I've never been a fan of "knights of the round table" type "medieval" storylines. And Prince Valiant is completely medieval to the fullest.
On July 4th, BCI, in its initial venture with Hearst Entertainment, released The Legend of Prince Valiant The Complete Series Volume One at the suggested retail price of $29.98. This 33 episode, five DVD set is the first of two volumes (a total of 65 episodes) is released under BCI's newly-created Ink and Paint Brand which will focus on licensed animated content, and is the first in a full line of titles licensed from the Hearst catalog.
Jeff Hayne, Director of Acquisitions, BCI says "Prince Valiant is one of the most recognized names in the animation world, and the popularity of the character and classic nature of this series make it ideal to be the first entry from our Ink and Paint Brand."
The Legend of Prince Valiant is based on the popular comic strip character created 69 years ago by Hal Foster, and continues to be a popular, weekly newspaper comic strip read by over 44 million people. The Prince Valiant character reached the big screen in 1954, starring Robert Wagner in the title role. The television series aired on The Family Channel, 1991 1993, and featured the voices of Robby Benson (Beauty and the Beast), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Alan Oppenheimer (He-Man), James Avery (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (Babylon 5).
Volume One of the animated televisioon series includes the first 33 episodes of the television series, and will also include special features produced by Andy Mangels, including:
- Interviews with the creators and comic strip historians
- Two episode commentaries with creator / producer David J. Corbett, writer Brooks Wachtel, voice artist Noelle North and moderator Andy Mangels.
- Storyboard gallery (episode #32 "The Flute"), featuring a slideshow of approximately 170 images, set to music from the original soundtrack.
- User navigated slideshow of character paintings and background drawings with musical soundtrack accompaniment.
- DVD ROM Feature: Five complete episode scripts.
The Legend of Prince Valiant The Complete Series begins with the quest for Camelot
in a time when people still believed in wizards, Prince Valiant fulfills his dream of becoming a Knight of the Round Table, as he has his friends uphold the ideals of Camelot.
To be completely honest, I have never even heard of the cartoon "Prince Valiant," but after further research I come to find out that Prince Valiant was an "Award winning and Top Rated children's animated series originally aired on The Family Channel, 1991 1993." Perhaps that's the problem, I don't remember the show because at the time The Family Channel was not exactly the big network that had every kids' eye. Regardless, I did have the privilege of previewing some of the episodes on the DVD set. Regretfully, I found the episodes very old and uninteresting, with a storyline that I have seen all too much before.
Bottom line, if you're looking for a cartoon that looks like it came from the mid to late 80s (even though the program aired in the early 90s), filled with a medieval setting with knights and princesses' type of storyline, The Legend of Prince Valiantis definitely the cartoon for you.
Sorry "knights of the roundtable" fans, I fell asleep after about a few minutes into the episodes, and this was while watching them during the day.