Birdman (1967–1987) User Reviews

Look! Up In The Sky!.....

[strong-122-478885 · 6/10 · 31 March 2018]

Up until a few weeks ago - I had never, ever heard of such cartoon superheroes as Birdman and The Galaxy Trio (featuring Vapor Man, Meteor Man, and Gravity Girl) even though their actual incarnation goes all the way back to 1967.

I guess my unfamiliarity with these particular crime-fighting crusaders has to do with the fact that they are not a part of the snobbishly elite "Marvel Comics" set and, so, they have not been given their due attention and much-deserved respect.

Anyway - Birdman and his fellow superheroes were originally created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (who are also credited for the creation of The Flintstones and The Jetsons).

Now, I would never say that these Birdman cartoons were fantastic - But - IMO - (Considering that they are now 50+ years old) - These pre-CG, animated shorts are just as entertaining and exciting as are any Marvel cartoons that were being aired back in those days. Yep. They sure are.

The Origin of Super-Heroes

[afonsobritofalves · 7/10 · 12 September 2018]

One of the first and one of Super-Heroe's best series. Full of action and many other things that just happened in the 60's. Only the animation is so good.

Not bad at all!

[jamm2005us · 7/10 · 30 September 2012]

To all the people who gave a bad review, let me remind you that this is a a cartoon for kids, for God's sake! That's why I enjoyed it when I was a kid. It never was one of my favorites, but you must know at that time there were many kids' fantasies, that were so different from today's, that you get them out of the context, which is what I want you to keep in mind. I mean I advise you to see these episodes not with your adult mind, but with a kid's heart!

That said, I must confess that I was kind of expecting every Thursday afternoon when Birdman was scheduled. Specially when BirdBoy appeared. As a matter of fact, even when kid, I knew this was not a special cartoon, but nevertheless, I was expecting it!

Would have been fine if they left off Galaxy Trio

[raysond · 25 April 2002]

I remember this show vividity as a teenager during the late 1970's as part of Hanna-Barbera's FANTASTIC WORLD OF ADVENTURE! But as for the Birdman bit,it was hokey,but sometimes stupid in some parts. Birdman and Avenger(his pet eagle with superpowers) would take on evil doers and monsters,and when our hero was in a situation he would go right up into the sun to recharge his energy and then comes back with his sun shield in hand ready for action!!!!!

But it wasn't always the case................. One episode in particular was with Birdman taking on his arch nemesis THE SCORPION leaving him in situation where he cannot get out to the sun to restore his powers leaving him and Avenger in a dangerous situation...... This was a three parter episode,where Birdman and Avenger fights to save the world from nuclear destruction(with special guest Hanna Barbera superhero of all people!) which left viewers to tuned in next week for the continuation of our story.

As far as THE GALAXY TRIO are concerned,I never like them since they ruined the effect of the show...................

HB's WORLD OF ADVENTURE was a full hour of non-stop animated action and breathtaking suspense all in one cartoon show!!! It came on every afternoon which featured Space Ghost,The Herculoids,Birdman,Mighthor, Buzz Conroy and Frankenstein Jr.,and Super Samson(which featured a teen that transforms into a ancient superhero,and has pet lion with laser eyes!..only in a cartoon).

Ahead of its time

[schimbare · 10/10 · 26 February 2018]

