James Clavell’s Noble HouseJames Clavell’s Noble House
Rivalry extortion & murder set the stage for this mesmerizing miniseries. Based on the new york times bestseller. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 03/25/2008 Starring: Pierce Brosnan Run time: 376 minutes Rating: Nr
Rating:  List Price: $ 14.98 Price: $ 7.26 Jonny Quest – The Complete First Season
Unlike the outrageous fantasy plots of cartoons that preceded it, “Jonny Quest” drew on science and detective-style logic to solve mysteries and apprehend sophisticated villains. Viewers were transported to exotic locales as Jonny’s dad Dr. Benton Quest tackled each new government assignment, aided by ex-agent “Race” Bannon, the Indian boy Hadji, family bulldog Bandit…and of course, his fearless 11-year-old son Jonny (voiced by actor Tim Matheson). Now all 26 classic episodes from Year One charting the fantastic exploits of brave and brainy Jonathan Quest are available for the first time ever, digitally re-mastered on DVD in a deluxe four-disc collectors set, featuring over 11 hours of classic original TV programming and newly-added enhanced content.Baby boomers of a certain age, and anyone fond of classic Hanna Barbera cartoons, might find the 40-year-old episodes in Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season an exciting blast from the past. Five years before Hanna Barbera made a comedy about amateur youths solving exotic mysteries in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the animation giant captured a more serious spirit from a different era in Jonny Quest. The series played on primetime television–a very big deal for animation at the time–in 1964, and was infused with energy from sundry pop trends as well as cold war paranoia and a prevailing belief in limitless technology (largely inspired by America’s race to the moon). Part intelligence thriller, part science fiction, Jonny Quest made a child’s adventure out of thwarting international espionage and sabotage with super-computers, state-of-the-art transportation to every corner of the planet, an apparently bottomless budget for building fantastic weapons, martial arts, and more. The fact that schoolboy Jonny, as well as his best friend, Hadji, and canine companion Bandit, were having adventures akin to those of James Bond was terribly exciting. Young Jonny (voiced by actor Tim Matheson, later a co-star of Animal House and The West Wing) is the motherless son of government scientist Dr. Benton Quest. The latter conducts all manner of research from a remote island, where he lives with Jonny, Hadji, Bandit, and chief assistant Race Bannon, a rugged fellow who tutors Jonny but also provides muscle when the group is on assignment anywhere from the Arctic to Calcutta. The original 26 episodes (on four discs) find the team battling conspirators amidst half-sunken pirate ships in the Sargasso Sea (in the pilot, “Mystery of the Lizard Men,” sans Hadji), working undercover to stop a Jahilipur manufacturer of fake gold (“Riddle of the Gold”), and foiling an effort to steal an experimental, “mind-numbing” drug (and passing off a Race look-alike as the real McCoy) in “Double Danger.” (The last introduces Race’s hottie girlfriend, Jezebel Jade.) The slow, deliberate animation (even more stiff than Scooby) can get a little wearing, but the uniqueness of Jonny Quest as a genuine adventure-drama makes this collection a must. –Tom Keogh
Rating: List Price: $ 39.98 Price: $ 22.99
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(out of 116 reviews)
Review by E. Hornaday for James Clavell’s Noble House
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Noble House is an eight-hour Classic TV Miniseries produced and broadcast in 1988 by NBC. Based on the fantastic and richly detailed novel of the same name by James Clavell, it features a large cast headlined by Pierce Brosnan, who portrays business tycoon Ian Dunross.
This was NBC’s second Classic TV Miniseries adaptation of a Clavell novel, the first was 1980s Shogun. Both take place in the same fictional universe, Noble House even featuring connections to Shogun and yet another Clavell novel, Tai-Pan.
For this miniseries, the timeframe of the original novel was changed from the early 1960s to the 1980s.
Other actors include Denholm Elliott, Deborah Raffin, Tia Carrere, John Houseman, Julia Nickson-Soul, and John Rhys-Davies (who also appeared in Shogun.)
Noble House centers around big-business piracy in Hong Kong. The miniseries opens with Brosnan driving through the rain to meet Denholm Elliott, who plays the outgoing “tai-pan” in Hong Kong’s oldest and leading trading firm: Struan & Company.
“Tai-pan,” a Cantonese expression, means “supreme leader,” and at Struan & Company the title has been passed down at least 150 years
Dunross’ arch rival and enemy, Quillan Gornt (Rhys-Davles), is tai-pan of the second leading trading company. Not only does Gornt wants to destroy Dunross and take over Noble House, the two men have racing horses that compete against each other as well.
