Wait.. how did this get by unnoticed thus far?
July 22, 2013 2:55 PM Subscribe
Apparently, since 2012 there has been new series of Mysterious Cities of Gold (previously) in production. Acting as a continuation, as opposed to a reboot. No English versions available, yet. French trailer. French opening.
Some of us woke up early just to watch those early morning Nickelodeon cartoons. Before Nick Jr. came around and ruined the party. Mysterious Cities Of Gold was always followed by Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea, so I had an hour of awesome adventure cartoons before I went to school.
posted by mediocre at 3:19 PM on July 22, 2013 [11 favorites]
posted by mediocre at 3:19 PM on July 22, 2013 [11 favorites]
Holy holy holy crap
posted by mani at 3:21 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by mani at 3:21 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
OMG... That theme music brings back so many memories... My brother and I would get up way too early for these Nickelodeon classics...
posted by PROD_TPSL at 3:42 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by PROD_TPSL at 3:42 PM on July 22, 2013
no way
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:43 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:43 PM on July 22, 2013
So where can I buy it? It says in one of the videos' comments that the first couple episodes have been out since November. I can't find them anywhere!
posted by ruthsarian at 3:54 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by ruthsarian at 3:54 PM on July 22, 2013
I used to hum the theme song all the time in college and no one ever knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the show. Somehow I missed that original post with the old episodes - looks like it'll be a Cities of Gold Marathon at my house this weekend!
posted by amelliferae at 3:55 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by amelliferae at 3:55 PM on July 22, 2013
It was missed because it was not a Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea revival.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:57 PM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:57 PM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]
I never watched the show, but I did play the hell out of "Seven Cities of Gold" around the same time it was originally broadcast.
I so just immediately jumped into the app store to see if someone has remade it for iOS. They haven't. Probably a good thing - I do need to get some work done this month...
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:02 PM on July 22, 2013
I so just immediately jumped into the app store to see if someone has remade it for iOS. They haven't. Probably a good thing - I do need to get some work done this month...
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:02 PM on July 22, 2013
Cool! I really liked this show as a kid but forgot the title for years and started to suspect I had made it up.
posted by brundlefly at 4:05 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by brundlefly at 4:05 PM on July 22, 2013
I am in agreeance, robocop is bleeding. Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea definitely has a more prominent place in the areas of the brain that regulate nostalgia levels. The reason I tagged this "secondgreatestcartoonthemesongever" was because the #1 slot is of course occupied by Spartakus.
Spartakus actually had a satisfying ending, however. So the only way to go about it would be to reboot it entirely, and frankly I don't trust anyone to do that. Spartakus, despite the occasionally overly cutesy elements (Bic and Bac's song every freaking episode) actually stands up to adult viewing. And of the three major traps for any work of sci-fi/fantasy to fall into as they come to their end, "Love was the answer all along!", "It's gods work, or something.", "It was all a dream and or simulation." Spartakus deftly avoided all of them, ending like all great sci-fi/fantasy works. A sensical close to the plot, whose end brings about philosophical introspection on the part of the viewer. I'd rather not see it screwed up.
posted by mediocre at 4:08 PM on July 22, 2013
Spartakus actually had a satisfying ending, however. So the only way to go about it would be to reboot it entirely, and frankly I don't trust anyone to do that. Spartakus, despite the occasionally overly cutesy elements (Bic and Bac's song every freaking episode) actually stands up to adult viewing. And of the three major traps for any work of sci-fi/fantasy to fall into as they come to their end, "Love was the answer all along!", "It's gods work, or something.", "It was all a dream and or simulation." Spartakus deftly avoided all of them, ending like all great sci-fi/fantasy works. A sensical close to the plot, whose end brings about philosophical introspection on the part of the viewer. I'd rather not see it screwed up.
posted by mediocre at 4:08 PM on July 22, 2013
The original series was loosely adapted from Scott O'Dell's novel, "The King's Fifth". There was, a few years ago (French Wikipedia says 2006), a different animated series produced by AK Video that followed the novel more closely. I watched it and was disappointed (as were many fans of the original).
This one has potential, and setting it in China seems a wonderful idea.
posted by pguertin at 4:24 PM on July 22, 2013
This one has potential, and setting it in China seems a wonderful idea.
posted by pguertin at 4:24 PM on July 22, 2013
oh shiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:30 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:30 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
Geh... this seems SO familiar to me, but somehow off. I vaguely remember a cartoon from the same era as Voltron, Gobots, the short-lived Dragon Warrior cartoon, and maybe a little bit before Ronin Warriors, but this somehow doesn't seem to be it?
Were there any other conquistador-themed cartoons back in the day? I was born in 1982, and it seems like this might have been around 1987 or 88?
I hate this feeling...
posted by GoingToShopping at 4:35 PM on July 22, 2013
Were there any other conquistador-themed cartoons back in the day? I was born in 1982, and it seems like this might have been around 1987 or 88?
I hate this feeling...
posted by GoingToShopping at 4:35 PM on July 22, 2013
Watched the clips in this post earlier, settled into some nice nostalgia, and then went and took a nap (after reading more SCP).
Had a dream where I went through a closet and came out the back, Narnia-style, into a big grassy enclosure where I kept the Golden Condor I had as a kid. I knew I was dreaming, but figured this was representative of the condor toy I actually DID have as a kid (except: no. because the toy I remember did not, in fact, ever exist). So I got in the condor and tested to see if it still worked, and it did! But the wings opening damaged my girlfriend's car, so I had to hop out and make sure it was okay. And then I had to do some other things around the house, and finally decided that, yes, I really SHOULD take it for a spin. So I go back to the field and then -- I can't find/figure out/remember how to get in the damned thing. I'm missing a gadget to make it kneel down. And then I woke up and was faced with the cold reality that 1) I do not have a goldpunk condor and 2) not even the toy I "remembered" was real.
