Any fans of the Pirates of Dark Water out there? My buddy and I just launched the first 3 episodes of our new podcast, aptly titled The Podcast of Dark Water, dedicated to this forgotten Saturday morning cartoon. Join us every Monday as we discuss the show episode by episode and discover just what a treasure this show was. It’s high adventure on the Podcast of Dark Water! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-of-dark-water/id1458917031
How DID the world forget about a cartoon with production values this high and a detailed, all-original fantasy setting this ambitious? @revretch and I just watched it all beginning to end this week, and it was one of my favorites when I was a kid, but I didn’t appreciate back then just how unique it really was. People barely even talk about it in review videos, just endless videos about the boring Sega Genesis game.
The plot, characters and setting were actually original ideas by Hannah Barbera’s CEO at the time, who also created The Pagemaster, an American Tail, and…produced the “Child’s Play” movies as well as helped design Chucky’s look, apparently? Chucky’s dad made this??
The last few episodes start to get darker and the stakes higher, but then the series just sort of “stops,” and not even on any noteworthy cliffhanger. It just ends halfway through the main quest and was never continued in any official form, anywhere. There were comics that only re-told the TV episodes, and the video game just has some quick tacked on ending of its own.
I’m working on a review of its creature designs, there’s a LOT.
For about 20 years after it stopped being aired, there was a persistent rumor that the show’s full story WAS actually animated. Since Hanna-Barbara was taken over by Turner in the middle of the show’s production David Kirschner combined a bunch of elements he’d been saving and made three episodes to resolve the cliffhanger and provide a rushed ending to the story. However, the show was cancelled with such immediacy and finality, that not only were those episodes never aired all materials from them were destroyed. The animators were locked out of their offices and (most of) their personal possessions mailed to them later to ensure that company ip remained in company hands. The animation rough cuts and voice over were far enough along however that Kirschner had the final three episodes on a VHS tape that he had taken home to review. He was able to hold onto it as the show was cancelled but Turner, who couldn’t prove he had their property, made it very clear that if the (alleged) tapes were ever copied or viewed by the public he would be sued into oblivion.
This has never been proven of course and there is much more evidence that only 21 episodes were ever produced (source) but I like to think that I’m lucky enough to be in the timeline where this rumor is true and there is a digital copy of some old animatics that is just waiting to be shared online as part of someone’s last will and testament.
How DID the world forget about a cartoon with production values this high and a detailed, all-original fantasy setting this ambitious? @revretch and I just watched it all beginning to end this week, and it was one of my favorites when I was a kid, but I didn’t appreciate back then just how unique it really was. People barely even talk about it in review videos, just endless videos about the boring Sega Genesis game.
The plot, characters and setting were actually original ideas by Hannah Barbera’s CEO at the time, who also created The Pagemaster, an American Tail, and…produced the “Child’s Play” movies as well as helped design Chucky’s look, apparently? Chucky’s dad made this??
The last few episodes start to get darker and the stakes higher, but then the series just sort of “stops,” and not even on any noteworthy cliffhanger. It just ends halfway through the main quest and was never continued in any official form, anywhere. There were comics that only re-told the TV episodes, and the video game just has some quick tacked on ending of its own.
I’m working on a review of its creature designs, there’s a LOT.
