"Space Sentinels/Freedom Force: The Complete Series" DVD Talkback

[Kolbar]

BCI releases two Filmation shows in one set today on DVD along with the complete run of "Blackstar."

http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/SpaceSentinels+FreedomForce.jpg

"Space Sentinels" stars super-strong Hercules, shape-changing beauty Astrea, and lightning-fast Mercury, three young Earthlings who were transported to an otherworldly domain centuries ago. There, the cosmic computer entity known as Sentinel One granted them astounding powers and eternal youth. Now, they protect the human race from super-villains, marauding aliens, tampering time-travelers, and vengeful deities. The trio of heroes have become legends, guarding mankind as… the Space Sentinels!

"The Freedom Force" features five legendary heroes. Joining the returning strongman Hercules are the magician Merlin, super-adventurer Sinbad, armored giant of the East, Super Samurai, and the beauteous Egyptian heroine known as Isis! Headquartered in the sandswept Valley of Time, this powerful quintet defends humanity, using their awesome powers to defeat magical menaces, rampaging robots, and mythological threats. Together, they are The Freedom Force!

Special Features Include:

Interviews with creators Lou Scheimer, Buzz Dixon, Darrell McNeil, Michael Reaves, Robert Kline and David Wise.
The Magic of Filmation" documentary tracing the history of Filmation, and its quarter century legacy of popular animated and live-action series
"Young Sentinels" audition tapes
Model Sheet Gallery—featuring original images from Space Sentinels and Freedom Force
Young Sentinels gallery – early presentation images for the cartoon that would become Space Sentinels
Spanish language tracks for all 13 Space Sentinels episodes
DVD-ROM features – scripts for all 13 episodes of Space Sentinels and 3 episodes for The Freedom Force
Trivia for both series
Digital remastering of sound and videoFeel free to discuss both the show and the DVD.

[greg!]

Certainly not the best, but I really love the concept of the Freedom Force. Great characters but not nearly enough episodes to flesh them out. I really am glad to have this set though, because it is one of Filmation's better shows.

[tjguitar]

I had it and sold it. loved freedom force, wasn't into space sentinels. Wished there was more freedom force (and longer episodes). Also, too much screen time for the Samurai too, unfortunately. But that was how it was in those days....though he was a notch above gleek, batmite, etc

[James]

I had it and sold it. loved freedom force, wasn't into space sentinels. Wished there was more freedom force (and longer episodes). Also, too much screen time for the Samurai too, unfortunately. But that was how it was in those days....though he was a notch above gleek, batmite, etc

Wow, really? I hated Freedom Force - it was terrible in every sense. I thought comparatively the Space Sentinels had some intelligent and fairly interesting stories. A fun add on, but I'm genuinely surprised that anyone enjoyed FF - I stand utterly corrected! :)

[ROBOTRON]

:D - Sentinels makes it all worthwhile, FF is ok too.:sweat:

[ThePeterNetwork]

I vaguely remember the Space Sentinels cartoon because of Sentinel One. That big giant holographic head gave me nightmares. :sweat:
I will probably not get this one.

[Silverstar]

The Space Sentinels (originally titled The Young Sentinels) was an interesting idea, but it was 'meh' overall, IMHO. I did kind of like Astrea, though. (I won't even go into how the obviously-inspired-by-R2D2 robot MO could be crushing on Astrea when he's a robot.)

I only know of The Freedom Force; I never actually saw the show (it must've ran opposite another show I watched on another network), so I can't comment on that.

[Kris]

I was born in `82 and this originally aired in, I think, 1976 or `72 or something. I have no idea if it re-aired at all in Canada during the `80s. So completely missed this one.

I'm trying to catch a whole bunch of action/adventure/drama cartoons I missed (anything excessively goofy or anything that was intended as comedy but isn't all that funny from the `60s to the `80s I'm skipping. Once we get to the `90s and beyond, there are noteable worthwhile exceptions like Animaniacs and South Park and Futurama and whatnot), plus eventually favorites, so I'm buying them little by little on DVD and mostly going by air date. Was gonna start with Jonny Quest, but apparently that Complete Series Set is edited for political correctness, so forget it.

The first three episodes of Space Sentinels so far are okay. The best story so far was the one where it appeared aliens were trying to get a Fort Knox-like government building to give up all the gold for fuel for their ships, then it turned out the robotic War-of-the-Worlds-like walkers were just expensive props and the aliens were actor-conmen (and woman), then when the Sentinels found them out, the robots just happened to go rogue and tried to take over. Very nutty and awesome.

I can see this whole set being something to just fall asleep to at night though, which is fine. Many episodes of Transformers (G1) were the same (though a number of them were also damn good sci-fi as well). Unless Freedom Force ends up being a hell of a lot better, I'll be glad I owned this for posterity and to eventually share maybe, but otherwise I bet it'll be one of my more mediocre cartoon sets.

[James]

Space Sentinels biggest problems is that the three characters really don't carry enough character to distinguish themselves or charm the audience. Plus Sentinel One is a little too much top end so far as noise - his tinniness hurts my ears.

That said, I think where Space Sentinels fails on characters, the scifi ideas are actually a little more interesting than the average kids action cartoon, and the spare and quite foreboding world carries a charm the characters fail to deliver.

I agree its not mind blowing stuff, and it does make good night time material (I find most Filmation cosy night stuff), but I think it has a quality and unique flavour that was distinctly lacking for cartoon era that followed it.

As for Freedom Force - its disjointed, ugly, contrived and lacking any charisma. I only watched them because I had to, but their awful stories, characters and drama have forever stained my soul. Terrible theme too.