ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham

The Dark Knight has been the subject of most of DC Comics' Elseworlds library of titles, many of which have gotten their own animated adaptations such as Gotham By Gaslight. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola along with Richard Pace wrote the original macabre mini-series of Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft to much praise, so Warner Bros. knew it would make for a decent feature. Most of Batman's dealings with the supernatural were covered in the Justice League Dark titles, but placing him an early time on a totally different world take his adventures along the lines demon slaying.

Taking place in the 1920s, Bruce Wayne has been touring the world on his ship learning the skills he required to bring justice to the city that took his parents from him, along with a trio of orphans he picked up along his travels. The millionaire orphan looks into an Antarctic expedition that his family's friend Oswald Cobblepot went missing in the polar wilderness, and he travels to find a cave housing a frozen den of monsters along with a single survivor who here is an explorer that gouged his own eyes out to prevent from going completely insane. Bruce keeps the survivor literally on ice to not possibly spread a plague he has from spreading, thus making him a variation of Mr. Freeze, then the Wayne party ships off for Gotham where Bruce finds the corpse of bat expert Kirk Langstrom lying in his manor. Along with this universe's versions of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Cassandra Cain, Bruce runs into his old ally Oliver Queen who is afraid that the truth behind Gotham's prosperity goes back to the sins created by both of their fathers. Dawning his bat-themed crusader outfit, Bruce now goes as Batman to solve the mystery which now has its own takes on Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and Killer Croc. The al Ghul clan consisting of the exotic Talia uses magic to resurrect her father Ra's from the dead are the ones behind the plot to open a doorway into the realm of outer gods to be unleashed upon Gotham. Ra's comes out as the earthly incarnation of Cthulhu planning to unleash his master, the abomination known as Iog-Sotha. The only way Batman can stand up to this is to call upon the help of the trapped demon Etrigan as well as giving into Iog-Sotha's counter deity permanently transforming into a human-bat hybrid.

The movie's adapting of the original story does turn out exceptionally, even though the narrative needs to stop each time it introduces another resident DC Comics character with their own complex history. The scale of Gotham is particularly eerie with the grimy city being overwhelmed by living nightmares, and the addition of gothic monsters makes Batman seem like the most human character in his own movie. One of the few glaring drawbacks in this despite this being essentially Year One of this Batman's career, numerous allies and adversaries are instantly aware of his secret identity including the clairvoyant Barbara Gordon who here is a genuine "oracle". The production level on the feature's animated quality is above the grade for DC Animation most notably on the twisted versions of their standard characters. The voice cast is amazing too with David Giuntoli replaying Batman after Soul Of The Dragon, and Jeffrey Combs returning to Lovecraftian horror as the disembodied voice of the deceased would-be Man-Bat. The comic series is recommended to read after watching this to get the fully realized story, even though the animated version is one of the better additions to your DC Comics video library.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Crimson Wolf

The 1990's were a smorgasbord of insane OVA pitches of which Crimson Wolf is one of the largest smelly chunks of cheese taking up space at various Blockbuster Videos and comic book stores. This one-shot was an original idea by Shoichi Masuo who also directed bombastic anime like Baoh and Otaku No Video. As it wasn't based on an existing property like an ongoing manga, Crimson Wolf desperately suffers from trying to shove too many characters, insane ideas, and unrelated plot complications into a single hour-long feature as if it was planned to at least be a multi-episode series. This incoherent mess of martial arts, government conspiracies, artificial intelligence, and supernatural forces is borderline being one of those "it's so bad, it's good" titles.

Some archeologists do like all archeologists do in these stories by unintentionally releasing an evil curse upon the world from Genghis Khan's tomb where ancient spirit declares that mankind will engage in a catastrophe within a thousand days. The only thing that can prevent this prophecy are three individuals each marked with a wolf-shaped scar, one of which being a street fighter wannabe who can make people's heads explode, as well as a frequently naked female window cleaner. The two of them are brought together by a mercenary who is inevitably revealed as the third member of their trio. They all put their differences behind them to stop a dark organization operated by a supercomputer posing as a politician. The evil AI is really the living embodiment of former Chinese tyrants like Mao Zedong, and they all morph into a giant four-headed dragon that our chosen ones have to bust out all their latent Super-Saiyan powers to battle this kaiju nightmare, or at least for the next millennium.

