Mummies Alive!


Mummies Alive! is a Canadian-American animated series from DIC Productions L.P. and Northern Lights Entertainment. It originally aired for one season in 1997. The show was part of a general trend of "mummymania" in 1990s pop culture.
In ancient Egypt, an evil sorcerer named Scarab kills the pharaoh's son, Prince Rapses, to become immortal. Entombed alive for his crime, Scarab revives in the modern world and begins his search for Rapses' reincarnation, a San Francisco-dwelling boy named Presley Carnovan, to retrieve the spirit of Rapses so he can become immortal. Rapses' bodyguards, Ja-Kal, Rath, Armon, and Nefer-Tina, along with Rapses' cat, Kahti, awake from the dead to protect him from Scarab. They use the power of Ra to transform into powerful guardians.
Each of the mummies is aligned with the power of an Egyptian god. Ja-Kal uses the spirit of falcon, Rath uses the spirit of snake, Armon uses the spirit of ram, and Nefer-Tina uses the spirit of cat. They are able to call upon it for magical armor and powers to fight superhuman evildoers. Although, once their strength is exhausted, they must rest in their sarcophagi to regain the ability. In order to access these powers, the mummies call out the phrase "With the Strength of Ra!", which triggers their transformation. The mummies also have the power to make a horrifying face, usually used to scare away nosy bystanders.
In addition to Scarab, the mummies often had to contend with gods and spirits from Egyptian myth summoned to the modern world, including Anubis, Set, Geb, Apep, Bast, Sekhmet, Bes, and many others, usually as part of one of Scarab's schemes that went out of his control.

Production and airing

Originally, Mummies Alive was geared towards an older audience, but during production it became predominantly a children's show. The series ran for one season of 42 episodes; the last two episodes link together to end the show, as it appears episodes 38–40 were the finale of the first season. A second season was planned, but due to low ratings, it was canceled.
Eric and Julia Lewald, writers/producers for Mummies Alive!, were also head writers for the third season of the Gargoyles animated series. The programs share common plot elements, including a group of warriors from the past that awaken in the present to fight a wealthy, immortality-obsessed enemy; their initial difficulties in adapting to the modern world; the use of mythological figures in numerous episodes; and a recurring femme fatale antagonist. These similarities made Mummies Alive! vulnerable to criticism describing it as little more than a Gargoyles clone.
After its first and only season, repeats of Mummies Alive! continued to air on local stations across the country. The series previously aired every Sunday on Cookie Jar Toons on This TV.
In India, the show was dubbed into Tamil and Malayalam and aired on Sun TV and Amrita TV in the early 2000s, becoming popular in South India. In India, the Mummies Alive show was telecasted on DD Metro Channel from. DD Metro which was later converted to DD News.

Characters

Main characters

Humans

Ancient Egyptians

Reception

Harlene Ellin of the Chicago Tribune panned the compilation movie The Legend Begins. "The saga jumps between past and present without warning, giving the story a disjointed feel. And while the animated adventure goes for laughs at times, the jokes generally fall flat." She was also critical of the series' animation. "All the characters move as if they have rigor mortis. Mouths flap open and shut when delivering dialogue, giving the film a primitive look."

Home video release

In 1998, a VHS entitled Mummies Alive! – The Legend Begins was released by Buena Vista Home Video under their DIC Toon-Time Video label. This VHS consisted of the Family Feud 3 part story arc in a feature-length format.
A VHS and DVD titled simply "Mummies Alive!" was released on August 28, 2001, by Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video, containing the first 4 episodes, also in a feature-length format. The DVD version also included the episode "Body Slam" as a bonus, as well as an interview with Andy Heyward and Ivan Reitman about the series.
On October 7, 2003, Sterling Entertainment released the VHS/DVD Mummies Alive: The Beginning, consisting of the first three episodes once again, with the four one as a DVD-exclusive episode. NCircle Entertainment re-released the DVD in 2007.
In 2017, three volumes of double DVDs were released in Germany, with 14 episodes on each volume. The complete 42 episode series is available as of March 24, 2017, the release date of the third and final volume. The DVDs are region 2 with German, and English audio as well.

Merchandise

To coincide with the animated series, DIC signed deals with various companies to make merchandise for the series.
Hasbro produced a series of Mummies Alive! 5" tall action figures and vehicles in 1997. There were regular and "fright face" varieties of the main mummies. Nefer-Tina and Presley got toys as well, but they are later releases and harder to find. A final wave of toys would have contained a Night Hunter Ja-Kal and Armon, as well as Cobra Strike Pep but only a few of these figures were released in some parts of Europe.