ANI-MOVIES, *God Mars: The Movie

Gigantor creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama also created another mecha manga in the mid-70s titled Mars. This was adapted into a 64-episode anime TV series in 1981 titled God Mars that was slightly successful, which in turn was edited into a compilation film called God Mars: The Movie in 1982. How do you fit a 64-episode TV series into a 97-minute long movie? You chop it to bits! The film quickly shifts from one scene to the other usually with no transition at all, and at the same time concludes with the plot left dangling replaced by a semi-original ending. The movie had first been given more than one release in America on VHS, but only recently got put on streaming and Blu-Ray along with the entire TV series, although every version is in Japanese with subtitles. You might get a better experience with the full TV series, but you should make up your own mind on this film.

Set in the far-off year of 1999, mankind is just branching out into the universe because of advances in their technology. This doesn't set well with the evil Emporer Zul, ruler of the planet Gishin and its forces. Years ago, Zul had sent a child to Earth to become the pilot of a giant robot named Gaia whose anti-proton bomb could destroy the planet if humans got to far in space exploration that it might upset the aliens' plans for galactic domination. The baby was Mars, the son of the Gishin scientist who created Gaia but was killed by Zul for opposing his plans for conquest. Mars grew up as a regular human and only learns of his alien heritage after the Gishin start attacking Earth, which is convenient as he's already on a special military team known as the Crusher Squad. Mars is bonded with Gaia which is a bright red mecha with the dopiest grin on its face that is piloted by Mars' newly-awakened psychic powers. A good portion of the film from this point on has Mars fighting against the Gishin forces while his twin brother Marg keeps get sent to confront him, even after Zul has Marg's memory wiped, making Marg this anime's version of Tuxedo Mask. Marg eventually dies for real but keeps showing up as a Force ghost giving Mars spiritual advise. Zul himself eventually shows up on Earth as a giant mental projection that Mars in Gaia has trouble taking down. Fortunately, Mars discovers from a recording by his father that there were five other mecha stashed around the world which would have been more helpful before this climax. Mars is able to psychically pilot all the other mechas into combining with Gaia to create a larger gestalt robot called God Mars, and takes Zul into space and desperses all the anti-proton energy into the emporer's body causing a huge explosion. Zul's real form is revealed as a tremendous space tumor whose essence is now spread throughout the universe just waiting to eventually come back together. Mars brings Gaia and the other mecha back to Earth where its hinted that each of them will be piloted by the other members of the Crusher Squad as they await Zul's return in a sequel that never got made.

God Mars: The Movie does a reasonable enough job showcasing the original anime series condensed into a feature-length film, even though it is terribly obvious that much of the content was left out and that there was more story to come after the finale. The major drawback for this is that an anime movie about a giant robot barely shows the actual robot in it and only saves the bigger combiner robot form in the last few minutes of the film. If the intent for coming out with this theatrical cut was to draw more attention towards any toys in Japan that might have still been out at the time. It was easy for American distributors in the 90s to gain the license for the movie version of this on VHS, even though you're still getting a better shot at the series by watching the complete series.

MISC. MANGA, *Cthulhu Cat

After doing three manga titles about cats, creator Pandania continues his funny feline theme with Cthulhu Cat. This full-color one-shot special is Garfield meets Dagon as the book takes the H.P. Lovecraft mythos and bonds it with slice-of-life comedy. Even though the real-life Lovecraft had a cat he gave a racist name to, the enigmatic author had several stories where cats were secretly controlling the world, so combining the idea with his most popular elder gods seems like a winner of a dinner.

A regular Japanese guy finds an abandoned cat in a cardboard box, even though this one is green and has some small tentacles around his mouth. The Cthulhu kitty's new owner tries to buddy him with his current housecat which is largely ignorant to the Ancient One's background. After the man starts showing videos of his stray online, the meowing monster starts getting visits from various cults and churches looking to worship the hideous thing, while at the same time they all encounter cat versions of other Lovecraft entities like Yog-Sothoth who also stop by to chat with their fellow demonic deity. There's a reason why the tentacled tabby has been reborn as a semi-adorable cat, but that is largely inconsequential compared to the laughs it brings.

Cthulhu Cat embraces the madness of Lovecraftian horror and perfectly fuses it with Sanrio-themed adorableness. Despite the adult source material, the manga successfully manages to enchant all ages in a sensational stand-alone special.

ANI-MOVIES, *Phoenix 2772

One of Osamu Tezuka's earliest manga titles was Phoenix, an unusual anthology taking place at multiple times in human history all tying to the otherworldly entity of the Phoenix, a shapeshifting firebird. The manga ran for year in 1954, even though Tezuka never got around to doing a conclusion for it in the other 35 years of his life. In 1978, there was a full-length anime movie based on the manga that bombed, so another one in 1980 titled Phoenix 2772 was made to focus on a single person's adventure instead of several lifetimes chronicled in the prior film. This was released in English and retitled Space Firebird, and an even shorter cut of the dub was released in America with much of the coherence chopped out of it. Phoenix was Tezuka's big space opera outside of Astro Boy, but this second attempt at trying to adapt only a small chapter of the manga was met with some strong highs and lows. Tezuka himself directed it along with Taku Sugiyama under his Tezuka Productions, so the "God of Manga" was fully involved in this project. The entire experience was a nice chance for Tezuka to flex his animation muscles and get creative, including having the first ten minutes done with no dialogue at all. The downside to allowing Tezuka having this much freedom with his own production made a good portion of the movie being padded out with pointless cartoon shenanigans and instrumental suites that pad the film out and considering that this second adaptation of the manga was even shorter than the previous one, that is staggering in hindsight.

Set in the way off future, humans are created in test tubes and raised by robots. One such child is Godo who always treated his robot caretaker Olga as a friend, which is understandable as she gives off the appearance of vivacious blonde that is capable of multiple vehicle transformations. Godo becomes a pilot and falls for a rich girl engaged to his greedy brother who punishes him for this by sending him to a labor camp. Olga along with some wacky cartoon critters bust Godo out after he befriends fellow inmate Dr. Surata who plans on going in search of the legendary Phoenix to help revitalize the Earth which is dying from all its resources being plundered by humans. Godo and his crew take a shark-shaped ship away from yet another variation of Tezuka's central character of Blackjack who here is a prison warden. After a long intergalactic chase, the Phoenix damages Olga but revitalizes the robot and gives Godo an ideal life on a fruitful planet. Godo decides to bring much of this new planet's vegetation back to the dying Earth to harvest, although his efforts are for not as the planet just then starts going all Krypton. Godo and Olga are two of the only ones remaining and the Phoenix entity inside the robot says she'll reformat the Earth for the remaining survivors if Godo gives up his life. This works and humankind is given a fresh exodus while Godo is reborn as a baby and Olga turned into a living woman who has to raise her new child in a post-apocalyptic world.

