The Herculoids

The Herculoids is a 1967 American, science fantasy/action/superhero/space adventure animated series. It was created by Alex Toth, who also created Space Ghost, and produced by Hanna-Barbera. It was later revived in the early 1980s for 11 more episodes in Space Stars. Repeats of this were featured among other, related shows in Hanna-Barbera's World of Super Adventure, as well as Cartoon Network's and Boomerang's versions of it.

Plot
On the planet Quasar, a human family of three (father King Zandor, mother Queen Tara, and son Prince Dorno) are constantly defending their home world from the potential threats of any invaders and foes who wish to destroy it for whatever purpose that may be. They are assisted by five, extraordinary creatures known as the Herculoids: A dragon named Zok, who fires lasers from his eyes and tail; Tundro, a ten-legged dinosaur who uses his horn as a cannon that fires energy rocks; Igoo, a giant, stony ape with super strength; and Gloop, and Gleep, a pair of blobby shapeshifters. The family use slingshots as weapons.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The art is very reminiscent of action and superhero comic books, which aren't hard to look at, and the animation, especially of the characters' movements, is well-done.
 * 2) Despite following the same pattern, the episodes' storylines are written well enough for them to still be more different than the same.
 * 3) The main characters are not only outstanding but upstanding as well, while the villains may not be so upstanding but they're still outstanding as well.
 * 4) The voices are well-voiced, many of them are decent enough and sound pleasant.
 * 5) Great, instrumental theme song complete with theremin composed by Ted Nichols.
 * 6) The action scenes are interesting enough.
 * 7) The main characters' comeback in Space Stars didn't disappoint.
 * 8) The Herculoids made several, actual comic book appearances, including the  Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes (1967-'68) by Golden Key Comics and the 50th issue of The New Mutants.

Trivia

 * Hip-hop artist DJ Kool Herc had a backup band that was named after the titular characters at one point and fictionalized versions of the band are featured in the period Netflix show, The Get Down.
 * The Herculoids appeared in an episode of the original Space Ghost series, "The Molten Monsters of Moltar".
 * Award-winning video game designer David Crane mentioned that this was a show he enjoyed in his childhood and the character, Blobert, from his game, A Boy and His Blob, was direct inspiration from Gloop and Gleep.
 * Gloop is mentioned and has prominence in the Sealab 2021 episode, "Hail, Squishface".
 * There are both mentions and appearances of the Herculoids in Space Ghost Coast to Coast. In "Lawsuit" he mentions their home planet, Quasar. In "Sequel", he visits their planet, calls it a "rotten hippie monster commune", and is attacked by stones, and driven away when they demand him to leave.
 * Many of the characters are mentioned and/or appeared in Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. Gloop appeared in several episodes; Gleep was mentioned once and had cameos in "Mindless" and "Juror in Court"; in "Peanut Puberty" appeared Zok, who had a graph chart thrown at him from Phil Ken Sebben; in "Beyond the Valley of the Dinosaurs", Tundro fires energy rocks at Phil Ken Sebben, who forgot to close the hot tub time portal to prehistoric times; Tara appeared in "Evolutionary War", on a evolution chart in the middle of Fred Flintstone and Race Bannon.
 * In the Family Guy episode, "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", Lois rejects Gloop for a babysitting job; Tundro objects to this and fires energy rocks at Lois.
 * Three of the Herculoids, Igoo, Gloop, and Gleep, appeared in CG form as spectators of the basketball game in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
 * Gloop and Gleep cameoed as captive prisoners of an antogonistic, alien planet in the Dexter's Laboratory episode, "Mis-Placed in Space".
 * In an episode of Jellystone!, Igoo, Tundro, Gloop, and Gleep appeared as wrestlers.
 * The Herculoids were brought up in a The Venture Brothers episode. An old "fan letter" to the show by Dr. Venture is found. But the kind of letter is actually the opposite, as young Rusty Venture dissed the Herculoids, calling them hippies for not partaking in the Vietnam War.

Videos
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