Ulyssees 31

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:02 pm

Watched all of these again. It's obvious why I thought it was the bees knees when I was younger, and its stood the test of time better than most 80s shows, but I was a little dissapointed.

Animation great, imaginative designs and imagery, cool music.

But average voice work, annoying kids, annoying robot.

A couple of great episodes in there but not enough for me. I prefer Dungeons and Dragons...

What do you think?

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:42 pm

I was disappointed to find the episodes far shorter and far less dramatic than I remembered... some episodes really struck me when I was young, particularly Magician in Black and Lost in the Labyrinth and I was sad that they had such less impact now. Still good though.

I must say I found a lot of the episodes to be dross, but some of them do leap beyond the normality of animation of the time imo. Particularly in conveying some of the loneliness and emptiness of the universe and predicament the main characters find themselves in.

Best example- the end of Magician where they not only lost their chance to get home (again... yawn) but an honorable man who genuinely was going to help them was murdered by the Tridents. The cast are all utterly dispondent and the Odyssey just spirals away into deep space whilst Sherka observes, in her beautiful, cold, emotionless way, that the ship is entering unknown space. Absolutely excellent end.

God bless the Japanese for their cartoons

And the French/Canadians for helping

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:53 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:some episodes really struck me when I was young

Yeah, when it all comes together the images are really enduring. One of my strongest memories as a kid is seeing Ulyssees pushing the hands of that massive clock to the booming music.

And the second half of episode 1 is really majestic. I remember finding it utterly gripping.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:30 am

Apart from a few episodes I think all of Ulysses is just brillant - In comparison D&D is totaly child like, and all a bit silly, Hanks bow can pretty much do anything, some of the characters powers are so under-developed why are they even there?

Dragons grave yard was the best episode and even that looks daft.

In comparison, Ulysses animation seems far better all round with some pretty clever JPN inspired lighting techniques.

Story wise Ulysses is onto a bit of a winner as its pulling from a digest of chronicles written years ago.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:59 am

i prefer D & D - the chemestry is stronger forme, although its a real shame it has no proper end.

That said i have them both in boxset form and i have only bothered to watch the occassional episode.

Both hanks bow and Ulysess lightsabre rip off/gun are mint.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:15 pm

D&D checklist

Episode fourmula guide.

Dungeon Master (DM) reveals a way home.
Venger creates a dilema involving Uni
Barbarian gets a child strop on to save Uni
Presto pulls out obsucre item to save the day
Cavilier wines/acrobat doesnt nothing/invisible girl runs into a wall...
Venger is beaten by either A: Prestos obscure object or B: Tiamat
Hank acts like a grown up and decides its only fair to stay and save Uni
Way home is lost
DM concludes with a moral
Cavlier follows DM behind a rock to notice he has gone.
Everyone Laughs

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:24 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:D&D checklist

Episode fourmula guide.

Dungeon Master (DM) reveals a way home.
Venger creates a dilema involving Uni
Barbarian gets a child strop on to save Uni
Presto pulls out obsucre item to save the day
Cavilier wines/acrobat doesnt nothing/invisible girl runs into a wall...
Venger is beaten by either A: Prestos obscure object or B: Tiamat
Hank acts like a grown up and decides its only fair to stay and save Uni
Way home is lost
DM concludes with a moral
Cavlier follows DM behind a rock to notice he has gone.
Everyone Laughs

HoistKeeper 2.0 · Post by **HoistKeeper 2.0** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:30 pm

I watched them all again at the end of January this year, and still love them (bar a couple, mainly the one where the robots take over and a female nono - nanette)

Some favourites:#

Cronus, Father Of Time is a good one, it's likt the Star Trek Next Genreration episode "Cause and Effect" to do with time (naturally). Within the first few minutes you're wondering what next with such a dramatic start. fun episode.

And on the above note, Strange Meeting in a similiar time/history and parallell universe is also a very good one

The Seat Of Forgetfulness is anopther good one. Calypso if i'm thinking of the right one, is a good one as the main plot is this woman who is under punishment from the gods also has to kill Ulysses to win her freedom (or something) but she ends up falling in love with him, and faces the wrath of the gods, there's a nice ending as well as you get a sense that Ulysses started to fall for her too a little by the way it ends very ominously, slighly darker ending (Kinda like the way way Empire Strikes back ended)

One of my favorites are where the companions re-awaken because the ship was hit by some huge electro-magnetic storm. But the companions have been possessed and try to kill Ulysses, nono, telamequas and Yumi. There's this great piano bit towards the end after the companions return back to normal and float back to the room they were suspendedn in, really nice piano bit - for a cartoon. And as it ends ominously there this even nice bit as the ship continues to travel further into space. It's one of my favourite episodes. Can't remember the name.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:42 pm

I think D&D has better character interaction and voice work (its got Welker and Cullen for a start

)

Animation in Ulysees rocks and I love the darker elements of the story, its just a shame some bad comedy spoils it sometimes.

I think something is lost in the translation perhaps?

Ulysees is married... he really shouldn't be fiddling with Calypso...

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:
Episode fourmula guide.

