There was that William Tell series about 15 years ago called “Crossbow.” Jeremy from Chad & Jeremy played the villain.
About 3 years ago, there was a Power Rangers type show set in medieval Ireland, “The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Og” (sp?)
The SciFi Channel will be showing Roar on Wednesday nights starting this week. I’m curious to see Heath Ledger pre-Knight’s Tale.
I love almost all things medieval. Unfortunately, most of the tv shows are kind of lame. I remember when “Covington Cross” came out I dutifully watched the pilot episode and my first thought was, “hey! It’s Bonanza in castles!” watch it again and you’ll see that they try to recreate the charactor dynamics of the Ponderosa, (it helps if you hum the theme song) And yet, they had to do a “Die-Hard” rip-off for the first show, I’ll be glad when that cliche’ is long gone.
Rocket Robin Hood was a seriously strange limited-animation cartoon from, Canada? it had a bizarre sci-fi/medieval mix to it helped in part by none other than Ralph Bakshi! Later he even used some of it’s animation for some of the weirder episodes of his 1960’s SpiderMan! read more about it here .
I remember Roar, though I wish I didn’t. Teenage Celts with bad hairdos fighting Romans who wouldn’t have been interested in Ireland in that time period anyway. I especially loved the black guy in ancient Eire. They never even tried to explain how he got there, IIRC.
.:Nichol:.
Crossbow. William Tell and son run away from Nick Brimble. For some reason everyone was English, except for William Tell himself who was American, even though it was set in France.
Crossbow, being about William Tell, was set in Switzerland, not France–it was, however, filmed in France.
Darn. I had a cursory look around for confirmation too.
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0096642
Tony Robinson plays the Sheriff and he wrote this series after Blackadder came to an end.
Available on VHS video.
Yeah, I remember the show being nothing short of wasted potential…if only it had been an attempt at a serious adventure show featuring Finn MacCumhaill or CuChullain…or Conor MacNessa…or any of a list of Irish heroes…
But I do recall the music being wonderful…too bad it didn’t last long enough for a soundtrack to be released…
I had a friend who LOVED the post-Xena Robin Hood series. God was that awful. We never did figure out what was wrong with him, but I don’t think it was catching, at least.
Berserk is another anime fantasy series, a bit more recent then the ones Tamex mentioned, and definitely worth checking out. Much closer to ‘low fantasy’ than anything else I’ve ever seen on a screen. No fireballs, no evil wizards, no saving the world, but a lot of battles, political maneuvering and character stuff.
Little warning, though. The first episode is moderately terrible, and the opening theme is atrocious. Give it a bit, though, and it gets MUCH better. Terrible cliffhanger non-ending, however. (Though there are a few whispers of a second series floating around pre production) The main character uses a giant sword, but it’s not really much bigger than the greatswords in Martin’s or Moorcock’s books.
Another vote for Lodoss War, probably the best translation of the ‘standard’ Tolken/AD&D fantasy collective unconscious until the LoTR movies came out. And considering Lodoss was put together in 1990, for a budget that would probably pay for two orcs and a tree in Jackson’s films, that’s pretty damn impressive. Animation’s a bit rough, by today’s standards, but considering how complicated the character designs are, it’s not bad at all.
Important distinction. Make sure you get the OAV Lodoss War series, (just called Record of Lodoss War) NOT the TV series. (Record of Lodoss War: Chronicle of the Heroic Knight) Trust me on this.
Escaflowne rounds out the fantasy anime holy triangle. A bit Final Fantasy-ish, what with the giant robots and the airships, and it uses the fantasy cliché I hate above all others; the ‘normal guy (girl in this case) in a fantasy world’ bit. Amazingly, it all pulls together wonderfully, due mostly to good design, excellent writing and spectacular direction and music.
Whatever you do, don’t watch The Adan Saga, (Adon? Something like that, anyway) though. Even a decade of MST3K training couldn’t make THAT stinker fun. Well, ok, the elephant-sized sea monster attacking the hero out of waist deep water was funny, but that’s it.
Another fantasy satire was Bastard!! (Two exclamation points) Which was sort of a stereotypical fantasy from the evil sorcerer’s point of view. As a special bonus, all the spell names are old (80’s) heavy metal bands. You kind of HAVE to root for a guy who’s stated goal is to kill all the men in the world, and turn all the women into his harem. Not as goofy as Slayers, but it certainly had it’s moments.
A fair number of kung fu movies are fantasy movies in everything but name. The Magic Crane is the first to come to mind, but there are a lot. Sure, they fight Thousand Year Old Turtles instead of dragons, and use secret techniques instead of spells, but it’s more a difference in style than substance.
I have vauge but pleasant memories of Thundarr the Barbarian, and Darkstar: Something or other, a couple of those 80’s action cartoons. Probably best left warmed by the gentile candlelight of nostalgia, though. Darkstar’s sword kicked ass. I lost the action figure almost immediately, but the little plastic glow-in-the-dark sword was sharp enough to slice apples or blind siblings.
Was Galtar the Golden Warrior (the guy with the original double-ended lightsaber) a character on Darkstar, or were they separate shows?
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‘He must fight evil wherever it may occur. He should start with his hair.’
I can’t belive noone mentioned Inu Yahsu (or whatever).