Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

From what I've gathered, this series came on Saturday mornings when I was three years old and too young to be watching TV at that time. It wasn't until the summer of 1982 when I first discovered this series. I was in Panama City Beach Florida on vacation with my parents and I turned on the TV at our summer cottage where we were staying and I came across the USA Network and a show called the Cartoon Express. They were playing old Hanna Barbera cartoons and I discovered Devlin. Amazing to find out this show was inspired by Eval Keneval, but I guess it doesn't surprise me with the stunt suit that Ernie Devlin wore. Ernie Devlin, a very handsome and easy going guy is the star of the show and is voiced over by renowned voice actor, Michael Bell. He and his brother and sister are on their own since their parents were deceased. They travel with a circus and in their own RV. Ernie, the eldest brother,is the one in charge of the three and he is the big star of Hank's circus. Todd, Ernie's brother is the top mechanic who keeps Ernie's Bike going. He was voiced over by Monkees star Mickey Dolenz, who also did a voice on a cartoon called Butch Cassidy and the Sundnace Kids, a very forgettable cartoon in comparison to Devlin. And finally, Sandy is the kid sister. I don't know who did her voice. Finally, Hank, the Ringmaster and the boss, was voiced over by Norman Alden, the camera man from Ed Wood, the Diner owner from Back to the Future and best of all, the original voice of Aquaman on the SuperFriends!!! Alden apparently did this show in between the two SuperFriends series he did in 1973 and in 1977. Devlin was 1974. Oddly enough, Hank looked dead on like the late Jim Davis in his Jock Ewing role on Dallas, who oddly enough, Norman Alden acted in a scene with Davis in that series 3rd episode in 1978. The episode that sticks out in my mind the most is the one I first saw in Florida. The one where Todd feels unappreciated for his work as mechanic and gets no credit and is considering leaving, but his mechanic skills help out when a tornado hits the town they are in. I know there is one where Ernie wrecks and his confidence as a stunt rider is weakened. And I recall one where Sandy goes to live with an aunt and uncle, but misses the fun she had with her big brothers. I wish Hanna Barbera would release this series on DVD or I wish somebody could have recorded these shows and put them on youtube.com where I did at least find the intro.

I have seen this cartoon many times from the time I was a little kid to now.This show is good because you get to see a motorcycle rider doing ramp stunts and solving problems for other people. The scenes where it shows Ernie Devlin in the air when his bike is doing the jumps what looks like to others as him just going 10 Miles per hour is where they are really showing him doing his stunt in slow motion because real motorcycle stunts like that have those motorcycles going so fast that many people who are on the opposite side of the big top could not focus in time to see the rider going up the ramp. This show has him in slow motion so everyone watching can see how he does his stunts. This show should have all of it's episodes released on DVD box sets like some of the other Hanna-Barbera shows because it is a classic and much better than the shows that have been made in the last 11 to 15 years.

Well, of course the animation isn't perfect, this is a 1974 TV cartoon, and we know all the tricks used to make it cheap enough to be profitable, I mean, that's what the technology of the time allowed. The bike jumping the cars animation is used in almost every episode, and it seems bad by today standarts, the bike flies over the cars at 10 mph. But all we can do is to think "ok, it's 1974, we forgive you".The plot for the episodes is actually good, but it does get corny and silly sometimes. All in all, it's quite entertaining, and yes, it's watchable.If they remade "Devlin" with the proper animation, and working harder on the episode plots, it could be a hit.

Hmm, I dunno what they were thinking when they made this cartoon. It seems to be trying to get in on the whole 70's motorcycle fad, and maybe trying to cash in on Speed Racer's popularity. Devlin has some pretty lame plots, but the thing that makes it actually fun to watch is how horrible the animation and art is. I'm the first to admit that I can't draw, and thats why I do not attempt to make cartoons. I only wish the makers of this show had the same frame of mind. The actual characters look like typical Hanna-Barbara humans, though not cartoonish humans, just normal 70's humans. The backgrounds are the really funny part. Almost every background has HUGE, and very visible brush strokes. I dont mean little brush strokes like you might see on other cartoons of the time, I mean these backgrounds look like someone took a huge house painting brush, dipped it in a can of paint, and slapped it across a peice of paper once, then claimed it to be a background. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it isnt. Just see for yourself, this show still comes on Cartoon Network, in the wee hours of the morning on weekends. Also, the animation has a lot of copouts in it. Instead of animating a car or motorcycle, they just move the same drawing of it. And when he turns around on his motorcycle, they dont animate it, they have him drive off screen, then have the same animation cell, flipped over, come back on screen. I don't see how this show lasted as long as it did. The plots were just as bad as the art, I mean Speed Racer might have some bad animation, and bad dubbing, but the plots are wonderful and keep it entertaining. Though with this artwork, I don't think anything could have saved Devlin.