Pirates of Dark Water is available on DVD!
It's a made-to-order 4-DVD set with episodes 1-21. Currently it's only available in the US.
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Firstly, those of you who’ve been regular visitors know that I rarely ask you guys for anything, and I have never solicited monetary donations (and have no intention of doing so).
If you have not yet purchased the DVD set but have plans to, or if you know anyone planning to, could you (or they) please use this link to do so? (It’s the same as the large link to the upper-right of the main page.)
I just signed up to be an affiliate of WBshop.com. What this means is that if you use the link above to make a purchase (a special one tied directly to me), I’ll get a few dollars as a referral fee.
If you could do this for me, I would be really grateful. :) This is my first-ever attempt at monetizing any aspect of the site. I’ve also considered Google AdSense (and still want to look into it when I have time)…ways I can make a bit of side money without imposing on any of you would be fantastic.
Thanks so much!
The news is definitely making the rounds, and a lot of the major animation/SF/geek news outlets have picked it up. ToonZone, Geekosystem, Topless Robot, and Superheroes-R-Us all have mentioned the DVD release.
By the way, clarification on the price change from $19.95 to $29.95: WBshop.com told TVshowsonDVD.com that it was an error on their part to post the price as $19.95, and they apologize for that. They’ll obviously honor the price for people who ordered the DVDs before it was updated, though.
I also have updated the FAQ, and removed the torrent and streaming links from the right-hand column, in light of this official release. For people not in the US…try Google. That’s all I’ll say. ;) With any luck, there will be an international release in the near future!
A couple of bigger mentions that are cool to call out:
Yahoo! Kids actually has a trailer for the show (a.k.a. the last couple of minutes of episode 1).
Wired’s “Underwire”* blog has a contest to win two free copies of the DVD set if you can write a compelling post about the show. I actually was on the fence about entering (since anyone who’s looked around this site can guess that I can write a fair amount about the show and its background), but I took some time to ask around and my friends were unanimous in saying I should go for it. So…yeah. :) (Three guesses which comment is mine, ha! By the way, my screen name is meant to be read as “Smitha KP”–my first name and middle/last initials–not “Smith AKP.”)
One thing, though–labeling the series as “mostly unknown” is erroneous. I know I’m biased, obviously, and that it has nothing on, say, The Flintstones or Hanna-Barbera’s other shows. But it played on ABC, it played on Fox, it played in countries around the world–the 30,000 visits this site receives annually from 80+ countries definitely point to it being far from unknown. Still, it’s not like we truly have a solid fan base or “fandom” (if the latter is the mark of a popular show), but there are fans everywhere.
* really? I can’t be the only one to see that and think of a bra. Ladies? Anyone?
In other news, a couple of things…
- I’ve seen a couple of rather indignant comments over this DVD release, saying that people should boycott the DVDs because they’re so hastily made with no remastering or special care. Some people have even said that the money spent on developing the DVD should have gone to develop a continuation of the series instead. What do you all think about that? How do you feel about this DVD release?
- I just stumbled across this TVGuide article from 1991 about the Dark Water miniseries…and it changes some of my notions of how the end of the show was to play out. David Kirschner had originally only planned for 13 extra episodes after the miniseries. From that, it seems like they would have found a new treasure in each episode. Obviously the actual show did not play out in such a pat way. I do like that it didn’t just wrap up so quickly and it gave the characters a chance to grow and be fleshed out. But knowing more about the production side of things, the decision-making and negotiations that dictated how the show played out…that would be incredibly insightful and valuable to know.
This is courtesy of TVshowsonDVD.com (and the ever-vigilant Nathan).
If you’d like to cut to the chase and pre-order, go right ahead!
A few basic points:
1. This is the Frank Welker PoDW version, not the original Dark Water episodes with Roddy McDowall voicing Niddler.
2. This includes episodes 1-21. There are no extras on these discs.
3. On the Warner Shop website is this note: “This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD and Digital Download release.”
4. You can check out the DVD cover art on the TVshowsonDVD link as well.
5. In the US, the DVD set with basic shipping and sales tax is $26.40. That’s just over $1/episode–a real steal! Very odd…the price is now at $29.95. Not sure if it was a mistake before or if they’re taking advantage of fan demand…
Here’s the scoop:
You’ve heard the chatter here and there on the net for a few weeks now, but this morning TVShowsOnDVD is pleased to confirm that Warner Brothers is relasing Pirates of Darkwater – The Complete Series on DVD next Tuesday, August 31st. Cost is $19.95 for a 4-disc set, which runs 462 minutes long for all 21 episodes of the show’s run in the early ’90s.
