Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor (1967–1969) User Reviews

vague memories finally answered by Cartoon Network

[Judexdot1 · 6/10 · 10 July 2007]

for many years, I had this image of a flying caveman superhero, stuck in my head. Other folk only ever came up with "Captain Caveman", when asked about it, but I knew it wasn't that. The first time I ever got to see Cartoon Network, there Mightor was, amongst similar Hanna-Barbera heroes of the time, and it all made sense again. Honestly, my vague memories were more fun, because this was mostly leftover sound effects from "Jonny Quest", and the typical vocal processing of the day, for the hero

Still, it's a painless 12 minutes or so. Don't remember "Moby Dick" at all, though my fond memories of "Mightor" could be clouding my memories. My favorites at the time, would have been "Shazzan", and an obscure "Lone Ranger and Tonto" cartoon, featuring Tonto's trained hawk, "Taka". Cartoon network would earn an even more special place in my heart, if they ever excavated this Lone Ranger, since I had an inflatable hawk for years, also named Taka. But I haven't seen a hint of that show, since I was 8, and am prepared to survive on my memories. Still, in this modern age, I can't believe Cartoon Network/Boomerang, hasn't brought these back yet. I think this "Lone Ranger" was a Filmation product, but can't be sure. Maybe one day....

Six only because I like Mightor

[jeremycrimsonfox · 6/10 · 23 May 2021]

Moby Dick And Mighty Mightor is one of the many superhero-themed cartoons released by Hanna-Barbera, and these two are the standard two-pack of adventure in the vein of Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles, as they focus on heroes and adventures.

The main draw with the two segments is that unlike the previous show, each segment has an opening that explains the origins of each show. Mighty Mightor is set in the prehistoric era, where a teenage caveman named Tor saves an old hermit while on a hunting trip, and is granted a club that allows him to transform into Mightor, and change his dinosaur friend Tog into a dragon. Using his new powers, Mightor protects his village from all threats, and even save love interest Sheera or her brother, Little Rok, whose habit of pretending to be Mightor sometimes gets the kid into a situation.

Moby Dick is set in present time, as teenagers Tom and Tubb befriend the great white whale after he saves them from being shark food after a typhoon sweeps the two far from their uncle's sea vessel. Together with a pet seal named Scooby, Moby Dick protects the boys as the four take on the perils of the deep together.

Each of the 18 episodes contains two Mightor adventures and one Moby Dick episode. Each of the shorts chronicles a random adventures the heroes have. I prefer the Mightor shorts, mainly the ones without Little Rok, as I found that character to be a prehistoric pain in the neck made to always need rescuing and never learns to stay out of danger. The Moby Dick shorts I do not care about, as they are more light-hearted and are boring compared to the Mightor ones. I recommend this for those who are into classic cartoons.

Fond Memories Of A Lost Gem from Hanna-Barbera

[rcj5365 · 23 August 2007]

There was no "Call Me Ishmael" nonsense for this Hanna-Barbera concoction that originally ran on CBS-TV from September 9, 1967 until September 6,1969. Only 15 episodes were produced for the first season while repeated episodes appeared in its second season. This was one of the best that was one of the action-adventure Hanna-Barbera produced shows that emerged during this period. This was in fact two shows packed into a half-hour. First up is "The Mighty Mightor". In this segment,prehistoric teenager Tor(voiced by Bobby Diamond)had the ability to raise a club given to him by an old hermit,thereby transforming himself into the Mighty Mightor(Don Stewart)to fight crime in the stone age along with his faithful companion and pet dinosaur Tog(voiced by Hanna-Barbera stock player Don Messick)turns into a superhero as well by transforming into a fire-breathing dragon. The animation here was very good since this was the action packed version of "The Flintstones",but it wasn't(Imagine if you will Fred Flintstone with superpowers saving Bedrock from certain doom). It was set in the stone age where we have a superhero that takes on formidable villains that set out to destroy Tor's village. Mightor was The Flintstones by way of Space Ghost in prehistoric times. But here the action was good with some of the best animation around by the head master of the Hanna-Barbera action adventure shows-Alex Toth(the same who brought Space Ghost and Jonny Quest). In some of the episodes,Mightor and Tog usually saved Tor's teenage sister Sherra(Patsy Garrett)from a sinister fate or from some disaster that is about to happen to the village. Pondo was the head leader of the tribe(John Stephenson,another Hanna-Barbera stock player)while in some episodes Mightor ends up having to save one or the other by one of the most infertile of characters(Little Rock!!!-voiced by Norma McMillan)who every time our hero has to keep this annoying brat from getting into more trouble. Some of the episodes are worth seeing that are very good with Mightor and Tog taking out the baddies one by one with their amazing superpowers.

