Jonny Quest "Shadow of the Condor" #1.10 (1964) (TV)

Baron Heinrich Von Freulich - What a name!, 11 December 2008

Engine trouble forces Race to set the Quest plane down on an unusual runway high in the Andean mountains. The runway belongs to the eccentric Baron Heinrich Von Freulich, a former WWI flying ace. He agrees to let Race borrow one of his vintage planes to get parts for the jet. However, Von Freulich has other plans. He intends to use Race as an opponent in one last dog fight.

Shadow of the Condor is another very solid episode. Baron Heinrich Von Freulich makes for a wonderful foe for Team Quest. In fact, Von Freulich might just be the most interesting character to appear in Jonny Quest. From the moment he appears on screen, taking pot-shots at giant condors, you get a sense that this man is capable of most anything. Also, from the moment the Quest plane touches down, there's a sense of mystery and menace surrounding the castle high in the Andes that you usually don't find in a cartoon. And the ending - inspired and ironic are two words that come to mind.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet in my comments on the Jonny Quest episodes is the subject of characters dying. In other cartoons, characters would get shot, burnt, and stabbed. They fell off buildings, got hit by cars, and had pianos fall on their heads. All that and they walk away as if nothing happened to them. That's not the case in Jonny Quest. Characters like Von Freulich crash a plane in the side of a mountain and they don't come back. I appreciate the realism. And I appreciate the fact that it taught me that there are consequences to actions. I don't' think the character deaths in Jonny Quest scarred me as a kid and I've got no problem with my son watching them today. There's too much sheltering of children in the world today anyway.

7/10