Power Failure
- Studio
- Cambria Productions
Characters
Scott McCloud/Space Angel, Taurus, Crystal Mace, Professor Mace
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Alex Toth
Producing
- Producer
- Clark Haas
Animation
- Animator
- Warren Tufts
Voices
- Voice
- Ned LeFebver (Scott McCloud/Space Angel), Hal Smith (Taurus), Margaret Kerry (Crystal Mace)
Crew
- Character Design, Model Sheets, Layouts
- Alex Toth
- Art Director
- Sal Trapani
- Created By
- Dik Darley, Dick Brown
Production notes
The outer-space adventures of Scott McCloud, an agent for the Earth Bureau of Investigation and captain of the spaceship Starduster. His crew include Taurus, an amiable Celtic-accented mechanic, Crystal, an electronics expert, and Crystal's father, Professor Mace, head of base station Evening Star
Cambria's second cartoon using its patented Synchro-Vox system developed by Edwin Gillette for "talking animal" commercials in the 1950s. The Synchro-Vox system combined still animation cels of the characters and live actors' lips superimposed over the characters' heads to make the "animation." Producer Clark Haas referred to Cambria's process of limited animation as "motorized movement." Cardboard cutouts of the character sometimes would be moved by hand past the background. To produce Synchro-Vox, the voice actor would be filmed in closeup, with a mask hiding everything but the actor's lips. Heavy makeup was used to ensure that the actors' skin color matched that of the cartoon characters.
When in action, rather than animate the character, the cels were shaken, or the camera zoomed to simulate the motion. As Scott McCloud/Space Angel's face was covered by a space helmet, no lip movement was required for his characters in the Synchro-Vox process.
Each story took place over five episodes. Two hundred and sixty shorts were produced, packaged into 30-minute shows, or to air individually in syndication.
Cambria's second cartoon using its patented Synchro-Vox system developed by Edwin Gillette for "talking animal" commercials in the 1950s. The Synchro-Vox system combined still animation cels of the characters and live actors' lips superimposed over the characters' heads to make the "animation." Producer Clark Haas referred to Cambria's process of limited animation as "motorized movement." Cardboard cutouts of the character sometimes would be moved by hand past the background. To produce Synchro-Vox, the voice actor would be filmed in closeup, with a mask hiding everything but the actor's lips. Heavy makeup was used to ensure that the actors' skin color matched that of the cartoon characters.
When in action, rather than animate the character, the cels were shaken, or the camera zoomed to simulate the motion. As Scott McCloud/Space Angel's face was covered by a space helmet, no lip movement was required for his characters in the Synchro-Vox process.
Each story took place over five episodes. Two hundred and sixty shorts were produced, packaged into 30-minute shows, or to air individually in syndication.
Reviews
Power Failure
Power Failure is not one of the Space Angel cartoons that I've seen recently enough to be able to review. ANd the three or four that I have seen aren't listed on this datbase.
In general, when I first found the SA shows in the dusty bin of a used video tape seller, I couldn't wait to view them, though I was sure that I would be disappointed as I had only ancient childhood memories of the show, and I was assuming that they were glossing my opinions. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the show stood up even better than I remembered. I believe that the context of the show, outer space, and the fact that by the time the shows were made, we were all used to things in outer space floating around, made the "animation" techniques used more viable than they were in other shows employing the same systems, (ie Clutch Cargo, Marvel Super Heroes etc). People in spaceships were also usually strapped into place so you didn't expect them to move around alot. But it was the artwork that held up the best. I thought for sure I was just remembering the detail, the ships innards, the shadowing etc, but whoever did it, notwithstanding the fact that the characters were really notheing more than a bunch of still shots jiggled in front of the camera, did it well enough to leave a lasting impression, on me at least. If you have never seen Space Angel, it's really worth tracking down a copy, just for the artwork. The plots, at least of the ones I've seen since childhood, are nothing to get excited about, (in fact, the plots are the most cartoonish thing about this series). But the rendering is almost good enough to make you forget the silliness of some of the stories.