MASK
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | MASK The masks |
| Original title | MASK |
| Country of production | Canada , France , United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1985-1986 |
| length | 22 minutes |
| Episodes | 75 in 2 seasons |
| genre | Action series , science fiction |
| production | Susan Cavan, Denis Héroux |
| music | Shuki Levy |
| First broadcast | September 16, 1985 - November 28, 1986 on various channels |
| German-language first broadcast |
June 27, 1987 - August 29, 1987 on RTLplus |
MASK , also MASK or Die Masken , is an animated series by DiC Entertainment from 1985 and 1986, as well as a toy and radio play series of the same name. It is about the secret organization MASK ( Mobile Armored Strike Command ) under the leader Matt Trakker , which uses special masks and vehicles to fight the organization VENOM ( Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem ), which is led by Miles Mayhem .
action
There is no rough plot in itself in the MASK series. However, the constant duel between MASK and its archenemies from VENOM can be described as a common thread that runs through the entire series. MASK are the good guys, the heroes who use special vehicles and helmets to take action against the machinations of VENOM every time.
The series doesn't have a proper pilot to introduce it with. It begins as suddenly as it ends later and mainly follows the production and marketing of the toys that go with it. MASK is led by the multibillionaire Matt Trakker, who always keeps his identity hidden in order to protect himself, his people and especially his son from all dangers. His employees all have their own jobs and always interrupt their work abruptly when they are called to work. In the first episodes, the goals of their missions are in the greater area of their secret base Boulder Hill in the USA. Later on, their area of operation expanded to include the entire globe, without ever specifically addressing how long it was. In the case of greater distances, the people from MASK fly to the crisis area in a special transport aircraft. Trakker is usually already there by chance to donate, inaugurate or finance something. Sometimes he and his son Scott just go on vacation. VENOM, led by Miles Mayhem, usually has the same object in mind. In each episode, the agents fight each other with their vehicles, with a very special view of the capabilities of the cars and the helmets of the characters. In the end, VENOM always withdraws so that good wins.
The other recurring plot takes over Scott Trakker, who is always warned by his father to stay under cover and not to put himself in danger. However, the curiosity and the desire to finally be like dad is greater than the reason, which is embodied here by Scott's robot T-Bob. The constantly nagging, fearful T-Bob tries to prove Scott wrong, but is unsuccessful. In every episode, Scott plays a detective himself and accidentally discovers the clue that MASK needs to stop VENOM.
A running gag is T-Bob's fear that something might happen to him. Scott always has to remind him that he is a robot and that he cannot injure himself or get sunburned. And it's always T-Bob who's in charge of getting the bad guys' attention to himself and Scott. In between there are a few episodes in which Mayhem goes after mythical and fabled objects: magical sceptres, ufos and baby dinosaurs are some of those things. Above all, these are things that have nothing to do with Trakkers' company and can always be found where the Trakkers go on vacation. Mayhem always seeks to get rich because he believes that will make him powerful. To achieve this goal, he is not too good for anything. Very often he tries to blackmail others for larger sums, always with the ulterior motive of using the death machines anyway, even if he is paid to teach the world a lesson.
A fundamental change takes place from the last season. MASK no longer operated as an anti-terrorist organization. Trakker and his people participated in racing tournaments that were held around the world and always served a good cause. Of course, VENOM was there too, but not to steal anything or kidnap anyone. Mayhem showed up less. Rather, his employees were present. They weren't primarily interested in winning the respective race, they just wanted to get revenge and make MASK look bad. This also reveals an incoherence in the series, as Matt Trakker declares after the first of the racing episodes that he is ready to found an organization with his friends to fight VENOM, but had already done so in the previous episodes. Also, the entire history of the mutual beginnings of Trakker and Mayhem and Mayhem's later betrayal in the series is not discussed, but only briefly touched on. This information is contained in the short comics that come with the toys.
prehistory
A worldwide group called AFN (Alliance of Friendly Nations) creates a secret organization to fight terror in the world. Miles Mayhem and billionaire Matt Trakker are hired to set up and run the MASK organization. Trakker develops a number of different special vehicles and special helmets with special skills for the team. Finally, after many months, the team of agents who should belong to the MASK has been determined, including Trakker's brother Joe. A year later, MASK has its first serious mission: to find a stolen computer that is hidden in the Sahara. Mayhem sends Trakker and his team into action, but when he arrives at the coordinates, the MASK agents fall into a trap Mayhem set them. All agents are killed, including Joe Trakker. The only survivor is Matt Trakker.
