Fantasy series' on tv and video

[Evil_Wild_One]

*grins* Lots of discussion about people's favorite books and such. I'm curious about what people's favorite fantasy series' are on television and video (and more recently, DVD).

One I absolutely loved (and really miss) is Disney's Gargoyles. What a well done series overall! Spectacular animation, interesting characters, beautifully painted landscapes (and cityscapes), and a plot with twist after twist, yet they managed to make everything fit and be consistent. Gargoyles is probably the best animated fantasy show I've ever seen.

Gotta mention a pair of old classics here: remember He-Man and She-Ra? The plots could get a little repetitive, but hey, the character designs were quite interesting. Besides, they were targeted moreso for kids, where somewhat repetitive plots (ie. hero wins prettymuch all the time) are more popular, and still managed to teach a little lesson here and there.

Moving on to anime, there are a LOT of really well done fantasy series' in that genre of animation. Partially because they're not limited by censors the same way that animation companies are in North America. There's a LOT of PG-13 anime out there, which I'm all for. ^_^

First and foremost, I reccomend Slayers. It's funny as hell, has great and kooky characters, and still manages to maintain a good storyline amongst all the mayhem. Lina Inverse is a smart-assed sorceress that's basically the anti-thesis of a stereotypical anime heroine (ie. the type where everyone thinks she's gorgeous, she's kind and sweet to everyone, and usually has a killer body). She robs from the rich, and keeps for herself. ^_^ Gourry's the handsome but dumb-as-a-post swordsman that declares himself Lina's protector, Zelgadis is just plain awesome, but overly serious to the point that it's funny, and Amelia is a hyperactive white magic sorceress that loves to give justice speeches.

Secondly, I reccomend Fushigi Yuugi. It's got humour, a variety of interesting characters with neat powers, and a decent storyline when you take out the VERY over-done romance between Tamahome and Miaka. *gags* In fact, if you don't want to throttle heroines that are helpless, clutzy, stupid, revoltingly cheerful and cute and loved by all ninnies, then hands down, you will love this series. Despite loathing Miaka most of the time (she has her moments here and there, but you THINK she'd learn after the first few times that wandering off by herself with no super-powers or weapons, or telling her friends that do where she's going is a Bad Thing), I really enjoyed the series.
Heh....lots of Miaka bashing, but it really IS a good series. Nice animation, good humour, funny characters (Tasuki is awesome), and plenty of emotional tension, too.

I haven't touched on the live action fantasy series' (like Xena and Hercules) because they really don't appeal to me, but other people can feel free to jump in here.

Well, this thread's gotten long enough, so TTFN!

~Lex

[baxts]

well i have to pout in a little piece to support good old dbz. Dragon ball z for those who (FOR SUM CRAZY REASON!!!) actually dont watch the stuff.

awesum plots, coolest charachters. of course not very ummm, advanced i guess is the wored im looking for, being aimed at younger ppl, but no cartoons are and nthats the beauty of the shit!!!

dbz all the way

[Evil_Wild_One]

Actually, if you watch some anime, like Revolutionary Girl Utena or Serial Experiments Lain, there's piles of symbolism, and both are PG-13, and even a PG anime like Gundam Wing is pretty complicated, since there aren't many clear cut bad guys.

Heh....Dragonball Z has had a LOT of things cut out from it, too, although yes, it, Sailor Moon, and the majority of anime you see released around here is for kids. You can find some interesting things only on video, though. (including the uncut versions of certain shows)

As for people who don't watch DBZ, well, it doesn't have that much appeal for girls/women who don't like martial arts, and some people just don't like animated shows. *shrug*

[Jacob]

Moving to things are are abit older (on video) I would recoment the movie Willow

I'm not very good to discribe things so I'll start out with giving you the recipe used.

*One evil (witch) Queen named Bawmorda.
*Beautiful daughter of (witch) Queen who is abit bad but couldn't really be called "evil"
*Small people called Nelwyn who tries to say away from the Big People (whom they refer to as Daikini).
*A Nelwyn called Willow. You can tell that he'll be a hero for sure...
*A Daikini called "Mad Mardigan" who happens to be the greatest swords man that ever lived (according to himself) who isn't best known for his reliability. (he's ever so sexy though according to my sister)
*An EVER so cute little baby girl who's somehow propheside to bring about the end of the evil (witch) Queen.
*Faries.
*Gnomes.
*(ahem) Beautiful witches.
*Nice celtic (or something) like music.
*This and that and dust of the broken heart and lots of other magic stuff.