Crimson Wolf is stuffed to the gills in cluelessness and a total lack of having any real plan. It is difficult to keep up with the constantly shifting plotlines where people go from being common fighters to full-blown superheroes at the drop of a hat. The animation itself is fair enough, but trying to figure out where the story is going will just give you a headache. This was dubbed under the eye of Robotech's Carl Macek through Streamline Pictures which helped crack the door open for American audiences into exploring anime. The VHS and DVD releases weren't as numerous as 90s blockbusters like Ghost In The Shell, so finding a mint condition copy of it will take an otherworldly effort if you think it's worth the pain of watching such an exhausting brain fart.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Rescuers Down Under

Where the original movie didn't make as much of an impact in its initial premiere, the sequel that came out over a decade later was able to ride off the success of the previous Disney release of The Little Mermaid. The Rescuers Down Under had a broader canvas to fill in along with it being one of the first Disney animated films that started taking CGI technology seriously as well as the world's first fully digitally created movie, plus it was the first theatrical animated continuation of a prior production before Disney began making a cold fortune in made-for-video sequels. Being still released at the dawn of the Disney Renaissance, it didn't bring in the numbers at the box office as audiences wanted something flavored to Disney's earlier animated tales instead of a follow up to a less than memorable outing, but coming out the same weekend as the original Home Alone wasn't helpful either.

Since mice only live for about a maximum of two years, the sequel probably didn't take place too long after the first movie, so Miss Bianca and Bernard are still in the Rescue Aid Society which is an international organization of mice dedicated to saving children from threats around the world. Their latest case is a young boy in Australia named Cody who secretly helps out the animals of the outback. He finds a golden eagle called Marahute which is unusual as that breed of bird is regularly located in the Norther Hemisphere. The eagle is being hunted by the nasty poacher McCleach and his reptile sidekick Joanna who have already killed the eagle's mate, and now Cody is dedicated to keeping Marahute and her eggs safe. Our young hero falls into one of McCleach's traps as he discovers one of the eagle's feathers on him, so the poacher kidnaps him with word of this making all the way to the RAS in New York. Bianca and Bernard are given the mission to save Cody, and they hire the albatross Wilbur who in this movie is the brother of the previous film's Orville so they can get to the outback. Once finally in Australia, the rescuers get help from the Crocodile Dundee wannabee mouse Jake to find Cody while Orville spends some time under the medical care of an extreme doctor after the bird hurts his back on landing. Cody tries to break out of McCleach's hideout with some of the other captured animals as he can communicate with animals, but McCleach tricks him into thinking that Marahute was already shot by a different hunter knowing that the boy would lead him to the eagle's nest. McCleach catches the eagle along with the Cody again as wells as Bianca and Jake, leaving the staggered Bernard to man up and convince a razorback to ride him to a crocodile den where McCleach plans to do away with Cody. Bernard does free his friends with McCleach falling to his supposed death similar to several other Disney villains. The film ends with Marahute's eggs being hatched by Orville, but also with Cody's animal friends still being imprisoned in McCleach's lair.

The Rescuers sequel seriously revved up Disney animation for their renaissance of the 90s at least as far as their emerging into the digital age. The cast is amazing with Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor returning to reprise their roles, as well as John Candy in one his funniest performances as Orville, plus George C. Scott as McCleach is truly underrated in his portrayal of McCleac as one the more despicable Disney villains. The Rescuers Down Under doesn't require you to watch the lackluster original installment in order to enjoy it as the 180 turn it takes in quality and entertainment make this an incredible evolution for theatrical animation.

