Space Sentinels And The Freedom Force!

Filmation was an upstart animation house in the 60's which made its first mark on Saturday morning television with Superman cartoons. They went on to become somewhat specialized in "superheroes" so it came as little surprise when they dreamed up a team of their own named Space Sentinels. Originally the "Space Sentinels" were to be called the "Young Sentinels" but the network liked the idea of "Space" in the title as in the late 70's that made it connect to Star Wars in some vague way. 

There are three Space Sentinels, each of them a human being who was taken away from the Earth in an earlier time period. They were whisked to a distant planet where they were gifted with powers. Hercules was given great strength and Mercury was blessed with amazing speed. The field leader of the trio is Astrea who can transform into any animal. Another detail about the trio is their racial diversity. While Hercules is the typical default white male, Mercury is Asian and Astrea is Black. Such racial diversity was common on TV cartoons at the time but had yet to really make much headway in the comic books. 

Another detail is that each character was voiced by someone of the race they portrayed. Hercules was voiced by George DiCenzo who would achieve greater fame as the lawyer Vince Bugliosi in Helter Skelter. Evan Kim voiced Mercury and Dee Timberlake spoke for Astrea. The trio was led by a computer named Sentinel One and DiCenzo also did the voice for this disembodied projected head. The team is assisted by M.O. (Maintenance Operator) a robot meant to supply humor and another touchstone to the Star Wars fad. The whole operatior was in a spaceship tucked neatly into a volcano away from prying eyes. 

The team fought menaces on Earth, in space and even in other dimensions. Typically slow-paced for a Filmation show, the variety of the foes was really interesting and makes for a pleasurable viewing experience. The slender listing of thirteen episodes goes down quickly. 

Also on this DVD package was Freedom Force, a Filmation cartoon meant to be part of Tarzan and the Super Seven. These cartoons are a meager ten minutes and number only five. But they are interesting as far as they go. The Freedom Five are Isis, Merlin, Hercules, Sinbad the Sailor and Super Samurai. The latter was a young boy who transforms into a giant samurai warrior. Hercules looks identical to his Space Sentinels self, but is voiced by a different person and seems not to be a part of any outside outfit other than the magical which protects the valley they live in which is outside of time. Merlin casts some spells and Isis is the same character as appeared in the live action show but she is not voiced by Joanna Cameron. Sinbad barely makes two brief appearances in the five cartoons and does very little. 

All in all these are fun cartoons if you can find, certainly a marker of a different era. 

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