Mightor And Moby!

It's been years since I added the dvd of of the Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor to my stack of recordings, but I just spent a weekend re-watching these vintage Hanna-Barbera cartoons and I must say the result is mixed.

Alex Toth's designs for theses 1967 shows are remarkable and the spare costume for Mightor himself is one of Toth's best, but the cartoons themselves are perhaps best remembered than seen. The Moby Dick cartoons present one of the most absurd concepts in cartoons, a whale -- the eponymous Moby Dick -- saves two boys named Tom and Tubb who have drifted away from their responsible adults and along with a seal named Scooby have outlandish misadventures beneath the ocean surface fending off various threats, mostly of an extraterrestrial nature. The cartoon is briskly paced and in good fun, but don't think about it much or it will shatter into bits.

The Mighty Mightor for all its sleek good looks presents a prehistoric world that is at once filled with terrible threats and more boredom than one might expect. The boredom comes from the strict story telling limits with the girl Sheera, the daughter of Chief Pondo, getting kidnapped by some nasty looking bunch of interlopers and Tor changing into Mightor to save her helped by his flying dragon buddy Tog. That's a good formula except they don't vary it hardly at all. When they do it's to add Little Rok, a particularly annoying tyke who pretends to be Mightor.

Little Rok has virtually no learning curve and gets into trouble incessantly even evoking the occasional gasp from Mightor himself who has to rescue the little nimrod along with his hapless bird Ork. Slowly Little Rok takes over the cartoon with the other characters getting less and less time. It's a shame the show didn't show a little more variety, as the world in which it operates presents some real opportunities. It's most powerful trait was the outstanding voice work. When Tor becomes Mightor, the change Bobby Diamond to a powerful Paul Stewart with a tinge of echo is amazing. The sound is mightier the yarns in many cases.

Still and all a mostly competent and decent cartoon distraction.

Rip Off