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Tarzan Filmation: Whole Episodes!

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  • Vortigern99
    Scholar/Gentleman/Weirdo
    • Jul 2, 2006
    • 1539

    Tarzan Filmation: Whole Episodes!

    This show is arguably the best animated show -- in terms of story development and characterization -- I've ever seen. The animation is limited, but it's very naturalistic and it's used to excellent effect. Having found the famous introduction to the cartoon series on youtube some months ago, I've been looking for these for some time -- and I've finally found hexseeker's posting of numerous episodes in 2 or 7-minute clips! Here are a few to get you started:

    YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

    Or just type in "Tarzan cartoon" on the youtube search engine.

    My personal recommendation is the City of Gold, a 10-parter made of 2-minute clips. It feels true to ERB, even if Tarzan is missing his iconic knife. Enjoy!
  • batmanmc
    mego batman collector
    • Jun 22, 2004
    • 6227

    #2
    its very good. i loved tarzan as a kid. glad mego made him

    Comment

    • toys2cool
      Ultimate Mego Warrior
      • Nov 27, 2006
      • 28605

      #3
      wow never saw these either,a little before my time,but I'll check'em out
      "Time to nut up or shut up" -Tallahassee

      http://ultimatewarriorcollection.webs.com/
      My stuff on facebook Incompatible Browser | Facebook

      Comment

      • HardyGirl
        Mego Museum's Poster Girl
        • Apr 3, 2007
        • 13933

        #4
        Another Saturday morning staple! Yeah, this was the best cartoon version of Tarzan. I have 10 eps on tape. My class loves it too!
        "Do you believe, you believe in magic?
        'Cos I believe, I believe that I do,
        Yes, I can see I believe that it's magic
        If your mission is magic your love will shine true."

        Comment

        • Vortigern99
          Scholar/Gentleman/Weirdo
          • Jul 2, 2006
          • 1539

          #5
          Originally posted by HardyGirl
          Another Saturday morning staple! Yeah, this was the best cartoon version of Tarzan. I have 10 eps on tape. My class loves it too!

          Wow! That's awesome! Is the quality very high? I understand there has been some difficulty getting these officially released on DVD, so good quality versions are hard to find....

          BTW, I should clarify by saying I was a big fan of this show when I was a kid. It was my favorite Saturday morning show, eclipsing even the later Thudarr the Barbarian in my young imagination. I have my dad to thank for making me a Tarzan fan, and I was the perfect age (6 in 1976) to be completely taken by this excellent, adventuresome, straightforward cartoon show.

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          • Vortigern99
            Scholar/Gentleman/Weirdo
            • Jul 2, 2006
            • 1539

            #6
            Originally posted by batmanmc
            its very good. i loved tarzan as a kid. glad mego made him

            Also, as I discovered from a little research into the early Tarzan incarnations, it appears the Mego Tarzan with the leopard-skin shoulder-strap was essentially the silent-film-era Tarzan, including the early ones directed by ERB himself. Of course, in the books he only wore a loincloth (or sometimes a kind of linen safari-suit), but it seems the studios preferred a slightly more modest jungle lord.

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            • HardyGirl
              Mego Museum's Poster Girl
              • Apr 3, 2007
              • 13933

              #7
              Originally posted by Vortigern99
              Wow! That's awesome! Is the quality very high? I understand there has been some difficulty getting these officially released on DVD, so good quality versions are hard to find....

              BTW, I should clarify by saying I was a big fan of this show when I was a kid. It was my favorite Saturday morning show, eclipsing even the later Thudarr the Barbarian in my young imagination. I have my dad to thank for making me a Tarzan fan, and I was the perfect age (6 in 1976) to be completely taken by this excellent, adventuresome, straightforward cartoon show.
              I'm sure sure how you would define good quality, but they're pretty good. I got them from a toy show from folks at coolstuffvideos.com. But this was almost 6 years ago.
              "Do you believe, you believe in magic?
              'Cos I believe, I believe that I do,
              Yes, I can see I believe that it's magic
              If your mission is magic your love will shine true."

              Comment

              • Earth 2 Chris
                Verbose Member
                • Mar 7, 2004
                • 32498

                #8
                I remember liking the Filmation Tarzan toon, but I had the feeling some of it was going a bit over my head. I'm sure my son feels the same about JLU.

