Animated Hero Classics

- Season 1

(1992)

We first meet Christopher Columbus as an exuberant boy of Genoa, Italy, who wants only one thing - an adventurous life at sea. As he grows into young manhood, he becomes an expert sailor. When King John offers a handsome reward for the captain who can find the fastest route to the treasures of India, Columbus realizes he has found his calling. Columbus is convinced that the most direct route to the Far East is by sailing due west around the globe. But King John only laughs at Columbus. "No one has ever sailed to the west on the great ocean. It cannot be done." ...

In 1620, John Carver, William Bradford, Captain Standish and 99 pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower toward America in search of religious freedom. As disease and storms hit they are almost forced to return. William Bradford convinces Captain Standish to press on. Before landing, Bradford suggests everyone sign the Mayflower Contract designed to enact their own laws and elect leaders for a free government. John Carver is elected to govern for one year. The land they choose to build on becomes known as "Plymouth". Immediately, the winter sets in and the pilgrims face the...

The young George Washington has to do much to take care of his family. Good with math and numbers, Washington becomes a surveyor. As a youth, Washington was close to his half-brother Lawrence. When Lawrence dies, George inherits Lawrence's land and home at Mount Vernon. George Washington is elected to the Continental Congress, and when fighting breaks out between England and the colonies at Lexington, the Congress names Washington commander of the new Continental Army. Washington is not sure he is up to the task, but he loyally accepts the Commission. At first the ...

Benjamin Franklin knows that a traveling show "magician" is using an electromagnetic generating machine to perform the "tricks." Intrigued by the possibilities of electricity, Franklin buys the machine. On a wall at his home, hang Franklin's "many hats." He is- or has been - a diplomat, inventor, printer, postmaster and fire chief. Now he contemplates the power of electricity. He doesn't know what to do with it, but he knows it is important. "The power of the future," he says, "the friend of mankind." But right now mankind in Philadelphia is threatened by a series of ...

The newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, and his family are leaving their hometown for the journey to Washington. He bids his friends and neighbors farewell. In their life together we can see that Lincoln gains strength from his family, especially from his sons Tad and Willie. Abraham Lincoln needs all the strength he can find. His great cause-the American Union-is split asunder by civil war. But Mr. Lincoln is no ordinary man. With complete dedication to his cause, he leads his nation through its darkest hour, finding strength and solace where he can. His son ...

We enter the world of a century ago, a world lit by gaslight. It is Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1877. Thomas Edison and his team are completing work on a new invention - the phonograph. Edison is a renowned inventor and is hailed as "The Wizard of Menlo Park." He declares that he will invent a practical electric light, a light that will be safer and cleaner than gaslight. He receives financial assistance from the financier J.P. Morgan for the undertaking. There are those who do not want Edison to succeed, but he toils on and on. He knows that the secret of electric ...

Florence Nightingale is the child of wealthy parents in 19th Century England. She is uninterested in marriage, society life and money. She wants to help the poor. When she accepts a job as superintendent at a hospital in the slums of London, he parents threaten to disown her. But Florence knows what she was meant to do. She says that to marry would ruin the life that God intended her to have. War comes to the Crimea and British troops are involved in the action. The British Army hospital in Turkey is full of the wounded and the sick. In an effort to relieve the ...

Pocahontas is a beautiful, young Indian princess traveling with her husband, John Rolfe, and son, Thomas, to London to see John's birthplace. She is awed by the activity and the largeness of London. However, Pocahontas soon falls ill with the plague. Once, when Pocahontas and John are entering their hotel, they are approached by Captain John Smith. Pocahontas is extremely upset, having thought John was dead for a long time. Her husband apologizes on her behalf, explaining she is ill. She asks him to come again. Pocahontas is a young girl at the age of twelve when she ...

The time is 1860, and cholera is beginning to spread throughout France's chicken population. Louis Pasteur and his assistant, Emile Roux, collect samples and deduce that disease can be transmitted through air. They then draw blood from the chickens and see an unidentified germ in the specimens. While Pasteur and Roux work with the samples of blood, Pasteur has a debilitating stroke. From his bed, he expresses his determination to live, and continues to work with Roux by writing him notes. He tells Roux to inject the chickens with the contaminated blood. The chickens ...

Young athletes are engaged in a wrestling match as the story begins. There is competition not only for the title but also for the culture. The Jews are being humiliated by the Greeks as the Greek government tried to overthrow the people and force the Jews to turn to the Greek religion. There is only one thing that a Jew can do. He can bow down and submit to the Greek authorities or he can run and hide and hope not to be caught as he practices the religion of his fathers. Mora is an old woman who has faith that all will be right in the end, and her long time young ...