Return to the Planet of the Apes "Flames of Doom" #1.1 (1975) (TV)

A very familiar plot, 25 March 2008

"Flames of Doom" is the first episode in the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes. If you are at all familiar with the basic Planet of the Apes storyline, not much in the first episode will surprise you. It features the basic set-up – three astronauts (one female named Judy and two males named Jeff and Bill) crash on a mysterious planet that at first seems uninhabited. While searching for food and water, they run into a group of primitive humans. But the humans are not the dominate species on the planet. Instead, apes are in charge. By the end of the episode, Judy has disappeared in an earthquake fissure, Bill has been captured by the apes, and Jeff escaped with a primitive female named Nova.

Other than setting up the rest of the series and the uncertain future of all three human characters, there's really not a lot I got out of "Flames of Doom". It's just not terribly exciting. So instead of discussing "Flames of Doom", I'll take this opportunity to write about a couple of my initial impressions of the series. First, it's really difficult to get used to Henry Corden doing the voice of General Urko. Whether he's giving orders to an underling or makes speeches to the ape council, Corden's Fred Flinstone voice is hard to take serious. Second, while I hope to get comfortable with Corden in a few episodes, I doubt I'll ever feel the same way about the animation. I wasn't expecting computer generated type images, but I do expect something more than what you'll find in this series. I'm not sure what you call this style of animation, but to me most of it looks like little more than a static background over which a camera moves attempting (in vain) to create the allusion of motion. There's nothing fluid or "animated" about any of it.

I really hope things get better as I go along. After one episode, I'm not very impressed. So far, it's not difficult to understand why Return to the Planet of the Apes lasted only 13 episodes.

4/10