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A cult favorite among fans of '80s-era TV animation, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers combined anime-influenced artwork with elements of traditional science fiction adventure and Western shoot-em-ups. Jerry Orbach (Law and Order) voiced the show's hero, Zachary Foxx, who led the technologically and genetically advanced Galaxy Rangers against the evil Queen of the Crown and her minions. Action in each episode is plentiful, though one of the keys to the show's popularity was the relative maturity of the scripts, which did not shy from exploring real emotions (such as the fate of Foxx's wife after her capture by the Queen) or some genuinely menacing villains, like the lethal alien creature dubbed "Scarecrow" by Galaxy Ranger Shane Gooseman. The show's animation, created by the acclaimed Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now called TMS Entertainment) in Japan, was highly influenced by the anime of the period, which also contributed to its appeal among older fans (however, the quality of the animation varies from episode to episode due to different teams working on different stories). Add to this the fine vocal work by Orbach and others, and the result is a weekly American animated series from the 1980s that holds up remarkably well for current audiences. Thirty-two of the series' 65 episodes are featured on this four-disc set, which is nicely supplemented by a 30-minute interview with creator Robert Mandell. Over the course of the featurette, he discusses the influence of other animated shows on Galaxy Rangers (including his own Thunderbirds 2086 and TMS' Space Cobra) as well as the challenges of farming out the animation to Japan and then using ADR to dub the footage. Mandell is also featured in commentaries on four episodes, where he's joined by his brother Henry (a voice-over artist on the show) and story editor Christopher Rowley. The real finds among the extras are the original pilot, which differs slightly from the series' first episode in both story and voice talent, as well as a recreation of one of the show's tie-in storybook audio cassettes. A jukebox feature offers videos of the show's pop-rock theme songs as well as three library tracks used in subsequent episodes. --Paul Gaita
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