The Adventures of Gulliver

I just a couple of episodes of this great cartoon on Digital Cable from Cartoon Network and it does to an extent follow the Jonathan Swift classic.

We follow Gulliver to adventures similiar to novel. The animation is good for 1968 and it's one of the first cartoon with voice of Don Messick (He-Man).

It's also produced by the Barbera brothers who brought the "Flinstones", "Scooby Doo" and other classics.

More than the actual TV show's characters or plots, I remember feeling anxious about the opening credits' theme and images. I don't recall at what age I saw this cartoon originally, but I guess I must have been rather young and impressionable.

The image of the bad guy appearing at the door of the boat, the thunder, and the roaring sea, has stayed with me my whole life.

That and, thankfully, the extremely cute Lilliputians. The mumbling one was an absolute riot.

All and all, a great show, with awesome characters and curious plots.

Jonathan Swift's classic novel of 1726 became a very good Saturday Morning cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. However,this was basically for its time a modern version of the story with some of the satire retained mixed in with various adventure plots. In this version,Gary Gulliver(voiced by Hanna-Barbera stockplayer Jerry Dexter),accompanied by his faithful dog Shag,attempted to locate his father Thomas Gulliver,who disappeared on a mysterious island in the land of Lilliput. The kingdom of Lilliput was a land of six-inch people led by King Pomp,and Gary's miniature pals Flirtacia(who was King Pomp's daughter)along with Eager,Glum,and Bunko as they tried to help him find his dad while avoiding Captain Leech,who each week tried unsuccessfully to get Gary's treasure map.

This cartoon premiered in 1968,almost a year before "Scooby Doo,Where Are You?",and two years before "Josie And The Pussycats",when Hanna-Barbera during that time were in the process of producing their last of the successful action/adventure cartoons that ran from 1966-1968. Speaking of the cast,regular Hanna-Barbera stockplayer John Stephenson(who was also known as the voice of Mister Slate on The Flintstones,and also was the original voice of Dr. Benton Quest on Jonny Quest,and other characters)was not only the voice of Gary's father Thomas,and also Captain Leech,and King Pomp. Ginny Tyler(who was the voice of Jan from Space Ghost)was the voice of Flirtacia,while the rest were done by Hanna-Barbera regulars Don Messick,Allan Melvin,and Herb Vignan.

The series originally aired on ABC-TV from September 14,1968 until September 5, 1970. Only the first season aired original episodes until August 30,1969. The second and third seasons were repeats. Among the episodes were "Dangerous Journey"(the pilot),and other including "The Valley of Time","The Forbidden Pool","Hurricane Island","The Capture", "The Peril of the Lilliputs",and "The Little Man Of The Year",and "The Missing Crow",made up for the 13 episodes that this series produced. After its run in 1970,the series showed up against,this time in syndication for part of "The Banana Splits Adventure Show",until its final airing in re-runs until 1971.

When I first saw this cartoon, it was back in the early 1970's when it was part of the package of cartoons under the Banana Splits syndication package. I thoroughly enjoyed this cartoon and especially the characters of Glum, Flurtacia, Eager and Bunko. This can almost be seen as a precursor to shows like Scooby Doo and Josie and the Pussycats, which came out within a few years of this show's premier. All in all it was a great adventure.

I still remember this cartoon as being as enjoyable as it was when I was much, much younger. Sure the characters were cutesy (poor Flirtacia mooning for the unattainable Gary) and the giant Gulliver was a "hunk" (well, as good-looking a guy as a kid like me could appreciate at the time), Captain Leech was very much in the hissable baddie mode.

The stories were quite good - and the action music scoring was very dramatic for a production made (ohmigod) 40 years ago. Certainly a long way from when Hanna Barbera started with characters like Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss and so on. In fact the period between 1966-1968 was a good time for cartoons. Sure, to some they might be hokey, but compared to the silly violence-riddled junk watched by kids these days, a little toning down on the blood-and guts wouldn't hurt.

The good old days - who could ask for anything more?