If you happen to be a fantasy role playing game enthusiasts or happen to enjoy animation with witty dialogue, then you might just enjoy Doraleous And Associates. I feel like I'm a little bit late to the party, but I discovered this cartoon recently. It began back in 2012, created by Hank And Jed Movie Productions and had a total of 50 episodes.
It's a classic medieval fantasy type of show. Doraleous is the brave Warrior who leads the group. Neebs is an Elven Rogue with a bit of an attitude. At one point, he even gets fired for not obeying orders, and yet he has to be either the luckiest or smartest character on the show. Mirdon is the absent-minded but still very effective when you need him to be Wizard. Then there is Drak, the loyal Dwarven Warrior. These three are the main associates of Doraleous, but there is also Sir Walken, based on a very familiar actor of the same name, and the Barbarian Bruf.
Doraleous is based on your typical Warrior. He's good of heart and out to protect the realms. He always endeavors to do the right thing, and he's hoping that he and his associates might get paid. It seems like most of the time, things don't quite work out that way, but the group seems to have success most of the time, even if it doesn't work out exactly as planned.
The dialogue is clever and there are hidden meanings thrown in throughout the episodes. Though I don't necessarily believe this is a political cartoon, there are times when people will assume that it is. Really, the dialogue will have you laughing at times in every episode. It's all about the dialogue. What I notice is you'll have Doraleous explaining the plan, whatever that might be, and oftentimes, Neebs is the one coming up with an alternative. Mirdon is all too quick to side with Neebs or just say something silly.
From the comments you'll see for each video, many people have a negative view towards Neebs. To me, this is the character that makes this show the most entertaining. He's such a jerk sometimes, although he isn't necessarily trying to be a jerk. It's just who he is. He does have a heart, and you can see at times that he has a great amount of respect for Doraleous. He just doesn't agree with the orders or thinks he can do it better. Oftentimes, he's right. I have noticed a very striking similarity between the character Neebs and a certain actor, although it's not as in your face as the Sir Walken character.
We all know the classic King Arthur tale. The Lady Of The Lake bestows the sword upon him. Well, there is a similar type of theme throughout this series. The Lady Of The Lake in this case is a bit of a troll. She delights in offering up the sword to those who seek it, but it never quite works out for any of them. There are a few moments between her and Dotaleous. He came so close to actually getting it in the end, but you have to see how it turned out for him. If you give this series a chance, you might have to suppress the desire to binge watch all 50 episodes, which generally run between 4 and 8 minutes long.
I don't want to give away all of the plots and clever references from the show, but there is a kingdom that needed the assistance of Doraleous and Associates, or so Doralious thought. They were the Meh Kingdom. Ultimately, Doraleous walked away in disgust. I'd like to think that this particular kingdom went down, but somehow I can just picture the invaders doing the same thing.
There is also the Geigh Kingdom. The idea is to see how many puns and cliches they could stick into the episodes involving the people of this kingdom, although there's no indication that this kingdom is made up of people who happen to be gay. They were invaded by the Giopi's. Yes, you get the picture, and people of a political bent might be offended or amused, but this was not political in the least.
What made it amusing to me was when Neebs happened to show up when the Giopi's showed up to invade the Geigh's. Doraleous was so fed up with the Elf's antics that he fired him. Dejected by being dismissed, Neebs took on another profession, broom salesman. He knocked on the gates to the Geigh Kingdom, but he didn't want in. He simply wanted to sell them some brooms. What's interesting is you see how Doraleous does care about the Elf, even with him being out of the group. He tries to usher the Elf into the castle, but all the Elf really wants to do is sell brooms.
Once Neebs walks away, knowing he can't make a sale here, everybody is watching him from the top of the castle walls. Neebs, either courageously or foolishly, walks up to the leader of the Giopi army. He's trying to sell him brooms. As luck would have it, he makes the sale. And it's funny watching how this whole thing plays out. Was it all Neebs' plan to save the kingdom? Who really knows, but you have to see the episode to believe it. One of the lines of this episode is probably one of the most quoted in the series. It's a play on a line from the movie 300. As the Geigh Kingdom's soldiers prepare to defended themselves, the leader yells, "This is Geigh!"
Sadly, after the 49th episode, the creators stopped making new episodes. From what I have uncovered, they were unsuccessful in a campaign to raise money, and even with monetization, they're not getting enough compensation from YouTube to make it worthwhile. This is with between 300,000 and 500,000 views on most of their videos. It makes me sad to realize that there won't be any new episodes coming, or at least none are planned. There's so much more entertainment that could be offered up by Doraleous And Associates as they attempt to save the world from various evildoers.
At least we still have the episodes that were created to enjoy. About a year ago, they created a 50th episode, sparking some hope that they would come back. It was a one-off deal, but I guess you never know. You can look up Doraleous And Associates on YouTube and see for yourself. If you're a fan of fantasy role-playing or just witty dialogue in animation, as I mentioned above, you owe it to yourself to check this out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
First Episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg1mxlzEP3Q
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