It’s interesting to look back and see the things that impacted our childhood. Sometimes we grow up and grow out of them, sometimes we look back at them through the lens of nostalgia and we find the flaws we missed as children. And sometimes we look back and find the things that helped shaped our tastes and interests into adulthood even if we weren’t able to recognize them at an early age.
Such was the case for me and Gargoyles, an animated series that first premiered in 1994. It’s eclecticism when it came to storytelling heavily shaped my interests as an adult, giving me a broad viewpoint on fiction. When it came to fictional topics, nothing was off limits, this show had everything a growing boy needed. Sword and sorcery, science fiction, crime noir, comedy, Shakespearean tragedy (heavy on the Shakespeare), world mythology, fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, the works.
So for the month of October I’ve decided to look at the five-part pilot “Awakening” and do an analysis and review to see why it was so special to me and if it still holds up now that I’ve officially entered my 30’s. And for the sake of fairness I’ll only analyse what’s presented in the episode itself; so no behind-the-scenes, creator’s notes or exclusive bonus features. I’d like to do this from an unbiased perspective.
Our story begins in New York in that far-off time of 1994 where a crowd has gathered outside a skyscraper to watch a battle that seems to be taking place near the top. The falling debris draws the attention of the police and Detective Elisa Maza (voiced by Salli Richardson) who notices that some of the debris has some pretty impressive scratches in them.
Elisa: Claw marks? What could be strong enough to leave claw marks in solid stone?
The story then shifts to the even more far-off time of Scotland, 994 A.D.
Where the inhabitants of Castle Wyvern are under attack from a vicious band of evil vikings. And how do we know they’re evil? Two reasons:
- This story is set in the “From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord.” period of time.
- The viking leader Hakon is voiced by the evil Clancy Brown.
The Captain of the Guard (Ed Gilbert) tells the defenders that they only need to hold out until nightfall but with the vikings already scaling the walls things look grim. But as Hakon reaches the top of the tower, the sun sets and the gargoyles shed their stone skin and their leader Goliath grabs hold of of Hakon.
Goliath: You are trespassing.
Did I mention that Goliath is voiced by the deep, dulcet-toned Keith David?
The awakening of the gargoyles swiftly turns the tide of the battle and I got to say there’s great variety of different gargoyles with some really eye-catching designs. A young trio voiced by Thom Adcox-Hernandez, Jeff Bennett and Bill Fagerbakke.
An old brown one voiced by Ed Asner.
The gargoyle equivalent of a dog voiced by Frank Welker (who’s voiced every creature on the planet and yes, that includes you).
And Goliath’s second-in-command, mate (and what look’s to be sole female), voiced by Marina Sirtis.
The viking’s are forced to retreat with Hakon swearing revenge (which is what you do when you’re a villain). With the battle won a feast is held by the Lady of the castle, Princess Katharine (voiced by Kath Soucie). Unfortunately it isn’t held in the honor of the Captain, who members of the court mockingly compare to a gargoyle. Nor to the Gargoyles themselves, as the humans are all afraid of them despite saving their butts just hours ago. Princess Katharine making some not-so-subtle comments comparing Goliath to the brutish Goliath from the Bible and the court wizard Magus (Jeff Bennett) calling them “beasts” and “unnatural creatures.”
This understandably causes some serious tension with the Captain and Goliath’s mate, but Goliath tries to defuse the situation by reminding her that, “It is the nature of humankind to fear what they do not understand. Their ways are not our ways.” And this being Medieval times there’s a lot of things they don’t understand.
So day breaks and the Gargoyles return to their stone sleep; meanwhile the Magus mysteriously pours over the pages of his book of mysteries. And a robbed figure rides out from the castle where the vikings have camped and asks if they still seek the fall of Castle Wyvern.
Anyways. Night falls and the Captain encourages Goliath to take all of his gargoyles and chase off the rest of the vikings. Goliath disagrees believing it too risky and instead decides to track them down with Old Brown,leaving his mate in charge despite her protests, but he assures her everything will be fine.
Goliath: Remember. You and I are one, now and forever.
Down in the courtyard the trio are hanging out, Big Aqua is eating because right now that’s his sole character trait while Little Green and Red Pterodactyl Guy are playing catch with their garg-dog. The local refugees are keeping a respectable distance from them until a young boy named Tom decides to approach and ask about the whole lack of names thing.
Little Green: Except for Goliath, we don’t have names.
Tom: How do you tell each other apart?
Little Green: We look different.
Tom: But what do you call each other?
Red Pterodactyl Guy: Friend.
However Tom’s mother Mary (also Kath Soucie) doesn’t want her son around such “monsters” even though Red insists they’d never hurt him. Mary’s response is to throw a branch at his face, causing Goliath’s mate to come down and confront the humans. Red, Green and the Dog decide that if they’re going to be treated like monsters than they’d “better live up to the name” and cause their eyes to glow while they advance on them.
Then Goliath shows up with his best “I’m so disappointed in you kids!” dad face and sends the trio and the dog down to the rookery beneath castle until he gets back.
While his mate is quick to call out the humans for starting all this, Goliath gives the, “I don’t care who started it, I’m finishing it” speech before promising to make it up to them. And yeah, even if Goliath isn’t the oldest one here, he is without a doubt the dad of this group. So he and Old Brown leave to track down the rest of the vikings into the woods.
Meanwhile a mysterious figure examines the strings on the bows used by the castles archers…
In the woods Goliath and Brown are starting to get concerned, dawn is coming soon and the tracks were noted as being fairly shallow for horses carrying armored men. But soon they catch up to them and realize to their horror that it was only a small group of men leading the horses. The rest have returned to Castle Wyvern to attack. And as the sun rises the two of them are forced back into their stone sleep.
Back at the castle the vikings have resumed their attack and the archer’s bowstrings have been sabotaged, and someone has opened the gate to allow the invaders in.
Princess Katharine runs to inform the Captain of the Guard…
Princess Katharine: Captain! Captain! The Vikings, Captain. We are attacked.
Only for him to suddenly seize her.
Captain: It is worse than that, Your Highness.
And so with the castle sacked and the inhabitants taken captive Hakon asks the Captain why he would betray his own kind, he simply responds, “They’re not my kind.” Hakon then decides that if killing a sleeping enemy is just opportune, then killing a sleeping enemy which has no way to wake up is just good fortune. The Captain tries to intervene saying that the gargoyles won’t pursue once they’re out of sight, but Hakon makes it clear that if he won’t step aside then he’ll use his mace on him first.
That night, Goliath and Old Brown finally return home to the castle in flames and Goliath finds the rubble on the perch where his beloved once stood.
And standing in the ashes of his home, surrounded by the dust of his people, Goliath roars out his anger and grief into the cold empty night.
And thus ends the first part of “Awakening.” A tale of fear, betrayal, violence and genocide.
Matt the Media Hunter 