Those familiar with the Rankin and Bass probably know their stop-motion animation features like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jack Frost, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and so forth. They’ve become holiday classics and the Rankin and Bass brand hinges upon their notoriety. So, when you tell someone that they were responsible for directing the ThunderCats cartoon series and then creating the obscure, space-based follow-up SilverHawks to capitalize on that success, you should understand that they might be confused. They won’t be disappointed though. SilverHawks has a ridiculous, nonsensical premise with weird episodic plots and humorously absurd schemes on the part of its villain. The made-to-order DVD series of classic cartoon series available from WBShop.com has been pretty hit-or-miss thus far, but SilverHawks definitely deserves to sit on your shelf.
The second volume set includes the next 33 episodes of the series and continues the adventures of the cybernetically enhanced heroes as they battle against the evil Mon*Star (Space Jam’s originality takes a hit) and his seemingly endless horde of criminal robots. To give you a rough idea of how the average episode goes, it’s something like this: a major event attracts Mon*Stars sinister attentions and the SilverHawks have to stop him, or Mon*Star steals something and they have to get it back. In the process, force fields, astrophysics, and interplanetary justice all come into play.
And while Mon*Star might be an idiot and his team a collection of bungling fools, no laughs come quite as hard as those stemming from the stilted dialogue of the protagonists who talk with cheesy one-liners and the level of enthusiasm often reserved for 90s anti-drug campaigns. It might not want to be hilarious, but it is; but it’s also entertaining and a beautifully animated piece of nostalgia.
DVD Bonus Features
None.
"SilverHawks: Season 1, Volume 2" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is not rated. Adventure, Animation, Children & Family, Sci-Fi. Written by Peter Lawrence, William Overgard, Chris Trengove. Starring Bob Mcfadden, Earl Hammond, Larry Kenney, Maggie Wheeler.
