Los halcones galácticos

I'm a big kid. I am a big anime fan and an 80's fan, and I remember this show growing up. This was a good show just to sit back and simply be entertained by. I still get a laugh out of watching this and just seeing how far that animation has come. People can say that this was a blatant rip-off of ThunderCats, but it was done by the same studio and it worked once right? The characters were likable, the dialog was cheesy but as someone else said before, it's just a cartoon. I was pleased to learn that the show had finally made it's way to DVD. It's about time, too, now that Voltron has finally made it. For all of the show's flaws, it's still good just to sit back and turn off the thought process and just be entertained by it. The origin of the show was very well put together and the first two episodes set the rest of the series up well. I just enjoyed this show as a kid and I still enjoy it today.

I remember being an eight year old boy sitting in front of the tele watching the Silverhawks. Man, what a great cartoon. There were its flaws. I'm not sure why a commander and a lieutenant outranked a captain (must be some sort of Limbo galaxy military ranking thing). I'm not sure how a Steelheart survived with a metal heart. I'm not sure how the Silverhawks breathed in space. But I don't care. It was fantasy. It was fiction. And there was always a basic 'good prevails over evil' trend. Plus, the Copper Kidd thing at the end was very educational. This is far better than the crap that comes on the tele now. There are cartoons on now that I wouldn't dare let my children watch. And I don't mean adult cartoons like "Family Guy" or "South Park" or "Aqua Teen". I mean children's cartoons that come on children's networks. Is the Silverhawks cheesy? Of course it is...it was the 80's. Everything was cheesy. But in the end, the morals were pure and the message was good. That's what makes it great. 10/10

Okay, first the little matter that the producers of "Thundercats" ripped off their own show by doing a space opera version called "Silverhawks" - I grew up outside the States, in Ecuador, and "Silverhawks" was actually shown there before "Thundercats!" So I've never had that issue.

And why can't "Silverhawks" simply be judged on its own merits? The science may have been wildly inaccurate, but that's why it's called Science FICTION!! Just shut your mind off and enjoy. I certainly had no problem doing it, with all the brightly colored characters against backgrounds of futuristic buildings and machines and black skies with shimmering stars.

Most of all, "Silverhawks" had GREAT villains. Their leader, Monstar, may have been a Mumm-Ra ripoff, but I think his ritual transformation was way creepier than Mumm-Ra's. Instead of getting all muscular and bursting out of a cloak and bandages, Monstar would burst out of his own SKIN, and come out looking like some kind of cyborg-demon! And Monstar's underlings were a memorable bunch: his ridiculously obedient sidekick, a chimp/snake named Yes-Man; Hardware, the troll with a backpack full of gadgets; Windjammer, with his long blonde hair and gaunt face and weather-control staff; Mumbo-Jumbo, a minotaur on steroids; Buzzsaw, a robot with built-in blades; Molecular, the shape shifter; Pokerface, the lounge lizard/walking slot machine; Time-Stopper, a teenage brat with a clock on his chest which could manipulate time; Melodia, the Queen of Rock with a (literally) killer guitar.

That was something else special about Silverhawks: the villains were so much cooler than the smug, boring heroes. Even though they always lost in the end, it was almost subversive that a cartoon could have young viewers (or, at least this young viewer) rooting for the villains. It was very cathartic, a healthy way of embracing one's dark side without doing other people harm.

Silverhawks was a great show, it deserves much more respect than it gets. I'm hoping this might be remedied during its 20th anniversary in 2006.

There have been better, there have been worse.

Yes, this is the same people responsible for Thundercats. Yes, the "writing" is incredibly formulaic. Yes, there are gaping plot holes, inconsistencies, and an utter lack of realism.

THIS IS A CARTOON!!! It is something that we watched because it was on, and at the time it was kinda cool. Besides, Thundercats was kinda played out. THe intended age range is 4-8, not 30+. Some of the space fantasy was softened for midwestern tastes. I find it amusing that the goodguy musician is a CW/R&B player, where the bad gall musician is Cindy Lauper on steroids--very 80s pop rock girl band style. We all know how evil Rock music is, right? For some reason, the cowboy has more dialog than the "leader" for the first 6 episodes.

Hmmm, a lieutenant outranks a colonel, but not a commander. ???

Also, if you're going to rip the cartoon by citing the similarity in chants between Mumm-Ra from Thundercats and Mon*Star, get the chant right. It's "Moon Star of Limbo {animated sequence/pause} Give me the Might! The Muscle! The MENACE of MON*STARRRRRRR!" As for falling in space, and people not needing life support: well, Limbo Galaxy has an artificial sun (which, technically should be artificial star, but that's a mistake that StarTrek makes on a regular basis without getting yelled at), maybe they also have an artificial gravity plane, or a black hole or two. That would explain why everyone was afraid of falling, now wouldn't it. Maybe the ships have atmospheric shields that hold in air, but don't stop lasers. Some of the races are aliens, maybe they can survive in space for a short time.

OK, as to why in some episodes Hardware has to have a ship with him, and in others he has a collapsible Pteridactyl in his backpack is a little less explainable (maybe he just doesn't always carry it with him?).

It's cheesy, dated, fun. Not the height of 80's animation, but not as bad as He-Man or {shudder}She-Ra.

This Thundercats-ish cartoon takes that show's style to space. Although it has decent heroes, the villains are the draw in this one. This would be great for a big budget live action film, considering it has more style than substance going for it. Still, the villains are original enough and the clashes between them and the bird-theme-armored heroes exciting enough to make this a better-than-average entry.