The other segment is "The New Adventures of Moby Dick." In this segment,the lead character of Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel is not a monster but a creature of superstrength who protects his domain under the sea. In this second part of the show,Moby becomes the protector of two orphaned children,Tom and Tubb(Bobby Resnick and Barry Balkin)protecting them from such dangers as white sharks in the sea and other dangerous stuff that lies beneath them not to mention taking on some formidable villains and astounding creatures with incredible powers-all under the sea!!! Assisting them is Scooby(Don Messick)their seal pal. This was a very good show until CBS-TV dropped them altogether in the fall of 1969 to wussie cartoons ending Hanna-Barbera's array of superhero cartoon shows. The reasons why Mightor and Moby Dick were dropped from the Saturday Morning schedule,along with several other cartoons as well including Filmation's "Batman & Superman Show",and Hanna-Barbera's "Space Ghost" and "The Herculoids" was due to the excessive violence that it contain towards children and from there disappeared from oblivion never to be heard from again. However,in the fall of 1977,Mightor and Moby Dick did returned in repeated episodes for the syndicated "The Fantastic Worlds of Hanna-Barbera" aka "Hanna-Barbera's World of Super Adventures",which not only featured Mightor and Moby Dick but also other lost Hanna-Barbera superhero characters as well including joining forces with Space Ghost, Frankenstein Junior and The Herculoids.

Another Unusual Superhero Pairing from Hanna-Babera

[mrizaj · 9/10 · 18 March 2022]

During its superhero cycle of 1966-1969, Hanna-Barbera did unusual pairings on their superhero shows. It was how we got such shows as SPACE GHOST AND DINO BOY, FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBILES, and BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO. One such pairing brought together a modern-day version of Herman Melville's Moby Dick but as a heroic guardian to two boys sandwiched between two cartoons featuring a pre-historic superhero. That pairing first aired on CBS in September of 1967 under the title of MOBY DICK AND THE MIGHTY MIGHTOR.

The first series, Mightor, is an excellent example of Golden Age styled comic book plotting in an animated cartoon context. Taking place in a fantasy version of the Stone Age, cave boy Tor (Bobby Diamond) and his pet winged dinosaur Tog saved an aged hermit from becoming an allosaurus' dinner. The grateful hermit gave Tor a club which possessed great powers that were unleashed when Tor raised the club and shouted the word "Mightor". And in one explosive flash, Tor was transformed into a larger, more powerful version of himself called Mightor (with his superhero form wearing a horned animal skin which acted as a cape and cowl) and Tog was transformed into a larger version of himself. As Mightor, he possessed super strength, super speed, flight, and limited invulnerability and his club could fire blasts of energy, create force fields, and could even act as an X-ray device. Tog in his super-powered form had super-strength, can fly at super speeds, and could breathe fire. In a sense, Mightor was very much a primitive version of the original Captain Marvel with elements of Thor and Space Ghost thrown in for good measure.

As Mightor, Tor protected his village and the surrounding areas from prehistoric threats. His cast of characters were rounded out by Sheera (Patsy Garrett), the daughter of the village leader Chief Pondo (John Stephensen), and her brother Little Rok (Norma MacMillian). It was Little Rok - clad in a junior version of Mightor's costume - along with his bird Ork who tried to act as a help to Mightor. But for Mightor, Little Rok was clearly more of a hinderance than a help.

