Saturday Morning Cartoon! ‘Inhumanoids’

INHUMANOIDS, Episode 1 “The Evil that Lies Within” (7 out of 10) – Created by Flint Dille; Written by Flint Dille; Starring Michael Bell, William Callaway, Ed Gilbert, Chris Latta, Neil Ross, Richard Sanders, and Susan Silo. Originally aired September 21, 1986.

The eighties and nineties provided an almost endless supply of weird and wonderful cartoons, none more weird and less wonderful than “Inhumanoids” this stuff is downright terrifying. I usually watch these cartoons with my boy, it’s a good way for us to hang out and for me to get some writing done at the same time, but while watching this first episode and various clips this morning I had to turn him away (he watched “Ultimate Spider-Man” instead) so as to not give him nightmares. What the hell were these people thinking.

That being said, from an adult perspective, it’s a pretty cool show. It’s nice to see a cartoon push the boundaries of what kinds of stories and what kinds of characters they can display. With that in mind I present to you “Inhumaoids” the most jacked up “kids” cartoon I’ve ever seen.

Our story opens in the forest as Earth Corps, a group of high tech scientists, reveal and transport a giant amber monolith with what is believed to be a complete dinosaur specimen inside. A reporter is on the scene and mentions prior reports that citizens had seen the monolith glowing and the trees moving, such reports are dismissed by the Earth Corps scientists. 

Later that evening the monolith is unveiled at a large event with hundreds in attendance. Strange screaming noises begin to be heard and the crowd evacuates the museum. As they run screaming, a giant monster made of plants, called Tendril, runs rampant on the bridge, at the same time the monolith shatters revealing the living skeletal face of the creature inside, D’Compose.

D’Compose calls out to Tendril commanding him to release him fully from his amber prison. Earth Corps along with the local police use all of the firepower at their disposal trying to take down the two giant monsters. During the fight, one of the Earth Corps scientists cuts a tissue sample from Tendril, after which both monsters disappear.

Were they from outer space, mutations caused by toxic waste, or were they a mass illusion created by the stress of modern living?

Well obviously they weren’t an illusion, you have a freaking tissue sample twitching around in your lab. Earth Corps reaches out to the government in an attempt to locate the missing monsters before they cause more trouble but are given no help. Left on their own, they split up and go in search of D’Compose and Tendril.

One goes to the forest where D’Compose was discovered, two go into the ocean where they suspect the inhumanoids fled, the fourth investigates a drilling site where witnesses reported sighting Tendril. In the ocean the two scientists encounter the inhumanoids and barely escape with their lives, at the drill site one scientist descends into the Earth when his rope is cut by a group of nefarious human villains, and in the forest the final scientist is approached by a group of sentient redwood trees who show him the truth of the war between the inhumanoids and the Mutores.

Long ago, the Mutores fought the inhumanoids trapping them each in an individual prison. D’Compose was trapped in an amber pit, Tendril trapped in an Earth bound prison, and Metlar imprisoned in a magnetic cell where he still remains.

The Mutores fear that D’Compose and Tendril will work together to release Metlar, if that happens, there will never again be peace upon the Earth. It’s up to Earth Corps to stop that from happening.