The Witch Gets a Facelift
Maybe we can continue the less-Nanny trend from the last episode. We open up with an idyllic forest scene that suddenly turns dark. And a space coffin lends. Haggar emerges and cackles, looks on Castle of Lions. She and the cat are going to produce a surprise disguise.
A hawk flies into the Castle rec room. Hunk makes a grab for it, and it goes after him. Pidge whistles and it lands on his arm. The others see a message strapped to its talons. The princess is so excited to here of a message from a distant kingdom she runs out wrapped in just a towel (does she shower with that tiara thing?!) Ugh. And Nanny.
The message is from Queen Orla, Allura's aunt.
Orla is traveling by carriage with a couple of Mycenean Greeks as guards. Or maybe they're Myrmidons. Then they hear an ominous cackle. Haggar . . . stun rays the Myrmidons--well, their entire plan was to "seize her." Maybe Haggar got her start as a library ghost. She takes Orla and the ladies in waiting to some ruins, where Haggar assumes Orla's appearence.
The team is running through the woods near where Haggar nabbed Orla. The find her passed out near a lake. Pidge gets nuts. Orla awakens. Allura says she's cold--it's just shock. At Lance's recommendation, they get her back to the Castle where fireworks great her.
And Nanny. Nanny goes in for a hug or something, and lands on her face. The mice great Orla in the throne room (?) and Haggar--er--Orla freaks out. They kick out the mice, and the mice storm out. In Allura's quarters, Orla tries to strangle the princess while Allura goes though dresses in her closet. The space mice intervene. Of course, Allura misunderstands, and chases the muce out again. Allura tucks her in, and mice see Orla's gnashy claws.
Haggar summons the blue cat from the ruins. It sneaks in past the guards and immediately goes after Cheddar. Cheds escapes and moons the cat. Clearly, this is so much better than that boring Vehicle Voltron. All this needs is a few more fart jokes and some of the guys getting hit in the crotch. Then Kevin James could play a live-action Hunk, with Seth Rogen as Lance.
Ohhhh, just KILL ME.
Anyway. Pidge sees the blue cat. The team consult Coran and they all agree that it's possible Haggar could be in Orla's guise. Allura and Nanny don't think that much of the idea. Hunk, Pidge, and Lance are hunting for the cat. They find it--and it jumps on Hunk's face and runs off. Pidge convinces Cheddar to act as bait, and they and some Castle Guardsmen wax the floor. Hunk slips on the wax.
AUGGGHHH!!!
Cheddar lures the cat into the trap successfully. There's some tension where they all slide around on the floor, then Keith catches the cat with a rope. Orla spikes the punch with DEATH and Keith sees her. Then they confront Orla with . . . Suki(?) the mouse, and reveal the cat. Keith does a dramatic "jump from the ledge" and goes to make the cat drink the spiked punch. Orla throws a chair at Keith, the reveals herself as Haggar. Haggar pulls a Yoda and evades them with some acrobatics and gets Nanny in a half-nelson, telling them to release the cat in exchange for Nanny. Why, I don't know. Haggar tries a "stun ray," then makes the room dark and windy. She drops a chandelier on Hunk and Pidhe with her staff, then catches Keith and Lance in her web-rays. Then ol' King Deus ex Alfor cancels out her magic. She shatters a window and flies out of the Castle.
The team pursues her in their lions. She and the cat are running down a path. Allura catches up to her in the blue lion. Just as Allura reach her, Haggar summonbs the "clawbeast. This is a mostly unimpressing green. . . . amphibian looking thing. It knocks blue lion into the lake and stands on its head. The rest of the team follows them into the water. The clawbeast launches missiles out of holes in its chest and trades a few shots with the lions. Yellow lion takes a few hits, but they've forced the clawbeast off of blue lion. The team regroups out of the lake and form Voltron.
The beast emerges from the lake, hits Voltron with a palm-mounted flamethrower and beams from its chest. Volts forms blazing sword and performs a kesa (diagonal cut for those of you who haven't dabbled in iaido). This clawbeast stands its ground and launches its kneespikes as missiles. So, Voltron cuts him again. That does the trick.
They find the real Orla in the ruins of the cathedral and bring her to the castle. And there's some back and force between Lance and Pidge.
A little bit about the voice actors here: Voltron has a cast of six. All of the voice actors are Screen Actors Guild members. From what I've heard in interviews, under SAG rules they could each do three characters at their normal rate--any more voices in an episode and WEP would have to pay them more. With B.J. Ward as the only female voice, that explains all the weird Monty Python old lady voices you hear Michael Bell and Peter Cullen doing. Basically, then can get away with 18 characters per episode, otherwise it gets more expensive. With a cast of 15 Rugger pilots alone in Vehicle Voltron, you can see how they get into trouble real fast.
Introducing Beautiful Honerva
Things play out pretty closely to Voltron in the original. The team is a little more lecherous when they see the princess in her towel. The falcon is the messenger of Queen Elena, who left the Kingdom of Altea to go to Castle Trebli to be married 15 years ago, before Daibazaal's final attack.
Interesting. So Altea gets a little more depth. There are other kingdoms and other places with survivors on the planet.
When Honerva attacks Elena's carriage, she flambes the guards. The last two agree to attack her together, showing a little more tactical foresight than "GET HER!" She takes Elena's form with the chant "el roy mu el roy . . ." This is the first time it appears.
They find . . . Princess (?) Elena and Suzuishi is smitten. The dialogue about her being cold is identical to Voltron. So, again, they must have had translations for some episodes. Elena doens't know Hys. Probably blocked her out of her memory.
The narrator helpfully explains to us that Honerva hates mice, and that why she keeps the space cat Jaga with her.
Platte can whistle. And the mousehole is right under a sign to the control room.
Fala claims Elena is acting weird because she's tired. Actually, that's probably true. I mean, I get to where I want to strangle people when I'm really tired. I don't often spike punch with DEATH when I'm just trying to get some sleep, though.
The sound editing for Jaga is . . . bizarre. His normal meow is some weird electronic (?) sound, and he has some tiger growls when Kogane catches him with a rope.
Among the things on the dinner table? Otard Cognac. Otard? I think I'll skip that brand. As the witch flees the room, in Voltron we saw her raise her witchin' stick and launch another "stun ray." Here we see her actually nuke a pair of Gradam castle guards.
As Fala closes in on Honerva in the blue lion, rather than summoning the beastman (who is not named in this episode), she merely goes "Oowaiyaaaa!!!"
I wonder if the storyboarders confused the animators at some point during the fight. The beastman is shown to fire missiles once, and then it's firing a beamlike weapon that uses energy discs. I wouldn't even bring this up as an animation error, but in one shot black lion is firing his shoulder harpoons, and in the next the beastman is taking hits from annihilation discs (the lions maybe borrowed some Invid technology?)
The closing scene with Elena mirrors somewhat the scene in which Honerva is brought to Castle Gradam earlier--without the embarassing crap with Hys.
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