The New Adventures of Zorro

For the 1997 series see The New Adventures of Zorro (1997)

The New Adventures of Zorro
Genre	Animated series
Created by	Johnston McCulley (characters)
Written by	Arthur Browne Jr. Robby London Ron Schultz Sam Schultz Marty Warner
Voices of	Henry Darrow Julio Medina Eric Mason Don Diamond Christine Avila Socorro Valdez Carl Rivas Ismael 'East' Carlo
Composer(s)	Ray Ellis Norm Prescott
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Don Christensen Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer
Editor(s)	Ron Fedele Joe Gall Hector C. Gika
Production company(s)	Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Distributor	Filmation
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 12, 1981 (1981-09-12) – December 5, 1981 (1981-12-05)

The New Adventures of Zorro is an animated television series produced by Filmation in 1981. The series, which has 13 episodes, is based on the fictional character created by Johnston McCulley. It aired as part of The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour.

This is the only series Filmation made in which they contracted an outside, third party animation studio (although the storyboards were created by Filmation themselves). The series was outsourced to Tokyo Movie Shinsha in Japan. All other series afterwards were animated internally by Filmation themselves.

Plot

Don Diego de la Vega is a young man of high social position from the town of Los Angeles, who fights against tyranny under a secret identity, Zorro. He is helped by Tempest (originally "Toronado"), his black horse, and Miguel, a young swordsman (replacing Zorro's mute manservant Bernardo). Miguel wears a disguise very similar to Zorro’s (but with different colors and without a cape) and rides a Palomino. Ramón, the captain of the garrison, is Zorro’s main foe. Captain Ramón is helped in his task of capturing Zorro by González, a foolish sergeant who is friends with the De La Vega family. Sgt. Gonzalez was a character from the original Zorro story 'The Curse of Capistrano'. He had been replaced by Sgt. Garcia in the Disney Zorro series. Ironically or possibly intentionally ironically, the actor who voiced Gonzalez, Don Diamond, played the bumbling sergeant's more bumbling Corporal in the Disney show.

Voice cast

Episodes

Educational messages

Zorro showed the viewers information about California and the influence of Spanish language and Spanish culture in the region at the end of each chapter. These kinds of educational messages were common in 1980’s animated television series of Filmation. Other examples of this are the moral advice found in chapters of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Merchandising

In 1981, toy manufacturer Gabriel released a line of Zorro action figures that tied in with Filmation's animated series. The characters included in the toy line were Zorro, Amigo, Captain Ramon, Sergeant Gonzalez, Tempest (horse) and Picaro (horse).

External links

• The New Adventures of Zorro at the Internet Movie Database
• (French) Pictures and information about The New Adventures of Zorro in Planete-Jeunesse