Gargoyles, The Animated Series
In ancient Scotland, on a massive castle, a gang of Gargoyles reside in peace. Stone at day but alive protectors at night. The humans in and around the castle accepts them but fear and despise them as well. One day the castle is under attack and the Gargoyles help the army to victory. But simultaneously an inside attack is planned and the Gargoyles are betrayed and cursed into their stone shells, for eternity.
A thousand year later the castle is bought by a wealthy American who knows from an ancient book that the spell can be broken if they’re taken above the clouds. He moves the entire castle to Manhattan and there, finally, the castle reaches above the clouds and they spell breaks.
Now living in modern day Manhattan, the Gargoyles are like fish out of water. But their innate sense of protecting the castle is still strong in them, and they strike a deal with the owner of the castle to once again serve as defenders of the castle. A local detective, Elisa, discovers the unusual inhabitants of the castle but tries to befriend them. However, with the betrayal of their previous human friendship still lingering, Elisa has to work extra hard to gain their trust. Especially when there are many enemies out there, who wants the secrets of the castle and to destroy its protectors.
Gargoyles premiered in 1994 and continued for 3 season with a total of 78 episodes. Gargoyles was quite different from other animated series of that time, It was dark, its themes were influenced by heavy drama such as Shakespeare and ancient Scottish history. Despite the fact it was only a moderate hit at the time of its airing, it is now considered to be a cult series and has a given place amongst the highest acclaimed animated series of all time.
I absolutely love this show, and the intro really says it all. It is as dark as Disney could ever let an animated series be. It truly is one of those shows that are too good to just be an animated series for kids, the themes, the well rounded characters, the intricate and everything but light happy stories. The whole air around it is so complex and well developed that it’s hard to understand why it didn’t get more than three seasons. Although, Gargoyles should be proud of its 78 amazing and extremely well produced episodes, which is more than other series can show for.
As many popular shows, Gargoyles was adapted into a Comic Book for Marvel comics and also a video game (which looks awesome) So the legacy lives on, hopefully for newer generations to discover, because the adventures of Goliath and his rocky friends are just too good to miss.
