I wrote about this hard-to-find and barely remembered television movie back when I reviewed the Filmation Flash Gordon animated series. Well, I've just discovered that someone has posted the entire movie on YouTube in nine parts, so here you go. Enjoy.
You can view all nine parts after the jump:
I've got the TV show box set, but I didn't realize that there was a movie!
ReplyDeleteMovie was done first, then footage from it was adapted into the tv series.
ReplyDeleteSet at the beginning of World War II, it follows the original comic strip fairly closely, showing how Flash met Dale and then Zarkov, how they left Earth and ended up on Mongo, battling Ming.
One of the cooler aspects is that Flash doesn't end up in his traditional uniform for awhile. Instead, he's garbed in Doc Savageesque torn shirt and jodpurs (much like Buster Crabbe in the serial's first couple of chapters!)
Very cool. Loved the series back in the day.
ReplyDeleteBritt - Aside from the feature's end battle with Ming, it's surprising how little of the footage in this was re-purposed for the series. As you note - Flash's outfit is completely different throughout most of the running time, which is footage they obviously didn't re-us, since Flash is wearing his red space-togs pretty much throughout out the Saturday morning serial.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the actual figure "animation" and rotoscoping, was obviously re-used (ad infinitum), though.
Pretty awesome stuff.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah.
ReplyDeleteThis was shown in prime-time. It was as much of a "big deal" as the Rankin-Bass Hobbit/ROTK back in the day. The Flash Gorden TV series eventually got watered down into a prototype of He-Man with the mascot thing, but the TV-movie really took itself seriously.
Excellent stuff, Chris! I hadn't seen any of this series since Saturday mornings when I was a kid. This is definitely the best film/television version of Flash Gordon yet created.
ReplyDelete