Space Angel (1962– ) User Reviews

Hey! Just Try Not To Pay Too Much Attention To Their "Syncro-Voxed" Lips

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 13 June 2020]

(IMO) - What definitely helped to elevate "Space Angel" to a notch above the ordinary in "limited animation" cartoons of its era was its detailed artwork which was often nicely realized by noted American illustrator, Alex Toth (1928-2006).

Yep. Without Toth's artistic contribution to "Space Angel's" overall vision of the future - This vintage SyFy TV show wouldn't have been even half as interesting to watch as it inevitably was.

Featuring that semi-creepy visual effect called "Snycro-Vox" (where real human mouths were superimposed onto the faces of the cartoon characters) - "Space Angel's" story is all about Starduster pilot, Scott McCloud (and his 2 loyal sidekicks, Taurus and Crystal) diligently policing the galaxy through direct orders from those at EBI (Earth Bureau of Investigations).

Syncro-vox

[grendelkhan · 6 March 2003]

Space Angel was brought to you by the same folks who gave us Clutch Cargo. What, you've never seen Clutch Cargo? I'll bet you have. If you've seen Pulp Fiction, you've seen Clutch Cargo. When Cristopher Walken comes to see young Butch, Butch is watching Clutch Cargo. The shows featured a unique technique, called syncro-vox. The cartoons would pretty much be still images, with human lips superimposed on them. The lips would mouth the dialogue. It was pretty weird to watch and was later stolen by Conan O' Brien.

Space Angel featured the exploits of Scott McCloud and his companions as the flew the far reaches of space. It featured designs by the master, Alex Toth. Toth gave the series a Wally Wood-esque look, with lots of detail and sci-fi hardware. The stories were usually pretty exciting and imaginative, which made up for the sparse animation and weird lips.

A couple of episodes were released on vhs. It was a nice time capsule to a more innocent age. In fact, I watched this show as a kid and it was pre-empted by the Watergate Hearings. I didn't know what was going on, but I wanted my Space Angel! It was the end of the show and my innocence.

Cheaply made and crudely animated but vivid, entertaining, and highly imaginative

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 24 April 2022]

Eye-patched Scott McCloud (The Space Angel), rotund Taurus, and curvaceous Crystal Mace fly around in the 'Starduster', solving problems, saving planets and generally being heroic at some indeterminate time in the future. Like its predecessor 'Clutch Cargo', this animated space opera is best remembered for being made in 'Synchro-Vox', in which an actual human mouth was superimposed on the animated character's face when speaking. The resulting image is a bit odd but reasonably effective (and distinctive). The rest of the animation is very limited and motion is kept to a minimum with a lot of repeated sequences but the stories are very entertaining and imaginative. Although far from scientifically rigorous, the show seems like something that a bunch of ambitious sci-fi aficionados with very limited resources would come up with, as Scott and crew deal with errant asteroids, giant drone starships from 'outside', approaching the speed of light, space-Quakers who dislike loud music, gladiatorial combat in giant fighting machines, etc. The show also has a weird sense of humour, as exemplified by the episode 'Welcome, Neighbour' where a solar-sail powered fleet arrives, crewed by shepherds-crook carrying Amish-oids who drive vehicles that look like a cross between Luke Skywalker's land-speeder and a Ford Model-T - very strange!! I vaguely remember liking this show back when it was new (as I was) but now, a half-century later, I'm hooked. Created by Dick Darley, who a decade earlier gave us the memorable adventures of Buzz Corry and 'The Space Patrol'. Weird, one-of a kind, but highly watchable if you're in a retro-mood.

Since I've never seen Clutch and Cargo...

[bcolquho · 30 March 2003]

...Space Angel's the next best thing. As another reviewer said, it used the unique technique of synchro-vox. The technique used actual human lips on animated faces. Scott McCloud is the Space Angel, a secret agent for Earth Intelligence, who together with his friends, Taurus, Crystal, and Professor Mace, (who's Crystal's father), fly far and wide from their base on the space station

Evening Star, in the spaceship Terra. Whether it's locating a stolen mirror, or stopping a war over salt, (or the lack thereof), in another galaxy, it's all in a day's work.

This actually worked better than Clutch Cargo.

[dadoo4050 · 8 July 2006]

I remember the "Synchro-Vox" mouth thing looking pretty silly on "Clutch Cargo", but, somehow, on "Space Angel" it didn't seem so bad. I guess it was the fact that it was used less here than on CC, as the characters had reason to don space helmets quite often.

The extremely limited animation works better here, too. While Clutch and friends looked rather silly holding one position with the background being moved behind them when they "ran," Scott McCloud and company were usually floating in space, so the effect was less jarring.

I liked it as a kid in the early 60's. We were all excited about the real space program (my dad was an aeronautics engineer and we all watched each Mercury liftoff in rapt attention), so "Scott McCloud: Space Angel" was our look into the "future." Remember, this was some 7 or 8 years before "Lost in Space" or "Star Trek," and I was only 5 or 6 when I watched "Space Angel."

Great cartoon

[kfogg · 3 October 2001]

One of the best cartoons around. I can remember watching this show in the early 60's. It helped to understand how man was able to travel in space.

Scott McCloud and his team always saved the day.

When I was a kid, I loved it!

[tbrittreid · 15 January 2004]

I loved this when I was a youngster of ten or so. "Clutch Cargo" seems to get all the attention, but I thought this was infinitely better. The plots were fairly complex while "Cargo"'s were downright simplistic. Ditto for the characterizations. I even remember it being somewhat better animated, but still not comparing well even to the Filmation crap of the seventies. Each show, it should be pointed out, was originally serialized, one five-minute chapter a day, Monday through Friday. While "Cargo" had a new story each week (and in the seventies was sometimes seen reedited into half-hour TV shows), "Space Angel," if memory serves, had its stories go on for two and sometimes even three weeks. One bizarre thing about this show was that Space Angel was a secret identity, one that was very, very rarely used, and for good reason. To become SA, Scott McCloud would touch the side of his space helmet, bringing goggles down over his one good eye and eye patch, and a microphone up over his mouth! I swear! This "transformation" was shown in the opening credits of every episode, and that's all there was to it, so you can see why the writers stayed away from it for the most part. When "Cargo" came along, "Angel" disappeared from the airwaves--at least in Houston, Texas--and when the latter cartoons kept getting broadcast, I assumed that the earlier program had been in black and white. However, recent advertisements for videos have described BOTH as being in color. So I don't know why "Space Angel" vanished, but at least it's not forgotten.

Pretty cool cartoon

[MovieCriticMarvelfan · 8 June 2005]

I just watched Space Angel Volume 2 today, and I have to say this is a pretty decent cartoon. The animation though is really pretty primitive as is expected, since this was early in 1964 and was done by TV Comics.

Still though I was pretty entertained with this tape. The stories remind me a lot of Johnny Quest, Captain America and some of these other early Marvel cartoons.

Space Angel is some sort of American secret agent in space tracking down terrorists or evil, it's very political correct even forty years later!!!

The breakthrough is this use of syncro-vox where real lips were started being used in mask of the cartoon characters.

It looks real freaky at first but then you get used to it.

It's not entirely pretty but it works.

The Space Angel Scott McCloud had a ship called "Stardust" and a decent crew. The stories are pretty well done , and the cartoon never gets boring, so I recommend it to any cartoon collectors who like quality.