Conan the Adventurer

Conan the Adventurer


     This may very well be one of the most overlooked and underrated cartoon series of the 1990s.  Based upon the Conan the Barbarian comic series, the show chronicles the adventures of a young and sometimes naive Conan, long before he becomes Conan the King.
     The premise of the show revolves around the possession of "star metal" and its ability to hold magical power.  Conan's father is a blacksmith and uses a fallen meteorite to create mythical weapons.  At the same time, the world is being infiltrated by evil serpent men hiding in plain site under the guise of humanity.  In addition to being able to contain magical energy, star metal also has the uncanny ability of exposing the true visage of snake men and ultimately banishing them to the abyss.  The abyss is a Hades-like region where there leader the evil God Set, a huge venomous serpent, was banished nearly a millenia ago by the good wizards of the realms.
    In order to return their banished ruler to Earth, Wrath-Amon an evil serpent man wizard must gather up enough star metal to create a series of star metal rings.  These will be set atop various temples in order to create a portal for Set to return.  In his quest to gather up all the known star metal, Wrath-Amon encounters Conan's father.  When he refuses to give the evil wizard all of his star metal, Wrath-Amon turns Conan's mother, father and grandfather into living stone statues. Conan is away at the time and upon his return, discovers the curse placed upon his family.  It is then that he vows never to rest until all the serpent men have been banished to the abyss and to obtain Wrath-Amon's black ring of power, which he believes holds the magic to undo his family's curse of living stone.
    Along the way he meets, Needle a fledgling phoenix, Epimetrius the long-dead sage, Jasmin a circus athlete, Zulu a warrior prince who can control animals, Grey Wolf a Zanthus wizard, Slag a Viking, and Falconar who has a magical winged cape.  Together with his new friends, they experience many dungeons and dragons-type adventures.
     The stories are well written, character development is excellent, villains are believable, and mythology abounds from Egypt, Sumeria and China.  My only real gripe would be some of the corny humor and the annoying behaviors of Needles and Dregs, but it was meant to be a children's cartoon, so I can live with it.  We all tolerated Orko, Polly and Snarf.  By I digress a bit.  With nearly 90 episodes and three seasons, this cartoon needs to make its way into your hopper.  Many episodes are available on Youtube, including the epic Conan the Adventurer Movie.  If you love fantasy cartoons, monsters and adventure, then I highly recommend this series and give it a wholehearted two thumbs way up!!

Cheers!
Drakov