Meanwhile, two American tycoons (Raffin and Ben Masters) have come to Hong Kong to make a financial deal with Dunross.
But in Clavell’s Hong Kong there is no such thing as a single deal. Double-dealing and triple-crossing are more the style of the international wheeler-dealers here.
Diverse players here include bankers, government officials, police and a man called “Four Finger Wu” (Khigh Dhiegh), who runs an opium-smuggling syndicate from a junk boat in Aberdeen Harbor and has a mistress one-third his age named Venus Poon (Carrere).
The eight hours practically sizzle, thanks to Bercovici’s articulate script (he also wrote the script for the Shogun miniseries).
Viewers a treated to a manipulated run on a bank, selling short on the stock market, the fixing of horse races, a kidnaping, seductions and murders. Running counterpoint are the burning and sinking of a floating restaurant and a catastrophic landslide.
Add to this a couple of juicy love stories, especially the one between Brosnan and Raffin (who brings a light comic element to her role as the tough wheeler-dealer), while everything is done in ravishing cars, speedboats, mansions and casinos.
But, the biggest and brightest star of the show is clearly Hong Kong, which is more like a video game than a city, filled with the exotica and intrigue that you used to find in old movies. Early in the show, a character who’s just landed at the airport asks, “What’s that smell?” His host answers, “That’s the smell of money.”
The $16-million-plus production included eight weeks of exteriors shot in Hong Kong and another eight for interiors in the De Laurentiis studio in Wilmington, N.C.
Highly recommended.
Review by Carole Broskoskie for James Clavell’s Noble House
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Noble House is an outstanding story about big business, Hong Kong
and politics laced with intrigue and romance.
Ian Dunross, played by Pierce Brosnan, is the powerful leader of the history laden Noble House. His performance is nothing less than spectacular as it weaves through one exciting plot after another.
This story is so riveting that you’ll watch it again and again.
I enjoy it so much that my VHS copy is no longer any good. I sincerely hope it is reprduced on DVD very soon.
Review by Darren Harrison for James Clavell’s Noble House
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This mini-series that stars Pierce Brosnan and John Rhys-Davies is available on DVD in Region 4 for only about $15. So, if you love this show and want to see it on DVD then I recommend picking up the digitally remastered region 4 DVD and popping it into your region-free DVD player.
UPDATE: The title has since arrived on DVD in Region 1.
Review by Roger J. Buffington for James Clavell’s Noble House
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The “Noble House” miniseries is a very cool adaptation of the James Clavell novel of the same name. The novel is complex and convoluted, and this miniseries actually does a stellar job of telling essentially the same story as the novel in a more linear fashion, which is essential to the miniseries medium.
Pierce Brosnan, head of the Struan Clan and Tai-Pan of the Noble House, sets the standard for being suave and sophisticated–his portrayal of the Tai-Pan in my opinion is absolutely perfect. John Rhys-Davies as Gornt, the descendant of Brock, the Struan Clan’s ancient enemy, crude and barbaric but also sophisticated, makes a perfect contrast with the elegant Brosnan. They seem like born adversaries. (We all remember Davies as the Portuguese navigator in Shogun.)
This is a captivating miniseries. Set in Hong Kong, it is the story of a Clan feud between two powerful British shipping firms there, both of which have been based in Hong Kong since its founding as a British Crown colony. In fact, “Noble House” is the sequel to “Tai-Pan” which is the story of the founding of Hong Kong and of the Noble House. The whole story is great fun, sort of a “Dallas” in a Hong Kong setting (this is not a put-down–I loved Dallas!) The film manages to make the combat of high finance easy to follow and understand, and this is a fascinating story.
The DVD is well-mastered, and I particularly like the soundtrack of this one. Highly recommended.
Review by J. McCabe for James Clavell’s Noble House
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I am surprised this has not been release on DVD – It was such a successful and inspiring series – I hope it is released soon on DVD – It is released on an Australian DVD – but cannot be played except on a multi-region DVD player.