Fans might remember that the first five episodes of the program originated as a five-part mini-series, and that Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes, Tales of the Gold Monkey) played the voice of “Niddler” in that version. When the program made the move to a regular series, however, those five installments were reconstructed with the voice of Niddler now being provided by Frank Welker (“Megatron” of the original Transformers, “Freddy” and “Scooby” on the various Scooby-Doo programs). One of our readers, Nate, asked us if we could find out which version of those episodes would be included on the DVD set. We did ask, and Warner tells us that the Frank Welker version of Niddler will be found on this release.
Pirates of Darkwater – The Complete Series will not be available in local stores, but instead is found exclusively at Warner’s online outlet, The WB Shop (WBshop.com), and is available to pre-order right now (when you land at the site, just use the “search” field in the upper right and start typing in “Pirates”; it will auto-fill in with the title for you to click on). You can pre-order your copy this minute, and it will ship out beginning next Tuesday. Note that this is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) title, and as such it’s not able to ship outside of the USA. At the bottom of this report you’ll find a high- resolution 3D picture of the package art, provided to us exclusively by the studio. We’re grateful that they’ve also provided us with an exclusive online clip from the show, which you’ll see if you scroll down a little bit.
What a weekend for me to be out of town…I’m not sure how else to spread the word about this beyond Facebook, Twitter, and this site, so PLEASE, SPREAD THE WORD! Let fans everywhere hear about this!
SPREAD THE WORD!
The Warner Bros. Archive Twitter account–which reports on DVD releases of movies, TV shows, and short films–has posted the following:
@ryangallagher We got TV animation: Pirates of Dark Water 8/31 + Thundarr the Barbarian + Josie & the Pussycats in Outer Space in late sept
(source)
Ryan’s original tweet was requesting more WB animated films from the archive.
More updates to come, hopefully!
[Edit #1, 6:45 AM] @warnerarchive has confirmed it: the series is coming out on DVD on August 31st.
@samosamancer Argh! 8/31/10 – The Pirates of Dark Water – the series, will be released on the Warner Archive.
(The “Argh!” is in response to my own tweet, which reads, “AAAAHH! Thousands of fans have been asking for a Pirates of Dark Water DVD release for almost a decade, and I think it’s actually happening!”)
There is no news about it anywhere else online, though, not even on their own website (yet?). I’m obviously getting excited about this–it’s a very concrete lead, the most concrete we’ve had since the mid-90s–but we should wait till we have some other confirmation as well.
[Edit #2, 6:00 PM] The DVDs will consist of episodes 1-21, with no extras. Pre-ordering will begin later this week.
As the title says. :) I scanned in another ~25 tonight, and they’re now online (including a replacement scan for #2, which somehow was tilted really badly before). Enjoy!
I’m now committed to finishing these ASAP. Seriously, please do e-mail me and nag me if I don’t get the rest up in the next couple of weeks. And as always, my sincerest apologies for taking SO MANY YEARS to scan these.
EDIT (12 August 2010, 12:45AM): Pages 51-60 are up (out of 105 total).
It seems that my last post has ruffled some feathers and ticked some people off. Please know that I don’t “pick these fights” (not what I set out to do) or “play the race card” (not what I am doing, but some would beg to differ) needlessly. In all my years of running the site, I have never brought these issues up (except to occasionally marvel about how cool it was that PoDW featured such a diverse cast–none of the main characters are light-skinned, something that was very rare in American animation).
Avatar: The Last Airbender is rooted in Asian cultures, with fantasy elements interlaced. This was the creators’ intent, to tell a story that is set in a pan-Asian world. The various cultures are not purely cosmetic; they have a very real impact both on the behavior and thoughts/motivations of the individual characters, as well as the nations they hail from. The industrial practices, value systems, and politics in play are actually references to real aspects of Asian history, and a number of the side characters are based on historic Asian figures as well.
Really, there is nothing about the show that ISN’T Asian. I wrote about it at length in a comment on the previous post–if you’re so inclined, please do check that out.
