"Droids" - still great after all these years! My review of the entire series

[thegreatheep]

Well, I watched the entire "Droids" cartoon series recently; i.e. all 13 episodes, as well as "The Great Heep" special.  It was the first time I had seen the series unedited since it's original run in the '80's.  

Anyway, this show is AWESOME     It really stands up to the test of time, despite being almost 30 years old at this point:

-The opening theme song "Trouble Again" is an essential part of the show, and I had really missed this when watching the execrable 2004 DVD release.  The song really sets the tone for the series, i.e. the hapless droids getting in scrapes through no real fault of their own     The song also really reminds me of something The Police (one of my all time favorite bands) would have come out with back in the day; makes perfect sense, since S. Copeland of The Police composed the song.

- The animation rocks!  Really nice how there is almost always something in the background to look for.  Though I know this has been mentioned before, the anime reminds me quite a bit of the comic books drawn by the great French artist Moebius, which makes sense since it was apparently inspired by Moebieus' work.

- Really liked all of the nods/homages to the OT, i.e. the lightsaber that Thall Joben used, the Vehicles like the B-wing Fighter, X-wing Fighter (which we glimpsed briefly floating on water), Sy Snootles & the Rebo band in Doodnick’s café, IG-88, Boba Fett, etc.  

- The Stromtroopers were amazing, and I liked the laser-sticks.   It would be great to see action figures based on this animated design.

- The Vehicles/Tech were great!  It was nice to see the aforementioned OT-vehicles, but also cool were the Desert Sail Skiff (a mini-rig from the Kenner SW toyline, that was never in the films), the Side Gunner (a toy in the Droids line), and all of the various other ships/robots on the show .  Also really liked the space-ship that Thall Joben rode in – it reminded me strongly of a modified Rebel Blockade Runner.  And, of course the racing ship The White Witch was fantastic  – a toy of this ship would be very nice.

- IMHO, "The Great Heep" is the best episode in the series  (see my username).  Superb story  & animation; I liked all of the different R2 & R5 units.  Also cool to see Admiral Screed using the Interrogator droid, which was obviously inspired by the one DV used on Leia in ANH.  The ending was very fitting, and Iiked how “The Great Heep” ended up   In some ways, the story reminded me somewhat of the Marvel SW comic “Droid World”, one of my favorite EU stories from back in the day.

- Though the show isn't immediately identifiable as an '80's-era cartoon, it was still amusing to see the pseudo-punk rock haircuts sported by Thall Joben & Jord Dusat, as well as the scene in the cantina when R2-D2 'break-dances' - LOL

Trivia:

- "The Great Heep" was actually broadcast in the evening in June 1986, more  than six months after the last episode of the show had aired (the show was on Saturday mornings).  When viewing the series, it's unoffically considered "Episode 9.5".

- When I first heard the song "Trouble Again" as a kid, I thought the first line was, "Repping softlinks, in a danger zone..."  It's only now that I realize it's "Stepping softly, in a danger zone".  Interesting, because I thought "repping" was a droids/SW term for "repairing", and that "softlinks" was some kind of technical term - LOL.

In closing, watching the series made me want this all the more in either a remastered online format or on DVD; in either case, the sound & picture quality need to be seriously cleaned up.  However, though it was nice to hear what I thought was a Lflm. confirmation recently (at C6) that this would get remastered for online release, it was frustrating to later hear that they may not be looking at remastering this.  So, I'm not expecting anything at this point  

[darth_sidious]

The Droids series was great, I really wish they got a second season like Ewoks did. I'm not sure I have a favorite episode, but I really enjoyed the first arc of the show. The storyline started with the pilot, "The White Witch" and ended with "A Race To The Finish".

I agree that the theme song "Trouble Again" is great, I wish they included it on the DVD release. I personally prefer to watch them as episodes, not one long 'movie', the way they are edited together on the DVD. I really hope these are all available at some point - with all the original music intact!