Thoughts on ZORRO, Part 7: The animated shows (spoilers)

Earlier, I mentioned that the first of Henry Darrow’s three Zorro series was Filmation Associates’ 1981 animated series The New Adventures of Zorro. I’m going to repost and revise my discussion from my blog back in 2012: https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/more-vintage-cartoons-filmations-lone-ranger-and-zorro/ The New Adventures was a moderately faithful adaptation featuring characters from the original book — not just Don Diego/Zorro (Henry Darrow) (the second production I’m aware of to use the de la Vega surname established in the 1950s Disney TV series), but his corrupt rival Capitan Ramon (Eric Mason), the bumbling Sergeant Gonzalez (Don Diamond), and his father Don Alejandro (Carlos Rivas). Although they replaced Diego’s deaf/mute servant Bernardo with Miguel (Julio Medina), who’s basically the equivalent of the Green Hornet’s Kato — a servant who fights alongside the hero and has no nickname of his own (Zorro just calls him “amigo,” leading me to wonder how…