Please understand: I didn’t post any of this to pick a fight, and I’m not just “being PC”: Avatar: The Last Airbender set out to be a celebration of Asian cultures, something that isn’t seen often in the west, and it has resonated with people of all backgrounds all over the world as a result of that. What resulted with the casting of the Last Airbender film is a real, systematic issue in terms of Hollywood’s casting decisions and general attitudes towards Asians (whether east or south). It isn’t racist to be aware of people marginalizing other races; we unfortunately do not live in a post-racial society (as a brown-skinned south Asian, I definitely have had occasional encounters and experiences that will affirm that sad reality), and we can’t afford to be “color-blind” when this marginalization is still going on. I just want to explain why we feel this way, to help people understand that we are indeed sincere and justified in our conviction that this is wrong.
If you have any other questions or comments, please e-mail me so we can continue to discuss this. I mean this very earnestly and I only have the most positive of intentions: this is a point of discussion and dialogue that’s important to have, and I’d be very happy to talk about this with you.
Thanks. :)
Some of you may remember a rant or two I’ve posted in the past about the whitewashing of the forthcoming film adaptation of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
Well, it’s finally almost here.
So here is my plea to you, as an Indian-American and a huge fan of the original show: if you want to watch it, don’t watch it in theaters. (Take that to mean what you will.) Please don’t support this film financially, because that will signal to Hollywood that it’s okay to engage in racist and discriminatory casting.
If you missed my rant and all the talk of racebending, here it is in a nutshell:
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a wildly popular and critically acclaimed animated series. Its creators wanted to explore Asian tales and myths instead of the typical western ones. Everything about the show–the characters (clearly Inuit and Tibetan and east Asian), their names, their clothing, the architecture, the writing, the bending styles (based on distinct forms of martial arts), the governmental and political systems, the other major and minor artifacts throughout–is based off Asian culture and religion and mythology. Not only that, but they took great pains to make sure they were faithful depictions, and not in the last bit stereotypical, employing cultural and martial arts consultants and a traditional Chinese calligrapher.
M. Night Shyamalan’s film adaptation, though, involves a cast of white protagonists and dark-skinned minority antagonists (Indian, Iranian, Maori). The casting call asked for actors who were “Caucasian or any ethnicity,” so this really wasn’t them casting whoever they thought was right for the parts–they went straight for white actors.
This is wrong for several reasons:
- Part of the show’s success was rooted in its diversity and ethnic richness, something that’s quite rare in western media and something that resonated with millions of viewers of all backgrounds and ages. These casting decisions demonstrate a total lack of awareness of what was so significant about the show.
- It is well documented that Asians very rarely are the primary characters in American movies and TV shows. This would have been a prime chance to highlight talented Asian actors.
- Hollywood is perpetuating the ridiculous notion that Asians can’t carry major films and can’t draw in the same money that white actors can.
- There is no ambiguity in the characters’ ethnicities, as many try to argue: every single other facet of the Avatar universe is Asian, so it follows that the characters are meant to be Asian as well.
- It’s not reverse racism to want Asians to play these roles: it’s a cry against institutionalized racial discrimination and whitewashing in Hollywood, which has occurred in a number of other movies historically and recently (Prince of Persia, Dragonball, 21). Racist depictions are nothing new, either (Sex and the City 2 and its really horrible depiction of the Middle East). Jacksone Rathbone, the actor playing Sokka, was quoted as saying that he needs to “shave his head and get a tan” in order to play the part. (“Get a tan?” Are you kidding me?)
- How on earth can an Indian-American director allow for such racist casting, and then claim that he isn’t being racist? What a slap in the face that is.
Think about this, too: one of the things that made Pirates of Dark Water so unique was the diversity of its cast. Ren, Tula, and Ioz–none of them are white! Tons of fans have noticed that, too, and commented on it in a very approving way over the years. Conceptual artist Floro Dery did state that he based Tula’s character design heavily off Middle Eastern influences, and you can see similar influence in Ren and Ioz’s character designs.
So, yeah…that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ve ranted about this so many times to so many people that I occasionally forget some of my speaking points because I thought I hit them already, haha. Please do steer clear of seeing this film, or at least don’t go see it in theaters. The show deserves a much better adaptation than this, and Asians have been jerked around by Hollywood more than enough already.
FREAKING WORDPRESS. AUGH. Please pardon me as I sort out where the index page’s layout went.
[Edit #1] This will teach me. BACK UP YOUR FILES. I have a copy of the WordPress files dating back to 2007…man. Let’s see what happens.
[Edit #2] Very weird…my WordPress theme folder was untouched, but for some reason it started pointing to the default. So I just uploaded my PoDW theme into the default folder, and we seem to be back. Extra motivation for redesigning the site, in case there are any bugs…do let me know if anything looks off, though. It should just be limited to the index/blog section.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has had one somewhat amusing side effect: a number of Pirates of Dark Water references are showing up on Twitter.
@callingshotgun Was early 90s cartoon “Pirates of Dark Water” environmental propoganda like “Captain Planet”, but more subtle? BP fiasco makes me wonder.
@OddKnowledge if only solving the BP oil spill was simple as finding 13 treasures like on Pirates of Dark Water http://bit.ly/cRlXL2
FYI, the link is safe; it goes to the opening of the show on YouTube.
KeatonThomas The cartoon The Pirates of Dark Water was actually a misinterpreted political warning about off shore drilling…. #thedarkwaterisreal
Love the hashtag.
MagnusApollo “the Pirates of Dark water” who knew that that old cartoon would have been so prophetic. Find those crystals people.
More prophetic than we realized, since they DID try using a gem to cap the leak, in the form of a diamond saw…yeah, kind of stretching, I know.
greekgodspeed BP + Oil Spill = The Pirates of Dark Water.
theconq19 Who would’ve thought Pirates of Dark Water would turn out to be a documentary?
And so on.
(This is not meant in any way to trivialize this devastating tragedy. BP’s attempts and failures and pathetic excuses make me sad and furious all at once–sad for the loss of both human and animal/marine life and the horrible devastation of the local ecosystems (there’s a real ripple effect in play, too, affecting much more than just that), and furious with BP for letting this happen to begin with.)
Anyway, moving on.
Something else posted to Twitter: there’s a section for PoDW at Behind the Voice Actors. It’s a breakdown, with photos, of the voice actors for the main and recurring characters.
Also, in response to a request I’ve gotten several times, I pulled together a video clip of the ending credits of episodes 1-5. They’re from the Japanese VHS releases, so they have the Dark Water opening and the HB “swirl” has been replaced with a couple of screens of Japanese credits.
Next up: more RPG character page scans. I SWEAR.
Hi, everyone! I hope you had a good May!
A couple of things related to the Sega Genesis game…
How do you find the other half of Ren’s sword in the Sunken Bridge level? I can’t remember if I asked you all about this some time ago or not, but I actually have never been able to find it. Zack inquired about it recently, which reminded me of it. (I mean beyond the DSILLER password you can input at the beginning–there’s supposed to be a way to find it within the Sunken Bridge level.)
And a little hidden trick/bug within the Pandawa Jungle: check it out. I had found one of these but not the other. I’m still not sure if it’s a bug or truly a set of hidden ladders. (Mad props to the person, though, both for posting it and for also choosing Tula for that board! I play Tula on as many boards in the Sega game as possible, but switch to Ren or Ioz for certain boards that call for a different balance of strength and speed.)
In other news, Jay/Dr. J passed on a link to The Redwood Connection, a nostalgia/toy-archive project he and his friends are working on, with a section focusing on the PoDW action figure line. It’s fun, and the site in general brings back memories of the random plays and stuff my friends and I would put on as kids. I miss that unbridled creativity.
And Dakota has passed on a link to the wikia.com section for PoDW, a wiki that can actually get as in-depth with its content as its users/contributors want it to (unlike Wikipedia, which has a set of standards for the kinds of things it displays on its main page, what gets broken off into sub-categories, etc.). Feel free to add away!
A few other folks have e-mailed requesting for the extra character pages in the RPG set–I am truly sorry I haven’t gotten on that, but I SWEAR I will soon. (Yeah, yeah, likely story…but I really mean it this time!)
Also, that paper-turned-letter that I wrote for my writing seminar, arguing for PoDW’s release on DVD, got full marks. I’m pretty thrilled about that–the prof thought I made a compelling argument, and actually said, “If anyone can get them to bring this pirate show back, it’s you!” Awwww. :) I’ll post it sometime soon if anybody’s actually interested.