Review by Ron Comes for Jonny Quest – The Complete First Season
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When the JONNY QUEST DVD Box Set was finally released I was one of the first to buy it. The wait for these fantastic episodes was finally over. And what a long wait its been! What a shame it is then that the “politically correct” people at Warner Brothers found it their duty to EDIT, that’s right, EDIT these classic cartoons! A typical EDIT from DISC ONE “Pursuit of the Po-Ho” A purple Race Bannon confronts the Po-Hos who have Dr. Quest held hostage with,”All right you ignorant savages, get a load of Aquizio you heathen monkeys!” The “REMASTERED” version is a watered down, “Get a load of Aquizio!” All the while Race’s mouth is moving but no words come out! At least no words that some idiots at Warners find offensive. Who are they and how dare they think they can just EDIT someone elses work! What’s even more outrageous is that for some reason they don’t have a problem showing the UN-EDITED versions on their own CARTOON NETWORK! Get it together guys and RE-ISSUE the Jonny Quest Box Set UNTOUCHED, UN-EDITED, and truly REMASTERED as your packaging states! And the next time you think its “your job” to EDIT a classic cartoon, DON”T! Thank GOD your EDIT MONKEY kept his stinking paws off the LOONEY TUNES Box Set!
Review by Bryan for Jonny Quest – The Complete First Season
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When I found out that all 26 episodes of the classic Jonny Quest were released on DVD I was stunned. I felt that finally the HB execs are getting it together and recognizing the good stuff. After watching the first two episodes I realized I had been DUPED! Editing dialogue to be PC, using the same ending credits for all episodes and no credit for Doug Wildey. A (…)release of the best classic prime-time animation of the 1960′s.
After I finish watching all the episodes, I’m donating the DVD’s to my local public library. I know better now to read the reviews before buying. I think Warner Brothers and Hana-Barbera owe all of us an explanation for this hack-job. WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DICK WITH IT?
When I pay for DVD’s, I expect the real deal without edits and deception. I can only hope that they fix it with another release with everything intact except the insert commercials. And you can bet they know that we will buy it again. Greedy, corporate pigs!
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Review by Bobb Chappelear for Jonny Quest – The Complete First Season
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Just found out that this SUPER series is finally coming to DVD, …Santa got my letter. This show along with “The Flintstones” is truly a favorite of mine. It’s better than the new Jonny. It only lasted one season, but was a great adventure show for the whole family. I like that phrase “For the whole family”, you don’t have too many shows like these anymore. This is a must for any DVD collection. Here are the air dates and the rerun dates for the season.
{SEASON ONE}
9/18/1964 “Mystery of the lizard men”
9/25/1964 “Arctic splahdown” 4/8/1965
10/2/1964 “The curse of the Anibis” 6/3/1965
10/9/1964 “Pursuit of Po Ho” 4/1/1965
10/16/1964 “Riddle of gold” 4/22/1965
10/23/1964 “Treasure of the temple” 3/25/1965
10/30/1964 “Calcutta Adventure” 7/1/1965
11/6/1964 “Robot spy” 5/6/1965
11/13/1964 “Double danger” 5/27/1965
11/20/1964 “Shadow of the condor” 4/29/1965
11/27/1964 “Skull & double crossbones” 7/8/1965
12/4/1964 “The dreadful doll” 6/24/1965
12/11/1964 “A small matter of pygmies”
12/18/1964 “Dragons of ashiba” 3/18/1965
and 4/15/1965
12/25/1964 “Turu the terrible” 5/20/1965
12/31/1964 “The fraudulent valcano” 8/12/1965
1/7/1965 “Werewolf of the timberland” 7/22/1965
1/14/1965 “Pirates from below” 5/13/1965
1/21/1965 “Attack of the tree people” 6/10/1965
1/28/1965 “The invisible monster” 8/5/1965
2/4/1965 “The devil’s tower” 8/19/1965
2/11/1965 “The Quetone missle mystery” 9/9/1965
2/18/1965 “The house of 7 gargoles”
2/25/1965 “Terror Island” 7/15/1965
and 7/29/1965
3/4/1965 “Monsters of the monastery” 8/26/1965
3/11/1965 “The sea hunt” 9/2/1965
Review by Thomas B. Scott III for Jonny Quest – The Complete First Season
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Please don’t let these classics be lost to another generation!
The few of the original series that have been made available on VHS from Hanna-Barbera and Turner have been smash-hits with both my nephew AND my nieces. Ian, at five, wanted us to be Dr. Quest and Jonny, and we spent many hours running about the house and yard with walkie-talkies on Quest adventures (my wife got to play Roger “Race” Bannon). Kate and Kris (5 and 7) love to dance to the theme music I was fortunate enough to find on Napster in its heyday. Mary Madison (4) wants to know: “Is Hadji a girl or a boy?”