ANI-MOVIES, *Ai City

Ai City was a short-lived manga that lasted 2 volumes in the mid-80s and was turned into an anime feature AIC studio. The 1986 movie has been released in English only once through Right Stuf on subtitled VHS as their first original anime home video market release. Koichi Mashimo directed this a year before he handled the Dirty Pair anime movie, so you can see his signature of energetic design in psychedelic action scenes, some of which might cause real seizures if watched for too long. Even though the manga was limited, the anime adaptation tries to add far more dialogue, characters, and subplots that a full-length production can handle. Anything from laser-toting Playboy bunnies, transformers, esper assassins, cyborg soldiers, and a giant Akira-type kaiju keeps the narrative shifting from one genre to another which probably is what kept it from becoming a memorable release on either side of the world.

Set in what is possibly a digital simulation or a giant psychic projection, the young man Kei was a test subject for an underground scientific organization called Fraud that modified K for their bio-cybernetic experiments. Kei escapes their clutches along with Ai, a young clone of his dead girlfriend. During their daring chase, they pick up a genetically altered house cat, a drunk former cop turned private eye, and an amnesiac older clone of Ai who helps them after falling for the detective. Fraud is after Ai because she is the key to activating a world-altering psychic event labeled the Trigger, but they also have to contend with their pervy ex-head scientist who spends the entire time naked inside a liquid vat riding a large mecha suit. Ai is eventually abducted by Fraud leading to a long series of battles that seem like they are right out of an 80's sidescrolling video game, which then gets a Groundhog Day conclusion reopening at the beginning of the film leaving the viewer wondering if everything they just watched was a dream or a timeloop.

Ai City(also titled Love City)tried to throw in everything but the kitchen sink in its anime adaptation, similarly to how Project A-Ko did even though this was not intended as a parody. There are numerous examples of bizarre exchanges between the characters like vaguely mentioned rivalries or affairs on between both the good and bad guys, specifically when the majority of the bad guys are psychically freed of their mania right before the genetic abomination monster that appears nears the end. They try to stuff so much into a single feature with conflicting plots and gratuitous fan service that it rolls out as an incoherent experience that even hardcore cyberpunk fans will have trouble with, even if they have a bag full of weed to get through it all.

ANI-MOVIES, *Bambi II

"An actually good made-for-video animated Disney follow up?" Bambi II was a 2006 midquel to the original 1942 classic taking place during the title character's awkward teenage years. The midquel theme was something that Disney has done before with additional releases like Beauty And The Beast or The Fox And The Hound, but this film put forth a genuine effort to making it an addition to the original's timeline, as well as in comparing its quality. Disneytoon Studios was an additional department of the main Disney Entertainment that handled the production of Bambi II, a separate animation division that specialized in creating full-length spinoffs to other Disney titles such as Duck Tales and Tinkerbell.

Taking place during the original movie just after Bambi's mother was shot, the young prince is now watched over by his father, The Great Prince, voiced amazingly by Sir Patrick Stewart. TGP has difficulty maintaining his position as guardian of the forest while taking on the task of being a full-time single parent. Bambi gets to spend time with his friends Thumper and Flower but learns to mature by following his father's lead. The father and son bond over the course of the long winter and manage to spare the forest's inhabitants from being hunted down by man. This all apparently takes place before the point in the original movie where Bambi emerges at the beginning of spring and gets "twitterpated".

Bambi II is an honestly sincere tribute to the prior film working through the trauma of a young child losing one of his parents while having to trust the other for guidance and familial love. Disneytoon outdid themselves in keeping the style of beauty that the first movie set as a standard in the annals of animated history. If the shock of having a beloved character getting killed off from the original traumatized you as a kid, then Bambi II might help as a good coping mechanism for both fictional and real life people.

ANI-MOVIES, *Lensman: Secret Of The Lens

Similar to Captain Future, the Lensman anime movie was also based on a series of stories featured in American pulp fiction magazines. The original saga was written by E. E. Smith who was considered to be the father of space operas, and his work went on to inspire several science-fiction sagas like Green Lantern Corps. Yoshiaki Kawajiri began his adaptations of American media like Batman, Highlander, and The Matrix when he directed this Madhouse production from 1984 which was one of the first anime to implement computer animation. The original source material was riding off the success of sci-fi action like Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon, and its fame spread to Japan in later decades along with buzz that the original Star Wars trilogy sparked off which added to the modernized take of this classic series.

