own series about weird avengers of the night.  Weird avengers of the night who have bat-like wings that when they're not flying fold up into something like a cape.

The first five episodes basically make up the pilot, introducing us to the characters and situations.  In 994 (or 1000 years from the present of 1994) in Scotland there were a bunch of gargoyles who were statues by day but at night turned into fearsome monsters who protected a particular castle.  But then some Vikings attack and, aided by help within the castle, kill a lot of the gargoyles while they're stone.  Only 6 of them remain:  two who were outside the castle and four who were down in a basement as a punishment.  A spell gets put on them that they'll turn to stone until the castle rises above the clouds.

Fast-forward 1000 years and they suddenly awaken in the castle--which has been moved and rebuilt atop a New York skyscraper by the evil businessman David Xanatos.  With the castle above the clouds the spell was broken--loophole!  Xanatos tricks the gargoyles into helping him steal information from a rival company, which kind of seems like overkill.  I mean, couldn't he have just hired some regular, human mercenaries, instead of moving a whole freaking castle to wake up a bunch of monsters?  But he probably also figured he could use them for jobs after that, except the gargoyles realized they're being used and revolt.  Along with the help of the sexy Detective Elisa Maza, they get Xanatos put in jail--for a few months.  I mean, we've seen recently that there's a different system of "justice" for the rich and powerful.

The remaining 8 episodes or so of the first season, the gargoyles do battle with some foes, many of whom are recurring villains like the rogue female gargoyle Demona; an old warrior named MacBeth, who is based on the Shakespeare character; and "The Pack," who are a group of super-powered heroes-turned-villains.  At the end of the season, the gargoyles are forced to move from the castle into a clock tower that's conveniently atop Elisa's precinct house and more conveniently, no one else apparently ever visits.  They vow to protect Manhattan from evil--so I guess the rest of New York is shit outta luck.  Get yer own gargoyles!

Season 2 brings in a lot of new complications.  And a lot of Shakespeare references.  There's a multi-part episode about MacBeth that probably reenacts a lot of the play; I haven't read or watched it so I don't really know.  In the end, MacBeth and Demona are linked by the three "weird sisters" so that they can't die unless they kill each other.  Cue Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever...?" from Highlander.  In another multi-part episode, Demona steals a mirror to summon the evil sprite Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream, who turns all humans into gargoyles and the gargoyles into humans.  In the end, he gives Demona the "gift" that instead turning to stone in the daytime, she turns into a human, which to her is more of a curse.

The "weird sisters" return later when we switch from Shakespeare to Arthurian legends.  Elisa and a couple of gargoyles go to Avalon, the island where Arthur went to in the end.  That's also where the survivors of the old castle in 994 went, along with a clutch of gargoyle eggs, that have since hatched--including Angela, the daughter of head gargoyle Goliath and Demona.  Which then begs the question of what gargoyle sex is like; I would guess it's wild and very painful.  In doing battle with Demona, MacBeth, and the weird sisters, they wake Arthur, though he doesn't have Excalibur so he's basically a normal dude.

Then there's this whole odyssey after that as Goliath, Elisa, and Angela are taken from place-to-place by a magic boat from Avalon.  They go to Loch Ness, western Canada, Paris, Prague, London, Egypt, Nigeria, Australia, Easter Island, South America, Japan, Arizona, and Norway to stop various bad guys from doing stuff.  This brings in mythology from other cultures like Odin, Anubis, and Anansi.  Meanwhile the other gargoyles are trying to hold down the fort in New York, not knowing if their leader and friends are ever going to return.

So, yeah, with all the Shakespeare, mythology, and Arthurian legends and time travel and stuff it's not really a show for kids.  There's a possible future episode that's sort of a "Days of Future Past" thing where Xanatos has taken over New York.  A couple of gargoyles die in the episode, which makes it definitely not a kid-friendly episode.  A later episode killed Goliath's evil clone Thailog and his other cloned gargoyles.  At the same time it's never really more than PG-13 or by today's standards maybe just PG.  I mean there's violence but not really blood or gore or cursing or sex; this was a Disney show after all.

The second season ends with Xanatos and the gargoyles coming to peace when the gargoyles save his newborn son from Oberon, the lord of Avalon, not the idiot I used to know on Writers.net.  The clock tower is destroyed, so the gargoyles move back to Xanatos's castle.  Meanwhile, footage of the gargoyles flying over the city airs and now humans know of their existence!

The third season adds the subtitle "The Goliath Chronicles" but doesn't really change much except the end credits have a different background/more of a Celtic version of the theme song and Goliath does a little narration at the beginning.  I'm not really sure what the deal was with that.  But mostly in the final season they have to deal with  humans who hate and fear them.  You know, like those Marvel heroes?

There's a new villain for season 3:  the Quarrymen, who have Cobra Commander hoods and Thor lightning hammers to kill gargoyles.  While the second season was 52 episodes, this one was only 13.  There was a lot less Shakespeare and mythology and it seemed a lot fewer notable guest stars.  Even the animation didn't seem quite as good, as if they were cutting costs.

