The Pirates of Dark Water

The Pirates of Dark Water
Genre	Action Adventure Fantasy
Created by	David Kirschner
Starring	George Newbern Jodi Benson Earl Boen Peter Cullen Jim Cummings Tim Curry Héctor Elizondo Brock Peters Frank Welker
Composer(s)	Thomas Chase Jones Steve Rucker
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	21
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Kirschner Paul Sabella Mark Young
Running time	30 min.
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC (Season 1) First-run syndication (Season 2)
Original release	February 25, 1991 – May 23, 1993

The Pirates of Dark Water is an American fantasy animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera and created by David Kirschner and first aired in 1991. It was later aired on Fox Kids and Boomeraction.

The alien world of Mer is being devoured by an evil substance known as Dark Water. Only Ren, a young prince, can stop it by finding the lost Thirteen Treasures of Rule. His loyal crew of misfits that help in his journey are an ecomancer (Tula), a monkey-bird (Niddler), and a treasure-hungry pirate (Ioz). The evil pirate lord, Bloth, will stop at nothing to get the treasures for himself and provides many obstacles for Ren and his crew.

The show first premiered on Fox Kids in early 1991 as a five-part mini-series titled Dark Water. Following a number of animation tweaks and other changes by Hanna-Barbera, those episodes were rebroadcast later in 1991 as the first five episodes of the regular series. Most notably, the original mini-series featured the voice of Roddy McDowall as Niddler, whereas in the revised version, the character was voiced by Frank Welker. The first season aired on ABC, while the second season aired in first-run syndication as part of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. The series was never completed, ending abruptly after 21 episodes with only eight of the thirteen treasures collected.

Mer is a planet very different from Earth, with a variety of its own creatures with varying degrees of intelligence, such as the monkey-bird and the leviathan. The world has twenty seas, and most of the crew's stops are made at islands. Parts of Mer are continually in flux, like a river of spiked rocks that rises out of the ocean in the first episode and appears to defy physics (none of the characters are bewildered by the spectacle aside from its danger), but whether this is the Dark Water's doing or just the nature of the geologically hyperactive planet is unknown.

Octopon was once the greatest city on Mer, referred to as "the jewel in the crown of Mer" by Ioz in episode 14, though it lies in ruin until Ren collects the first seven Treasures. It is then partially restored. Octopon seems to have been centuries ahead of the current technological state of Mer, although it is probable that civilization is continually in decline due to the Dark Water oozing from the planet's core.

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Wikipedia