M.A.S.K. (TV series)

M.A.S.K.
Genre
Voices of Brendan McKane
Mark Halloran
Graeme McKenna
Doug Stone
Sharon Noble
Brennan Thicke
Brian George
Country of origin France
United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 75 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time 22 mins
Production company(s) DIC Entertainment
Kenner
Distributor LBS Communications
Release
Original network Syndication
Original release September 30, 1985 – November 26, 1986
Chronology
Related shows Vor-Tech
A.T.O.M.

M.A.S.K. (an acronym for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) is an animated television series produced by the French-American DIC Enterprises, Inc and Kenner Products. The series was based on the M.A.S.K. action figures.[2] It was animated in Japan by studios; KK DiC Asia (later known as KK C&D Asia), Studio Juno, Studio World, and Ashi Production.

Overview

M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) is a special task force led by Matt Trakker, who operate transforming armored vehicles in their ongoing battle against the criminal organization V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem) with an emphasis on superpowered masks worn by the characters of both factions.[3] V.E.N.O.M.'s primary goal was obtaining money through either robbery, extortion, counterfeiting, and kidnapping, or attempting to steal historical artifacts.

Cast

  • Doug Stone — Matt Trakker, Hondo MacLean, Dusty Hayes, Bruce Sato, Nash Gorey, Bruno Sheppard, Boris Bushkin, Maximus Mayhem
  • Brendan McKane — Miles Mayhem, Alex Sector, Floyd Malloy, Jacques LaFleur, Nevada Rushmore
  • Graeme McKenna — T-Bob, Brad Turner, Julio Lopez, Calhoun Burns
  • Mark Halloran — Sly Rax, Buddy Hawks, Cliff Dagger, Ace Riker, Duane Kennedy
  • Sharon Noble — M.A.S.K. Computer, Gloria Baker, Vanessa Warfield, Professor Stevens
  • Brian George — Lester Sludge, Ali Bombay
  • Brennan Thicke — Scott Trakker

Episodes

A total of 75 syndicated episodes over two seasons were broadcast from September 1985 to November 1986. The first season consisted of 65 episodes, but the second season, whose theme centered around auto racing instead of crimefighting, lasted only ten episodes.

Production

One of many cartoons produced during the 1980s as a vehicle for toy merchandising, M.A.S.K., was a hybrid of popular era cartoons G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and The Transformers. When originally broadcast, M.A.S.K. was the first closed-captioned series to air in first-run syndication.[4]

Home video

Several episodes of the series were released under Karl-Lorimar's "Kideo Video" branding on VHS in the 1980s, with two episodes per tape. The "racing" second season was distributed by Tempest Video. Several episodes were edited together into feature-length shows and released under the titles M.A.S.K The Movie, and M.A.S.K The Movie II.

M.A.S.K. episodes have been released on DVD in three different regions.

  • USA: Shout! Factory acquired the Region 1 DVD rights and released a "Complete Series" set on August 9, 2011[5] containing only the episodes from the first season of the original series (65 episodes), as well as a separate 2-Disc collection of the first 11 episodes, called "Volume 1" and released the same day.[6] The second season, which consists of 10 episodes, are owned by Cookie Jar Entertainment and are not part of the acquisition.[7]
  • UK: Collection 1 was released in the UK in November 2007 by Jetix Films - Maximum Entertainment, containing the same amount of episodes as the Australian set. Collection 1 was re-released on 31 August 2009, and Collection 2 was finally released on 28 September 2009. Both sets (The re-issue Collection 1 and Collection 2) are distributed through Lace DVD, replacing Maximum Entertainment, and both sets are in Region 2 PAL format. All 75 episodes were released across both sets.
  • Australia and New Zealand: Madman Entertainment released the complete series over two DVD collections for the first time in Australia and New Zealand. Collection 1 was released in November 2006 and contains episodes 1 - 38, Collection 2 was released in March 2007 and contains episodes 39 - 75 which includes the season 2 episodes.[8]

Reception

IGN voted M.A.S.K. the 99th-best animated series in 2009, calling it one of the most popular cartoon/toy marketing franchises of the 1980s, stating that it took many of the strengths of G.I. Joe and Transformers while taking few of their flaws.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Reddish, David (1 September 2016). "15 Animated Superhero TV Shows You Completely Forgot about". Screen Rant. Screen Rant. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  2. ↑ "Battle of the Fun Factories". Time. 1985-12-16. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  3. ↑ "MASK.: The Complete Series : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2013-08-19.
  4. ↑ Engelhardt, Tom (1986). "Children's Television: The Shortcake Strategy". In Gitlin, Todd. Watching Television: A Pantheon Guide to Popular Culture. Pantheon Books (Random House). p. 94. ISBN 0-394-74651-1.
  5. ↑ "MASK - The Complete Series". TV Shows on DVD. 9 August 2011. Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  6. ↑ "MASK - Volume 1". TV Shows on DVD. 9 August 2011. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  7. ↑ "''M.A.S.K.'' DVD news: DVD Plans for ''M.A.S.K.''". Tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "M.A.S.K. Collection 2 (Mask)". Madman.com.au. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  9. ↑ "99, M.A.S.K." IGN. 23 January 2009. Archived from the original on 19 January 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
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