Conan: The Adventurer

Conan the Adventurer is an American-French-Canadian animated television series adaptation of Conan the Barbarian, the literary character created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s. Produced by Jetlag Productions and Sunbow Productions, the series debuted on September 13, 1992, ran for 65 episodes and concluded on November 22, 1993. The series was developed by Christy Marx who served as the sole story editor.

The series was produced in association with Graz Entertainment for the first 13-episode season; AB Productions and Jean Chalopin's Créativité et Développement for the remaining episodes. The series also spawned a small toyline in 1992 created by Hasbro. This first incarnation of Conan in cartoon form performed much better than its follow-up cartoon, Conan and the Young Warriors, which lasted only 13 episodes.

Conan lived in Cimmeria with his parents throughout his childhood. While out with his grandfather one night on a trek, "fiery tears" or meteors dropped from the skies. Conan collected them and brought them back to his family. Conan's father, the village blacksmith, used the ore from the meteors to forge Star Metal and used it to create various tools and weapons that would never rust or break or dull. He sold them, but his finest work, a magnificent sword, he kept for Conan. It was laid in a crypt and covered over with a heavy stone slab. Conan's father told his son that only when he was "man enough" (i.e., strong enough) to push off the stone slab, could he rightfully claim the sword.

Meanwhile, the evil Serpent Man wizard Wrath-Amon learned of Star Metal and that in addition to its strength that it possessed the power to open portals between dimensions. He thus sought Star Metal to release his deity Set from "the Abyss" to which he long ago had been banished by the combined powers of virtually every living wizard then on Earth for trying to enslave the human race. As part of his search, Wrath-Amon sought out Conan's family. Conan's father told Wrath-Amon that he had sold all of the Star Metal, but the wizard refused to believe it. The wizard was right for aside from the sword, it was revealed in a later episode that Conan's father had hidden pieces of Star Metal with other villagers. Wrath-Amon used the spell of living stone upon Conan's family.

As compared with the original Conan stories and the Marvel Comics such as King Conan, Conan Saga, Conan the Barbarian and Conan the King, the cartoon Conan displays a higher degree of modern morality. While the original Conan is a thief, a killer, and a philanderer, the cartoon Conan has more in common with sword-wielding children's cartoon characters such as He-Man. At one point, he refuses to join a pirate crew on the grounds that it is wrong to steal, he refuses to strike unarmed or defeated opponents. He is a kind and caring character, albeit a little naive, who stands up for his friends and what he sees to be right and is very respectable. The show also reduced the violence of the original to levels deemed suitable for the younger target audience, deliberately making the Serpent Men "banished" with any touch of the heroes' weapons rather than actually struck.

Cast

Image	Character	USA	Mex	Ger	Fra	Ita	Gree	Russ	Spa	Isr
	Conan	Michael Donovan	Salvador Delgado			Paolo Marchese	Fótis Petrídis		José Padilla	Shay Zornitzer
	Needle	Michael Beattie	LuisAlfonso Mendoza	Kai Taschner		Diego Sabre			JoséRamón Azpiri	Giora Kenneth
	Zula	ArthurBurghardt		Thomas Rauscher	Michel Vigné	Marco Balzarotti			Antonio Esquivias
		Scott McNeil
	Jezmine CTA	Janyse Jaud				Patrizia Scianca			Mabel Escaño
	Greywolf	Michael Beattie	Mario Castañeda						Enrique Jordá
		Scott McNeil
	Snagg	Garry Chalk			Henry Djanik	Pietro Ubaldi			Julio Núñez
	Wrath-Amon	Scott McNeil	Maynardo Zavala		Henri Poirier				Antonio Iranzo
	Dregs	Doug Parker				Davide Garbolino			Abel Navarro
	Falkenar	Alec Willows			Edgar Givry				Javier Franquelo

Character Gallery

Gallery