Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon


Television

51 to 60 of 60 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>

i only vaguely remember seeing the show, I remember the bow mainly. But if anyone has played the Baldur's Gate series in the second one there are a bunch of paintings of these characters, in a magic shop. It tells how most of them died horrific deaths

Silver Crusade

Yeah, the Merlin thing in the pilot episode was really dumb. But going back and watching it recently, that was the only episode I've seen so far that was that bad. Most of them were nowhere near that bad.


Lochmonster wrote:

It was a horrible, horrible show.

Go watch ANY episode and you will see the ONE guy who dissents and doesn't want to go along with the group is ALWAYS wrong. It relayed the message that going against the group is wrong. An awful thing to tell a child.

It's a terrible example of trying to influence children's minds into group think.

I know the subject matter is D&D so everyone on these forums probably likes it but in reality it is very poorly written and has some pretty sinister undertones about suppressing individuality in it.

I wouldn't let my child watch it.

There is a review online by one of the creators that talks about how they were specifically told to write stories certain ways and it's really somewhat disturbing what network execs were trying to do.

If I can find the article I am referencing I will post it.

But yeah, thumbs down for me.

*EDIT*

If you go to the WIKI ARTICLE about the show it talks about the cavilier character was supposed to fill the role of dissenter:

"developer Mark Evanier revealed that Eric's contrary nature was mandated by parents groups and consultants to push the then-dominant pro-social moral for cartoons of 'The group is always right; the complainer is always wrong.'"

Ugh! What an awful thing to do to children!

See, I always seen it as promoting 'teamwork'. I guess it's a matter of 'point of view'...

Sure, it wasn't the best show in the world, but it was far from being the worst. Again, compared to most of the crap that's on these days on Saturday mornings. (yuk!)

Ultradan

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

There are many cartoons from my childhood that don't quite hold up (G.I. Joe immediately comes to mind).

Dungeons and Dragons is not one of these.

For those that decry Dungeon Master for 'trapping' the kids, take a look at Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame (taking college students playing a new campaign as their best characters and then dropping them without warning in the world their games were based on was much worse).

Let's not forget the entire purpose of the kids being there was to help with a task that not even the all-powerful DM could do on his own:

Redeem Venger, his son.

Had the series been allowed to continue into a fourth season, this would have happened. Michael Reaves, one of the writers for the show, made this very clear. But don't take my word for it. Take a look at this pdf of the script draft:

Requiem

In a TV wasteland filled with Spongebobs, Gumballs, and Regular Shows, a kid nowadays could do worse than the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.


True. We know they were there to redeem Venger NOW, because we've either read the script for the last episode online, or with the DVD set. But that teensy little point was never EVER made in any episodes that were aired.

IIRC, Dungeon Master only called Venger "son" in one episode. And if some kid back in the day happened to miss that particular episode, he/she might never know about it. And, I don't recall a single instance of Dungeon Master ever even hinting that helping redeem Venger was a prerequisite for them returning home. Well, maaaaaaaaaybe, if you want to stretch for it and say that his line about "your greatest enemy can be your strongest ally" (or something similar) in the "Valley of the Unicorns" episode could have been meant to get them thinking along those lines. But that was pretty much the only instance I could think of that would even come close.

I'm certainly not trying to put words in your mouth, so please don't take it that way, but you can't really say something along the lines of "C'mon everyone, we all knew the real reason they were there and what they had to do to go home" when we DIDN'T know that. At least not at the time the show was originally aired, and even moreso considering that them finding out about Venger was never aired in the first place and people had to either find the script for it online or wait for the DVD set.

However, I will definitely, absolutely, wholeheartedly agree with you that the D&D cartoon is better than Spongebob, Gumball and (most of all, IMHO) Regular Show.


Lochmonster wrote:


If you go to the WIKI ARTICLE about the show it talks about the cavilier character was supposed to fill the role of dissenter:

"developer Mark Evanier revealed that Eric's contrary nature was mandated by parents groups and consultants to push the then-dominant pro-social moral for cartoons of 'The group is always right; the complainer is always wrong.'"

Ugh! What an awful thing to do to children!

If it's any consolation, Evanier hated it even more than you do. And it was forced on the writers -- if you listen closely, there are quite a few times where Eric's objections are actually the most sensible course of action (even if they were again forced to make them come off as annoying, whiny and arrogant). In a later show Evanier wrote for, "Garfield and Friends," the entire point of his creating the cloying and obnoxious "Buddy Bears" was to drive several Ford Pintos filled with nuclear waste and explosives over the whole idea of "the complainer is always wrong."

Take a look at this post for more info, straight from Mr. Evanier's pen.

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

@Pat Payne - You know, when I thought about that theme [the complainer is always wrong] my mind went immediately to the Buddy Bears song. I'm very glad to see that Mr Evanier was responsible for that.

Sovereign Court

I don't know why people are complaining about modern cartoons: they get Metalocalypse and Adventure Time. That's pretty awesome.

Silver Crusade

I complain about certain modern cartoons because they aren't as good as Metalocalypse and Adventure Time. Those have great writing, humor, and even some moral redemption. The stories aren't just attempting to gross you out or turn you against a single character.

Then there are things like Family Guy that I just can't watch. (Mind you, I think South Park is kinda funny and at its heart is the story of a group of mostly well-adjusted kids trying to grow up. It tends not to be as mean spirited or morally non-redeeming.)

Metalocalypse reminds me of a campaign. The bumbling PCs end up living through the course of their choices of action being a big part of that. Adventure Time has references to alignment shifts and penalties to experience and such. The Dragon Riders of Berk series has...um...well, a lot of the same moral in-your-face lessons the D&D cartoon had.

I liked the fact that the D&D cartoon at least had magic that made some sense to me as a kid. Some of the shows really didn't have magical mechanics that made sense.


Impact! Miniatures did a Kickstarter for "chibi fantasy miniatures" resembling oa the cast of the animated D&D series. The kids, Dungeon Master, Venger, Warduke... all there. They had to change their "Drizzt" and "Elminster" due to compyright issues, but the cartoon chars remain unchanged.
They should become available through their website in the future for those who missed it.
Highly recommended (yes, I'm a backer).

51 to 60 of 60 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Gamer Life / Entertainment / Television / Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Television