Keeping with a sorta theme from the last review, I'll be switching over to Arthurian lore this time around. Its an interesting shift from gods to heroes, though there will always be both in either mythos. Anyway, Arthurian lore deals will, well, King Arthur, as well as different characters such as the Knights of the Round Table, the wizard Merlin, Lady Guinevere, and the sorceress Morgan le Fay. Its a rather famous part of British literature and there have been great stories told with these characters before. Why not make an animated show about it? Enter: King Arthur & the Knights of Justice!
(90s guitar riffs make scenes feel more awesome.)
With its first episode appearing in 1992, "King Arthur & the Knights of Justice" was a story about how a team of football players got sent back in time by Merlin to replace the captured King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was produced Golden Films, C&D and Bohbot Entertainment and lasted only 2 seasons (26 episodes total). Hm, wonder why?
The first episode, titled "Opening Kick-Off', has Camelot being under siege by a group of warlords led by Lord Viper, who is actually the second-in-command to the real villain, Queen Morgana. At this point, Merlin is the only one who is defending Camelot by himself since King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table get trapped into a place called the Cave of Glass. While Merlin does his best to defend Camelot, Queen Guinevere gets captured by one of the evil Warlords. At this point, Merlin realizes that he is not enough to stop Morgana and gets a message from the Lady in the Lake. She tells Merlin to find new knights from the future and bring them to help protect Camelot. And these new knights happen to be...football players. Really?
I understand the Lady of the Lake said they were good men and all, but was 12 football players really the best she could come up with. Aren't there soldiers who also exhibit qualities of goodness and justice? I don't think that all football players exhibit such positive qualities.
(This is especially true when some start picking fights with referees)
We cut to the present day (or at least the 90s equivalent of the present day), where we see our main heroes for this series: the New England Knights. Hm, guess the New England Patriots got replaced. The team is led by their quarterback, Arthur King (clever) as they win another game. They head out to their next game, with several of the players remarking how good of a leader Arthur is and how much they're looking forward to their next game. I was able to make out a couple of the other names of the players and looked up the rest.
Seriously: Gallop? Breeze? LUG? (that last one ain't even a player: its their equipment manager) I thought there were nicknames of something, but I never seen them refer to themselves by any other name. Arthur is the only one who at least has a last name. Anyway, they encounter a storm which actually brings them back in time to meet Merlin. It also gives them some new clothing to fit the period.
(I hope he realizes how utter boned he might end up being)
Merlin tells the group how Camelot is in peril, how Queen Morgana wants to rule all, and how the original King Arthur and his Knight were captured. The football players agree, reluctantly, and see it a fun experience. Yes, cause all war is fun, right? Once everything is settled, they swear an oath of sorts which also acts as a power-up chant.
"I am King Arthur..."
"and we are the Knights of Justice! We pledge fairness to all, to protect the weak and vanquish the evil!"
Eh, a bit wordy, but it gets the job done. They get their armor and weapons, which make me laugh silly. Honestly, the Power Rangers do a better job of coordinating colors, in my opinion, and the Knights look down right hilarious. Its like they set up color suggestions on a dart board and just started throwing randomly. They also get weapons, which is odd for some of them. Like Brick, who apparently shoots bricks out of his chest (odd), and Lug, who has a football. Really, a football? Couldn't he have a hammer or something?
(If they're trying to say how dangerous a sports ball can be in a fight, they got the wrong one. That, instead, would be the Blitzball)
Anyway, the new Knights of Justice fight against Lord Viper and the evil warlords in their first battle. The knights do rather well for their first fight, with Arthur King proving himself to be quite a tactician, if only that he is using football formations in the fight. They manage to beat back the evil army and set out to free Queen Guinevere. Thus ends the first episode.
No, wait, I need to get something off my chest. The fact that the Knights of Justice were able to fend off the evil army in their first bout has me a bit confused. Are the evil forces that incompetent and if so, what does this make King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table out to be? Maybe the Knights of the Round Table were pretty effective in the beginning and one clever trick got them trapped in the Cave of Glass. After all, its been revealed later on that the evil warlords are actually constructs made by Queen Morgana, so I'm guessing that the mold broke for each warlord at one point or another.
Back to the Knights of Justice, who are also equipped with some pretty powerful magical items (aside from Excalibur, of course). Didn't the original Knights have them too? Or were these new items made specifically for the Knights of Justice? It just raises too many questions.
Despite the all the questions I keep thinking up about this series, I would simply consider it be to 'awesomely bad', which is what you can expect out of some cartoon shows during the 80s and 90s. There are even some good moments in the series, like Lug actually taking on Lord Viper in a one on one fight. It has some good moments, which start to get anvilicious in the second season when they have a moral to go over in the end.
Again, it is more of an 'awesomely bad series' than just a 'bad series'. Its definitely for some good laughs every once and a while.
Until next time...
King Arthur & the Knights of Justice belong to Image Entertainment
Thanks go out to 'Legendarybarr' for the intro theme
No comments:
Post a Comment