Some quickies for now...
On Feb 14, 12:38Â pm, hf...@
schools.nyc.gov wrote:
> On Feb 12, 6:03Â pm, Chris Sobieniak
gmail.com> wrote:> On Feb 12, 10:45 am, Galen nekomimicon.net> wrote:> Â > At this point I'm more inclined to say, what the hell! Â It was
> another
>
>> nice attempt from a Japanese studio's U.S. subsidiary to get a show
>> going on Saturday morning much like with Mighty Orbots a couple years
>> before (if only to help fund for the production of Little Nemo movie
>> perhaps I thought).
>
> If one didn't peruse the credits, it wouldn't appear that GALAXY HIGH
> was made by a Japanese outfit.
Dig some of these credits:
Director Saburo Hashimoto directed several episodes of Gargoyles.
Director Toshiyuki Hiruma helped out with some episodes of Extreme
Ghostbusters, and possibly Project Geeker.
> Unlike contemporary 1980s DIC (and some
> Marvel asnd Ruby-Spears product) the animation looked downright
> American. ORBOTS had more of an anime look. BIONIC SIX, which TMS made
> for syndication the following season, looked somewhat less anime than
> ORBOTS but more anime than GALAXY.
>
> Abundant use of 'H-B SFX' (Sam Horta is listed as SFX editor) and a
> pop/rock underscore (the otherwise unknown Don Felder) made GALAXY
> HIGH seem more like a Ruby-Spears or Film Roman series.
Disagreeing with Mark Lungo for a second, I don't hate the score
Felder composed for this show. Might be because my ear's tuned to
video game chiptunes. I hated the synthesized vocals (and lyrics,
natch) for the theme song.
>>> The series opens with two American teens chosen from Earth
>>> to attend "Galaxy High", a school on an asteroid (apparently
>>> in the Sol system). One student is a jock (Doyle), and the
>>> other is a bookworm (Aimee).
>> Did seem kinda interesting how the two's roles get reversed from the
>> way they had been on earth the way the had it in the opening sequence,
>> Doyle getting all the praise while Aimee is a bookworm.
>
> It was politically correct protocol by 1986 to depict girls as
> intelligent. But it was perfectly OK for boys to still be the butt of
> jokes, whether nerds or jocks. Ever notice how throughout TV and movie
> comedy, fathers are by and large hapless idiots?
No, but the late Gene Siskel wondered constantly why fathers in family
movies are "such jerks".
> Therefore, throughout the series it was constantly depicted that Aimee
> could do no wrong and Doyle could do no right.
Galaxy High's problems extend far beyond that :-)
Put simply, Doyle is a heel. Heels suck. (Ask me for my opinion on
Dungeons & Dragon's cavalier character.) Bad scripts and stories use
heels for cheap laughs and obvious lessons for youngsters. Chris
Columbus wasn't feeling particularly sophisticated or subtle, so he
had Doyle open the series premiere with a 5000-word monologue (a
supporting lines later in Act 1) about how Amy's not cool enough to
hang out with him in this new school.
In other words, Doyle always has the cloud hovering over him because
the script writers had to hammer home the point that Amy academic
excellence would be rewarded, while Doyle's Earthy's achievements and
skills would be of no value.
I should note an episode later in the run (episode 4 on the first
Galaxy High video tape), where Doyle tries to warn Amy about a
supernove that could kill everyone, and Amy's too stubbornly annoyed
with Doyle to listen.
> Â > If Galaxy High have had a more suitable pilot of such made-
>
> At least there WAS a cohesive pilot setting up the premise to this
> show, a rare occurrence in TV animation except for some of the
> syndicated Disney shows that would open with full-hour previews. But
> first episodes of most other cartoons just aired 'midstream' as if
> everything had been going on as seen for years- with maybe a tiny bit
> of exposition in the dialogue. The only other shows I can recall off
> the top of my head having canonical premiere episodes are THE
> ADVENTURES OF GULLIVER, JACKSON 5IVE, 13 GHOSTS OF SCOOBY-DOO and TINY
> TOON ADVENTURES. Feel free to chip in with others.
Oh... off the top of my head...
Ducktales
Gargoyles
Legend of Prince Valiant
Phantom 2040
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Shall I go on? :-)
> Various episodes featured guest characters who were obvious
> caricatures of popular entertainers- a staple of sound animation since
> its inception. Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, Mick Jagger and the STAR
> TREK crew got their due here.
For the record. If I *NEVER* have to suffer through another lame Elvis
reference, it'll be too soon.
That is all.
> BTW, I can't seem to edit my profile so my NAME rather than my E-mail
> address shows up in the tree- and I really don't feel like re-
> registering. Repeated inquiries to Google Groups have led nowhere.
> Anyone got any ideas?
I'll get back to you on this. I always thought Terrence Briggs
appeared in parentheses above my posts.
> HOWARD FEIN, longtime aficianado of animation and rec.arts.animation
> when there's a worthy thread.
Feel free to START a worthy thread sometime, dude :-)
Didn't you warn us about the Top Cat DVD some years ago?
Terrence Briggs, freezing his Netflix susbscription for a few months.
Gotta catch up to the movie industry.
Peace to you...
