Birdman And The Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series

'Birdman & the Galaxy Trio' was the product of legendary cartoonist and comic book artist Alex Toth, in order for Hanna-Barabera to expand on its superhero line for the Saturday morning slot for kids, in response to contemporary shows like Marvel's 'The Fantastic Four' and Filmation's take on DC Comic's' Justice League (which would later be picked up by HB for its 'Super Friends' franchise).The twenty episode series ran from September 1967 to September 1969 on NBC, with the titular character of Birdman being voiced by Keith Andes (who tragically took his own life in 2005). Birdman is in fact a man named Ray Randall who was granted solar-based powers from the Egyptian Sun-God Ra. As such, he is able to create solar blasts from his hands, project a solar shield to repel enemy attacks, and can fly due to having natural feathered wings protruding from his back. The only flaw that Birdman possesses is having to recharge his solar-based powers by being energised by the sun's rays on a regular basis, which presents a problem when super-villains, such as Morto, Dr Millennium, the Duplicator and Mentok the Mind-Taker, amongst others, deploy their evil schemes under the cover of darkness. Towards the end of the series, Birdman is aided by a young boy that he rescues from a shipwreck, who he names Birdboy after passing on some of his powers onto via a transfusion, and along with his government liaison Falcon 7, they are assigned to protect their home-town of Central City from their specially designed Bird-Lair.Each episode of 'Birdman and the Galaxy Trio' is presented in three parts, with two Birdman shorts lasting approximately eight minutes each, with a segment starring the Galaxy Trio being sandwiched in-between, making each full episode having a total running time of about twenty-four to thirty minutes.Regarding the Galaxy Trio, their adventures take place in a futuristic Star Trek-esque setting, where the Intergalactic Police patrols space, attempting to thwart invading forces on unsuspecting planets. The team consists of Vapour Man, who can turn into any gaseous form, Meteor Man, who can enhance his growth cells to enlarge any part of his body, and Gravity girl, a princess from the planet Gravitas who can utilise gravity force to fly and suspend enemies in mid-air. Together, they form a formidable fighting force that protects civilisations from certain take-over, such as protecting the planet Aqueous from its rightful king 's evil power-hungry brother, and stopping the robotic Computron from turning his humanoid creators into robot slaves.'Birdman & the Galaxy Trio - The Complete Series', distributed by Warner Home Video for the Region 1 market during July 2007 under its 'Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection' banner, has a total running time of 420 minutes. That's seven complete hours of golden-age animation fun, containing all twenty episodes over two double-sided discs, with five episodes presented on each side. There is some lovely artwork depicted on the set's packaging, which is a cardboard sleeve fold-out tucked into an outer casing, indicative of Warner Bros' distributed animation DVD packages from the Hanna-Barbera studios and Filmation, amongst others. On the DVDs themselves, menus are presented with some more clean-cut artwork with an episode selection option, as well as being able to play all, with the added choice to view episodes with subtitles for the English hard-of-hearing. The picture quality is sometimes a little grainy, although for the most part, this cartoon from the late-sixties holds up pretty well. Regarding special features, there isn't really a lot to bulk up the collection apart from a mini-featurette looking at Alex Toth's original contribution to the series, lasting approximately ten minutes or so, along with some trailers which advertise other golden-age animated series on DVD.Birdman and the Galaxy Trio teamed up once in the 'Hanna-Barbera TV Superheroes' comic book series, with our titular hero also having a one-time appearance in Cartoon Network's Toonami comic series, published by DC Comic's some time later. The character of Birdman would later be used, almost three decades later after the original show, as a guest star on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim series 'Space Ghost: Coast to Coast', appearing as an unemployed superhero looking for work. Following the popularity of this series, Birdman subsequently starred in his own Adult Swim production, along with his supporting cast members, in the popular adult-oriented series 'Harvey Birdman - Attorney at Law'. In this series, he offered his services in representing fellow Hanna-Barbera characters in a court of law, having completed an online law degree after giving up his crime-fighting career.All in all, 'Birdman & the Galaxy Trio' is recommended for all classic animation enthusiasts, as well as those who were brought up watching similar shows, such as the Super Friends, along with people who have an affinity towards superheroes in general. The stories can definitely seem repetitive at times and the narration of action can be somewhat expressed as a form of televisual radio. However, if you don't take the premise too seriously, the characters definitely come alive with Hanna-Barbera's classic animated charm that the studio is historically famous for.Additionally, it is most definitely worth exploring Hanna-Barbera's sister superhero creations, such as 'Space Ghost & Dino Boy' and 'The Herculoids', amongst others, as well as Adult Swim's 'Harvey Birdman - Attorney At Law'; all currently available for purchase on DVD.

Reminiscing of great cartoons from shows from my childhood brings a smile and this is one of the best. Just reliving my childhood of a great block of cartoons.

C'est comme dans mon enfance, que de souvenir

Fue un regalo que hice, quien lo recibió estaba impactado por la calidad de todo imagen, audio, empaque.super recomendable para coleccionistas

パワーをぶち込め敵をめがけてそれゆ～くぞ～木曜日の夕方6時からやってたTVまんが『電子鳥人Uバード』と40年の時を超え再会出来ました。原語では只の“バードマン”だったのか。相棒のスーパーコンドルが“アベンジャー”。宿敵、宇宙暴力団マカロニ組にタマゴン、ヘビゴン…個性満点なワルモノたち。胸に染み入るナツカシサを満喫しております。しかし、こうして見返してみるとUバードって、結構ヒンパンに捕まったりエネルギー不足で墜落したりその度にスーパーコンドルに助けられてるンだな。import品ゆえ、フォーリーブスが唄った主題歌や、Uバード（小林修）を筆頭にコロムビア・トップ＆ライト、由利徹ら、伝説の芸人が喉をふるった日本語音声は望むべくもないが、劇中、繰り返し繰り返し流れるBGMや秘密基地の大爆発に光線の発射音、や怪物の足音といったサウンドエフェクトはムカシ、見たTVそのまま！あまりのカンゲキに同じくハンナバーベラプロの『SHAZZAN（邦題：大魔王シャザーン）』を間髪入れずに注文しちゃいました！

La calidad de video y audio muy bueno