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Reviewer: Rich (Webmaster)
Based on: Whole Series
UK Distributor: N/A
Two young orphans with strange powers are taken from Spain
to South America as part of an expedition to find the lost cities of Eldorado –
otherwise known as the Seven Cities of Gold. Once there they escape and must
face many perils in order to prevent the greedy Spaniards in charge of the
expedition from locating and looting the sacred cities.
One of the few anime series to be shown in the UK, The Mysterious Cities of Gold
has a large and near fanatical cult following. Although unavailable in this
country and not shown on television for several years, many have fond memories
of the series and its theme tune.
Although it has a slightly clichéd storyline (plucky kids fight the adults to
save something from destruction) that bears a similarity to Hayao Miyazaki’s
Laputa, Castle In The Sky, and containing similar clichéd characters, The
Mysterious Cities of Gold is a very good series with plenty to recommend it.
The epic 38 episode series was one of the few children’s cartoons to have a
straight through continuous storyline. This had its ups and downs. On the plus
side it allowed a far greater depth to the story and allowed events to unfold in
a realistic manner, without having to rush things due to time constraints. On
the minus side it meant that not a lot happened in some episodes and if you
missed an episode you found it difficult to piece together what you had missed. This may sound like it would put kids off but in fact it made
Mysterious Cities
of Gold into an enthralling and unmissable experience, with the contrived and
cheesy episodic format of most 80’s series put firmly in its place by a story
that people of all ages could enjoy. Despite the clichéd appearance of some of
the characters, for example the demure young girl/adventurous boy pairing of Zia
and Esteban, a lot of thought was given to their motives and actions. This is
particularly true of the adult characters, with the children’s acting guardian
Mendoza’s true motives being uncertain despite his frequent heroism.
However the series wasn’t perfect. All 80’s children’s cartoons had to have the
comic relief characters as a matter of course and The Mysterious Cities of Gold
was no exception. He-Man had Orco, Thundercats had Snarff and
Cities of Gold had
Pedro and Sancho. These were the two ‘hilarious’ bumbling sidekicks to Mendoza,
who was a very well thought out and deep character. It’s a shame that Cities of
Gold had to resort to this cliché (there is an annoying parrot that turns up
later too), especially when characters such as Mendoza and Gomez are so well
thought out but I think it’s just for younger children (I used to think they
were great…). Apart from this and a few unusual liberties taken with South
American history (for example, with the creators having no reference as to what
the Olmecs looked like they have been made to resemble the stylised statues that
they left behind) the series is intelligent, well written and extremely
watchable with a fantastic sense of childhood innocence reminiscent of Laputa.
A special note must also be made of the superb music and classic theme tune
provided by Israeli composers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. The music is atmospheric
and grandiose, aiding the feel of the series greatly and the theme tune is one
of my personal favourites. The artwork is great too – again bearing a strong
resemblance to the work of Hayao Miyazaki. This is obviously no bad thing and
the superb landscapes and excellently simple character art of Cities of Gold is
reminiscent of that of Studio Ghibli. The only niggle I have in this
regard is that in places the animation does seem to be a little bit ropey,
although this may just be due to the quality of the DIVX copy I have.
All in all The Mysterious Cities of Gold is a great series. It has that rare
accolade of being one of the few 80’s series that is still as good now as it was
then, and in fact can be enjoyed in a different way when you are older. The
music and art is fantastic as is the plot and we can only hope that DIC
International mirror their recent French Language release with an English
Language release here.
Best Bit: The opening sequence, it still fills me
with a sense of excitement now!
Worst Bit: Sancho and Pedro.
Ratings
Feature:
Extras:
N/A
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