Revisit the old Saturday morning cartoon days with this complete collection of Space Ghost & Dino Boy!
“Showcasing the episodes in three-segment form as they originally aired, these stellar retro hits soar through space and time to deliver justice! First, intergalactic policeman Space Ghost navigates the cosmos in his tricked-out spaceship, The Phantom Cruiser, battling villains like Brak and Zorak in his legendary suit and powerful wristbands. Then, Dino Boy teams with caveman Ugh and dinosaur Bronty to go primeval on the ancient menaces of their primitive home. And finally, Space Ghost flies again with more extraterrestrial adventures and thrilling takedowns. This dynamite compilation also features the dynamic six-part Space Ghost episode The Council of Doom. It’s cosmic entertainment for all!”
Hanna-Barbera has some of the most iconic television cartoon shows and characters in history. While not as popular as some of their most famous characters like Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, or Yogi Bear, Space Ghost and Dino Boy brought a little science fiction to the cartoon universe, popularized again by Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
The plots to these shorts are beyond ridiculous, having Space Ghost police the galaxy with his two subordinates Jan and Jayce, with their pet monkey Blip, whose only ability seems to be able to state the obvious and go invisible. At the time, however, these followed a very familiar sci-fi trend of the era, where the only science fiction involved was the bad guys that were fought were usually giant insects of some kind or robots that came from other planets. There is a certain type of innocence to these stories, much the same way the original Lost in Space is still enjoyable. They may be ridiculous, but they are very fun to watch and revisit after all this time.
Here’s an episode breakdown:
Disc One
- The Heat Thing/The Worm People/Zorak
- Creature King/The Treeman/The Lizard Slavers
- The Web/The Sacrifice/Homing Device
- The Drone/The Moss Men/The Sandman
- The Robot Master/Marooned/The Energy Monster
- Hi-Jackers/Giant Ants/The Lure
- The Schemer/The Rocky Pygmies/The Evil Collector
- Lokar – King of the Killer Locusts/Danger River/Brago
- The Cyclopeds/The Fire God/Space Sargasso
- The Iceman/The Vampire Men/The Time Machine
Disc Two
- Space Birds/The Wolf People/Attack of the Saucer Crab
- Nightmare Planet/Valley of the Giants/Space Armada
- Ruler of the Rock Robots/The Bird Riders/The Challenge
- Jungle Planet/The Marksman/Revenge of the Spider Woman
- The Space Ark/The Terrible Chase/Glasstor
- The Space Piranhas/The Spear Warriors/Transor – the Matter Mover
- The Sorcerer/The Ant Warriors/The Looters
- The Oven of Moltor/The Mighty Snow Creature/The Gargoyloids
- The Meeting/Clutches of the Creature King/The Deadly Trap
- The Molten Monsters of Moltar/Two Faces of Doom/The Final Encounter
Video
This set is presented in 1080p High Definition 1.33:1 original aspect ratio. These cartoons have aged surprisingly well, with little to no defects in the original source. The cartoon is very clear and detailed, with the wildly different settings of alien planets presenting very vivid and well-balanced colors. You aren’t going to get much better than this when revisiting a cartoon that is well over half a century.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio: English 2.0 Mono. This track sounds good, keeping a nice range throughout. The voice acting, especially Gary Owens as Space Ghost, come through very powerfully and sound great. He has such an amazing voice and presence, although the dialogue is a bit hokey almost all of the time, and he announces out loud every single thing he does, even alone, it is still mesmerizing to listen to and even hilarious at times, in a good way that is. The opening theme song for Space Ghost still brings a smile to my face with that theremin playing, providing that weird, mysterious sense of what you might be in store for this week!
Special Features
A very informative featurette is included on the second disc, coming in at an hour and eighteen minutes, a great look at the creator.
- Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
This Space Ghost & Dino Boy set from Warner’s Archive Collection is a lot of fun. Fans of this show or the days of any old Saturday morning cartoon will surely enjoy picking this up and revisiting the classic cartoons of the ‘60s.