This cartoon had the great hanna barbera voices & sounds collection. Also the character design & the animation were very good aswell(I think Alex Toth worked on them). It is revolved around the power of science/technology, created/used by evil geniuses/terrorist organisations/underworld kingpins, who must be stopped by Birdman and his companions, Avenger and later on Bird Boy ( they always seem to add infant sidekicks characters to make the children audience get involved even more in the story as they will identify themselves with them). Bridman lives in a secretly high tech located volcano, where he gets messages from his secret services boss (falcon 7), through video conference ( he seems to be controlling some kind of computer for this & also some other few times when investigating stuff). The vilains are from a wide variety of worlds, from thiefs to mercenaries, aliens, robots, evil geniuses to evil organisations. The episodes runs in a fixed format, with Birdman working in it's volcano lair and suddendly getting a message about some weird event, behind which is suspected to be some evil. Birdman investigates, finds the source of the issue, usually gets in problem and somehow needs to be saved or get a lucky break, and finally finding a way to overcome his enemy. Sometimes,his enemies break away and don't get caught at all ( that happens quite often in fact).There are multiple enemies who return in more than 1 episodes, as a result. The episdoes are short (6-7-8 minutes) and they used to be run in pair with "The galaxy trio". An episode of "The galaxy trio' would be sandwiched between 2 episodes of birdman, that making it about 20-23 minutes segment.

Great show for the kids of the time, as it was so creative, so out of this world. Even now, it would be interesting for kids to see, if they like Hanna barbera cartoons- I think HB are the goat of cartoon franchises). Too bad Birdman didn't get more credit, as Batman/Superman/Spiderman did. He was unique, although Hanna Barbera did kind of reboot him in Blue Falcon & Harvey Birdman, attorney at law.

Both he/SpaceGhost were shutdown due to so called violence presented on screen. I disagree on that, I watched it when I was 4-5 and it didnt' had any negative effect on me. They fight scenes were not graphic at all.

My favorite Hanna Barbera Superhero!

[cablejunction · 10/10 · 11 November 2023]

There are many great action and comedy animated shows that were produced for television by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Birdman is my favorite among the superhero shows they produced. Along with Space Ghost, Thundarr The Barbarian, and The Herculoids, these shows were less about funny antics and more about action and fast paced stories. Space Ghost and Birdman are without a doubt the most iconic of these shows, however, if you love great Hanna-Barbera action then I'd highly recommend checking out The Herculoids and Thundarr. Anything produced by those two men are worth a watch in my opinion. I'm sure at least one or two shows or characters were apart of someone's childhood.

Not as good as I remembered.

[13Funbags · 2/10 · 10 May 2018]

I never saw The Galaxy Trio before but I saw Birdman on Cartoon Network a lot as a kid and it seemed a lot better then.Birdman lives in a volcano surrounded by other volcanoes and they imply this is in America. Mentok even knew where Birdman lived and it doesn't affect the show at all. There's a shocking amount of times that he is almost squashed by a shrinking room but even more times where he conveniently has a cage to hold the criminals. That is when he doesn't just murder them or when they get away. Even though Birdman and Galaxy Trio seemingly have nothing in common, the shows have lots of similarities. Neither of them have a back story and both of them start every episode with a video call setting up the story. And there's lots of times when the bad guys get away on both shows and they always say something like " I feel we will meet again.". The name Galaxy Trio doesn't make any sense and their powers don't make any sense. They tend to over explain everything too. The only reason to watch this is to make fun of it.

Great cartoons from the late 1960s

[apex-64177 · 9/10 · 14 August 2019]

Hanna-Barbera (HB)were on a roll in the 1960s. The laser was invented in the early 1960s, thus HB seized on it with characters with laser powers.

Great music and sound effects. I was only 5 in 1970 when it went started syndication. In 1978, when our family vacationed in LA, the first call I made from our hotel room was the HB studios and asked if they gave tours; of which they politely said no,

It a shame that the late Keith Andes (voice of Birdman) completed suicide in 2005 (see Wiki). Too bad it didn't last another season.

Crime-Fighting Birdman-Style

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 23 March 2020]

Now, I would never say that "Birdman and the Galaxy Trio" (from 1967) came anywhere near to being a great superhero cartoon - But, at least I can honestly tell you that it was pretty much on par with any other animated crime-fighting series (of the same genre) that existed back then at the time.

How can people so insane be allowed to make cartoons?!

