The Gargoyles cartoon marked an entire generation and here is why your children should discover this series, available in full if you subscribe to Disney+.
Recommended from 10 years old – Currently on Disney+
• Once upon a time : “A thousand years ago, superstition and violence reigned everywhere. It was a dark age, it was a world of fear, it was the time of gargoyles. Stone statues by day and warriors by night, we have been betrayed by the humans we are sworn to protect. A spell turned us to stone for a thousand years… Now, here in Manhattan, we are freed from that spell and we live again. We are the protectors who watch the night, we are the Gargoyles.”
• What they will love: The group of heroes themselves, because the Gargoyles are above all Clan Manhattan, united in adversity. From Goliath the leader to Hudson the old one passing by Broadway the bon vivant and Lexinton the king of technology, each with his specialty, his qualities and his faults. No one is locked into their starting stereotype and the children should take turns changing their favorite character over the course of the series.
• What may worry them: If you’ve seen Batman: The Animated Series (1992) or X-Men (1992), Gargoyles offers the same kind of difficulty, namely an overall dark atmosphere that is potentially a little stuffy for younger kids.
The Gargoyles experience real conflict, battling villains with clever and subtle motivations, which can throw off a kid accustomed to cartoons where the good guy and the bad guy are clearly identified and cartoonish. In addition, the series is to be seen in order, in order to follow the evolution of the plot and the characters.
Disney+
Gargoyles in flight
• What they will keep inside them: The little moral lessons discreetly instilled in the episodes, avoiding being hammered at the end of the episode as in many series of its time. They’ll remember the complexity of the characters, their alliances made and broken, their setbacks, and they’ll thank you for showing them a series that never gets them down and with such a compelling story.
Beware of a potential disappointment all the same, because canceled after a shortened 3rd season, the series did not have time to close all its intrigues.