Tonight's Countdown To Halloween Saturday Night Special is Season 3, Episode 6 of the 1962 cartoon series "Space Angel" titled "The Ghost And Crystal Mace."
"Space Angel" was a product of Cambria studios who also brought us "Clutch Cargo" in 1959, and "Captain Fathom" in 1965.
So, Let's Blast off!
Senior Artist credits go to comic artist extraordinaire Alex Toth!
There are some pretty cool rocket stills like this!
Wow! You sure as Hell can't get much more high tech than this gauge!
They lower the spaceship down through the muck and onto this strange planet!
Here's a couple of shots from the ghostly planet! Pretty weird concept I must admit!
"Space Angel" was directed by Alex Toth and Dick Darley, aka Dik Darley. Dick was also the Director of "Space Patrol," and was the original Director for "The Mickey Mouse Club" and he directed six episodes of "The Spike Jones Show," and that's good enough for me!
The diminutive Margaret Kerry is the voice of Crystal Mace and Humphrey the ghost, so in these scenes, she's having a dialogue with herself! Margaret was also the voice of Spinner, Paddlefoot, and Gretchen on "Clutch Cargo."
Tinkerbell, the Disney cartoon character from the movie "Peter Pan" was modeled after Margaret and her dancing and acting skills. She was also the voice of the red haired mermaid in the same movie! She's now 90 years old.
That ghost sitting in the chair with Crystal is kind of a juvenile delinquent named Humphrey! The rest of the adult ghosts are very pissed off about Humphrey's disappearance, and want him back. They have no clue that Humphrey is responsible for his own disappearance, and is out having a blast!
Hal Smith does the narration, and is the voices of Taurus, The Chief, The Ghost Judge and all of the other Ghosts! Hal Smith was also in a ton of cowboy and other TV shows, then he did some voices for "Clutch Cargo," and from there on, he had to be one of the busiest cartoon voice guys there ever was.
Hal has lots and lots of credits for 'additional' voices, and all the extra characters, some you've heard of and some almost nameless like Guy #2 or Headless Specter, & others better known like Winnie The Pooh, Owl and Goofy. Hal was also Otis Campbell on "The Andy Griffith Show."
Hal had a total of 304 credits! What an amazingly gifted and busy man!
Here's another great rocket shot!
Ned Lefebver does the voices of Scott McCloud, aka 'Space Angel' and the Space Control Operator. "Space Angel" was his only credit ever!
The ghostly court is just about ready to drop the hammer on Space Angel and the gang!
Humphrey finally shows up with Crystal and tells the elders that he got to fly a spaceship! I don't know how ghosts do it, but he's about to get one Helluva whupping!
So what does an outer space cartoon have to do with Halloween you might ask.
In this particular episode, "Space Angel" and his crew travel to a haunted planet inhabited by ghosts, that's what!
The strange real human moving lips on a stationary cartoon image was a technique called "Syncho-Vox" that was developed by cameraman Edwin Gillette, and was basically boring as Hell for the most part, and still looks odd to this day!
Tinkerbell, the Disney cartoon character from the movie "Peter Pan" was modeled after Margaret and her dancing and acting skills. She was also the voice of the red haired mermaid in the same movie! She's now 90 years old.
Hal has lots and lots of credits for 'additional' voices, and all the extra characters, some you've heard of and some almost nameless like Guy #2 or Headless Specter, & others better known like Winnie The Pooh, Owl and Goofy. Hal was also Otis Campbell on "The Andy Griffith Show."
Hal had a total of 304 credits! What an amazingly gifted and busy man!
"And now my friends and I better get back and spread the good news about you,"
because Halloween is creeping nearer!
because Halloween is creeping nearer!
Don't think I've ever seen this one, BTW!
ReplyDeletePS: This episode, that is. ;)
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, when I was just out of high school, being fond of SPACE ANGEL, I called a friend at a local TV station that had run the cartoon, and asked for some kind of contact address for SA, which he gave me. So I wrote, and within a couple of weeks, I got a big manila envelope from Clark Haas, one of the people behind this series as well as CLUTCH CARGO.
Mr. Haas told me a little about the process through which they superimposed the mouths of the voiceover actors onto the mostly-stationary cartoon characters, process which was known as "Synchro-Vox." He also enclosed several pages of photo-copies of character sketches and animation cels. To top it off, he dropped into the envelope a large round peel-off sticker of the SPACE ANGEL logo and the face of Scott McCloud.
Yeah, that day, I was one very happy teenage "Cosmic KiD!" ;)
I love this story! Thanx KD!
ReplyDeleteGreat story! I enjoyed these cartoons, including Marine Boy!
ReplyDelete