The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Eight against the galaxy.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 29, 2021

Alex Toth's highly influential sci-fi animated series The Herculoids burned brightly in its original run during the 1967-68 American television season. It found success in reruns and was later followed by a short revival in 1981 (as part of NBC's anthology series Space Stars, and no doubt due to the recent popularity of Toth's own Thundarr the Barbarian), but its first run still stands alongside Hanna-Barbera's earlier genre efforts including Jonny Quest, The Jetsons, and Space Ghost and Dino Boy. Simply put, this is Saturday morning-style camp in its purest, most lightly enjoyable form: colorful characters, simple stories, and blood-free battles dominate the simply-rendered world of The Herculoids, with its five-creature title team -- alongside English-speaking human friends Zandor, his wife Tara, and obligatory young son Dorno -- defending their primitive home world of Amzot against an endless wave of nasty alien invaders.

Clearly feeding off of previous Toth projects as well as other 60s sci-fi staples such as Mysterious Island, the original Star Trek , and Planet of the Apes, The Herculoids opts for a softer, kid-friendly approach with a purely primitive twist. But let's not kid ourselves here: despite the series' obvious influence on the next generation of Saturday morning cartoons and the kids who would grow up to make them, most of these bite-sized episodes (two per half-hour show) are the product of a painfully straightforward format. Bad guys show up, somebody probably gets imprisoned, a battle ensues, and the bad guys retreat, with the only real variables being whoever -- or whatever -- the villains happen to be. There's almost no real character depth or even a satisfying background for Zandor and his family, as The Herculoids basically asks viewers to just go along for the ride and take everything at face value. Within those extremely narrow boundaries, it's a fitfully fun ride that obviously plays better if you come equipped with nostalgic attachment.

If you're new to all this, of course, even the original series' modest 18-episode run might be a little much for an all-out marathon... but regardless of your subjective opinion regarding The Herculoids, the fan-favorite boutique label Warner Archive has once again served up another objectively awesome Blu-ray release. As outlined in the below list, these 18 episodes are given plenty of room to breathe and look fantastic; as usual, they're sourced from recent scans of the best available source material -- likely the original camera negatives, in this case -- and have been lovingly polished to a purist-friendly shine. Add in lossless audio and one short but sweet DVD-era featurette and you've got a no-nonsense, low-priced set that should thrill die-hard fans of the show. Perhaps the only missed opportunity here is not throwing in the revival episodes created for Space Stars, but perhaps those are being saved for their own release.

Episode List

Disc One:

• "The Pirates" / "Sarko the Arkman"
• "The Pod Creatures" / "Mekkor"
• "The Beaked People" / "The Raiders"
• "The Mole Men" / "The Lost Dorgyte"
• "The Spider Men" / "The Android People"
• "Defeat of Ogron"/ "Prisoners of the Bubblemen"
• "Mekkano, the Machine Master" / "Tiny World of Terror"

Disc Two:

• "The Gladiators of Kyanite" / "Temple of Trax"
• "The Time Creatures" / "The Raider Apes"
• "The Zorbots" / "Invasion of the Electrode Men"
• "Destroyer Ants" / "Swamp Monster"
• "Mission of the Amatons" / "Queen Skorra"
• "Laser Lancers" / "Attack of the Faceless People"
• "The Mutoids" / "The Crystallites"

Disc Three:

• "Return of Sta-Lak" / "Revenge of the Pirates"
• "Ruler of the Reptons" / "The Antidote"
• "Attack from Space" / "The Return of Torrak"
• "The Island of the Gravites" / "Malak and the Metal Apes"

The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unsurprisingly, Warner Archive serves up another pitch-perfect transfer that preserves The Herculoids' scruffy, low-budget roots while making it shine like new. The boutique label's own 2011 DVD release, a two-disc manufactured-on-demand set, wasn't a bad effort but this Blu-ray package absolutely tramples that old one in all areas: image detail, cleanliness, film grain, color saturation, and compression are all second-to-none here, with each of The Herculoids' 18 episodes getting plenty of room to breathe with new and improved 1080p transfers... and on pressed discs, of course. Cel dirt and other blemishes are kept to a minimum, but nothing has been carelessly scrubbed clean here; it simply looks like an ideal presentation of classic source material that's been treated with respect, not a smoothed-over and waxy mess. Still, there were a few shots here and there where debris was a bit more evident than usual, which may have been rectified with more manual cleanup... but it's a tricky line to walk, so I'll give Warner Archive the benefit of the doubt. Bleeding, black, crush, banding, and other eyesores are thankfully absent too, as are signs of excessive manipulation such as edge enhancement. Simply put, these screenshots speak for themselves and, just like those linked Warner Archive animation titles above, this collection's worth picking up for video quality alone.

The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix represents a very solid port of the one-channel source, combining clear dialogue with brassy music cues (many of which seem to have been lifted from Jonny Quest). No obvious age-related defects are present aside from its thin dynamic range, butwithin those boundaries it's as good a presentation as fans could hope for -- and lossless too, which is something Warner Archive's parent company doesn't usually care about. No drop-outs or sync issues could be hear along the way, rounding out the sonic experience nicely.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during all 18 episodes, but not the bonus featurette. For whatever reason, though, all of the sound effects are spelled out in lower-case letters and this proves to be very distracting. Did you ever wish that cartoon subtitles would provide a near-constant barrage of "pow", "whoosh", "kaboom", or (my personal favorite) "zap zap zap zap zap"? You know, like Batman '66 but waaay less enthusiastic? Me neither.

The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This three-disc release ships in a standard hinged keepcase with attractive throwback cover art and a slim profile; no inserts are included, but episode names are at least printed on the discs themselves. The lone on-disc bonus feature, a carryover from Warner Archive's 2011 DVD edition, can be found on Disc 3.

• The Herculoids: First Family of Quasar (4:27) - Despite its promising title, this is a short and surface-level featurette that nonetheless has a few good interview snippets with the likes of celebrated comic creator Paul Dini, animation historian Jerry Beck, comic book/TV writer Mark Evanier, and animator Doug TenNapel. (And for the uninitiated, this piece's title references planet Amzot's new name from the 1981 revival onward.)

The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hanna-Barbera's The Herculoids, created by Alex Toth, shares a lot of similarities with his other works including Space Ghost and Dino Boy and Thundarr the Barbarian. That's not necessarily all good news, of course: it's influence clearly outshines the actual quality of most episodes, which are often colorful and entertaining but also very repetitive with very little below the surface. Even so, if you grew up with fond memories of the show's original run or through syndication -- or if you simply have a soft spot for 1960s H-B properties, of course -- Warner Archive's new Blu-ray set will be a no-brainer. All 18 original episodes shine like new but retain their scruffy, low-budget charm, while the lossless audio and preserved DVD-era bonus featurette are just icing on the cake. Recommended to the right crowd.