Grumpy Frenchman

Remember that cartoon? 3 kids - Esteban the adopted Spaniard, Zia the Inca girl and Tao the descendant of Mu - go on a quest for cities made out entirely of gold throughout South and Central America in the 16th century. Cue evil conquistadores, bumbling adventurers, mysterious temples that are all fitted with self-destruct devices, solar powered ships and planes, and alien-looking bad guys. Oh, and not just one but two misplaced fathers.

Yeah, if you’ve never seen the series, that description ain’t gonna sound too great, but the truth is, it WAS. It was one of the best, most iconic cartoons of the 80s - not just something pretty different from many of the offerings of the time, with endearing characters and brillant music, but it even had a 5 minutes mini-documentary at the end of each episode on meso-American civilizations and cultures. Fun AND educational. When was the last time we saw that on TV, mmh?

Anyway. I was doing my monthly scramble for space on my hard drives and deleting the stuff I’ve backed-up on DVDs when I found the series. I watched it again over the course of last week - memory lane with Inca architecture. Yep, still fun! Desultory browsing afterwards led me to this great bit of news: they’re making a sequel! 3 seasons of 26 episodes, release in 2011. Yum! As Jean Chalopin, the original creator, is involved in it, I have great hopes for the quality of this new production.

But 2011 is a long way away…

Still. This is not what prompted this sudden return to my poor, forgotten blog. It was that silly brainburp I had at the end of the last episode. If you haven’t seen the series and plan to, stop reading now, here be spoilers:

Last episode, our three heroes have concluded their adventures in Maya country and have decided to go look for the other cities of gold, which are said to be scattered across the entire world. Their destination of choice: West, over the Pacific. They get onboard their solar-powered flying gold condor and soar up and away to happy music. The end.

And now, I can’t help but imagine the conversation that must have followed inside the condor’s cabin.

Esteban: Soooooo. This is a pretty big ocean, eh?

Zia: Oh yes! We can’t see land anymore.

Esteban: Nope.

Tao: I told you.

Esteban: You never said it was THAT big!

Tao: I didn’t KNOW it was that big. That’s what I said, I don’t know how big it is.

Esteban: Humph.

…

Zia: The sun is setting…

Tao: Yep.

Zia: And we still can’t see any land.

Tao: Nope.

Zia: And the condor only flies while the sun is out.

Esteban: Yeah…

Zia: So, when it sets, we’re going to land - except on water.

Tao: Yep.

…

Esteban: D’you think the great condor will float?

Tao: A 10 metres tall, 20 metres wide bird of solid gold? What do you think?

…

Esteban: We’re fucked, aren’t we?

Tao: Yep.

I know, it’s terrible. Sorry!