After watching Phoenix 2772, you'll swear that End Of Evangelion ripped off its finale from this as they are hauntingly similar. Both the full-length and edited versions of the British dub suffer from standard acting usually done in Hong Kong kung-fu flicks. The original but incomplete manga has been released several times in English, and the Space Firebird dub was readily available on VHS through several different shady distributors from the 80s-90s due to their being no known existing license on it at the time. There's not currently a version of this streaming in North America, nor is there one on official DVD or Blu-Ray, so keep your eyes open for an old bootleg copy at your nearest used video store.

R.I.P. Tony Todd

 

Somehow, Palpatine got re-elected.

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Time Stranger

In 1981, the Super Robot craze was dying down in anime, and mechas was turning a little more toward realism as a machine of war like in Macross and Gundam. One of these anime caught in the middle of the transition was GoShogun, a 26-episode TV series that initially was released in America as part of the Macron-1 series which was glued to a completely unrelated mecha series similar to Voltron except that both shows were rewritten to be in the same universe. GoShogun was about three separate combat experts who become pilots of a combiner robot to fight a group of villains called Docooga vying for control over a new element called Beamier which could be used to conquer the world. The leader of the bad guys was Neoneros whose trio of generals would fight the GoShogun crew as they protected the human race, but he was so evil that his generals leave him and join forces with the goody guys to overthrow their boss. Four years after the series ended, an anime conclusion was made titled GoShogun: The Time Etranger which in many English markets has been renamed Time Stranger(no relation to the Time Stranger Kyoko manga). This took the sextet of heroes and former baddies into a totally different series which combines mysterious elements of Night Of The Living Dead and Jacob's Ladder and merged it with an 80s action romp normally starring Chuck Norris. The movie removes the mecha fighters and puts them in an otherworldly adventure like something out of The Twilight Zone but armed with a stockade of weapons the A-Team would have. This is a shocking turn when a sentai show ditches the robots and puts the Power Rangers in Carnival Of Souls.

Remy is the only female member of the GoShogun team and hasn't seen her commrades in forty years. On her way to a reunion with her two co-pilots, Remy stops a gang of terrorists in a high speed aircar chase, causing her to crash. All of her teammates converge at the hospital she was taken to and none of them seemed to have aged much in the last few decades, despite the fact that one of them is a big mutant clone. While her colleagues try to save her life, Remy is tied between flashbacks of her when she was an orphan trapped in a hole and a bizarre dream realm where she and all five of her mates are caught in a desert town infested by Muslim zombies, some of which attack on bicycles. In this hellscape, Remy is told by a childlike prophet that she will die\ in a few days from being torn apart by the rowdy locals. Deciding to fight against her death ticket, Remy and the rest of the GoShogun crew go totally commando on the whole town and their battle escalates to fighting a giant demon cat in an epic climax in a dusty graveyard. Whether or not any of this is really happening on some other level of consciousness or it's just a vision Remy is having before her final breath is never completely revealed.

Time Stranger is a departure from the main anime series that deconstructs the former hero trope when you take away all their sci-fi toys and have them fighting a radically opposite new foe. The real strange part is that there is no head bad dude for the heroes' confront, but simply the inevitable end that all mortals must face, whether it be in real life or an imaginary counterforce. The animation can shift from standard to monumental, particularly in the battle scenes where a small team of seasoned specialists have an arsenal that can take on an entire city of undead opponents. It is entirely possible to enjoy this solo movie on its own without seeing anything of the original TV series, although it gives you a bigger insight into the heroes' relationships and how the single female character was the centerpiece of their lives who was very capable of holding her own in a fight.

The Owl House: Love & Weirdos, A Look Into Disney's Witchcraft Cartoon

Disney Channel was looking for the next comedy/adventure cartoon to fit in their files like Gravity Falls and Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil that wasn't adjacent to the standard Mickeyverse. Since Harry Potter had long since wrapped up, a new fantasy with kids learning magic seemed like a good enough idea. Animator Dana Terrace presented her plan for a series titled The Owl House blending common witchcraft with modern day pop and folk culture. Even though it might at first look like an Americanized version of an isekai anime, the show went on to have its own sense of style with fluid animation, realistic characters, deep lore, and engaging voice actors. What truly caught the eye of casual animation fans was how it drew in viewers as it engaged those who might be seen as weirdos. The Owl House encompassed the depiction of physical, emotional, and mental barriers in a positive manner. It also heavily took into account the encumbrance facing those coming to terms with their own gender, sexuality, and personal identity. For a show to highlight representation this way on a family-centered network was the first steps that the series faced towards its own premature end.

Dana Terrace was a storyboarder on Gravity Falls who eventually became a director for the DuckTales reboot. She took influence from anime like Utena and Pokemon, plus Tenchi Muyo which is evident as Eda's design is a clear copy of Ryoko. After working on DuckTales, Dana pitched the idea of a fantasy/adventure to Disney in 2018, and was greenlit at the same time as Amphibia, of which both shows are secretly in a shared universe.

Season One came out in 2020 with 19 episodes. Season Two was given 21 episodes in 2021. Season Three was trimmed to just a trio of hour-long specials instead of 20 regular episodes. Disney roped in the show as its serialized nature wasn't bringing in successful ratings. Part of the problem with this was because of episode leaks, although the major reason Disney cut the series short was largely due to the backlash from conservative parents on the show's open depictions of LGBTQ+ characters and all-inclusive nature which didn't fit into the company's standards at the time. This lead to a lot censoring of non-heteronormative material in foreign markets despite the show's strong fan following for it being all-inclusive.

The cast is vastly diverse with many professional voice actors and some with minimal voice over experience. Sarah Nicole Robles is the main character of Luz who only had some past credits in Disney dubs. Wendie Malick is Eda who had decades of experience in sitcoms, as well animation voice overs in Bojack Horseman and The Emperor's New Groove. Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch pulls double-duty as both King and Hooty. Tinkerbell herself Mae Whitman plays Amity. Anime VA regular Zeno Robinson is Hunter. Another anime veteran is Mela Lee as Kikimoa. Matthew Rhys is Bellos who later went on to do voices for Tuca And Bertie as well as the Watchmen duology. Cissy Jones is Lillith and afterwards played Elita-1 in Transformers. Former Bumblebee voice Bumper Johnson is Principal Bump, Michaela Deitz who played Amethyst on Steven Universe is the shapeshifting Vee. Rachel MacFarlane from American Dad is Odalia. The Collector's actor Fryda Wolff has indentified herself as bisexual. Non-binary actor Avi Roque portrays the similarly non-binary Raine. Also included were Tati Gabrielle as Willow and Issac Ryan Brown as Gus.

