As a girl, I will admit that sometimes, certain cartoons just don’t sit well with me, though I love most cartoons in general. Give me The Smurfs, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Heathcliff any day. Cartoons have always been one of my favorite things to watch on television, but I often find myself clashing with the boys in the house over what makes a good cartoon. Usually, that comes into play when we are discussing superheroes. I, think most superheroes are slightly lame.

Come on, they wear tights, masks, and just look like really bad fetish activists with powers. Sure, you have your Batman’s which were cool, but those days are few and far between anymore. However, it was with an open mind that I attempted to watch Birdman.

If you are like me prior to receiving this DVD and don’t know anything about Birdman this is how it goes. The real Birdman is Ray Randall. Randall/Birdman impresses Ra (the Sun God) and ends up receiving the ability to shoot solar energy rays from his hands. He can also create solar energy force fields around himself, which keep him safe from harm. He also has gigantic wings to allow him to fly. Together, Birdman and his purple eagle (Avenger) work for a secret part of the government as crime fighters. Birdman’s weakness (all super heroes have one) is that his power is solar. This means he occasionally needs to recharge. That’s about all there is when it comes to Birdman.

Birdman receives help from his friends at times, too. In this case, his friend is Falcon 7, who is the man in the office (think Charlie). There is also Birdboy and in later episodes Birdgirl surfaces, as well. The Galaxy Trio comes in a little later, in between episodes of Birdman that run for 8 minutes at a time. We couldn’t forget the Galaxy Trio. After all, this is Birdman & the Galaxy Trio. The Trio consists of Gravity Girl, Meteor Man, and Vapor Man.

Originally released in the late 60’s Birdman actually had some really good people working behind the scenes. Scooby Doo’s own Don Messick and Ted Cassidy who worked as Lurch on The Addams Family are just two popular names that you might recognize. Dick Beals of The Jetsons even had a part in this cartoon as Birdboy.

Despite all of the good names and potential talent, Birdman is repetitive, annoying, and when watching him you cannot help but wish that his solar ray would backfire and hit him in the eye, causing him to die so that he will shut up. It’s almost hard to say that because Hanna Barbera has put out some of the best cartoons of all time. This, however, was nowhere near any of them.

The quality of the DVD wasn’t bad considering the transfer and the sound was fine. You might notice some grainy spots here and there, but there was really no problem with the quality of the picture. The sound also had some weak moments, but it also held up well with age. The main special feature on the DVD was entitled “Birdman: The Forgotten Hero”.

In the end, Birdman yells too much and is such a weakly annoying super hero that I sit here, shocked that he managed to last the 20 episodes that he did.

Birdman and the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series was released on 7/17/07 from Warner Bros. Home Video. To watch the trailer: Click Here.

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