Artivels Undescribable Perfection

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Carycomic That's what CBS called its 1967-68 Saturday morning line-up, featuring THE HERCULOIDS; MOBY DICK AND THE MIGHTY MIGHTOR; and--last, but not least--SHAZZAN. And, as far as this baby-boomer is concerned, those cartoons lived up to their advertising.Having grown up on live-action fantasy swashbucklers, like "the Thief of Baghdad" (starring Sabu), switching my devotion to an animated version was no problem. No matter how formidable the evil magician-of-the-week might be, Shazzan would almost always laugh in his or her face. Literally! The one exception was the time when Nancy was temporarily disintegrated by an Arabian Nights version of Captain Hook.Man! Did he look p.o.'d when he demanded her return.There were, however, two episodes I considered even more exciting. One involved a wizard who controlled giant hawks made out of glass. The other involved a necromancer with the power to create levitating zombies! Both had dubbed-in scream effects that I found very loud (and very scary), back then.H-B could never do a remake nowadays, of course. You'd have the ACLU complaining about unfair, Arab-bashing stereotypes. You'd have religious ultra-conservatives complaining about the glorification of pagan superstitions. And, you'd probably even have celebrity animal-rights advocates, like Kim Basinger, complaining about the cruel and inhumane exploitation of flying camels! To which I say: long live nostalgia!

btdroflet38 I am (still) a big fan of the sixties Hanna-Barbera super-hero cycle which started in 1966 and ended ignominiously with the "Super Friends" around 1973. However, Shazzan was among the best of them. It had action, excitement, imaginative music scoring (also incorporated into 1968's "Arabian Knights" cartoon and i imagine the music originator must have been in overdrive by the sheer dramatics he was able to instill within the action sequences and final showdown between the jolly brown giant and his motley crew of adversaries.But i digress....it seems that Jerry Dexter and Janet Waldo had worked together on other cartoon shows for H-B and for Filmation (notably "Josie and the Pussycats")so their chemistry must have worked in well.Alas, there will never be anything to top the nostalgic 60's. Today's generation of kids are being swamped with rock-band screeching and that, is not what i would like to remember from the team of Hanna-Barbera.Brian T.

bcolquho I, too, find this show a guilty pleasure. Shazzan is what Robin Williams' genie in the Disney version of Aladdin, aspires to be, and it's a good show. A classic of '60s animation. It begins with an announcer intoning "Inside a cave off the coast of Maine..." It's the story of Chuck and Nancy. They're a brother and sister. They find a mysterious ring in a chest. The ring is in two halves. When joined, it forms the word "Shazzan." Shazzan's a genie complete with mohawk, goatee, and Mr. Clean earring. They can't be returned home by Shazzan until they deliver the ring to its rightful owner.

shaunhenderson I gotta admit, this show is a guilty pleasure. Shazzan's jolly demenor, cool goatee and quotable "Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!" in the face of any situation is irresistable. Only in the sixties could you get away with stuff like this. Every badguy in the show is Shrill-voiced bong-smoker who, invariably, is green. And Shazzan's approach to problem solving is priceless:Green sultan calls up flying monkeys, Shazzan turns the monkeys into bugs, Sultan turns the bugs into screeching harpies, Shazzan turns the harpies into cheese, and so on...You gotta wonder if this is a kids' cartoon or a relaistic depiction of what Joe Barbera actually thought he was seeing. If you haven't seen it yet, and it's on, you could do far worse than to spend an afternoon with Shazzan.