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by R.J. Carter Published: July 7, 2006
In 1991, the Family Channel commissioned The Legend of Prince Valiant as a prime-time animated series. The story starts off much the same as the original, with Valiant's family losing a battle and driven out of Thule to the marshlands. While there, Valiant begins having dreams of a place called Camelot, a kingdom that seeks to establish the rules of justice and fairness. Armed with his faith alone, Valiant (voiced by Robby Benson, "Kingdom Hearts", "Beauty and the Beast") sets off on a quest to locate Camelot and become a knight in the service of King Arthur. As his quest progresses, Valiant draws to him two who would become his most trusted allies and friends who accompany him and share his vision: the sometimes cocky Arn (Michael Horton) (the Arn in the comic strips was actually Prince Valiant's son!) and the beautiful and fiercely independent Rowanne (Noelle North). Both are skilled with their weapons and come to Valiant's rescue just as often as he comes to theirs. After a half-dozen episodes, the trio arrive in Camelot, manage to present themselves to Arthur (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Justice League) despite the best efforts of the guards, and begin their real adventures. Valiant uncovers the treachery of Sir Mordred -- believed to be Camelot's greatest hero! -- and Morgana, Arthur's half sister. Aided by Merlin (Allan Oppenheimer), Sir Bryant (James Avery) and Sir Gawain (Tim Curry, "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties), Valiant pits himself against the Black Knight, Duncan Draconarius, and others who would see the dream of Camelot fail.
The difference between The Legend of Prince Valiant and most other animated series is that the characters exhibit growth throughout the series. They travel. Those travels form a journey. Time progresses linearly. In short, there is a strong continuity akin to soap dramas -- when viewing an episode, the experience is all the richer if you've seen the episodes that have gone before. Opening with a great theme song written by Marc Jordan and Amy Sky, and performed by Exchange, and featuring lushly painted backgrounds, rich storytelling and movie-like camera work, The Legend of Prince Valiant continued for three seasons before cancellation. The first season and part of the second are included in this boxed set, which -- great as it is -- suffers from some physical layout problems. The plastic box case opens to reveal two pages of four double-sided discs, two discs per page, in the overlapping style that requires you to remove the top disc to get to the one beneath that. The clasps that hold the discs are hollow centered, increasing the difficulty of popping the discs out. And be sure to remove the booklet (a very well put together episode guide, to be sure) to reveal the fifth single-sided disc, which is hiding behind it inside the front cover. Presentation plays a part in the grading, so this brings my overall score down a notch. The main menu of each disc allows the viewer to either play all the episodes or select a specific one. Episodes with commentary are noted on the Episode Select menu, where the viewer can elect to play the episode with the optional narrative. Bonus features on this set include interviews with the television series creator David J. Corbett, episode writer Brooks Wachtel, and Prince Valiant archive publisher Rick Norwood. Corbett discusses bringing the mature drama to the show with actors and scripting that would appeal more to families than just to children, as well as dislaying the Silver Angel and Humanitas Prize awards, speaking to how the series achieved these honors. Brooks Wachtel tells the viewers how he came to be the writer on the series, and how it was truly different from the animated series he had worked on before -- specifically in that conflict in prior series was always non-lethal: stun rays, sleep guns, etc. In The Legend of Prince Valiant, this was not the case: if a character gets hit by an arrow in the show, he dies or is wounded. He also talks about his favorite characters, like Morgana, and the real bits of history that they did try to work into the show without overriding the mythological feel. Capping off the interviews, Rick Norwood talks of the origins of Prince Valiant, starting with how popular comic strips used to be and with Hal Foster's desire to leave working on the Tarzan strip to work on a product he would own. Discusses trivia, like ties to Jack Kirby's Etrigan, the Demon. I always enjoy listening to the comic strip veterans and getting their take on past strips, especially when it's a strip they're passionate about, as Norwood is about Prince Valiant. He's a real pleasure to listen to, and converses warmly about the strip as though he's in the room with you. The storyboard for "The Flute" is interesting, but it's done in video form rather than with page control. The pages are a bit small to read clearly, and you may have to pause to finish looking at something before it moves on to the next bit. Not so the character and background sketches, which hand over control to the viewer so you can look as long as you like at some of the wonderfully detailed character sketches, using the arrow buttons to navigate back and forth. There are five scripts that you can download off the disc using your PC or Mac, including the script for the award-winning "The Flute". As fantastic as the sketches are, I truly wish they also were downloadable to be used as desktop themes. There are hours of adventure to be had here, with a strong moral center. The Legend of Prince Valiant is a show that's highly recommended, in a packaging style that hopefully won't see much repeating.
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