The final episode wraps up the Quarrymen story and tries to put a bow on things, but really there was a lot left unresolved.  Demona is still out there and still not really reconciled with the gargoyles.  Some other bad guys like Jackal & Hyena of The Pack were I think still out there.  So it definitely felt a little incomplete.

There is some decent characterization.  The gargoyles all fit a basic role:

• Goliath:  strong, noble leader who is somewhat naïve about the modern world
• Hudson:  wise old soldier who used to lead the gargoyles before naming Goliath the leader
• Brooklyn:  the hotheaded daredevil who becomes second-in-command
• Lexington:  the runt who's inexplicably good with computers and technology
• Broadway:  the dumb fat one who's a fan of noir movies

But then they all go beyond that as each gets a spotlight episode here-and-there, though obviously Goliath gets the most as the leader.  In one episode, the illiterate Hudson and Broadway decide they're going to learn to read--and a few episodes later we see they've made some progress.

Even the main villains are not really one-note characters.  There are some occasions where Xanatos works with the gargoyles--when it suits his interests--and ultimately he comes to an understanding with them.  Demona is basically a Magneto-type character in that she blames humans for most of her kind dying and so endeavors to destroy all humans.  And MacBeth hates the gargoyles--especially Demona--but he also has a sense of honor.  Other bad guys like the Pack or mad scientist Dr. Sevarius are more one-note, but it's still better than a lot of shows.

I think I noted in my entry on BTAS that there were a lot of voice actors who also worked in various Star Trek shows/movies and the same is true here.  Jonathan Frakes (Riker) voices Xanatos and Marina Sirtis (Troi) voices Demona.  Michael Dorn (Worf) guests as the cyborg gargoyle Coldstone--which makes me want some ice cream--and in another episode as Taurus, a Minotaur cop.  Brent Spiner (Data) guested as Puck--who turns out to also be Xanatos's assistant Owen, which didn't really make sense when you work through it backwards.  Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) guested as Elisa's mother.  Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) guested as Xanatos's mother-in-law and Titania--who turn out to be the same character.  Colm Meaney (O'Brien) played an Irish guy--real stretch.  Avery Brooks (Sisko) played an alien.  LeVar Burton (LaForge) guested as a spider god.  So you had all the series at the time represented.  Then you have actors like David Warner who were in Trek episodes/movies and also in this.  

Besides that there are famous names like Ed Asner, Jim Belushi, Tim Curry, and Tony Shalhoub.  And legendary voice actors Frank Welker and Michael Bell.  There's probably more, but the stupid Disney+ app always minimizes the window right when it gets to the voice credits, so I can't easily pause to see who was in each episode.  If you've watched the show--or visited the IMDB page--you can drop some more names in the comments.

But my favorite is Keith David as Goliath.  Like James Earl Jones, he has a really distinctive voice, though less bass; you've probably heard him in commercials for the Navy if nothing else.  Pretty much after this series ended, he voiced another weird hero of the night:  Spawn in the pretty decent HBO animated series.  And he's been in movies like They Live and shows like Community.

Another fun fact is that Elisa seems a lot like Detective Lottie Donovan in the Scarlet Knight books.  They're both hard-nosed, loner female detectives with a pretty similar fashion sense--only Donovan's jacket was black, not red.  I hadn't watched this series when I wrote the books, so I guess it's a coincidence.  Or some kind of osmosis?  Whatever.  Bonus fun fact:  in a Halloween episode, Elisa dresses up as Belle with Goliath as her Beast.  You know, like that extremely popular Disney movie?  Nowadays people would complain about the "wokeness" that her parents are Native American and Nigerian.

The relationship between Elisa and Goliath was often kind of complicated.  They care for each other and hug a few times and I can't help thinking if it weren't a Disney show in the mid-90s they might have hooked up.  In one episode, the evil clone Thailog actually puts Elisa's DNA in a clone of Demona so that was definitely skirting the line.

After personalities of the cyborg gargoyle Coldstone hijack their bodies, Broadway and Angela become a couple, much to the chagrin of Brooklyn, who hoped to have Angela too.  But other than some hand holding and stuff like that not a lot happens with their relationship.  Again, if it weren't a Disney show they might have been able to do more.

Another fun fact is in one episode the gargoyles try jalapeno peppers and none--not even Goliath--can handle them.  After that "Jalapeno" becomes the "frak" of the series or the swear word that's not really a swear word.

Another fun fact!  In an episode where Goliath is wrongfully arrested for robbing a jewelry store, his public defender is named Amy Schumer.  This is of course years before the comedian of the same name came onto the scene.

Anyway, for the most part I really liked the series.  It's action-packed without being stupid and you might even learn something about Shakespeare or Arthurian legends and so forth.  The animation is pretty typical for the time period, especially for Disney; it's not as crude as a lot of kid's shows today.  If you have Disney+ it's definitely worth a look.  And probably worth a reboot or revival or something like that. Except for Ed Asner and Nichelle Nichols, I think the original voice actors are still alive.