There’s a shot of Bluestone walking into his apartment before Broadway greets him asking if he’s seen Elisa, where the camera casually follows him as he walks through the door, puts away his coat, and opens his curtains – it’s very fluid, like a theatrical 1950s cartoon. I really enjoyed the smooth animation here: I imagine the animators relished getting to use their R&D for New York again instead of having to churn out another global setting again. I wonder why the show’s staff didn’t just have the mutates move into the Clock Tower, and I reckon it has to do with a) needing to air the show out-of-order if needed, and b) they loved this Dickensian conceit with Talon as a good Fagin, as it were. It’s an egalitarian refuge for the homeless and dispossessed, which easily brings to mind the likes of the Morlocks from the X-Men comics, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ hideout (although this is the rail tunnels instead of the sewers). ( Thanks for nothing, Renard.) We find out that since reuniting with his family, Talon has relocated his clan to one of Xanatos’s abandoned underground facilities, which he has christened the Labyrinth. “Kingdom” sees Goliath’s clan and Elisa’s brother Talon launching an attack on Xanatos after becoming suspicious he’s behind their disappearance. The first episode finally returns to Brooklyn and the rest of the clan in Manhattan, who are understandably confused as to where Goliath, Elisa and Bronx have gone, while the second sees the tourists in Northern Ireland. Welcome back to our Summer TV Binge of Disney’s Gargoyles: this week we’re looking at the first episodes of 1996, “Kingdom” (aired February 5), and “The Hound of Ulster” (February 6).

Download gargoyles the hound of ulster