Posted by neilg
on 9/14/2008, 6:57 pm, in reply to "25th Anniversary - Episode Rewatch - "Night Of No Tomorrow""
Mini review - Spoilers - a little light swearing so under twelves who've never visited any forums on the internet should beware - go outside and play, will you....
This is all just my opinions - feel free to argue with them 
Okay - I was gonna watch this episode and then type up a critique afterwards but, because I've left things late I thought I'd type some thoughts up whilst the episode is 'airing' -
First off - Was this really the first ever episode? I ask because we are straight into the action here, a little character background - Eric's Dad's Limousine - but nothing much else to establish how these characters relate to one another, where they come from etc. I'm quite surprised by this, I think, because so much has been written outside of these episodes in our fandom concerning their previous, real world lives, both past and future, that it's difficult to remember a time when I didn't have a sense of exactly who these people were and what made up their characters.
At the moment the girls seem quite the most positive of the group.
Love the valley scene with the floating islands.
Bobby is a liability. Running off like that. Somebody needs to establish a little discipline there or he's going to get way out of hand really quickly...
The Tiamat encounter is quite nice - good use of a few of the other characters' special abilities - rather than the stock reliance on Hank's bow-of-all-trades - is this a trait that developed over the series? Did they get lazy and start using Hank's bow as a quick get out of any situation (reminds me why they destroyed Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver during the mid-eightees...) or am I misremembering that?
Some good jokes, so far - Uni's shout being echoed by Tiamat, Presto's magic burgers, the signs to Merlin's castle, lots of ideas here and we're only four minutes in.
"As a wizard, I'm no wiz!" - Is that actually a joke?
"My folks have a place just like this in the Mountains...I wish I was there"
"So do we" Now, that is.
Ha! Of course, this is the "Beware of the white hair" episode, isn't it? Classic gag, and actually really well handled - DM sets the misdirection up nicely by mentioning the 'faces' of Venger - it's precluded by Merlin when he removes his hat to reveal that he's bald, and I think it's natural to see his pet as a rabbit - proper riddle, that.
Diane is quite a leader in this ep - useful at the drawbridge, taking charge when Tiamat attacks for the second time. She's second in charge?
Nice animation of the Tiamat chase - collapsing door - Tiamat herself must have been a nightmare to animate in these pre-CGI days...
More nice stave-work from Diane. Though Tiamat falling for the rug over the hole in the floor trick is a bit lame, what is she, short sighted? With all those eyes?
What's that hole doing in the floor, anyway?
Didn't see any steps down so it can't be all that useful.
Ah! After having said how good the White Hair riddle was, I'd forgotten it gets sign-posted so blatantly by Merlin - ach well, gotta remember the target demographic, I suppose...
"70 years young" is young, isn't it, for Merlin? - I thought he was hundreds of years old even in the Arthur legends - wonder why they plumped for seventy years...
Presto appears to stay - nice emotional jeopardy.
"A spell to get us all home..."
Harry Potter again. I wonder if you could ever prove that JKR watched some of these when she was a trainee French teacher back in the eightees...
Merlin >>> Venger!!!11!!! Omg!!!!11!11!!!! - nice transformation - the animators always did these morphs really well.
The Fortune Teller woman is hilarious. Where's she from, Bombay? Birmingham?
OMG - Merlin died thousands of years ago - he looked like Merlin "standing there stroking his white hair - Hair - we thought he meant... but really he meant..." damn - and there I was saying how well handled the white hair riddle was - all the nice work getting there is kind of undone by the unnecessary pedantry in detailing the resolution - much like this sentence.
Are they Dwarves? Is Helix a Dwarvish town?
Dragons spiralling against the moon - nice work!
Some of the stonework in Merlin's castle looks Incan. cool.
More nice stick work from Diane putting out the torches - she's proving her worth this episode.
Presto and Hank hiding behind the cauldron as Tiamat lumbers by is nice.
Presto finally does some magic - it's a nice little arc for Presto this episode - his failure as a Magician, his apparent betrayal that is revealed to have a compassionate ulterior motive, his final redemption and emergence as a champion of Helix - comes out of it well, does Presto.
They got horses! Horses! Does this ever happen again? They have some kind of elephant thing from Ramoush (sp?!) and various carts, but I don't remember any horses. Tough to animate, horses.
And the cow gag is paid of at the end. nice.
So, then, an excellent episode all in all - good jokes, nice twists, some mystery, lots of action, everyone gets to use their weapon and Presto has a little geeky redemption at the end. I wonder if they built a statue to him in the town square?
Out of 10 - 9
--Previous Message--
: Since the 25th anniversary is almost here, let's start with the
: rewatching.
:
: Sometime this weekend, watch "The Night of No
: Tomorrow"!
:
:
: *rewatches, for fish*
: Sealgirl
: