Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The Lone Ranger vs. The Ghost Riders (1966)

Format Films' adaptation of The Lone Ranger didn't have the best animation, though some of the writers and artists also worked for some of the other studios around the same time. Sketch artist Sherman Labby, for example, is more closely associated with Filmation.

You'll forgive the fact that the voice tracks are a wee bit off in this episode, "The Ghost Riders". The poster included the open, narrated by Marvin Miller, and most of the closing credits, which strangely cut off as the music continues to play. I digress. In "The Ghost Riders", the Ranger (Michael Rye) and Tonto expose one of the oldest scams known to man, as outlaws pose as ghosts to commit robberies and murders. Some might say that it's unfortunate that this scam became somewhat trivialized as it was the common, overused gimmick on Scooby-Doo when that series launched 3 years later.



Today, this same story would be lengthened to expand the plot, making it more challenging to find the crooks.

Rating: B.

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