Dana Terrace's original pilot had Amity being a witch disguised in the human world that Luz fell for and follows to the Boiling Islands. Luz gets stuck in the Demon Realm helping Eda escape her sister Lillith that here is the principal of Hexside. In the original story, Eda secretly works for Bellos who wants her to bring in the one human for him to inspect.

The main synopsis of The Owl House is that it takes place in another dimension called the Demon Realm. Luz is an Afro-Latina who moved to Gravesfield, Ohio so her mother Camila could get medical help for sick father. After her father's death, Luz is sent to a neurodivergent summer camp as she has ADHD. Instead of getting on the bus to camp, she winds up following an owl into an abandoned house which leads to The Boiling Isles that are the remains of a dead Titan where she meets Eda Clawthorne, the Owl Lady, a witch who promises to teach Luz magic. Eda had adopted a young creature she named King who thinks he is the lost king of demons. Luz attends the Hexside School where she befriends Amity, a stuck up girl who eventually changed her ways and formed a romantic relationship with Luz that recognized herself as bisexual.

The Boiling Isles is run by Emperor Bellos, who in reality is Phillip Whitebane, a witch hunter from the 1600s whose brother Caleb supposedly fell for a witch named Evelyn. Phillip makes clones of Caleb called Grimwalkers to act as his Golden Guard, the latest one of which is Hunter. Belos also stays alive through methods of cloning, plus consuming Palismans. Belos can inhabit bodies by splitting his soul. It’s possible that every split makes each version a totally different Belos, meaning the real one has been dead for years. He became emperor after setting up the Coven system. Each coven is broken up into 9 different systems: Emperor’s, Abomination, Bard, Beast Keeping, Construction, Healing, Illusion, Oracle, Plant, and Potions. Belos established these to utilize Titan's blood on the Boiling Isles which would allow him to open the portal door back to the human world.

Wild magic is the only kind outlawed by Belos because he couldn't control it. Evelyn was a wild witch that seduced Caleb, as well as being Eda’s ancestor. Flapjack was probably Evelyn’s Palisman. It's strange that in the series finale Eda eventually sets up her own school of wild magic which is paradoxical to her philosophy of being an individual as passing on what she’s learned can conform others into her own lifestyle. Eda resides in what's called The Owl House that was originally used by her father who fashioned Palismans. The house is inhabited by a bizarre owl demon with a long neck attached to the front door called Hooty

The enigmatic character of the Collector is part of a cosmic group called The Archivists who trapped him in the Demon Realm. The Archivists removed all the Titans because their power cancels out their own, so they either did this as an act of preservation or just plain old spite. King’s father was the last remaining Titan who took his hatred for The Archivists out on The Collector and left him on an island that was really his hand sealed off in another dimension with Titan Trappers that worshipped The Collector as a god. This is where King learns of his true heritage as a titan. Bellos finds The Collector's prision in a disc in his early days as Phillip because of a trip that Luz and Lillith took to the past in what is referred to a Time Pools.

The entire plot of The Owl House is one giant causality loop. A future timeline that only exists because someone went back in the past to set it up in the first place. Luz and Lillith were supposed to find the Time Pools, go back and meet the younger Phillip Whitebane, which in turn lead him to The Collector. This isn’t a fate vs. destiny debate because it's on a fixed timeline. Even though this timeline has been established, it’s possible to change it, and equally possible that Luz and Lillith ended up in a completely different reality when they travelled back to the future/present.

In a causality loop, even in a fixed timeline, it can be diverted. Chaos is a major factor in its creation, and the forces of order and chaos are constantly pulling at each other to close the loop or collapse it, either effect would replace it with a different timeline. When these forces are working against each other, reality can be radically altered in numerous ways. People who died can be brought back to life in one way or another, as well as someone temporarily gaining powers that they never had before. Bellos likely hired Lillith to begin with to keep her close so he could manipulate her into going back in time in the first place, a possibility he learned through oracle magic.

The Owl House utilizes the concept the Time Pools very well as they work under the principle of chronomancy, not time travel. Chronomancy is the magical manipulation of temporal energy, whereas time travel is the scientific and occasionally natural navigation of timestreams. Chronomancy is largely paradox free, even though order and chaos will still tug at both ends to cause a probability collapse. How this would ultimately resolve can only be answered in whatever aftermath there is upon its conclusion.

Eda would have been one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles if it weren't for a curse placed on her. Despite her potent mastery of wild magic, Eda periodically transforms into what's called the Owl Beast leaving her unable to use magic. The owl curse stems from one of the Archivists who captured the actual Owl Beast and sealed it inside a scroll. Eda's sister Lillith placed this curse on Eda when they were younger which she now has to take an elixir for on an almost daily basis to keep it under control. Eda's curse is a metaphor for someone stricken with disability and having to adjust to their new way of living after a life-altering incident.

Amity begins the series disliking Luz because she only cared about social status. This was changed when she realized Luz was sincere in her honesty, and how wrong her parents were when it came to treating her fellow students. Amity was originally childhood friends with Willow but ditched her when pressured by her mother. Willow’s abandonment by the other students helped her discover the strength of her inner self to overcome her status quo. Amity saw this and left Boscha’s highbrow crowd to embrace this philosophy, which also lead to her becoming attracted to Luz.

In the beginning, The Titan itself had the mysterious Bat Queen as its Palisman, even though her size doesn't compare to that of the Palisman which act as a witch's familiar or animus figure. When Luz finally meets the Titan near the end of the series, it is shown that he has a demon growing out his eye that looks like Hooty, even though what the connection between the two is never explained. All magic on the Boiling Isles stems from what’s left of the Titan’s spirit. Evelyn found the Titan’s missing eye and used it to make the portal door. The Titan’s spirit exists in the In Between, a subspace within the Demon Realm which acts as the portal dimension that leads to Earth.

The Owl House has a huge theme of neurodiversity. The Coven system is an allegory for conformity, and Luz’s desire to study more than one form of magic showcases her lack of being able to focus on a single goal. This is partially due to her ADHD and lack of foresight. Luz’s sense of alienation is why she adapts to the Demon Realm so well. Her anxiety also drives her while holding her back at the same time which prevents her from fitting in with her more conventional peers.

This series also manages to spotlight on living with a disability. Eda's curse is a living example of this as it prevents her from using her magic that she keeps boasting about, and she’s afraid her beast mode might harm any of her loved ones. It could be seen as someone recovering from substance abuse, except this is a real curse and Eda needs to take medication to keep it in check. The Owl Beast curse also prematurely aged Eda physically which is a good way of illustrating how a handicap can limit a person's lifestyle.

