Beast Legends starts tonight following the new Destination Truth episode. BL will air on SciFi at 10 Eastern with all the typical "subtract one hour" steps as you go toward the west coast.

The series opens with The Kraken, probably trying to capitalize on the recent remake of Clash of the Titans. Mehopes this new series is more memorable. Cheesy as it was, I liked the old 1981 version better, but I'm digressing.

"Francis and the team travel to Brest, France, to search for answers concerning the famous sailor's legend of the Kraken, a massive squid-like creature with tentacles powerful enough to smash ships' hulls and pull them to the bottom of the ocean."

We learn from this that one member's name is Francis. And since he's the only one mentioned, I can therefore assume that he is the head-honcho.

The Kraken that will be investigated is the true Kraken, not the one of the above-mentioned films. In Greek Mythology, the beast slain by Perseus is sometimes referred to as Ceto, personifying the dangers of the sea, and the word Cetacean (as well as the name of a constellation) evolved from this. What was that about digressing?

Anyway, the Kraken referred to here is the large squid- or octopus-like creature. It is part of Norwegian/Scandanavian legends as well as having some French ties (and a few other ties as well so I'm not sure why Brest). Tennyson immortalized the beast in 1830 in his poem The Kraken, and Jules Verne probably got some ideas from that when he wrote one of his undersea novels.

The previews look like some neat recreations were done, and lest we forget, we have a world-renown comic book artist on the team, too, so I'm quite optimistic. We'll see how strong that optimism is at 8:02 PM

They head to Brest so as to interview a racer whose boat was supposedly attacked by something resembling the Kraken off the Canary Islands. Some more info on the Kraken as pertains to this Episode:

http://www.beastlegends.com/episode-guide/the-kraken/

blinddog said:

What a load of crap!
Makes you look forward to Billy Rays' show.

Pretty much…my optimism faded pretty quick when the artist just started with "You know what would be cool, let's give it lasers" or whatever the heck he was making up. It was interesting from a special effects point of view, sort of a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at some monster movie, but as far as investigating legends…ptui!

HD…wait until you see it. I think they make that assumption, in fact the French racer said he was attacked by a squid, not a Kraken…the issue with this show is that they do no real investigating and quickly just start making up a monster. It seems all about the animation.

When I say making up a monster, I mean making it up, too. At one point there was an argument about putting spikes all over it, and another time whether or not it should be armored. Like I said, put "fricken lasers" on it and have done with it lol…although I think I may have actually heard the word lasers mentioned in jest during the show at one point.

blinddog said:

I must have blinked and missed the meaning of the trip up the mast and the red cloth.
Explanation?

This was so that the animators could see what big tentacles looked like being thrust out of the ocean to the very top of the ship. This was flawed in so many ways. To pull a ship down, there is no need for the tentacles to reach the very top of the mast. A little ways up would be perfect for the octopus/squid to use the mast as a lever to pull the ship over, thus the creature could be much smaller than they ended up with.

I think the main reason for the trip up the mast was time killer and drama, though, especially when they didn't use that vantage point in their little screening at the end.