Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series on Blu-ray

It's Saturday morning all over again with this collection of the classic SPACE GHOST animated series. Featuring all twenty of the 1966-1968 SPACE GHOST episodes, these cartoon shorts have lost none of their appeal, due in large part to the timeless designs of Alex Toth.

Every episode of SPACE GHOST spanned 30 minutes and contained three shorts -- two episodes of SPACE GHOST sandwiching an episode of DINO BOY IN THE LOST VALLEY. In each of the SPACE GHOST shorts, our heroes would fall into some sort of trap where a creature or a villain would get them at a disadvantage, and it would require teamwork (as well as some inviso-power) to overcome the menace. It wasn't always the teens -- Jan and Jace -- falling into peril and needing rescued (but it certainly happened a lot). Sometimes Space Ghost himself would find himself backed into a corner without his power bands, and he would require the assistance of his cadets -- or Blip, the space monkey, who had his own powered uniform -- to come to his aid.

It didn't take long for Space Ghost to acquire a rogues gallery of villains, like Zorak, Brak, Moltar, and Spider Woman (who was initially introduced as Black Widow). Near the end of the series, these enemies decided to combine their forces to eliminate Space Ghost once and for all, resulting in the final two episodes dropping the DINO BOY shorts to accommodate a six-part epic tale, "The Council of Doom." These episodes were made more special in that the writers found ways for each of the adventures to incorporate other Hanna-Barbera adventure cartoons into  the story, such as MOBY DICK, SHAZZAN, MIGHTOR, and THE HERCULOIDS. 

DINO BOY IN THE LOST VALLEY were the continuing adventures of a young boy who parachuted out of a crashing plane, to find himself in a valley populated by dinosaurs and cavemen, along with other bizarre creatures that were paleontologically impossible, such as ant warriors, tree men, and the like. Befriended by Ugh the caveman, and accompanied by a pet baby brontosaurus named Bronty, the three took turns rescuing each other from one catastrophe after another rather than looking for a way out of the valley.

Space Ghost was voiced by Gary Owens, became a familiar standard to fans of animation, bringing to life not only the sentinel of the spaceways but also that azure avenger, Blue Falcon. He was more frequently heard, however, as the announcer on just about everything that ever aired on Saturday mornings. His final recorded vocal work was, fittingly, for Space Ghost in a team-up with Batman on THE BRAVE & THE BOLD animated series. Young Jace was voiced by Tim Matheson, who would go on to star in such shows as ANIMAL HOUSE and THE WEST WING. Dino Boy's John David Carson later found a spot in FALCON CREST, and of course everyone knows Don Messick, who voiced Blip the Space Monkey, much better as Scooby-Doo.

Featuring iconic designs by Alex Toth (who is the subject of this two-disc collection's only bonus feature), SPACE GHOST & DINOBOY: THE COMPLETE SERIES is an easy recommend. It's one of those rare cases where nostalgia doesn't meet disappointment when the shows are revisited.