One thing that The Owl House shined brightest was in its transgender representation. Eda's old friend Raine Whispers is non-binary, but they broke up with her when Eda didn't open up about her curse. Eda tried to rekindle their relationship, despite the fact that Raine was secretly leading a rebellion against Bellos all while being a coven head. Non-binary characters aren't that abundant in most TV series, but here they are given the respect and dignity that any binary person would.

LGBTQ+ was equally given as much attention in the series. In the beginning, Luz was shown as heterosexual, even though over time she slowly gains feeling for Amity who is initially implied to be a lesbian. The two of them officially become a couple halfway through Season 2, and their relationship grows from there, including one of the first animated same-sex kisses. Unfortunately, their romance gets more airtime in the Disney Chibi shorts than the actual Owl House TV show possibly due to the series being cut short. Willow's fathers are also a fine example of gay delineation. It’s likely that gender and racial diversity in the Demon Realm wasn't considered a negative issue which might have been part of Belos’ puritan crusade to rid the world of witches.

Trauma and PTSD are also major factors that were brought to the forefront in The Owl House. Luz is still reeling from the death of her father and trying to be accepted in school, while her mother Camila also had trouble growing up and is now a widow doubled with being a single parent who is defensive about her only child. Hunter is shocked that his entire existence is a lie as he was created solely to be part of his uncle's evil scheme, and he deals with it by running away to find comfort with those who understood about being critically distraught. Willow and Gus first bonded over both of them being social outcasts. Eda is constantly stressed that she can't use her magic anymore and has to make a living selling human junk since she doesn't trust anyone in authority. Lillith is stricken with guilt when she reveals it was her that cursed Eda, even though she now shares the curse that also causes her to fret adjusting to her new handicap. King has identity issues since his origins were at first a mystery, and after he learns he was really a titan, he worries that he won't live up to his father's legacy. The Collector had it worse than anyone as his own people tricked him into being isolated and as they snatched up all his young Titan friends, then he got sealed away by King's dad and reduced to a mere shadow who trusted Bellos to release him, only to be betrayed again despite all his reality-warping powers.

The Owl House's tragically brief time on general streaming TV was enough to make it notable among regular Disney watchers and its theme of inclusion to those some would refer to as weirdos. Even though they stick together, the weirdos' wish to be understood and accepted is a universal message that anyone intelligent enough should be able to pick up on.

MISC. MANGA, *Fairy Tail

Hiro Mishima had a decent amount of success with his first serial Rave Master that got an anime adaptation with a catchy theme song by Reel Big Fish done for the American dub. His next manga had ties to the same universe in this pseudo-spinoff titled Fairy Tail. Whereas One Piece could be seen as "pirate-punk", this genre of this manga would be something along the lines of "fantasy-punk". The manga was first picked up for American readers by Del Rey Books who went defunct in 2010, so Kodansha picked it up after reprinting the volumes that were already released. The anime adaptation has become one of the most successful releases among American otaku, and its follow-up, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest has just come out in Japan with western fans salivating for the latest installments.

Lucy Heartfilia is a young summoner who is looking to join the guild of rowdy wizards known as Fairy Tail. After an experience with a poser magician, Lucy comes across Natsu Dragneel, a member of Fairy Tail that was raised by a dragon. In their first mission together, they take their winged talking cat colleague Happy on a mission to the mountains investigating the disappearance of fellow wizard Macao who got turned into a horny primate. From this point on, we learn more about Natsu's mysterious past, and the revelation of a secret cabal of villains who are plotting their demise just to relieve their boredom.

With two hit anime TV series, a pair of full-length animated movies, and a series of OVA specials, Fairy Tail has left its mark in anime fandom. Their adventures do include a brief crossover with the Rave Master cast. Whether this will lead to a Hiro Mishima multiverse is yet to be revealed. The manga is dynamic, even though it does give into a much of the anime cliches of characters doing cartoon takes of being surprised or the males lusting over the females in a way that's borderline creepy. Fairy Tail is not for kids, but young adult readers who are looking for a little more adventure in their fantasy stories should be satisfied.

R.I.P. Greg Hildebrandt

 

R.I.P. Teri Garr

ANI-MOVIES, *Wendell And Wild

The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick hadn't been involved in a movie since Coraline in 2009, so when comedy-turned horror filmmaker Jordan Peele got together with him to produce a movie based on his unpublished book, it seemed like a great deal. Wendell And Wild is a stop-motion animation feature that premiered on Netflix in 2022 and directed by Peele's longtime collaborator Win Rosenfield. As far as an animated feature, it's above average, not exactly as overwhelming as something you would see in a Aardman or Laika production, even though still engaging to the eye. The problem is that the story is all over the place with and endless barrage of plot points that keep getting tacked on to it at breakneck speed. The overall narrative refuses to stick to a single idea for any in depth amount of time largely stuffed totally unrelated filler. The film suffers from a nagging habit of going from one unconnected scene after the other while losing its focus with its overall message.

Kat is an orphan whose parents are killed in a car accident she blames herself for when she was younger. Years later, she's become a punk rebelling against the system proudly playing her dad's old boombox as loud as possible. She returns to her hometown of Rust Bank and is enrolled in a Catholic school for girls. The town was originally supported by a soft drink brewery run by Kat's parents that was later burned down. A corrupt company called Klaxon Korp has slowly been buying up Rust Bank to create their own specialized prison. Kat doesn't make friends with any of her new schoolmates including the only trans student Raul, although he has his own agenda painting pieces of a huge painting over all the rooftops in town. Meanwhile, the title characters of Wendell and Wild are demon brothers toiling in the underworld spending their days planting hair plugs in their gigantic demon father's skull who has an amusement park on his gut where he tortures lost souls. Wendell and Wild discover that Kat is what's called a hell maiden and has a paranormal connection to the spirit world that gives her precognition. The brothers make contact with Kat and get her to summon them upstairs so they can set up their own theme park with blackjack and hookers. In exchange, Wendell and Wild promise to restore parents back to life thanks to their magic hair cream, even though the effects are only temporary. From this point on, the plot channel surfs between conflicting ideas and concepts, most of which never get resolved in the end. There's a nun at the school who is also a hell maiden, a disabled janitor that catches demons with her, and the evil school head who gets killed by the Klaxons but is resurrected by the demon brothers all working on a scheme to help the Klaxon Korp take over the town, even though they killed him! Some of the characters are well-meaning and honestly decent, but most are selfish and don't care who they use to get what they want even with good intentions. It's very hard to accept how abrupt the movie ends with its eternal barrage of expositions trying to explain the character's motives and backstories.

