King Arthur in Hollywood
Gargoyles
Walt Disney released in
December, 2005 the DVD of the first half of the second season of
"Gargoyles", an animated adventure series that ran on television
from 1994 to 1996. Two of the episodes, "A Lighthouse in the Sea of
Time" and "Avalon" contain Arthurian based stories.
"A Lighthouse in the
Sea of Time" deals with the discovery of the Scrolls of Merlin, and
their theft by a mysterious figure known as Macbeth ( *the*
Macbeth, made immortal by the three witches in an incident that
Shakespeare kept secret). Both Macbeth and the gargoyles believe that the
scrolls contain Merlin's magical secrets. What they really contain is
something far more precious.
The three-part
"Avalon" deals with Avalon and the awakening of the sleeping
Arthur. Avalon is a remote island accessible only by
magic and the home of the faerie-folk under Oberon and Titania. The island
is
being threatened by an evil wizard who plans to conquer it and turn it
into his headquarters for waging war on the rest of the world. Aware
that they need all the help that they can get, the gargoyles seek out King
Arthur and awaken him from his enchanted sleep so that he can join forces
with them in the battle.
The latter half of the second season (not yet released) includes an episode entitled "Pendragon", in which King Arthur has left Avalon to explore the outside world and joins forces with the gargoyles to recover Excalibur. This was the back-door pilot for a never-made spin-off series, also entitled "Pendragon", in which Arthur would be searching for Merlin and battling the Illuminati Society, a mysterious world-controlling organization secretly led by Sir Percival, who had survived into modern times as the Holy Grail's guardian.