Turner Home Entertainment has done a very poor job of releasing and supporting this great series — the few they have done are so filled with promotional crap for its Cartoon Network that it’s nearly unbearable. It takes five minutes of fast-forwarding just to get to the feature. And any “Classic Quest” fan will tell you the new “Real Adventures” just don’t cut the mustard (more like the cheese).I urge all fans to review here and sign up for release notification to help pressure Turner into properly re-mastering and releasing the entire 1964-65 series (26 episodes).
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Review by Tim Brough for Jonny Quest – The Complete First Season
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I was four years old when this was on Television, yet I remember several episodes plain as day. That was how exciting I found young Jonny Quest to be and how enveloping the inventions and science fiction to be, even as a preschooler. I also remember being excitedly scared by some of the more fantastic elements of the show…like “Turu the Terrible” and “The Invisible Monster!” This was the kind of stuff an eventual reader of Hardy Boys, Tom Swift and Danny Dunn books craved before books began to seep into my life. Now that these DVD’s have been issued, it’s a safe bet to say they will have a permanent space on my DVD shelf.
So why not a perfect 5 stars? We’ll get to that. First the plusses. These were, more than anything else, adventures for boys. Jonny and Hadji were always there when the brilliant Dr. Benton Quest got a call to rush from Quest Laboratories in the Florida Keys to some far off country, travelling on the most recent invention. Lasers and Space Flight were frequent resources for story lines, and as a 4 year old want-to-be astronaut, it made it seem like anything was possible. Of course, this was the era of cold war politics, so the villains were often foreign guys with creepy accents. (Think Dr. Zin.) One of the frequent reasonings for Dr. Quest to have to go out on one of his missions was to make sure that these innovations didn’t fall “Into the wrong hands.”
But it also meant that Jonny (and, by proxy, I) were able to visit Tibet, the Arctic Circle, South American rain forests and other exotic (and real!!) locales before I even entered school. Looking at these 40 year old episodes anew, it’s amazing that Jonny looks like he could be drawn today; an inquisitive eleven year old in black shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, he could be from anywhere USA even now. And who wouldn’t want to have an extended family with a cool an adoptive brother as Hadji (one of animation’s — or, for that matter, all of prime time’s — minority main characters), a tutor as devoted as teacher/bodygaurd Race Bannon or a dad as equal parts brilliant to understanding as Dr. Quest? Add that the animation was far more real looking than the club footed dopiness of “The Flintstones” or the animals acting like people of “Top Cat,” (Bandit never suddenly started to ask for treats…) etc, and the world of Jonny Quest was something that we all could slip in to.
In the pre PC world, Jonny could react exactly as a kid could when first confronted by an inquisitive girl (in “The Dreadful Doll”). No matter how you slice it, a kid his age would be flustered and annoyed by a female his age making inquiries. By the time the “New Adventures” came out, Jonny had to have a female foil, and my response was just what Jonny’s would have been had he been a typical (read: real) 11 years old…”Ick!” And can you imagine a show today with a broad base of young watchers where the Father character smokes? (Dr. Quest enjoys a pipe in one of the episodes.)
Which leads to my short list of minuses. Coloration throughout the set is really good, but sometimes oversaturated, and in “The Werewolf of the Timberland,” White Feather’s skin is in two different colors! Also of dubious note, what happened to Doug Wildey’s credit? It seems to only show up during “Double Danger,” otherwise I seem to get the impression that the end credits were remastered from one episode then taped onto the end of all the episodes for DVD transfer.
And the worst offense…what heathen monkey was responsible for editing the dialog out of “Pursuit Of The PoHo”? Is this from the same brain trust that wiped out explosions and gunfire from classic Warner Brother cartoons and then blacklisting Speedy Gonzales for being stereotypical? If I emerged unscathed from that kind of language as a 4 year old, why am I expected to be offended by it now? If that was the root case, why not edit out the smoking, the shooting, the animal cruelty and the really obvious stereotypes from the Cold War era? It’s enough to make me want to wave my hands while muttering “Sim Sim sala Bim” and to thusly wipe all of you ignorant savages of the face of the Cartoon Network.
OK, end of rant.
Those are all just me carping. If you were at all enthralled by “Jonny Quest” in 1964 or its countless repeats on Saturday Mornings, you need to have this. As soon as the exquisitely James Bond-ish musical theme comes up (Hoyt Curtain’s music for this series was light years beyond most TV shows, and even today’s), you’ll be back in your PF Flyers and ready for more adventures for boys.