Wendell And Wild tries to shove too many social commentaries into a single feature. There's trans-representation, anti-industry, corporate greed, crooked religious authorities, and considering that the main crux of the film is about demonic mojo you would expect a little more under the topics of sins and succumbing to selfishness. One of the only saving graces is the adorable pygmy goat that acts as the film's token cute animal character that you could see someone making plushies of. This movie is a stunning viewing experience that could have neen quaint to see on the big screen even though its being limited to Netflix. Henry Selick might have had a good enough story in his original book, but Jordan Peele's input might have added more to the overall production than it was capable of handling, even in an animated movie. Peele is good at modern day thrillers, although Wendell And Wild can barely keep its head above water with all the political criticism which denies the audience a satisfying watch.

ANI-MOVIES, *Hellboy: Blood And Iron

The second and so far final outing of Hellboy's animated movies is Blood And Iron. There was a stinger at the end of this movie hinting at a possible third feature highlighting the spinoff character Lobster Johnson, but the only extension into the Hellboy universe included in this was a short available only on the physical release titled The Red Shoes where Hellboy hunts down a small demon. Blood And Iron was animated by Madhouse along with Film Roman and tried to create a darker mood than was used in Sword Of Storms, but the angular character designs and brightened backgrounds rob the movie of any real chance of that. Most of the regular voice actors from the previous film are back including John Hurt reprising his role of Professor Broom, and James Arnold Taylor portraying the younger version of Broom. Oddly enough, there are a few scenes where Taylor is filling in some additional vocals for the modern day Broom's dialogue, possibly due to John Hurt's availability at the time. Other voice actors included Jim Cummings, Grey DeLisle, and Cree Summer. The story folds out in two separate paths, one of the early Prof. Broom's adventure when he was trying to kill the vampire noble Erzsebet prior to his first meeting with Hellboy, except that its flashbacks shown in reverse chronological order, and the rest of the movie is set in modern day.

Hellboy and Abe tackle a clockwork minotaur in the legendary Labyrinth and are later called into help secure the authenticity of a haunted mansion in the Hamptons recently bought by a huge backer of the BPRD. Prof. Broom, Liz Sherman, and newbie Sydney go along to investigate whether this house really has any ghosts. The rich guy in question is a dead ringer for Xanatos from Gargoyles, and wants to turn the mansion into a tourist attraction by bringing a ton of artifacts from the home of the dead vampire Erzsebet who worshipped the Greek goddess Hecate. Part of Hecate's essence was sealed up in an old iron maiden which two witch harpy sisters are literally raising spirits to bring back to life. Hellboy and crew have to deal with pesky non-confrontational ghosts, a werewolf, a den of giant snakes, and the resurrected Erzsebet herself who Broom does away with via holy water. Hellboy himself gets into a slugfest with the awakened spirit of Hecate now in a giant iron body who was defeated after being exposed to sunlight.

Hellboy: Blood And Iron was partially based on the Wake The Devil storyline by creator Mike Mignola, but clearly went in its own direction. The movie does have shades of old Hammer Horrors but curbed even for modern day viewers. For a Hellboy adventure, the title character is a secondary character in his own movie and used only for when he's fighting goliaths. It's not set in the same continuity as any of the live-action movies as Prof. Broom is still alive in it, although possibly a prequel to the Guillermo del Toro duology. This movie catches the look and feel of your average Hellboy comic book, but you would be better off with Sword Of Storms if you want a more epic action fantasy.

Justice League Action: You Missed Out On A Great Show

After Cartoon Network dropped DC Nation, they were relying solely on Teen Titans Go as the only intake on their lineup of parent company Warner Bros’ comics publisher. The Arrowverse was in full swing, so a show that would bring children's attention to the Justice League was overdue. Young Justice didn’t count since they were a team operating under the League, so a cartoon that would motivate kids into buying a new brand of action figures was the answer. Unlike Young Justice, they produced some toys from Mattel to go along with this second Justice League animated series titled Justice League Action. This merchandise included some toys at Burger King that they had in their King Jr. Meals that were in rotation for years after JLA was cancelled. The regular action figures didn’t sell as big as your regular Turtles or Transformers at the time.

Justice League Action only lasted for 52 episodes until its cancellation, each one only took up 15 minutes of screentime that got a single weekly airing on early Saturday mornings. It's easy to see that Cartoon Network could have planned for this to air with two episodes back-to-back for a single half-hour, but for some reason they kept it to a scant single episode once a week. Despite all the talent they poured into it, Cartoon Network seemed to have a secret agenda with sabotaging their own production.

Warner Bros. Animation oversaw the show’s production with Sam Register as executive producer who was smart enough to give Lauren Faust’s DC Super Hero Girls a TV series. Producers included Alan Burnett who was involved in nearly every DC animated gig since the original Super Friends, plus longtime collaborator of Paul Dini. Speaking of which, Paul Dini from Batman: The Animated Series played a major part in this and leant a few of his original characters to the cast including Brother Night.

The major thing that JLA had going for it was the voice talent. Once again, Kevin Conroy is Batman and Mark Hamill is Joker, as well as Swamp Thing, Trickster, and Mark Hamill. Another holdover from the DCAU is Gilbert Gottfried returning as Mister Mxyzptlk, Khary Paton as Cyborg, Josh Keaton as Green Lantern, and Tara Strong as Harley Quinn. Former Batman, Diedrich Bader is now doing Booster Gold. Future Batman, Troy Baker is cast as Hawkman. Various former Star Trek alumni make appearances such as Michael Dorn as Atrocitus, John de Lancie as Brainiac, Robert Picardo as Two-Face, Armin Shimerman as Zox, and Brent Spiner as Riddler. Several comedians also played roles like Hannibal Buress as Mr. Terrific, Ken Jeong as Toyman, Thomas Lennon as Amazo, Jon Lovitz as Sid Sharp, Patton Oswalt as Space Cabbie, and Andy Richter as Chronos. A few serious legendary actors dropped in too like Carl Reiner as Wizard, John Astin as Uncle Marvel, Sean Astin as Shazam, Jon Cryer as Felix Faust, Cloris Leachman as Granny Goodness, Jerry O'Connell as Atom, Christian Slater as Deadshot, Gary Cole as Black Adam, Jessica Walter as Athena, and James Woods as Luthor. Some anime voice actors had parts in limited roles like Crispin Freeman, Max Mittelman, Patrick Seitz, and Travis Willingham. Other regular voice actors included P.J. Byrne, Darin De Paul, John Di Maggio, Grey Griffin, William Salyers, Dana Snyder, and Fred Tatasciore. It should be noted that voice actress Rachel Kimsey makes for a fine Wonder Woman, and Jason J. Lewis is amazing as not only Superman, but also as Zod, Krypto, Streaky, DeSaad, Dex-Starr, and Red Tornado.