Meanwhile, Mayhem has built his very own fleet of vehicles with the help of Trakker's plans and launched his organization called VENOM. With his new team of villains, he raids gold and money deposits like Fort Knox in order to become more powerful through financial strength and to rule the world. However, Mayhem doesn't want Trakker to survive. Trakker reforms the MASK team and tries to stop Mayhem and VENOM from then on.
Production and publication
The series was produced in 1985 by DiC Entertainment and ICC TV Productions in order to better market the toy series developed jointly by Kenner and Parker Brothers . Ashi Pro, C&D Asia and Studio World were involved in the animations, directed by Bruno Bianchi, Bernard Deyriès and Michael Maliani. The scripts were written by Jina Bacaar and Jeffrey Scott, the production was directed by William R. Kowalchuk Jr. , and the music was composed by Shuki Levy.
The series was broadcast from September 16, 1985 to November 28, 1986 by several stations in the United States. It has been translated into French and Polish, among others. A German version was shown on RTL plus from June 27, 1987 to August 29, 1987. The German episodes appeared on DVD, published by WVG Medien GmbH. KSM GmbH has been selling all 75 episodes in a complete DVD box since 2011 and on a Blu-ray disc since 2013.
synchronization
| role | English speaker | German speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Miles Mayhem | Brendan McKane |
Norbert Gastell (1st voice) Manfred Erdmann (2nd voice) |
| Cliff Dagger | Mark Halloran | Manfred Erdmann (1st voice) Gernot Duda (2nd voice) |
| T-bob | Graeme McKenna | Michael Rüth |
| Matt Trakker | Doug Stone | Arnim André-Rohleder |
| MASK computer | Sharon Noble | Madeleine proud |
| Scott Trakker | Brennan Thicke |
Florian Halm (1st voice) Hubertus von Lerchenfeld (2nd voice) |
| Alex Sector | Brendan McKane | |
| Dusty Hayes | Doug Stone | |
| Brad Turner | Graeme McKenna |
Christoph Lindert (1st voice) Crock Krumbiegel (2nd voice) |
| Hondo McLean | Doug Stone | Gudo Hoegel |
| Buddy Hawks | Mark Halloran |
Achim Geisler (1st voice) Gudo Hoegel (2nd voice) |
| Gloria Baker | Sharon Noble | Bettina Kenter |
| Jaques LaFleur | Brendan McKane | Tobias Lelle |
| Ace Riker | Mark Halloran | |
| Julio Lopez | Graeme McKenna | Michael Rüth |
| Calhoun Burns | Graeme McKenna | Willi Roebke |
| Boris Bushkin | Doug Stone | |
| Nevada Rushmore | Doug Stone | Tonio von der Meden |
| Ali Bombay | Brian George | Ulf-Jürgen Wagner |
| Sly Rax | Mark Halloran |
Walter von Hauff (1st voice) Achim Geisler (2nd voice) |
| Vanessa Warfield | Sharon Noble | Madeleine Stolze (1st voice) Michaela Amler (2nd voice) |
| Bruno Sheppard | Doug Stone | |
| Floyd Malloy | Brendan McKane | Michael Christian |
| Nash Gorey | Doug Stone | |
| Lester Sludge | Brian George | |
| Maximus Mayhem | Brendan McKane | Alexander Allerson |
Adaptations
toy
Various characters and vehicles were brought onto the market in parallel to the series in cooperation with Kenner and Parker Brothers .
comics
In 1985 Kenner Parker Toys released the first short comics for the television series. This was followed in 1986 and 1987 by four mini-comics, a nine-part series and two other issues at DC Comics . A number of MASK comics were published in German by the Bastei publishing house .
Radio plays
From 1987, under the license of Kenner Parker Toys, a radio play series produced by Polyband Medien GmbH in the same year, consisting of 13 episodes, appeared.
However, these episodes did not represent new and independent stories, but simply consisted of the soundtrack of the TV synchronization in which you only inserted a narrator.
Individual evidence
- ↑ fernsehserien.de broadcast date chronicle
- ↑ German synchronous files
Web links
- MASK in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- fernsehserien.de about the series