A different way of telling a story

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I never saw The Galaxy Trio before but I saw Birdman on Cartoon Network a lot as a kid and it seemed a lot better then.Birdman lives in a volcano surrounded by other volcanoes and they imply this is in America. Mentok even knew where Birdman lived and it doesn't affect the show at all. There's a shocking amount of times that he is almost squashed by a shrinking room but even more times where he conveniently has a cage to hold the criminals. That is when he doesn't just murder them or when they get away. Even though Birdman and Galaxy Trio seemingly have nothing in common, the shows have lots of similarities. Neither of them have a back story and both of them start every episode with a video call setting up the story. And there's lots of times when the bad guys get away on both shows and they always say something like " I feel we will meet again.". The name Galaxy Trio doesn't make any sense and their powers don't make any sense. They tend to over explain everything too. The only reason to watch this is to make fun of it.

Up until a few weeks ago - I had never, ever heard of such cartoon superheroes as Birdman and The Galaxy Trio (featuring Vapor Man, Meteor Man, and Gravity Girl) even though their actual incarnation goes all the way back to 1967.I guess my unfamiliarity with these particular crime-fighting crusaders has to do with the fact that they are not a part of the snobbishly elite "Marvel Comics" set and, so, they have not been given their due attention and much-deserved respect.Anyway - Birdman and his fellow superheroes were originally created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (who are also credited for the creation of The Flintstones and The Jetsons).Now, I would never say that these Birdman cartoons were fantastic - But - IMO - (Considering that they are now 50+ years old) - These pre-CG, animated shorts are just as entertaining and exciting as are any Marvel cartoons that were being aired back in those days. Yep. They sure are.

Back in 1966, Hanna-Barbera Productions began its superhero cartoon cycle with the launch of SPACE GHOST & DINO BOY. By September 1967, they had superhero series on all three major networks. And BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO (to use the series full title) which aired on NBC was one of the most popular and memorable of those series.Like another Hanna-Barbera series that aired on NBC, YOUNG SAMSON & GOLIATH (which I have reviewed earlier), BIRDMAN was an good example of Golden Age styled comic book plotting used in an animated cartoon context. In the first of the two segments of the series, the winged wonder known as Birdman (voiced over by Keith Andes) was summoned into action by Falcon 7 (John Stephenson) to take on the latest threat to national or international security. With his pet eagle Avenger at his side, the winged wonder flew off from Bird Lair (an extinct volcano) to challenge the threat. In a few episodes, he would aided by a teen-aged sidekick Birdboy (Dick Beals) who had similar powers.For the record, Birdman's super-powers were flight (Thanks to his wings naturally!), super strength, and the ability to file blasts of solar energy from his hands (not to mention the ability to create "solar shields"). His powers come from exposure to the rays of the sun (which could explain why his headquarters is located in the crater of an extinct volcano), but also gives him an easily exploitable weakness which the writers liked to use throughout the run of the series. He loses his powers if he is out of the sun for too long and has to recharge by exposure to sunlight (but then again, he's lucky to have Avenger to help bail him out of those situations).For the most part, Birdman fought villains that were associated with the organization FEAR (his most frequent foe being its leader, Number One). Among them included such baddies as Dr. Freezoids, Nitron, the Ringmaster, and Vulturo among others. He managed to fight against foes that weren't allied with FEAR including Morto the Marauder, the Constrictor, Medusa, and Dr. Millennium among others. All in the space of 40 seven minute cartoons.The second segment was The Galaxy Trio which consisted of a trio of superheroes who patrolled space in their spaceship Condor One in the fight against evil. The three heroes were Vapor Man (Don Messick) who could into vapor at will and fire blasts of different vapors; Meteor Man (Ted Cassidy) who had the power expand his size at will; and Gravity Girl (Virginia Eiler) who had the power to control gravity. And they were to need those powers to fight the worst menaces the universe has to offer in 20 seven minute cartoons that were sandwiched between the two Birdman cartoons in each half hour episode.All in all, BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO was one of Hanna-Barbera's most popular series and was only dropped by NBC in late 1968 mainly due to the backlash against TV violence during that period. Fortunately the show was brought back in 1979 as part of the syndicated series HANNA-BARBERA'S WORLD OF SUPER ADVENTURE (which brought back most of Hanna-Barbera's superhero series) and current pops up now and then on the Boomerang Network. It is also available on DVD via Warner Home Video.

What really makes this cartoon loose points is bird boy. I hated the episodes he was in and no, it was notches below "Dino boy". I understand some brilliant mind wanted the audience (a show engineered for children, always remember that ) to relate to a target closer to their age, so they could dream of actually being bird boy, but I just hate it. It aged worse than other H&B cartoons in my opinion. While all H&B cartoons of sort have "segments" (E.G the "song & run" in Josie and the pussycats; the "push power band button" in Space Ghost ), bird man is more predictable and therefore less interesting. Galaxy trio is a bit better with its Star Trek feeling, and more worth watching.