                Chris
                sigpic

                Comment

                • Vortigern99
                  Scholar/Gentleman/Weirdo
                  • Jul 2, 2006
                  • 1539

                  #9
                  So it's after midnight, and I'm currently watching the City of Sorcery episode. I don't recall this one from the novels (I read the first 13 of the 24 ERB books when I was 14-17), but it nonetheless evokes Burroughs in a very satisfying way! It follows the formula to a T: Tarzan finds a boy in trouble, follows him to a lost city where an evil queen (who allegedly has the power to turn people into baboons) hold the locals in thrall; Tarzan is captured and must fight a crocodile before confronting the queen and calling B-S on her whole operation, etc. Awesome stuff! IMO, better than just about any old Tarzan movie -- except a few Gordon Scotts, some of the Weismuller escapades, and of course Greystoke, with Christopher "There can be only wan" Lambert.

                  The more I study Filmation's technique, the more the animation seems rotoscoped -- hand-drawn over live film footage. As an illustrator I can say that the anatomy is spot-on, very proportionate and pleasing to the eye. As I noted earlier, the creators make excellent use of the stock poses and actions -- here's Tarzan running from left to right screen, in perspective from bg to fg; here's the Jungle Lord landing on the ground, shadowed in the extreme fg so that we're looking through his legs at whatever it is he's facing; here's the Ape Man flipping over a tree limb, etc. In the 2nd of 3 City of Sorcery clip, there's a half-minute vine-swinging montage -- silent except for effect and music -- that 's simply lovely.

                  I highly recommend that everyone who even thinks they like Tarzan follow the link I put in my first post, above, and check out some tree-hoppin', animal-commandin', river-swimmin', righteous-truth-tellin' Ape Man action!

                  Comment

                  • Steeler80
                    Mayor of Strunk
                    • Jun 29, 2001
                    • 5684

                    #10
                    Obviously, I love this cartoon. One of the best executed cartoons ever in my little humble opinion.

                    Since it seems it's going to be a while before any official DVD release, I bought a bootleg set off sell.com (which turned out to be a really nice set--really put together well). The cartoon holds up very well. Sure, they use the same sequences again and again, but you stop noticing that stuff once you get into the story.

                    Anybody who was a fan needs to check these shows out. If you weren't, watch a couple and you probably will be.

                    Comment

                    • HardyGirl
                      Mego Museum's Poster Girl
                      • Apr 3, 2007
                      • 13933

                      #11
                      I'm a true believer in watching Saturday morning cartoons on Saturday morning. I do this every weekend anyway, and when I can find something to watch that I don't already have in my massive collection, it's a thrill! So this morning, I watched The Bird People ep. I plan to watch an ep a week, so I hope it isn't taken down before that. (copyright rules and all that)
                      "Do you believe, you believe in magic?
                      'Cos I believe, I believe that I do,
                      Yes, I can see I believe that it's magic
                      If your mission is magic your love will shine true."

                      Comment

                      • EmergencyIan
                        Museum Paramedic
                        • Aug 31, 2005
                        • 5470

                        #12
                        I used to really enjoy this series in the 70s, but you sometimes "grow-out" of them (things you enjoyed as a child). This turned out not to be the case with this Tarzan series. I started watching it on YouTube today and got into it within the first 2 min segment that I saw. Filmation really did a top job on this one. Classic!

                        - Ian
                        Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?

                        Comment

                        • Vortigern99
                          Scholar/Gentleman/Weirdo
                          • Jul 2, 2006
                          • 1539

                          #13
                          I'm glad everyone is enjoying this terrific old show so much! I told a co-worker of mine, a Mexican national who loves Tarzan, about the show and she can't wait to see a few episodes. She speaks very little English and doesn't have Internet, so I'll have her and her husband over to the house some night, and translate what I can into Spanish for them both. It never occurred to me that anyone but Americans would love Tarzan, but of course he's been an international success for decades!

                          Comment

                          • MIB41
                            Eloquent Member
                            • Sep 25, 2005
                            • 15631

                            #14
                            Wow! What a great memory. It had been so long since I had seen this I had forgotten how the intro went. I LOVED this show growing up in the 70's. It was a staple on Saturday morning in the late 70's. I have comics that even advertised the show as part of their "superhero" saturday programming. I can't wait for the day when they release this set to DVD. Any chance it will see the light of day?

                            Comment

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