[Staack117 · 24 August 1999]

Ever notice that the least-fit people to do a job, are many times the ones in charge? I would sooner trust Charles Manson to produce a cartoon for kids, than the people responsible for this train wreck. Retro-fanatics delude themselves. There are no excuses for something like this. Budget or technology limitations never stopped many endeavors which had thought behind these. Birdman and The Galaxy Trio is a tragedy. It's as if the most mentally void people in the world came together to make an action cartoon, or a bunch of criminal-geniuses went to great lengthes to make the WORST CARTOONS EVER. I pray for the latter. I have learned through experience that it takes a lot of work and thought to make something intentionally HORRIBLE. One has to think of every mistake, and every flaw that would annoy viewers. Birdman and the Galaxy Trio is so chock full of 'plot' holes (the plots of each episode could be summarized in about 4 words) and oversights. The animation was terrible, even compared to Space Ghost or The Herculoids. There were too many cheap liberties taken because of poor planning and writing. Unlike Super Globetrotters, The Gary Coleman Show, or Mr. T, this stupid animated series has no redeeming value. While the above are funny to watch because of it's campiness, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio should be avoided like the plague. Never have I seen an animated series that could make so many people LITERALLY ANGRY at how poor it is.

Aerodynamic Hero and the Three Elements of Heroism

[hellraiser7 · 8/10 · 27 June 2022]

This show is an honorable mention in favorite Hanna Barbara shows. The show is another double billing from Hanna Barbara who did a lot of those for some of their shows. This I found kind of cool and is something I don't see in animated shows, let alone even movies now which don't have double features in theaters anymore. You can imagine this was a real treat for the kids or just fans of animation in general to see two cartoon shows in just one sitting. And this show is a real treat as both cartoons are solid.

Hanna Barbara truly had a fascinating roster of original pulp heroes, "Birdman" and the "Galaxy Trio" were both exceptional; both aren't quite my favorites, but I had fun with both all the same which is what both set out to accomplish anyway. Like the intros with both of them which I wouldn't say the most memorable tunes but a good listen as they have the 60's rock vibe, it's always music to my ears hearing "Birdman" announce his name.

Way before he became an attorney in "Harvey Birdman at Law" (show I'll review another time) he was simply another Hanna Barbara pulp hero. Birdman is sort of like DC Verse character "Hawkman" as both are fantasy heroes that are rooted in Egyptology which is cool as it's my third favorite mythology and one that's a bit underrated as it doesn't get much attention. But also mixed with DC Verse character "Green Lantern" as he patrols the galaxy and has light bending power. "Birdman" we see has inherited powers from the Sun God Ra and is a secret agent for the good guy organization that must fight all the bad guy organizations across the galaxy. That's pretty much it, the show isn't known for being deep, so I can't say much for the characters Birdman, supporting characters, and babies their pretty archetypal by their nature. But like with most of these pulp action shows we're all here for two things the action and the adventure and this has a good deal of both.

I really like all of the villain and challenges that Birdman has to face which are creative and even really strange which makes me often wonder where the heck the writers got the ideas from. The arial action and shootouts with Birdman are solid and look well-choregraphed, really like seeing Birdman use his light bending power which is almost has limitless possibilities one thing he makes of course is a shield.

One of the highlights is hearing Birdman deliver some memorable lines that you might hear "Batman 66" as they can be deliciously cheesy and bad but music to my ears all the same. One line is "Must concentrate my solar power in one beam!" I know not that special of a line but it's funny because it's the common cliche of the superheroes as well as in super sentai where they always announce what their going to do before doing it; can't really complain as it helps the audience keep track of what's going on.

The only bad things are I don't feel we get enough of the fantasy aspect; ok we do but not as much. It would have been cool if they mixed in Egyptology more by having certain characters from Egyptology come or even seeing Birdman contending with rogues that come to his modern-day era. Also, Birdman might at times be made too powerful as there doesn't seem to be much of a limit to the light bending powers, or at least challenged more heavily as there doesn't seem to be an opponent that can match him and in the stick situations seems to always have that last minute solution he just happens to pull out of his pocket.

