DrSpengler
06-29-2005, 10:30 AM
I just popped in my old VHS of "Operation: Dragonfire", the 5-part miniseries that picked up where GI Joe: the Movie left off, and I honestly don't understand the hatred for the DiC series GI Joe fans tend to harbor.
For one thing, the animation by Kunitoshi Okajima Studio was superior to that of Toei Studio. The animation was very fluid, the character designs had greater detail and the direction had much more energy.
A lot of people complain about the new voice cast, but I have to say it's still a great collection of talent. Ian Corlett (Cheetor, Goku, Megaman) was there along with several other members of the Ocean Group; one of my favorite dub studios. One of the greatest voice actors of all time was there, Maurice LaMarche, and he did nearly half of the characters. Off the top of my head, he was Destro, Serpentor, Spirit, Low-Light and Gnawgahide. And his impressions of the previous voice actors was borderline flawless. And the voice direction was done by Doug Parker, the current voice of Cobra Commander and Starscream.
A few members of the original cast also returned for the series. Chris Latta came back to voice Cobra Commander, and that's always entertaining. Sgt. Slaughter came back as well, for those who are fans of his, and I'm pretty sure that the Baroness' original actress returned, as well (her voice is too perfect to be an impression).
The new voices may have been different, but they were all professionals and, for the most part, were all very good.
Then there's the fact that it maintains pratically flawless continuity with the Sunbow series. When the series opens Serpentor has just rebuilt Cobra and makes his first strike. Cobra Commander is still a mutated snake monster being held prisoner. Eventually, in the second episode, he gets returned to his human-ish form by Gnawgahide and the Baroness. As he transforms he hisses "Wasss onccccce a maaaann!!!". A nice fanboy tingle.
Later on he dethrones Serpentor and turns him into an iguana. I enjoyed that part the most, as I really never liked Serpentor (he was just as much a failure as Cobra Commander ever was).
One of the only complaints I can agree with is the characters designs. Yes, they were more detailed (animation-wise), but a lot of them were just stupid. Cobra Commander looks like he's wearing snorkling gear and Stalker dumped his camos for a bright white gortex coat. The character design changes obviously came from Hasbro and the characters needed to resemble their contemporary toy counterparts, I wouldn't blame the animation studio or the character design artists. after all, the same thing happened in the Marvel GI Joe comic after a while.
A lot of people hated the new theme song ("Got to get tough, Go Joe!") but it grows on you after a while. The opening animation was pretty good, though it was more a random collection of battle scenes pasted together, unlike the Sunbow sequences which were a single battle beginning with the Joes attacking some Cobra fortress and then blowing it up at the end.
Anyway, the DiC series really is underrated. I'd like to see more of it than Operation: Dragonfire, especially since I dug the new animation. Unfortunately, the chances of it ever getting released on DVD are slim to nil. DiC doesn't seem to show much interest in releasing their popular properties on DVD. C'mon, tons of people would love to buy season sets of the Real Ghostbusters, Inspector Gadget, Sonic the Hedgehog and the Super Mario Brothers Super Show.
For one thing, the animation by Kunitoshi Okajima Studio was superior to that of Toei Studio. The animation was very fluid, the character designs had greater detail and the direction had much more energy.
A lot of people complain about the new voice cast, but I have to say it's still a great collection of talent. Ian Corlett (Cheetor, Goku, Megaman) was there along with several other members of the Ocean Group; one of my favorite dub studios. One of the greatest voice actors of all time was there, Maurice LaMarche, and he did nearly half of the characters. Off the top of my head, he was Destro, Serpentor, Spirit, Low-Light and Gnawgahide. And his impressions of the previous voice actors was borderline flawless. And the voice direction was done by Doug Parker, the current voice of Cobra Commander and Starscream.
A few members of the original cast also returned for the series. Chris Latta came back to voice Cobra Commander, and that's always entertaining. Sgt. Slaughter came back as well, for those who are fans of his, and I'm pretty sure that the Baroness' original actress returned, as well (her voice is too perfect to be an impression).
The new voices may have been different, but they were all professionals and, for the most part, were all very good.
Then there's the fact that it maintains pratically flawless continuity with the Sunbow series. When the series opens Serpentor has just rebuilt Cobra and makes his first strike. Cobra Commander is still a mutated snake monster being held prisoner. Eventually, in the second episode, he gets returned to his human-ish form by Gnawgahide and the Baroness. As he transforms he hisses "Wasss onccccce a maaaann!!!". A nice fanboy tingle.
Later on he dethrones Serpentor and turns him into an iguana. I enjoyed that part the most, as I really never liked Serpentor (he was just as much a failure as Cobra Commander ever was).
One of the only complaints I can agree with is the characters designs. Yes, they were more detailed (animation-wise), but a lot of them were just stupid. Cobra Commander looks like he's wearing snorkling gear and Stalker dumped his camos for a bright white gortex coat. The character design changes obviously came from Hasbro and the characters needed to resemble their contemporary toy counterparts, I wouldn't blame the animation studio or the character design artists. after all, the same thing happened in the Marvel GI Joe comic after a while.
A lot of people hated the new theme song ("Got to get tough, Go Joe!") but it grows on you after a while. The opening animation was pretty good, though it was more a random collection of battle scenes pasted together, unlike the Sunbow sequences which were a single battle beginning with the Joes attacking some Cobra fortress and then blowing it up at the end.
Anyway, the DiC series really is underrated. I'd like to see more of it than Operation: Dragonfire, especially since I dug the new animation. Unfortunately, the chances of it ever getting released on DVD are slim to nil. DiC doesn't seem to show much interest in releasing their popular properties on DVD. C'mon, tons of people would love to buy season sets of the Real Ghostbusters, Inspector Gadget, Sonic the Hedgehog and the Super Mario Brothers Super Show.