InHumanoids

I remember Inhumanoids when very young appearing in Greek television they were something different because they contained so many monsters.If one watches the child zones of today's private Greek channels he would be surprised by how monster-infested they are compared with the equivalent cartoons of my youth. The series which started the trend were Inhumanoids which with their memorable music giggle and many monsters, started this trend which now has become mainstream offering to Hellenic and universal(I imagine) youth its' monstrous fruit. Truly a trend-setter in Greece, although I suspect it was not much of a novelty in the English-speaking world from where it originated.

"Inhumanoids" was pretty cool back in 1986 but would probably look dated now. The Decompose character and his powers of controlling the undead kinda scared the (expletive) out of me back then and I wondered if this was really supposed to be aimed at kids. I think I'd be able to handle it now, but whenever he touched a live person and turned them into a zombie, you would hear this weird womanly wail and it would send chills up my spine! And I thought Lucio Fulci's zombie movies were scary!

I don't think I'd get this show on DVD. If Decompose did exist, I have a long list of annoying celebrities I'd be glad to give him!

Four scientists, Auger, Bright, Armstrong and Herc, collectively called Earth Corps are called in when three giant ancient monsters called the Inhumanoids are accidentally set free by man's exploration. Earth Corps teams up with the mysterious Redwood men and Granite people to recapture this threat before the three can take over the planet. They explore the sub-world, save the planet's core, and generally fight evil. The also come up against power-hungry business men, mad Russian military leaders, creatures from the sub-world and even save the Statue of Liberty from having to marry an Inhumanoid when she comes to life and is wooed by the evil Metlar.

Based on the Hasbro toy line of the same name, and turned into a cartoon by the same people who did GI Joe and the Transformers (you'll recognize many familiar voices).

This series was teamed up in small segments with shows like Gem and the Holograms, Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines and Robotix and broadcast on Sunday mornings in 1986. All the small segments were tied together into longer shows for video release only on Beta for many years, but recently it made it's way to VHS and DVD.

I was a child of the 80's and I've had my share of cartoons that have became a staple of me childhood like "Transformers", "G.I. Joe", you name it, yeah depending on which decade we were born into we've all had those shows. But sometimes there are those shows that sometimes pass us by, that we might not have been able to watch because we were too focused on other shows like the ones I've mentioned. I've never heard about this show until a lot latter, but in a way it's a great feeling because like all under the radar gems much like in the show is was like making a great discovery.

One of the things that make this under the radar gem stand out is just that it was something we've never seen before and still haven't to this day, it really took chances as well as ahead of it's time, dove into dark territory without insulting our intelligence or watering itself down. It gave us what we truly wanted to be entertained rightful and that cartoons really can take the next step.

This show was inspired by some of the stories from H.P. Lovecraft (which makes this show cooler since I'm a fan of the author and the stories) since the show does deal with ancient creatures and civilizations possibly from other worlds along with evil scientists that step beyond their boundaries to gain power or forbidden knowledge. So I really liked it's plot/s, what made them fun and funny due to how absurd, weird, even inconsistent some of them are like prevention of the Statue of Liberty marrying one of the Inhumanoids it's never explained as to why it would cause great harm. And also the plot line constantly develops as the show utilized the developing serial structure much like in our current shows "Battlestar Galatica"(revival version) and "The Walking Dead"; this was great and revolutionary for it's time because it keep us wondering and wanting to know more of what will happen next.

The animation I think is great it doesn't even look like a cartoon from the 80's but looks like one from the 90's which is why I feel it's held up because it was ahead of itself in that category, I like the character designs from the Exo Suits of Earth core and their abilities , along with the humans that control them but most importantly the Inhumanoids themselves good and evil, their impressive foes each have impressive physical features which make them bizarre, menacing but cool and the abilities to go with them. Along with the background designs of the caves and the mysterious ancient civilizations which are impressive and just makes you want to explore more. I even like the dark atmosphere and sensibility of the show, there are times when the show was kinda scary but it was a fun scary. It's just like in a Haunted House carnival ride, where things pop out but don't harm you.

As for characters well they pretty much are what their set up to do, back in the 80's most animated characters never had a great range of depth which is why they come off two dimensional in persona. The Earth Core characters are all kinda bland which is why I can't really think of a favorite except for a favorite EXO Suit which is Auger's armed with the drill which does the most damage. It's really the Inhumanoids characters that steal and make the show, hence it's title, my favorite one is Decompose from the fact it's voiced by the late great Chris Latta, the design which is a zombified dinosaur, some of it's persona which is creepy and almost kinda funny sometimes, but also it's abilities like entrapping people in it's ribcage which is cool though inconsistent because that would mean the person inside could attack his vital internal organs though they never do which is weird. But Deompose's zombie power though touch and not even the common bite, which give him an edge because whoever he touches becomes a soldier for evil.

And what also makes this show stand out is in it's action which can be really crazy, from seeing civil war and world war 1 and 2 statues come to life and shoot at Inhumanoids, a Inhumanoid with a transparent stomach that swallows on of Earth Core and drills though the monster spilling it's guts or digestive fluid all over the place; I don't want to say too much more you have to see it for yourself however it would require more than one watch since so much is going on.

The theme song is decent, which to me is the only weak part of the show it's not really memorable like most animated show themes I know and love. The only bad things are this show just like the toy line didn't last long which I though was too bad because I really felt this franchise had potential to be more if given more time. We could of had new monsters good and evil, may'be a few new Earth Core characters, plots could been even darker, characters more developed; they really lost an opportunity for another big franchise. Another is that it doesn't have a proper release with all the episodes, hopefully somewhere around the line we will have it if possible. I think I wouldn't mind seeing is a revival to the franchise, from some of the animated shows we have by today's standards I feel it can be done, but that's just wishful thinking.

Inhumanoids is a buried gem worth discovering.

Rating: 3 stars

This wasn't one of the best 80's toy-related cartoons, mainly because the toys weren't that good and the show was weird. From what I remember, a team of 3 guys had adventures in the earth's core fighting monsters. They had these huge armored suits that they had to put on in order to go there, of course. I think one guy's suit had big claws on it, another one had drills...things you'd need in order to get around in the core of the earth.