The "Galaxy Trio" is solid, not much to say, in a way their sort of like the DC Verise's "Green Lantern Corps" as a small group of superpowered individuals that patrol the galaxy and use their abilities to save the galaxy from evil. That's it in a nutshell, this show you could easily see this could have been a "Space Ghost" spin off, only disappointment is both shows never crossed over at least not into a lot of latter with the DC licensed anthology comic series "Future Quest Presents" that is if you want to count it.

Action is well choreographed, like with all super teams it's cool seeing them work together as a team, individually their pretty good but combined their even better. Each have different powers from one that can turn into Vapor, he's my favorite as he's voiced by Don Messick one of my favorite voice actors, but I really like how they show how effective a tool vapor can really be if you know and remember your science. Meteor Man is another character I like, he's pretty much the muscle of the group, with the persona to boot, his power in to enlarge parts of himself with bring super strength. Gravity Girl is sort of both the beauty and brains of the group, her power is to manipulate gravity, really like seeing how effective a weapon altering physics can be.

Just like with most to all pulp shows their pretty much your adventures of the week with villains which I'll admit is one weak point of the shows as the Trio don't have enough of a rogue gallery or rogues that are memorable, though there were a couple of villains that recured, which isn't much but better than none. Nevertheless, it was fun just seeing the next adventure the Trio would go on and what kind of butt they were going to kick.

I'd love modern revival comic book miniseries/series on both from DC Comics. I know both properties were on DC Comic's licensed mini-series "Future Quest" and "Future Quest Presents" but those don't entirely count as they were just characters part of another series. I want stand-alone series for both just like with what DC Comics did with "Space Ghost".

With both series we can keep some things similar but at the same time different. Put in some depth on the "Galaxy Trio", how they acquired their powers and may' be mix in both the superhero and military sci-fi. With "Birdman" still have the spy and fantasy elements mixed but emphasize and balance both a bit more. Like putting in some Egyptology having Birdman fight some creatures and foes from it but also give depth to how Birdman acquired and became who he is. Well, those are thoughts to consider.

For fans of Hanna Barbara or even Vintage cartoons in general both these retro classics are worth a test flight.

Rating: 3 stars.

could have been better without bird boy

[r-c-s · 5/10 · 27 February 2008]

What really makes this cartoon loose points is bird boy. I hated the episodes he was in and no, it was notches below "Dino boy". I understand some brilliant mind wanted the audience (a show engineered for children, always remember that ) to relate to a target closer to their age, so they could dream of actually being bird boy, but I just hate it. It aged worse than other H&B cartoons in my opinion. While all H&B cartoons of sort have "segments" (E.G the "song & run" in Josie and the pussycats; the "push power band button" in Space Ghost ), bird man is more predictable and therefore less interesting. Galaxy trio is a bit better with its Star Trek feeling, and more worth watching.

Must Type Review, Let Others Know of Cartoon!

[richard.fuller1 · 16 October 2005]

Have to warn of possible spoilers, need to focus on best words to get the job done. Need to use all my concentration on the keyboard to strike the right letters or else! Thus was the world of Birdman. A man in a bird costume with sun powers, who recharged with the sun. He was a solar powered hero, it seems. Why not Sun Man? Looks too much like Superman I guess.

So we use a bird? Avenger the purple eagle is a truly strange sidekick. He behaves like a dog. In watching the shows, I half expect him to bark once or twice. When Birdman is in a cage, Avenger actually tries to bend the bars apart.

"No, no, trusty Avenger. It's no use." Galaxy Trio always reminded me of the Fantastic Four, minus the Human Torch. They are aliens of some sorts. In one episode, we learn Gravity Gal is a princess and her father is a king on Gravitas. Apparently Meteor Man didn't know that either.

There would be Bird Boy (voiced by the remarkable Dick Beal, who was 40 when he did this voice, he also did Buzz Conroy in Frankenstein Jr, Davey in Davey & Goliath, Alka Seltzer kid and Ralphie Phillips the daydreaming kid in WB cartoons) and one episode has Bird Girl.