It's safe to view Little Rok as a thinly disguised ploy by the show's writers to stretch scripts. He could unintentionally allow a villain to escape to forestall the inevitable end or get captured by a villain to allow for a rescue (the villain in one cartoon actually took advantage of the fact that Little Rok follows Mightor around). In fact, two cartoons were devoted to Little Rok constantly getting into situations in which Mightor had to bail him out of.

As far as threats go, Mightor found himself fighting threats to the village and his friends from various prehistoric super menaces. Among them included Korg the Monster Keeper, Kragor and his Cavern Creatures, Rog and his Stone Men, the Serpent Queen, the Vulture Men, the Storm King, and the Sea Slavers. All in 36 seven-minute cartoons (two per episode).

In the second segment MOBY DICK, Tom and Tubb found themselves be cast adrift from their uncle's vessel in a sudden typhoon and found themselves surrounded by a school of menacing sharks. They were rescued by the giant white whale Moby Dick and along with the seal Scooby, they patrolled the seas together. The super whale and his companions found themselves fighting such menaces as the Shark Men, the Manta Menace, Captain Squid, and Moraya the Eel Queen. All in 18 seven-minute cartoons sandwiched between the two Mightor cartoons.

All in all, MOBY DICK AND THE MIGHTY MIGHTOR aired on Saturday mornings on CBS from September 7,1967 to September 9, 1969. It would be revived as part of the syndicated series HANNA-BARBERA'S WORLD OF SUPER ADVENTURE in the late 1970's and would pop up on both the Cartoon Network and the Boomerang Network. The series is available on DVD from Warner Home Video's Warner Archives MOD DVD releases as part of the Hanna-Barbera Golden Classics collection.

Not the worst Hanna Barbera super hero.

[13Funbags · 4/10 · 18 May 2018]

First of all, everything that neutrino68 said in his review is completely untrue. I find it hard to believe that he has ever seen the show at all. If he had seen more than one episode he would know Little Rok is not related to Mightor. One thing he did get right is that the story is always the same. That story is that someone wants to take over the village. One good thing about both of these shows is that they have a 10 second origin story at the beginning. That was rare for Hanna Barbera. Though the origin for Moby Dick fails to mention a seal that is always there. The Moby Dick cartoon isn't as bad as you would think. In every episode the kids just get into random undersea danger for absolutely no reason but it's not boring.

An Unusual Superhero

[Ducky-23 · 10/10 · 2 April 2004]

The Mighty Mightor was a prehistoric human who could change into a masked superhero by raising a stick in the air and shouting "Mightor!" He was magically transformed into a being with great strength who could fly with the aid of his club. His dinosaur pet would also morph into a dragon. He'd take on a T-Rex or anything else that threatened his tribe. The program had many of the same sound effects and feel of Jonny Quest. While it may not have been higher quality animation, the mixture of a superhero, dinosaurs, cavemen, and fierce battles looked pretty cool to a 9 year old back in the 1960s and an old baseball bat was the perfect "club" to imitate The Mighty Mightor. I never could get mine to fly though.

A black hole of despair

[neutrino68 · 1/10 · 15 January 2009]

"Mightor" is god-awful in every respect: animation, story, voice acting, sound, music, etc. Each episode is nearly identical: some bad thing kidnaps the chick, then Ken-doll caveman turns into Mightor, while his kid brother (son? whatever?) puts on a Mightor mask and pretends to be the hero. The kid attacks the bad guy and his Mightor mask covers his eyes. Whilst he can't see, the real Mightor defeats the bad guy. The kid lifts his mask and thinks he did it himself. Rinse, repeat, show after show.

HOWEVER. There is an entity that makes "Mightor" look good: "Moby Dick." This show is too awful to even discuss. Its very existence will depress you like a rainy Sunday after the funeral of a close friend. Cheap, eye-straining (from the constant blurry underwater effects seemingly achieved by wiggling the lens around while printing the film), and soul-draining. If you must watch this, keep some Prozac or St. John's Wort around so you don't kill yourself.