Each TV episode was self-contained with only a reoccurring storyline running through the first 4 episodes. This is how it ran from Dec. 2016-Jun. 2018. At least 80% of every episode had Batman featured in it, so if you’re a heavy Kevin Conroy fan, you were getting your money’s worth. The series started out with the Justice League already operating out the Hall of Justice but moved it to the new Watchtower located on a freshly made dormant volcano in a bay near Metropolis. Aside from their previous ranks, they also added newbies like Stargirl, Firestorm, and Blue Beetle. A few Justice League Dark members were also signed on including Zatanna, Constantine, Etrigan, Dr. Fare, and a much more relaxed Swamp Thing. Some heroes only appeared in a few episodes, for example Martian Manhunter or Hawkman, while obscure DC characters such as Space Cabbie were frequent. Leaguers such as Dr. Light and Red Tornado were barely a blip on the radar. Other heroes like Aquaman, Guy Gardner and Robin only get a brief mention.

A good number of the JLA adventures featured part of, or all DC’s Big 3, but usually accompanied by other well-known good guys getting some spotlight like Atom, Green Arrow and Mr. Terrific. Firestorm particularly had a large portion of spotlight shined on him, specifically his two personas of Ronald and Prof. Stein. Stargirl must deal with being the newest rookie on the team and living up to Batman’s expectations. Supergirl also appears but near the end of the series, and she somehow managed to skate through any kind of orientation simply because she is Superman’s cousin. Constantine has taken a page from the Fox One Piece dub and replaced his smoking habit with lollipops. Swamp Thing is also way more laid back and not droning on about how The Green is suffering. Cain from The House Of Mystery narrates an episode where the Justice League Dark spend their Halloween magically turned into kids. Booster Gold takes up a good chunk of the series as the cause and/or solution to many of the League’s troubles. Shazam gets some exposure at the beginning of the series with only getting one episode to himself that sincerely takes the real-life father/son team of John and Sean Astin playing Uncle Dudley and Billy Batson. Hal Jordan is the only Green Lantern to ever see the light of day in this series, although there is the brief appearance of a legendary leftover from Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Mister Miracle here is more of an overdramatic celebrity wannabe. The goddess Athena also shows up to give Batman a hard time. Plastic Man is the real comedic gem here with Master Shake voice actor Dana Snyder scoring it, although Tom Kenny is still the best Plas. Original character Sid Sharp is humorously voiced by Jon Lovitz in his animation premiere as Clark Kent’s rival reporter who gets kidnapped by Darkseid.

A good portion of the villains that showed up were Batman or Superman enemies. Joker is back to being a fun-loving prankster, Riddler is reformed, Penguin is more of a gangster, Harley oddly never has Mr. J with him, Poison Ivy forgets her ecological crusade to be another bad guy, Zod is still into having people kneel before him, Deadshot is literally “shoot first and ask Christian Slater”, Toyman is obsessive with his action figure collecting, Brainiac is more anal retentive, and Luthor has refreshingly returned to being the greatest criminal mind of our time. Darkseid and his forces routinely appeared to show how much of a threat they truly were. The writers tried to make the lame criminal organization of HIVE a reoccurring menace to no avail. The Red Lanterns also dropped in but were usually upstaged by the awesomeness that is Dex-Starr who managed to hold off both Krypto and Streaky at the same time. Mxyzptlk guest-stars too, including one where he switches the Leaguers personalities around. Stock villains like Felix Faust, Chronos, Amazo, Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Grodd, Mr. Mind, Clarion, and Calculator managed to have an entire episode dedicated to each of them being the big bad. Roxy Rocket shows up once now running her own intergalactic passenger transport service. Some villains who’ve never been featured in the comics at all got their premiere here, specifically Calythos and Uthool that were only mentioned in the comics as two of the items The Demons Three were sealed up in. Brother Dark is more of a power broker of dark magic instead of the demonic cultist from the source material. Lobo is his gruff bounty hunter self, even though here he’s a chaos factor instead of his normal anti-hero status. The only supervillain group we see in the whole show are The Nuclear Family, a family of robots who turn a nuclear power plant into a sitcom. There are some random crossovers like Luthor teaming up with Chronos, or Mr. Freeze tricking Killer Frost into being the energy source for his latest caper, but weirdest of all is when Joker is abducted by Mongul to makes his subjects laugh. The better villain pairing is when Joker steals a Mother Box and busts Luthor out of jail with and teleports all over the world for vacation with the League failing to catch them. The only original addition to DC’s rogue's gallery is Red Velvet, a ticked off time traveler that Booster Gold left at the altar who manages to destroy the Watchtower with her future tech.

Aside from the regular TV show, Justice League Action also had a series of 2-3-minute-long shorts that premiered on YouTube and were also made available on streaming. 22 episodes aired halfway through the TV series and were more like quick comedic vignettes with an emphasis on laughs. One is an entire take on Looney Tunes where Lobo is chasing Flash around like Road Runner. Viewers get to see the League in their downtime where Firestorm and Stargirl share a quick romantic moment, or the team go bowling after busting another super villain team up. The short where Plastic Man poses as Superman to throw Lois Lane off Clark Kent’s secret identity. There’s a nice bit where Wonder Woman and Supergirl have some girl bonding on Themyscira. Plastic Man and Booster Gold manage to steal most of the laughs in these tales, but funniest of all is where Batman is playing good cop and Superman is playing bad cop much to Deadshot’s shocking confusion. One of mention is where Firestorm’s constant changing of different kinds of Kryptonite keep shifting Superman in multiple ways, including turning into a woman. Arguably the best one is where Joker and Trickster unite to kidnap Mark Hammil and the actor gets them to work against each other while being rescued by Swamp Thing, all of which were of course voiced by Hammil himself.

Justice League Action had a terrific blend of action and comedy with incredible animation, even though it would seem slightly choppy at times. Cartoon Network should have had more faith in their product instead of limiting it to once a week on early Saturday mornings. It also didn’t help that they did little to no advertising for it. Since streaming wasn’t as prominent at the time when it came to shows currently running on TV, the show didn’t get as much attention as it should. Unless you had a DVR, you probably didn’t get a chance to watch the show as it was airing. It is currently standard on streaming services, plus available as a pair of 2-disc DVD sets, although currently no Blu-Ray release. At least the Justice League finally got their own battle cry, even if they only used it once during the whole series.