Dungeon Master (DM) reveals a way home.
Venger creates a dilema involving Uni
Barbarian gets a child strop on to save Uni
Presto pulls out obsucre item to save the day
Cavilier wines/acrobat doesnt nothing/invisible girl runs into a wall...
Venger is beaten by either A: Prestos obscure object or B: Tiamat
Hank acts like a grown up and decides its only fair to stay and save Uni
Way home is lost
DM concludes with a moral
Cavlier follows DM behind a rock to notice he has gone.
Everyone Laughs

You seriously didn't notice an episode formula in Ulyssees?

Dungeon Master was a bit of an ass tho...

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:54 pm

Well I dont think the U31 episodes are as formula - you would imagine that telemikas *sp would always end up getting in trouble with Ulyssees saving the day - but this isnt always true, there are times when the kids save Ulyssees, or take part in important missons.

In a Star Trek sense the crew always finda new planet or ship to explore - but i guess thats got to happen.

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:27 pm

If anybody is interested the genuine screenplay for the final D&D episode is floating around on the web. It was the last episode of the final season, but the show was cancelled before the last season was even animated. I won't spoil it

And was I the only person who would have just slapped Dungeonmaster until he showed you the way home?

Karl: How do I get home?
DM: You must cross the desert of a thousand souls...
Karl: {SLAP} How do I get home?
DM: urk... you must traverse the apricot of a thousand candles...
Karl: {SLAP} How do I get home?!
DM: ...ff... mrr... you... must... locate... the sweet shop of...
Karl: {SLAP} HOW DO I GET HOME?!!
DM: ........number 7 bus....... here's your bus fair.... please call an ambulance...

Sweet

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:00 pm

I watched a few episodes of D&D a few weeks ago, I really enjoyed it. Very camp though. Some of the music and sound effects are still excellent and Cullen is kinda chilling as Venger!

I think I fancy Hank

On the subject of Welker and Cullen, I was watching Toonami last night, and a show called Megas XLR was on, and it featured both Welker and Cullen as robots fighting each other to rule the galaxy. Can't be a coincidence that they were both on as guest voices fighting each other

they were instantly recognisable too.

Also Megas XLR is a pretty fun cartoon

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:55 pm

I watched U31 up to a point (started going to a school further away and never got home in time to watch it

- same deal with Mysterious Cities of Gold), but can only remember a few episodes: as mentioned Magician in Black, the one where they finally reach the Kingdom of Hades (or appeared to, or something, can't quite recall the ending), and the one where U31 goes back in time and strings U1's bow!

As for D&D, the suspense of "will they/won't they return home?" was killed off for me when they had the episode where that other girl came through the rollercoaster, got back and met up with the barbarian kiddie. After that, it was all like Star Wars prequels, for me.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:55 am

Haven't seen either in many years, so can't really make a good judgement, but I preferred U31 back in the day.
I enjoyed the atmosphere and tone of that series a lot, and found their quest a lot more interesting than that of the D&D kids. It probably helped that I was already a mythology freak, added to my interest-level.

D&D was fun but got on my tits after a while, a combination of yes, the repitiveness of it and - sorry - irritation with the way I felt Hank was always being the cool good-looking leader hero one who had the bom diggy weapon that was always useful and badass and wasn't he just super-cool and dreamy? Bah. Most of them were characters I just couldn't relate to, I think.
I usually just wanted Venger to just kill them all, the annoying prats.
Except maybe Cavalier and Uni, the FSM protects cowards and small animals after all.

And Dungeon Master was horrible. Man, we called a short vindictive horrible balding grey-mulleted Maths teacher at my HS Dungeon-Master....had forgotten all about that.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:24 am

D&D spoiler!!!
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Dungeon Master anounced in the penultimate episode 'The Dragons gave Yard' - the episode where they kick Vengers butt, and Tiamat becomes thier friend.
Hank has a choice to kill Venger but doesnt because he thinks Venger is just miss-understood.

Anyhows, DM anounces that, wait for it - and consider this is the same year as another film...

DM is Vengers dad!!

I rest my case.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:48 am

Hound wrote:
I think I fancy Hank

i think i fancy Diana

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:21 am

I fancy Numi

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:37 am

I fancy a pint!

Jetfire · Post by **Jetfire** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:32 pm

I loved U31. Some episodes don't stand up today (I still love them) but it's great. Strangly Mysterious Cities of Gold stands up much stronger after 20 years.

the music in both are fantastic. I wonder why 80's cartons had such better themes and incidental music (even though it was heavily reused) than just about everything on kids TV today.

Astrotrain99 · Post by **Astrotrain99** » Wed May 03, 2006 5:26 am

Living in the US I never saw this show as a kid, but I loved Mysterious Cities of Gold. I recently downloaded U31 after I found out it was by the same creator. Pretty interesting, wish it had come over here back in the day.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 03, 2006 11:51 am

But it did go over there. The English dub was produced by the US.

Astrotrain99 · Post by **Astrotrain99** » Wed May 03, 2006 10:17 pm

Rebis wrote:But it did go over there. The English dub was produced by the US.

Really? I had thought I read somewhere that it was only shown in Europe, but didn't air in the states, maybe Canada though? My memory must be faulty or something.