Valiant The Legend outruns The Strip

i grew up reading Hal Foster's {yes, i mean "Foster's" }Prince Valiant and as a kid it was something i liked and followed, this was the main reason i started watching the TV series when it first aired in the 1990s. i was struck at once how totally different the two {comic strip & tv series} were. the series was so cool though, that there was no deal for me to even consider them as the same thing. i kept reading the strip {i actually owned many Foster comic books at the time} and i started recording the series on VHS. it wasn't too long before i began to become a bigger fan of the series v.s. the comics. why did this happen?

first the character of Valiant on the series is more satisfying than his one-dimensional source character. losing the entire 'christian viking' backstory was another good move, as i never could quite understood why a Viking Prince would have a page-boy of jet black hair? Also the TV Valiant has two friends who serve as co-stars throughout the series. Arn {who in the strip is actually two characters, 1 Prince Arn of Ord who rivals Valiant for Ilene, 2 Valiant first born son} wasn't some rip-off of Valiant, he has his own personality and own issues to deal with, and Rowanne a totally un-cannon character who is the series' sweetheart. Later comic character Aleta shows up, also given a warrior-princess make-over. my personal favorite character on the series is Merlin, he is about the greatest character ever created in animation form. the stories within the series are different from their comic book source the comics due to not hanging around in history and the discovering of America, but rather they stay in the mythical world of Camelot bringing a few modern issues along. Robby Benson's voice blended perfectly with Prince Valiant, as did Michael Horton as Arn and Noelle North as Rowanne. The entire voice cast has never been matched to date, not even by Disney.

in the past few years my interest in Foster's Valiant faded a bit {i still like the strip for what it is }but through the years my fandom for the TV Valiant has grown. at the end of the day, Foster's strip was another well-drawn comic strip, that told a story of a young prince who grew up and lived in the days of king arthur. the series on the other hand, brought to life a young prince who embodied the spirit of his name 'Valiant'.

anyone who dislikes "The Legend of Prince Valiant" is missing out on a series with awesome characters, deep plotlines, and amazing animation set to a wonderful soundtrack.the ideals of truth, and justice have become outdated to people now days, so this excellent example of 'everything that's good in the world' is not going to gain anything in this crazy age.