Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series
BY Ryan LaMarca / 2008-03-02
Perhaps Hanna-Barbera's greatest original superhero, classic Space Ghost arrives for the first time on DVD in Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series from Warner Home Video. With a stellar opening, fantastic character designs, and very serious and action packed stories and episodes, this set is too good to be true. The series was actually designed by comic book artist Alex Toth and was produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. This series originally aired in the 1966 to 1967 season on CBS Saturday mornings and featured two Space Ghost shorts with one Dino Boy short sandwiched in between in one half-hour show. Gary Owens provides the voice of Space Ghost with Ginny Tyler and Tim Matthieson as the voices of Space Ghost's teen sidekicks Jan and Jace, respectively. Johnny Carson (a different Johnny Carson) plays the voice of Dino Boy, while Mike Road plays Ugh, the Cavemen. As always, Don Messick is present to provide the voices of a myriad of characters such as Blip, Bronty, and Zorak. And as many people know, this is the series series, produced many, many years before the Adult Swim parody show Space Ghost: Coast-to-Coast.
The first episode featured on the DVD is the perennial classic "The Heat Thing." In the episode, Jace's cruiser is shot down by a giant mysterious lava monster and Space Ghost must simply do battle with it to stop it and save Jace. It is not so dissimilar to some of the classic Silver Age Superman stories in which Superman simply fights a giant monster. The first Dino Boy episode is entitled "The Worm People," and as with most Dino Boy shorts is pretty generic. And finally, rounding out the first half-hour is another classic Space Ghost episode, "Zorak," that introduces us to Space Ghost's most memorable nemesis. In this series, Space Ghost has a fantastic rogues gallery that could rival that of almost any other superhero with the likes of Zorak, Brak, Moltar, Creature King, Metallus, and the Spider Woman. Of course, none of them are ever fully developed, as is the same with the heroes, but it never takes away from the series' ability to entertain. And I must note that as opposed to other similar characters that would be created later, Jan, Jace, and Blip are never annoying. They may get constantly captured by the enemy, but they do not try to be extra funny or get in the way as the Wonder Twins and Gleek do. Jan, Jace, and Blip are quite useful to Space Ghost, assisting him when he gets captured.
In between the two Space Ghost shorts were segments entitled Dino Boy in the Lost Valley. The story goes that a young boy forced to parachute from a disabled plane lands in a prehistoric jungle. When a saber-toothed tiger attacks, he is saved by a giant caveman. And so begins the friendship and adventures of Dino Boy and Ugh the Caveman in the Lost Valley. These shorts are so clearly inferior to the Space Ghost ones that it's not even funny. Sure, they're watchable, but they do not bring about the same kind of enjoyment and entertainment. Almost every episode revolves around a similar plot of Dino Boy getting captured by some primitive, prehistoric race of creatures, and Ugh and Bronty have to save him. Or, in the case of "The Sacrifice," Ugh is captured and Dino Boy must save him from being sacrificed to a sun god. In no way are these shorts horrible, they're just not as good.
Now, unlike almost every other show from the 1960s, Space Ghost actually gets a six-part series finale blowout. The finale is entitled "The Council of Doom" and is spread out among two half-hour episodes with three parts each. The premise is that all of Space Ghost's greatest enemies have teamed up to form the Council of Doom: Zorak, Moltar, Brak, Creature King, Metallus, and Spider Woman. First, Metallus strikes in "The Meeting," but his plans are foiled and the episode ends on a cliffhanger when our heroes are stranded on the Creature King's planet. Then in the second part, "Clutches of the Creature King," Jace attempts to rescue Space Ghost from one of the Creature King's monsters, but ends up sending him back in time where he is rescued by none other than fellow Hanna-Barbera superheroes Mightor and Tog. Space Ghost returns to the future but is confronted by Zorak in "The Deadly Trap," when Jan and Jace get trapped and sent to Earth at the bottom of the ocean, but are saved by the giant whale Moby Dick, along with Tom, Tub, and Scooby. The twins return to help Space Ghost, when Moltar tries his luck in "The Molten Monsters of Moltar," and sends Space Ghost to the planet Amzok. Once there, he is rescued by the Herculoids. Then, in "Two Faces of Doom," Brak and Spider Woman attempt to kill Space Ghost and end up sending him to another dimension. However, when he is trapped he is spotted by Chuck, Nancy, and Kaboobie, who call the genie Shazzan to help him. Finally, Space Ghost returns and confronts and defeats the entire Council of Doom, when all of their own weapons cause their headquarters and planet to explode.
Basically, since Space Ghost and Dino Boy was ending that year, Hanna-Barbera were showcasing the next season's shows by having them make brief cameos on Space Ghost. But only shows that were to premiere on CBS were allowed to guest star: Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, Herculoids, and Shazzan. Fellow Hanna-Barbera superhero show Birdman and the Galaxy Trio was to premiere on NBC, while Young Samson and Goliath was syndicated, and The Fantastic Four was to air on ABC. Likewise, Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles, a CBS show, was also ending that year, so there was no need to showcase them.
Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series only comes with one special feature. However, it's a good one. It's an hour and twenty minute retrospective featurette titled "Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth" and is a biography of the life of Space Ghost designer Alex Toth. Through various interviews, narrations, artwork, and video, friends, family, and colleagues reminisce on the life of one of comics and animation's most influential artists. Toth is generally considered one of the big guns of Silver Age comics due to his unique style of simplicity. All four of Toth's children are present to discuss their memories of their father as well as various other friends of the family and some renowned comic book artists as well as colleagues from Hanna-Barbera. The featurette outlines Toth's role in the comic book industry, his work on titles like Green Lantern, Black Canary, and the Batman story "Death Flies the Haunted Sky," as well as his short comic "Taps." It also features a short little Hanna-Barbera montage and talks about his work on the popular Superfriends series and his confrontation with fellow artist Jack Kirby. Also present is the legendary Bruce Timm, the man behind the successful DC Animated Universe series such as Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited who was a fan of Toth. The featurette is very well done and really reaches every aspect of Toth's life and gives justice to one of the greatest comic book artists as well as the man who helped bring us shows like Space Ghost and Herculoids.
As with all of the recent Hanna-Barbera and other animation DVDs from Warner Home Video, Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series comes in a very thin cardboard case with two double sided flipper discs packed right on top of each other. The set does showcase some pretty nice new artwork on the case and inside packaging, however. And as usual, the video on the discs is acceptable, with the predictable cel grain, dirt, and scratches present with all classic cartoon releases of recent. The video is presented in full screen, the way the show was originally produced. The remastering could have been a lot better, but the video still looks great considering the show's age. Certain episodes do not look as vibrant and sharp as others. The audio sounds all right, and is presented in a mono track. And as usual, the menus are static and very basic with the theme music played in the background.
Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series comes highly recommended. Even though the Dino Boy shorts come off as sub par, the Space Ghost episodes will not disappoint. This show is one of Hanna-Barbera's greatest action and superhero shows and I am very excited and happy to see that Warner Home Video is taking the initiative to get as many Hanna-Barbera titles out as possible. From great episodes to a wonderful Alex Toth retrospective, this DVD set is definitely worth it.
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