The point of this story is that the goldpunk condor is my favorite thing, and that while it's super-silly I'm using "goldpunk" which I read from the previously thread.
posted by curious nu at 4:53 PM on July 22, 2013 [5 favorites]
Had a dream where I went through a closet and came out the back, Narnia-style, into a big grassy enclosure where I kept the Golden Condor I had as a kid. I knew I was dreaming, but figured this was representative of the condor toy I actually DID have as a kid (except: no. because the toy I remember did not, in fact, ever exist). So I got in the condor and tested to see if it still worked, and it did! But the wings opening damaged my girlfriend's car, so I had to hop out and make sure it was okay. And then I had to do some other things around the house, and finally decided that, yes, I really SHOULD take it for a spin. So I go back to the field and then -- I can't find/figure out/remember how to get in the damned thing. I'm missing a gadget to make it kneel down. And then I woke up and was faced with the cold reality that 1) I do not have a goldpunk condor and 2) not even the toy I "remembered" was real.
The point of this story is that the goldpunk condor is my favorite thing, and that while it's super-silly I'm using "goldpunk" which I read from the previously thread.
posted by curious nu at 4:53 PM on July 22, 2013 [5 favorites]
Since the original aired at 5am on Nickelodeon in the US, being unnoticed comes with the territory.
Really? I definitely watched this show as a kid (Along with Spartakus, of course) but I don't remember it being on so early in the morning. Does anyone else remember it as being part of the same block that had Belle and Sebastien, maybe in the afternoon?
posted by lunasol at 5:01 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
Really? I definitely watched this show as a kid (Along with Spartakus, of course) but I don't remember it being on so early in the morning. Does anyone else remember it as being part of the same block that had Belle and Sebastien, maybe in the afternoon?
posted by lunasol at 5:01 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
I now must confess that as a child, because of this show, I was certain that one of the 50 US States was named 'Eldorado'.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:22 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by leotrotsky at 5:22 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Really? I definitely watched this show as a kid (Along with Spartakus, of course) but I don't remember it being on so early in the morning.
Me too. I remember watching it, but I have absolutely no memory of that Spartakus show that was supposedly on right after it. I think it was on in the afternoon or late morning.
This would have been when they would have been playing Inspector Gadget and David the Gnome all the time.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 5:59 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Me too. I remember watching it, but I have absolutely no memory of that Spartakus show that was supposedly on right after it. I think it was on in the afternoon or late morning.
This would have been when they would have been playing Inspector Gadget and David the Gnome all the time.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 5:59 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I remember watching it in the afternoon, too, with Belle and Sebastien. I think Danger Mouse was on before that? It would've been summer and fall of 1988.
posted by Andrhia at 6:10 PM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Andrhia at 6:10 PM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]
Spartakus has been posted about on Metafilter before. (By me.)
posted by JHarris at 7:33 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by JHarris at 7:33 PM on July 22, 2013
Hmmm looking at this trailer and the wikipedia article, I think maybe my memories of this show are scrambled with another one. Was there a similar adventure show where a kid had a big white shaggy dog?
posted by rifflesby at 7:47 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by rifflesby at 7:47 PM on July 22, 2013
Was there a similar adventure show where a kid had a big white shaggy dog
That would be Belle & Sebastian.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:01 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
That would be Belle & Sebastian.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:01 PM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
I watched them fiercely when I was a kid, including the little documentary at the end about the place or historical inspiration for the setting. A few years ago I was given DVDs as a present and, to my great joy, found it to still be a very compelling story (and the soundtrack is great).
posted by tsuipen at 8:10 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by tsuipen at 8:10 PM on July 22, 2013
My god, they're using the original character designs and in a good way. This is excellent.
posted by Spatch at 8:13 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Spatch at 8:13 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
found it to still be a very compelling story
I think my only real problem with it nowadays is Anime Ending, which is when the show is kinda going along and then in the last 2-3 episodes all of a sudden there is a tonne of weird plot that shows up out of nowhere that gets crammed in.
posted by curious nu at 8:41 PM on July 22, 2013
I think my only real problem with it nowadays is Anime Ending, which is when the show is kinda going along and then in the last 2-3 episodes all of a sudden there is a tonne of weird plot that shows up out of nowhere that gets crammed in.
posted by curious nu at 8:41 PM on July 22, 2013
I always felt that the plot of the show and its rich implied backstory would make a phenomenal tabletop RPG setting.
posted by baconaut at 9:01 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by baconaut at 9:01 PM on July 22, 2013
THIS IS WHAT METAFILTER IS FOR!
THIS IS WHAT METAFILTER IS FOR!
posted by Poppa Bear at 7:10 AM on July 23, 2013
THIS IS WHAT METAFILTER IS FOR!
posted by Poppa Bear at 7:10 AM on July 23, 2013
@ amelliferae - There needs to be an actual Mysterious Cities of Gold Marathon*. The finishers' medals would outstanding.
* If this is ever a thing, someone page me because, seriously, how badly did everybody want one of those medallions when they were a kid?
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 8:29 AM on July 23, 2013
* If this is ever a thing, someone page me because, seriously, how badly did everybody want one of those medallions when they were a kid?
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 8:29 AM on July 23, 2013
z-ro:
blast myself
do bad on my own
help me please
posted by joelr at 12:29 PM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
blast myself
do bad on my own
help me please
posted by joelr at 12:29 PM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
« Older Chicken of the sea | Our Contemplation of the Cosmos Stirs Us Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by dr_dank at 3:07 PM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]