Flash Gordon: Marooned on Mongo - The Animated Movie (2004)
Flash Gordon  DVDs


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Do NOT dismiss this updated rehash of a space-cruising youth trying to spoil the plans of an alien warlord. I didn't get the chance to fully enjoy this short lived series when it was on TV. But, I was instantly hooked by the openning and its theme music. And, then I became guilty of chasing the harder to find toys. If you liked the 80s cartoon Droids, Don Bluth's Titan AE or Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys(one of my latest favorites), then you will probably like this series. Like the latest incarnation of the 80s bonanza He-Man and the Masters of the Universe which depicts the main character as the teen he was supposed to be, this variation on Flash Gordon takes away the semi-goofy spandex tshirt image of a middle-aged man and puts in a younger man and his teen girl friend which is far more believeable and appealing to youth in the age of Xtreme sports.

Coming from the generation bombarded with cartoons geared toward selling mass reproduced toys with goofy gear and playsets, I can either hate this cartoon for being a dying effort to continue this tradition or I can smile at what I think was a short-lived series with potential. Sure, it pales to the original for those die-hard Flash fans. But, come on! The original concept is a little hard to swallow anyway. An athletic all-star and his girlfriend go flying in a rocket to stop some Alien Warlord from destroying earth with a nutty professor? And, then all the other races in space and all the sexy fem-fatale alien queens want him like a Tag bodyspray ad? And, people say He-Man was cheesy. This is a playful fantasy concept much like Buck Rogers or Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.[I mean who thought of THAT one? It's the stuff Calvin of Calvin and Hobbs dreamed of.]

I already own this video and await the entire series. I will buy both the 79 series and the newer one for the basic value of inspiration. Neither these nor the old movies remain a very believable concept, but the 90s series would have been more inspiring to me as a kid than just another old guy hero. It holds up to such other successors of the young hero genre like Batman Beyond and Static Shock.