Vytor: The Starfire Champion (1989)
Dir. Tom Burton | 4 episodes, approx 22 mins each.
The hero is Vytor, a youth with aspirations of becoming protector of his village and its people, a group with an indigenous connection to the natural world, and whose technology is pre-industrial.
The backstory for the series goes something like this: seventeen years prior our introduction to Vytor (Michael Horton), a trio of big-wigs had a falling out, resulting in three separate Kingdoms.
Vytor belongs to the most primitive of the three. The second is ruled by a green-skinned, yellow-eyed villain by the name of Myzor (Peter Cullen). The final group are the most technologically advanced, with talking computer systems and vessels that fly; they made their home far above the land, in the clouds, where they can look down on the others - both literally and figuratively.
Since the breakup, Myzor has been searching for a mystical artefact named the Starfire Ring, which has the kind of magical properties that'll help him control the galaxy, or some such shit.
Naturally, Vytor gains possession of it, making him Myzor's Most Wanted overnight. So now Vytor really must protect his village - all while making them a target by staying there.
Into the mix comes Skyla, a Princess from the cloud-dwelling people. Unlike the practical Vytor, who uses physicality and combat training to outmatch his opponents, unpredictable Skyla prefers to use gadgets and technology to outsmart her adversaries. They're an unlikely pairing. [1]
- Skyla (LEFT) and Myzor (RIGHT) -
That's the basic set-up, from which most of the conflict arises. I'm not going to spoil things by going into individual episode plots. There's only four of them. It won't take long to find out what happens, if you really want to. Alternatively, there's a 'movie' version that presents the four episodes as one story. I've not seen it, but I've read elsewhere that it got a prologue and epilogue added, presumably to compensate for cuts elsewhere, and some voice actors were changed.
One good thing about the series is that it has no annoying sidekicks. I appreciate that a lot.
[1] I should mention that Vytor also has a Starfire Shield and Trimerang (throwing weapon) to rely on, but they too require a level of physicality to properly use. Both would most likely be marketed as obligatory 'Hero Accessories' if the hoped for toy line had come to fruition.
- Myzor's Stronghold -
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