Young farmboy Kim Kinnison works on a distant world with his father, but their simple life is interrupted when one of the Galactic Patrol's special officers known as Lensmen each of whom are grafted with a nearly magical lens on their hands which allows the user special abilites. The dying Lensman wills his lens to be planted onto Kim is now tasked to carry the lens' secret data to the Galactic Patrol to help them defeat the invading Boskone(which actually has its own sci-fi con named after it!)Empire. Kim dodges the Boskone destruction of his planet along with his beast-man friend Buskirk when they are both rescued by a Galactic Patrol ship. Female officer Clarissa is ordered to help the two of them escape another Boskone attack as they eventually crash land on a dystopian world under the empire's thumb. Kim has to spring Buskirk from an enemy prison which leads into one of the longest chase scenes in the history of anime. Clarissa is kidnapped by Boskone's grand poobah Helmuth where Kim has to finally use the secret power of his lens to finally defeat the dark lord and his evil empire.

Lensman: Secret Of The Lens has some groundbreaking animation, specifically the blending of the earliest form of CGI with traditional hand drawn productions with its dynamic dogfights, surrealistic action scenes right out of an 80's video game, and a space rave that literally brings down the house. There are at least two separate dubs done of this film, one by Robotech's Harmony Gold, the other by Streamline Pictures, with various VHS and LD releases some of which are slightly edited. There has been no DVD or Blu-Ray release in English, and it is currently not available for streaming, so if you happen to get a video cassette copy of this classic space adventure make sure you hold on to it as it is probably worth a small fortune on Ebay. If you're interested, there are also a trilogy of American created comic book mini-series published by Eternity Comics in the early 90s

Happy 90th Birthday, King Kong!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Blue Sonnet

Prior to his fanservice filled manga Sarai, Masahiro Shibata created a mid-80s series titled Blue Sonnet, a shoujo comic with severed body parts and mass destruction. This was high off the semi-successful run of manga featuring young people with psychic powers, partially a take on X-Men which frequently featuring Japanese teenagers. Ultraman anime director Takeyuki Kanda directed a 5-episode OVA created by studios Mushi and Tatsunoko beginning in 1989. It was released in English on VHS and LD by Central Park Media in Japanese with subtitles, but there was also a dubbed British VHS version which never got an American release.

Sonnet is a blue-haired esper who was modified into a cyborg by the Talon organization that claim to be working toward peaceful purposes although they are really scheming to find a power once used by ancient superhumans called the Red Fang to take over the world. Sonnet is ordered by Simon Bar Sinister lookalike Dr. Merekes to investigate a girl in Japan who might have inherited the Red Fang potential named Ran. The bionic psychic Sonnet slips into the role of a "platinum blonde" with blue hair at Ran's school and begins a series of accidents using her mind powers to test Ran's abilities, to which she is repeatedly foiled by former Talon psychic agent Bird seeking to protect Ran from their plans. Ran lives with her brother and uncle as she was in a helicopter accident as a baby and raised by wolves, the experience she blocked out of her memory while her new esper powers are beginning to emerge. We learn throughout the series that these powers don't just include mind-reading, but teleportation, telekinesis, and energy beams, so many of the fight sequences have levels of gore seen in something like Akira or Riki-Oh. Alliances are made as well as broken to the end of the anime including the final episode setting up what would have been a continuation of the OVA if it had gotten a second story arc.

Blue Sonnet never really received the kind of accolades that other anime did from the early days of OVAs, not even getting a DVD or English streaming release. You would have to seriously look around for the two VHS volumes that Central Park Media did, although if you can get a copy of the British release by Manga Entertainment then give it a spin because it one of those "so good it's bad" dubs.