What do you get when you mix all this together? Adventure and fun for the whole family! It's a film that you'll enjoy which will leave a residue of feeling good for hours after you've seen it.

[Elin]

Well, I saw people getting into anime... there was a special thread for that, but it seems to have gone into oblivion.

I like, for example:

- Serial Experiments Lain (I'm about halfway through it)
- Noir (really great, I've seen it all)
- X (*drools*)
- Yami No Matsuei (*drools again*)

[Knight]

I haven't had the chance to see any anime in a long while. Must be because I'm living in the backwoods of central Finnland. If I look out the window of my school office, all I see is fields and forest. But we got ADSL, so I'm not complaining. :)

I'm a huge fan of Japan, so anime's and manga's were a part of my life before I came here. They will be a part once again when I move to the biggest suburb in Finnland in the summer. Hey, I even got a silver-and-gold katana hanging from my throat.

[Anita_Blake]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer the TV series. (not the movie) This show has had consistently great dialogue, character development, story lines, acting, and cinematography.

cannot emphasize this enough.

:)

[Talon al'Den]

YAY WILLOW!

the best part is when he turns the one lady into a turtle or something. or when they are whipping each other around with the twiggy wand.

anyway, i love he-man and she-ra and I was able to get about 30 episodes or more out of morpheus (like Napster) and I burnt them to CD's for posterity.

By the Power/For the Honor of Greyskull, I have the power!!!!

[Indigo Montoya]

He-Man was great, the only bad memory I have is the kids down the street had all the action figures and the castle(Greyskull?) and the bastards never let me use them. You couldn't beat up He-Man action figures with little GI Joe guys so they always won. Damn those kids.

Sorry I 'm back , I think I forgot my medication, Hehehehe

[Aragorn]

They show Thudercats on Cartoon Network, and if they'd just get He-Man now, I'd be happy.

[supuradam]

i used to have all the action figures.... go war cat! eat that evil skeletor...

[Cypher]

awww, and I was always into the future thundercat show (silver hawks) made by same people, but dealing more with space fighting instead of that land stuff. I probably had half the episodes of both cartoons at one time, but have taped over them.

[Aragorn]

That's BATTLEcat.

And Silverhawks was cool too, but I've always been more into swordsy fighting type stuff than futuristicy fighting type stuff myself.

[jade]

ooooh... i love old fantasy movies before all this computer graphics stuff. all those silly puppets they used were awesome.. and they actually used midgets!!! let's see, some of my favorites are: willow, the dark crystal, legend, and neverending story (part 1 not 2...2 sucked)...

as for cartoons... there was dark waters, thundercats, voltron...um i'm sure these dont count... but i also loved girly cartoons like my lil pony... rose petal (any one remember this?.. everyone believes i made rose petal up), and rainbow brite...

[astraea]

Everyone thinks I made up my favourite cartoon too... I think it was called Children Of The Sun, and there was a lost city, and a prophecy with a giant eagle and a sad song/tune, with two little kids who go back in time and save Inca civilisation or something... anyone know it?
Girly cartoons were never as good as the macho ones (X-men, Thundercats), but the movie The Last Unicorn is always a favourite... so sad and pretty.

[Talon al'Den]

Originally posted by jade
ooooh... i love old fantasy movies before all this computer graphics stuff. all those silly puppets they used were awesome.. and they actually used midgets!!! let's see, some of my favorites are: willow, the dark crystal, legend, and neverending story (part 1 not 2...2 sucked)...

as for cartoons... there was dark waters, thundercats, voltron...um i'm sure these dont count... but i also loved girly cartoons like my lil pony... rose petal (any one remember this?.. everyone believes i made rose petal up), and rainbow brite...

