King Arthur and the Knights of Justice
King Arthur and the Knights of Justice is an animated series produced by Golden Films, C&D (Créativité et Développement) and Bohbot Entertainment. The series was created by Jean Chalopin along with Diane Eskenazi (Golden Films) and Avi Arad (Toy Biz chairman, CEO and the founder of Marvel Studios) who were also executive producers of the series, which lasted for two seasons of 13 episodes each. Its first episode aired on September 13, 1992, and the last episode was on December 12, 1993. It aired as part of Bohbot's "Amazin' Adventures" programming block . Plot. The show's premise had King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table trapped in the Cave of Glass by Arthur's sister, the evil enchantress Queen Morgana. Unable to free King Arthur and the Knights himself, the wizard Merlin searches the timeline for replacement Knights. He finds the quarterback of the New York Knights football team Arthur King and transports him and his teammates to Camelot after one of their football games. He appoints Arthur King as their leader with his teammates as the new Knights of the Round Table and assigns them the task of freeing  the true King and Knights. To do so, they must find the Twelve Keys of Truth, one for each knight that only the knight in question can initially touch. Once all the keys are found, the real knights will be free and the team will return home. In the meantime, they pledge "fairness to all, to protect the weak and vanquish the evil". The Knights are armed with special armor and are able to summon their respective creatures at any time when in battle armor. These animals, such as King Arthur's wyvern, are emblazoned on their shields. The series  had a progressive story with both sides advanced towards their goals. Continuity was also established in the episodes which would be brought up in later episodes, along with some repeat minor characters, character relationships, and previously overcome weaknesses of the Knights. Despite the continual movement towards a resolution, the series is incomplete and ended abruptly during the second season. Video game. A video game based on the series was produced by Enix for the Super NES platform in 1995. The game features a final confrontation between King Arthur and Morgana, in the form of a giant dragon, providing a finale  to the series where the Knights football team were able to return to their own time. Merchandise. Mattel released a handful of 5" action figures and vehicles/accessories based on the show. Marvel Comics released a three-part comic book miniseries written by Mike Lackey in 1993. Home releases. Maximum Entertainment released the complete series of "King Arthur and the Knights of Justice" on Region 2 DVD in the UK. In 2010, after several various partial VHS and DVD releases, Image Entertainment released the complete series as a boxed set in North America with all 26 episodes in a three -DVD set "King Arthur and the Knights of Justice: The Complete Animated Series". For some time during late 2000s, the whole series has been made available for free watching through Internet streaming at the Lycos' SyncTV service and on Kidlet. Between 2012 and 2014, it has been also available for instant streaming on Netflix. In 2016, Golden Films released it via Amazon.com. As of 2019, the series is available from the subscription service Watch It Kid!. Reception. The show has been ranked first on the lists of "The 10 Most Ridiculous Adaptations of Arthurian Legend" (2009) and the "8 Mostly  Forgotten '90s Cartoons" (2011) by website Topless Robot, as well as "15 Most WTF Adaptations Of King Arthur" by ScreenRant in 2017. Conversely, writer Mark McCray gave it a positive review "thanks to Chalopin's creative touches, which included a great premise, exceptional storytelling, and beautifully drawn animated characters."