ANI-MOVIES, *Space Warrior Baldios

Movie compilations of an anime series are a seriously hard coin flip. Sometimes they can add to the existing story like Macross Plus: The Movie, while other times it's just one big theatrical clip show like Evangelion: Death. Space Warrior Baldos was a single-season giant robot show from 1980 that was cancelled before the last three episodes aired. In 1981, a movie recounting the series was released with a totally different ending which was picked up by an American distributor who added a dub to it, but with a few minutes cut from the final release, possibly for content. Baldios was one of those gritty anime shows of the 70s-80s where they weren't afraid to show entire masses of people being killed either in a spray of bullets, getting stepped on by a giant, or being absolutely done away with from a natural disaster, whereas in the American dub of it would show the victims escaping due to some convenient parachutes. The English release of the Baldios movie does keep most of this material in, although you can tell that there is some they left out. For a show about a huge space mecha, the titular robot doesn't play a big part in the story and is more focused on the feuding characters. There are even some parts during the few scenes with the robot where the pilots are speaking but there is no dialogue for it, which worked out okay for something like Power Ranger because you can't see their lips flapping, but this was just unprofessional considering most of the rest of the dub in the movie is acceptable for the time.

Starting out on a planet called S-1, the inhabitants are growing restless because the world's resources are running dry. The renegade General Gattler leads a revolt against the government and takes a portion of the population into a giant space ark to find a new planet to colonize. One S-1 citizen that escaped this was Marin, the son of a scientist whose Gattler's forces killed during their coup. Marin enters a space warp and ends up on Earth in the year 2100. The other S-1 remnants set their sights on conquering Earth as their promised land and have launched several attacks on the more heavily populated cities. Marin has been drafted into Earth's special Blue Strike Force that are using a giant robot comprised of fighter ships that merge into the colossal Baldios. For a brief montage, we see the Baldios wrecking the S-1's attempts to take over the world. From this point on, the movie becomes a stretched-out space opera with stereotypical drama cliches like Earth politicians not trusting Marin's loyalty, bickering officers in the S-1 ranks, and romantic subplots that go nowhere. The S-1 forces eventually melt the polar ice caps flooding most of the Earth and killing of billions, and then later use nuclear warheads they stole to cause a radioactive fallout. It is later discovered that the planet S-1 was in fact Earth itself from hundreds of years in the future and that all the S-1's attempts to conquer the Earth of the past lead to the planet's near extinction that they originally came from. Gattler doesn't care about this anyway as he plans to take over his old home world anyway. Marin takes the Baldios in to wreck the S-1 space arc reactor leading to a final conclusion between Marin and Gattler with a confused love interest caught in the middle.

Space Warrior Baldios is a decent enough 80s mecha anime, despite the large lack of actual mechas in it, or at least in the movie compilation version. As the whole feature is going over highlights of the plot, a bunch of the story gets left out with characters showing up for a single scene and then are never seen again. If you want the complete narrative, you are better off watching the TV series and then popping in the movie version during the last act. Discotek Media has both the series and movie available on DVD and Blu-Ray, as well as both being on Crunchyroll. Only the movie is dubbed, but you can watch the uncut Japanese language edition with the full intended runtime.

Weird Fact: Adam West played a mayor on both Family Guy and the 2004 Batman cartoon!

ANI-MOVIES, *Hellboy: Sword Of Storms

Two years after making his cinematic debut, Mike Mignola's big red monster hunter had a short-lived franchise of animated films, the first of which was Hellboy: Sword Of Storms. This was animated mostly by the famous production company Madhouse who have been involved in several anime titles. Milestone writer Matt Wayne handled the adaptation of a Hellboy short story along with Tad Stones. This direct-to-video feature got a little traction from some screenings on Cartoon Network, but the timing of Anchor Bay Entertainment's release was just in the middle of DC and Marvel's opening shots in their war of original animated movies that they were also coming out with at the same time.

After a mission to a Mayan temple filled with mummies and a giant bat, Hellboy along with Abe Sapian and firestarter Liz Sherman head back to BPRD headquarters only for Hellboy to get called into his next investigation. A Japanese professor named Sakai gets possessed by the demon brothers of Thunder and Lightning, which most mythology junkies would know as Raijin and Fujin. Hellboy visits the home of a sword collector that Sakai attacked and is sent to another dimension when he finds the titular Sword of Storms. In this otherworldly realm, our hero is accosted with a never-ending barrage of yokai monsters sent by the possessed Sakai who want to break the sword to free Thunder and Lightning. The sheer number of monsters from Japanese folklore is staggering which Hellboy has to confront, including a kappa, a giant skeleton, an arachne, rubber-neck women, disembodied heads, and an army of zombies. Liz and Abe meanwhile are separated from Hellboy as they confront a kaiju-sized dragon in the Japanese sea who wants to join forces with Thunder and Lightning, all of which is being manipulated by the spirit of an old woman posing as a kitsune fox spirit. It all boils down to a final battle between Hellboy and the demon brothers in Japan.

The "animated" styled of Hellboy is different from what you see in comics and the live-action movie where Hellboy's legs seem much shorter, and his tail is much more noticeable. Most of the rest of the characters stick to their original models, even though the big draw is the voice cast they had for these productions. Ron Pearlman is back as Hellboy, Selma Blair is Liz, but the live-action actor for Abe, Doug Jones, takes up the speaking role of the gill-man for the first time after being voiced by David Hyde Pierce in the original movie. Peri Gilpin also appears as Kate Corrigan from the Hellboy comics who never showed up in the live-action movies and was more of Hellboy's love interest. The animation is above TV standards, but not so much up to theatrical level. The best bits involve Hellboy's journey through the Japanese spirit world where great detail was given to highlighting mythological creatures from eastern folklore, more than even some supernatural anime had done at the time. Most of the material of the movie involving the other BPRD members is pretty forgettable, even when Liz and Abe are fighting a giant dragon. Sword Of Storms isn't the best made-for-video animated superhero feature of the time, but it is worth checking out if you happen to be getting both Hellboy Animated movies.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Fantastic Adventures Of Unico

Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka came up with his emblematic manga of Unico in 1976. It has a happy unicorn on a constant quest for peace encountering different fantasy characters in each installment. The one-horned horse seems more like a cross between Astro Boy and Tezuka's other creation Kimba The White Lion than an actual equine. Aside from a pilot film done in 1979, there never was an anime adaptation of the manga until 1981 that was founded by Tezuka Productions and Sanrio with the animation being handled by Madhouse Studios spearheaded by Yoshiaki Kawajiri who later went on to more violent productions like Ninja Scroll and Wicked City. The Fantastic Adventures Of Unico was the first of a duology and adapts two of the manga chapters into a single story. The main difference between the anime and manga is that the original source material had the goddess Venus being the main antagonist.

