Mar 04 2013
The Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon Actually Played Out
Well, I never realized that Dungeons and Dragons was actually tuned into a GI Joe-era cartoon back in the day, but I’m sure glad it was after watching this video.
Dungeons and Dragons makes for a rather shitty TV show, as without the actual game it’s just a bunch of goofy warriors, mages and rogues wandering around a poorly drawn landscape. But add in some YouTube commentary, and it’s gold, Jerry!
This isn’t your typical voicedub however a-la-GI Joe or X-Men, rather Grant Smith and his friends have actually acted out what the actual game of D&D must have looked like to create the scenarios unfolding onscreen. You’ll see what I mean, just watch above.
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That was damn funny. Good find. There’s no reason D&D couldn’t be an awesome animated series (your reasoning for why it couldn’t sounds somewhat similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender other than the landscape quality), but if it’s going to an all-child cast in the motherfuckin’ 80′s entertainment wasteland of course it’s going to be shit. Wasn’t there a character who was given a shield but no sword at the beginning? That’s how it feels to pick the soup lid in battle Royale.
@trashcanman
Yeah the paladin, he was given just a shield. Their weapons were suppose to be kind of fitting to their personalities.
Say what you want about it I loved that cartoon and most all the 80s crap. Would still take it today over half the shit they play on Cartoon Network and Nick.
You are so right, how could they use the aspects from a game based around creating a story with interesting characters to tell a story in a TV show? It’s not like they have hundreds of novels and tons of back story to draw from to make a movie.
How could something like that compete with the marvels of modern television we have today. What place is there for wizardry when we can have Honey Boo Boo.
(rolling) Adam +1,000,000 for the win
I loved this cartoon as a kid. But much like Robotech, it does not hold up well at all.
Another fan of the cartoon chiming in. I was devastated when it went off the air. Ha, I was 8 at the time; crazy that I remember it so well.
I kept riding roller coasters hoping they would take me to a D&D fantasy land (as if I wouldn’t be killed in a day)
Unless it was 2 in the morning on Monday after starting on Friday night, its nothing like my high school gaming sessions…
@Buddy Lee – Actually, he was a cavalier. There was also two other Unearthed Arcana classes (Barbarian and (Thief-)Acrobat) as well. While the cartoon predates the book by a couple of years., those classes were originally printed in Dragon Magazine before the show was created (Barbarian (Dragon #63), Cavalier (Dragon #72), and Thief-Acrobat (Dragon #69). I also imagine Presto the Magician was supposed to be the Illusionist so the only base classes were Hank the Ranger and Sheila the Thief.
And yes, I am a big enough of a geek to know this and point it out