Dark Crystal! and dont forget Labrynth. Part 1 and 2 of the Neverending Story were good, but part 3 was the real stinker. if you want the story, read the book (which is very good, by the way)

as for cartoons, he man, she ra, pirates of dark water is what it was called. voltron was great too. remember Captian N and the zelda section of The super mario bros. show?

and dont forget "superstars" or whatever it was called with wayne gretzky, bo jackson, and micheal jordan, where they got sports gizmos to battle evil.

and what about "g-force" ....or even centurians! remember those guys in the orange, blue, and green suits that got beamed snap on armor, there was the tank guy, the water guy, and the jet guy!

and, of course, the original transformers!

wow. the nostalgia makes me wish i was back in the 80s!

[talyn rahl]

wow transformers.... the coolest cartoon ever, does anyone remember a cartoon called Jayce and his wheeled warriors? it was true class, without a doubt one of the coolest cartoons ever made for kids. Oh and the origional computer cartoon Reboot, that show kicked ass

oh and as far as movies are concerned, labrynth kicks major league ass, then you have dark crystal good but not as good, and finnaly Krull, yeah, go Krull

[Nachtnoir]

Yeah.....the 80's. They were great. Lots of what we'd call now, b-grade Fantasy movies. My favorite was one called "Hawk the Slayer". It had the retired, legendary swordsman who had to come out of retirement and save the day. Along with him was his elvin archer friend with his machine gun like shooting. They did this really bad recut of the negative and splice so it looked like he shot five times a second. Upon rewatching it now, and I do have a battered tape of it, I have to laugh at the effects. But I still do watch it late at night when I know noone will happen by and see me doing it.

But heck, I have even older films that some ppl would be embarrased for me if they knew I had them. The original Shadow serials for one, and the Bruce Lee as Kato Green Hornet TV series is watched repeatedly at my house.

And for anime, there is a huge array of great things to watch. My favorite at the time is a series called "Cowboy Bebop". Not fantasy, but Sci-Fi, it is still great and I'd suggest it to anyone. I think it's on one of those satillite channels that I don't get. And if your not into commiting alot of time to series, theres some great anime movies. Try "Ghost in the Shell", "Jin-Roh-The Wolf Brigade" or even the greatest of all "Akira".

Oh, and for some great cartoons from my day, there was GI-Joe, Dungeons and Dragons, Isis, Thundarr the barbarian, Tarzan(the rotoscope one), and I dug the Heroes of Rock and Wrestling. Don't laugh. Hulk Hogan and is traveling troupe of wrestlers/superheroes saving the day was good stuff!

There was this other really cool show about a group of heroes that had the neat things on their chests with pictures of animals on them, their totems, they'd could change into there totem animal and fight and stuff, They even had a line of toys with holograms glued to them. I think it was called "Totem Warriors" or something, really cool.

[Aragorn]

I like the sig, Nacht.

And are you not on ICQ anymore?

[Nachtnoir]

Originally posted by Aragorn
I like the sig, Nacht.

And are you not on ICQ anymore?

What are you talking about Ara, I never left ICQ. I'm 46013959. Everyone add me, it's cool.

[talyn rahl]

Does anyone remember the name of this cartoon, it was about a group of american footbal players who were sent to arthurian times and became king arthurs knights and they had there weapons int he shields and got all armored up and stuff, it was coooooool, oh yeah knightmare rocked to :)

[Aragorn]

I remember that knight one. The toys were great.

[Thecaptain420]

DBZ, The dark crystal, Thundecats (HOOOOe), teenage mutant ninja turtles, bananas in pajamas, smurfs, chip & dale's rescue rangers, Vampire hunter D, Ninja scroll, Akira, Excalibur, Some a da best, lemetellyawhat

[TRUTH]

Jack of All Trades / Cleopatra 2525

Bruce Campbell Rules! Cleo was too hot. Plus it gave Verne Troy more work than just Mini-Me.

[talyn rahl]

Krull!, i saw that the other day, not as good as Labrynth (but wot is) but still a good film

[Pippin-chan]

Princess Mononoke is probably one of my fave fantasy movies other than LOTR. And Willow is pretty good too.

[archely]

Originally posted by Nachtnoir
There was this other really cool show about a group of heroes that had the neat things on their chests with pictures of animals on them, their totems, they'd could change into there totem animal and fight and stuff, They even had a line of toys with holograms glued to them. I think it was called "Totem Warriors" or something, really cool.

Well, i remember "Battle Beasts" ...which sounds somewhat like your description...but not quite.

This is a pic of the polar bear battle beast, the black square on it's chest is a glue-on hologram.