Dungeons & Dragons: The Animated Series

[Andrew]

Reader review by Akiratubo, providing an overview of the entire series.

Six young adults are pulled into a realm where they must fight for their lives against monsters, Vengar, and Tiamat. Along with powerful magic items, the wayward six are guided by the Dungeon Master, though he always speaks in riddles.

Go to the review

[Ash]

Great review!
Good job.   

I too watched this quite a bit when I was a kid growing up in the 80's.
I'd like to get my hands on a DVD set of the episodes.
Is there a DVD set available?

By the way, I noticed this pic in the review:


What is the name of that creature?
Is it The Beholder?
I seem to remember an episode titled, "Eye of the Beholder".

[Bmeansgood]

Just thought I would congratulate you on a great review.  I had forgotten about that cartoon.   I remember it was pretty good.  I am glad to hear that it still holds up.   

[Andrew]

Akiratubo did a very fine job with the review.  I watched a number of the episodes again and cannot agree with his opinion in all respects, but he does a great job of saying how he feels about it and why.  Hard to argue with that.  Some people just react differently.

[Andrew]

There is a DVD set of the complete series available at this time.  I picked it up, solely to add the multimedia to the review that Akiratubo wrote.  Not entirely true, I was interested in seeing the series again after reading his review.  I see why he feels the way he does about it and am really interested in his take on Dungeon Master, because I think it is dead on (and disagreed with it at first).

That is the beholder, one of the more memorable creatures from the Monster Manual for D&D.

[Ash]

I can't believe that I actually remembered that creature's name.
There's even a Wiki entry for it.
READ IT HERE

Kind of reminds you of this little guy doesn't it?

[JPickettIII]

I loved watching that show.  I will admit that Shelia was kinda of sexy.  I saw it when I was eight or ten.

I read the encyclopedia link for the Beholder.  The one type of beholder I would hate to meet is the Doomsphere:



I also loved playing the D & D games.  They were fun with the monsters and the adventures.

Take care,

John

P.S.  I think that I am going to use the Doomsphere in the picture war.

[Zapranoth]

I thought that damn unicorn seriously, seriously needed stepped on.

[Yaddo 42]

Excellent review of a series I really didn't like then, I was a little older than Akiratubo. I think I saw some episodes on Cartoon Network a few years ago (saw them somewhere on cable) still didn't like it.

Maybe the kids were too much like kids I knew in real life, and even as a kid I hated kids and cute sidekicks in scifi and fantasy, since I knew they weren't in any real danger in the end, no mainstream movie or show was likely to kill or maim a kid in a kid's story. The little boy with the club was the one who annoyed me the most along with his stupid unicorn. Also the kids didn't seem to get any better at using their weapons, especially Presto. I guess I wanted more of a serial storyline or some sense of growth , but cartoons didn't really do that back then.

Plus I was more in the camp that thinks Dungeonmaster is using or messing with them more than teaching them anything.

But it was a fantasy action cartoon, so I watched it anyway. Just like I watched Thundarr until I figured out they weren't making any new episodes. I should probably thank this show for keeping me away from D&D and gaming such was my dislike, I was enough of a geek as it was. There were no gamers at my schools best I can tell.

[Doc Daneeka]

O...k... I never spoke in riddles as the dungeonmaster.

[clockworkcanary]

Great review - I like the writing style.   I used to watch this show a couple years before I got into playing the actual game.  It was a great way to introduce me into SANTAISM er...uh...haha...just kidding.  This was a great and controversial cartoon and I loved it.  It's even great to watch it now.

A fellow D&D friend and player just bought the box set and we've been watchin' em while we talk about our plans for the next game.  We were talking about how they should do a new animated version with the modern treatment (as like Batman TAS, Batman Beyond, and the Justice League, for example). 

Anyway, the stories were always interesting and the characters were great, even though it was kiddified, but then I didn't mind back then.  Presto was the man!

Couple of nerdy nitpicks:
Black Dragons do indeed have acid breath.
Dungeon Master was a Gnome, a type that usually specializes in Wizardry.
Tiamat, the five-headed dragon, was an arch-devil who ruled the first of the nine planes of Hell in the AD&D first edition (could you imagine 8 more fiends even more powerful than Tiamat?!).

Also, that pic is a Beholder.  In-game, they are very nasty!

[TwoGunBob]

Where to start? I plyed AD&D before the cartoon came out so I was a little miffed that they 'got it wrong' from my perspective as well as wondering why Eric never got himself a sword to balance the Uber-Shield of Ever-Blocking +6. I still watched the show cause well... it was a cartoon and I was a kid. It was also the closest I'd ever get to seeing AD&D live action bar Hawk the Slayer. Naturally Hawk appealled to my zeal of gaming as well. I was at the perfect age to think automatic crossbows and stop motion elven archers were awesome rather than goofy.
I think the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon really hit a pulse with kids because of the basic archetypes presented that most kids could relate to. Everyone knew a Presto or an Eric or perhaps was one. The female characters were strong and not some candy coated Penelope Pitstop in need of constant rescue. It really touched on all bases from children aged 3-5 to preteens that probably never admitted to watching the show when they were at school lest they be termed a 'Presto'.
Although the first TV character I crushed on was Caroline Ellis as Joy from The Bugaloos I admit to crushing on Shiela. Of coure during my growing years I often wished the red heads I dated has a cloak like Shiela's and would disappear permanently from my life but that was my own bad character judgement rather than a broad sweeping generalization.
I really do need to pick up the series to see how my perceptions have matured. It's bad enough I've been submitting my three year old to The Banana Splits and New Zoo Revue (Emmy Jo!) I might as well bring him from the 60's and 70's and try to modernize him with a dose of the 80's I suppose.

Great review.

[chrisb]

My only memory of Dungeons is an odd episode in which somehow the two worlds overlap, and Vengar ends up duking it out with a F-16 fighter jet (which can't outpace him even with the afterburner on!)

Can anyone recall this episode?

[Frost]

A great show and an important part of my adolescence!

Michael Reaves wrote eight episodes of the show and the unproduced final episode.

He's posted a PDF of the final script on his website.

Enjoy!


http://www.michaelreaves.com/requiem_preface.htm
http://www.michaelreaves.com/pdf/requiem_sec.pdf

[Yaddo 42]

I posted my comments in the topic in the Bad Movies forum, picked the wrong one I guess.

Like I said, I liked he review even if I didn't like the show.

BTW, Akiratubo, about that skippable section of the review concerning the Sheila character. As Don Imus told George Jones on his radio show once when Jones told a story about a drunken run-in he had with Porter Waggoner years ago: I don't think I'd have told that if I didn't have to.