The setups are so limiting and puzzling. Why is Falcon's Lair in a a volcano? I used to wonder the same thing about Space Ghost. Villains would contact Space Ghost and tell him what crime they were going to commit and challenge him to stop them! I thought, why did you contact him in the first place? Birdman actually gets a recurring bad group called F.E.A.R.

Now they don't call this group FEAR. Birdman and others, including the group themselves!, will say the letters out. F.......E......A.....R Birdman has at least two appearances on Space Ghost: Coast To Coast, subbing for SG (initially there had been plans for Birdman to get the talk show, but eventually this was given over to the more popular Space Ghost) where we learn he is separated from Gravity Girl and he is devastated by it.

But the Harvey Birdman, Atty At Law cartoons are a great extension and understanding of this truly puzzling cartoon.

I've watched Space Ghost with SG:C2C, Sealab 2020 with 2021 and they really are great additions to the original shows.

Birdman and Harvey Birdman are pretty much the same.

Hanna-Barbera's Winged Wonder

[mrizaj · 9 December 2014]

Back in 1966, Hanna-Barbera Productions began its superhero cartoon cycle with the launch of SPACE GHOST & DINO BOY. By September 1967, they had superhero series on all three major networks. And BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO (to use the series full title) which aired on NBC was one of the most popular and memorable of those series.

Like another Hanna-Barbera series that aired on NBC, YOUNG SAMSON & GOLIATH (which I have reviewed earlier), BIRDMAN was an good example of Golden Age styled comic book plotting used in an animated cartoon context. In the first of the two segments of the series, the winged wonder known as Birdman (voiced over by Keith Andes) was summoned into action by Falcon 7 (John Stephenson) to take on the latest threat to national or international security. With his pet eagle Avenger at his side, the winged wonder flew off from Bird Lair (an extinct volcano) to challenge the threat. In a few episodes, he would aided by a teen-aged sidekick Birdboy (Dick Beals) who had similar powers.

For the record, Birdman's super-powers were flight (Thanks to his wings naturally!), super strength, and the ability to file blasts of solar energy from his hands (not to mention the ability to create "solar shields"). His powers come from exposure to the rays of the sun (which could explain why his headquarters is located in the crater of an extinct volcano), but also gives him an easily exploitable weakness which the writers liked to use throughout the run of the series. He loses his powers if he is out of the sun for too long and has to recharge by exposure to sunlight (but then again, he's lucky to have Avenger to help bail him out of those situations).

For the most part, Birdman fought villains that were associated with the organization FEAR (his most frequent foe being its leader, Number One). Among them included such baddies as Dr. Freezoids, Nitron, the Ringmaster, and Vulturo among others. He managed to fight against foes that weren't allied with FEAR including Morto the Marauder, the Constrictor, Medusa, and Dr. Millennium among others. All in the space of 40 seven minute cartoons.

The second segment was The Galaxy Trio which consisted of a trio of superheroes who patrolled space in their spaceship Condor One in the fight against evil. The three heroes were Vapor Man (Don Messick) who could into vapor at will and fire blasts of different vapors; Meteor Man (Ted Cassidy) who had the power expand his size at will; and Gravity Girl (Virginia Eiler) who had the power to control gravity. And they were to need those powers to fight the worst menaces the universe has to offer in 20 seven minute cartoons that were sandwiched between the two Birdman cartoons in each half hour episode.

All in all, BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO was one of Hanna-Barbera's most popular series and was only dropped by NBC in late 1968 mainly due to the backlash against TV violence during that period. Fortunately the show was brought back in 1979 as part of the syndicated series HANNA-BARBERA'S WORLD OF SUPER ADVENTURE (which brought back most of Hanna-Barbera's superhero series) and current pops up now and then on the Boomerang Network. It is also available on DVD via Warner Home Video.