An unnamed unicorn gives birth to a bunch of babies, one of which conveniently called Unico. This newborn causes so much happiness for mortals that the gods themselves become jealous of him and task the living entity of the West Wind to carry him away to somewhere called The Hill Of Oblivion which the viewer can only guess is the edge of the world. West Wind feels sorry for Unico, so she drops him off the Island of Solitude where the young unicorn befriends the young devil who lives there named Beezle. Their friendship brings the attention of the gods as they realize the island isn't so lonely anymore, and they dispatch the Night Wind to recapture Unico and take him to The Hill Of Oblivion. West Wind shows up and flies off with Unico again to a hidden forest where he befriends a cat named Katy who wants to find a witch and be turned into a human girl. The two of them find an old lady living alone in the woods which Katy believes is a witch and the cat starts warming up to. Unico uses his empathic magic to transform Katy into a girl who decides to move in with the old woman and help her clean up. This all seems fine, but a dark stranger shows up and tempts the now human Katy to his castle where he plans to feed off her. Unico shows up and frees Katy as the demon turns into an eldritch horror straight out of the end of Fantasia. This leads to an epic JRPG fight where Unico digivolves into his final form as a winged adult unicorn and pierces the colossal nightmare right through the heart bringing life back to the forest. West Wind returns to take Unico away to his next adventure in the sequel leaving the friends he made along his journey behind.

The story continues a year later in the concluding film of Unico In The Island Of Magic, the title of which is confusing enough. This first film was a good outing for Tezuka's little bundle of joy with the first half seeming like an amusing family picture, but once the evil demon shows up in the final act it changes into an extravagant battle with amazing visuals and some seriously dark imagery including the bad guy actually getting impaled. The Fantastic Adventures Of Unico is a great feature for kids in its initial portions, but parent might want to supervise the conclusion as it could traumatize them for life.

MISC. MANGA, *Record Of Lodoss War: The Crown Of The Covenant

After making her return in the Castlevania-esque video game Wonder Labyrinth, everyone favorite anime elf Deedlit comes back in the latest in the Lodoss series, Record Of Lodoss War: The Crown Of The Covenant. Ryo Mizuno wrote a new light novel in 2019 taking place in the Lodoss universe over a century after the previous installment, making it the first one actually set in the genuine Lodoss timeline in a few decades, even though Mizuno has only written a single volume so far of this sequel. The manga adaptation is 3-volumes long written and drawn by Atsushi Suzumi which covers the entire light novel, meaning we won't get further chapters of the manga until Mizuno finally gets around to doing it despite the fact he had been plotting this for a whole decade. Lodoss fans are probably now feeling what Game Of Thrones fans having to frustrate with. Udon Entertainment has released the entire manga so far but beware that their lettering can get condensed in many of the narration boxes making it difficult to read in print.

A hundred years of prosperity have come to the cursed island of Lodoss with all six of its kingdoms conceding to a pact called the Covenant thought up by the wizard Slayn binding the six kings to peace treaty which was supposed to last a millennium. The once monster-infested smaller island of Marmo was settled by the previous heroes Spark and Neese as they became that nation's king and queen. Marmo currently has a royal family made of four brothers, the oldest of which left to become a priest. Word gets out that Diaz, the new king of the desert land of Flaim, has taken up his family's old crown and plans on separating Flaim from the Covenant. The three remaining princes of Marmo decide to take the initiative and secure their kingdom's future by planning a conspiracy where the second in line Alucia assumes the throne while the younger brother Zayd takes their brave sister Bino pretend to be outcasts and ally themselves with Diaz. The fourth prince Lyle embarks on his own quest with his thief friend Nola and former wetnurse-turned sorceress Helide go to search for the missing high elf Deedlit. Lyle gets some help from former Lodoss hero Leaf who is still alive because she's a half-elf and gives them griffins to speed them on their way. Lyle spends a few weeks in the Forest Of No Return where time moves differently than on the outside because its where Deedlit is supposed to be, and he eventually finds her after passing her personal test. Deedlit refuses to help as she doesn't want to tarnish the legend of the Knight of Lodoss that her mortal lover Parn left behind. Lyle then resolves to become the new Knight of Lodoss if Deedlit agrees to back him up. After returning to Marmo with his new title, Lyle plans to lead his new party to rescue the king of Kanon whose nobles have overthrown and taken prisoner while allying with Flaim. The saga continues from here with the Marmo princes' plot growing to fruition, even though Lyle is the main focus of the story.

The Crown Of The Covenant does suffer from what The Phantom Menace did as it focuses more on politics than being a genuine epic quest, like if the scene from Lord Of The Rings where the Fellowship was formed took up half of the first movie. Since Lodoss is largely based on Ryo Mizuno's old Dungeons And Dragons gaming campaigns, you would expect there to be a greater emphasis on high fantasy instead of royal protocol. Atushi Suzumi does a great job with his adaptation, meaning that the flaws are mainly Mizuno's fault. As there is currently no continuation until the next light novel comes out, Lodoss fans will be hungering for more.

ANI-MOVIES, *Locke The Superman

Yuki Hijiri started out as a manga artist with an interstellar epic titled Locke The Superman way back in 1967. This was one of the first manga to focus on psychic powers or "espers" as its users are normally referred to possessing Extrasensory perception, making them the anime equivalent of the X-Men. The manga is about a never aging esper named Locke normally referred to as a superman who has helped the collected Galactic Federation on anti-terrorist cases for centuries. Locke has an insane assortment of powers including telepathy, telekenisis, teleportation, and the ability to turn himself into a woman who at one point. The animated movie acts as a follow-up to a briefly mentioned encounter between Locke and a former opponent that returns like a tacky movie monster. Locke The Superman's first anime outlet was released in 1984 by Studio Nippon in their theatrical debut which was directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi who also directed the Lensman anime. The movie highlighted amazing battle scenes that became the inspiration for numerous anime and manga of people with superpowers like Dragonball and Psychic Force.

The motion picture opens up with the psychic super-agent in retirement as a farmer on a distant planet. A Federation soldier named Yamaki is sent to recruit Locke in an investigation of his old nemesis Lady Khan who has resurfaced from a previous case and is assembling an army of espers to act as assassins to overthrow Federation control. Khan has set up a school for up-and-coming esper baddies that she's brainwashed into believing will be part of a utopian society branded as Millenium, thus taking a big page out of Hitler's stragety book. Locke goes on his own investigation while a large portion of the movie deals with Yamaki falling in love with Khan's sleeper agent Jessica who has been hypnotized into having amnesia that will awaken once she encounters Locke. This does inevitably happen, but only after Locke has run into Millenium's equivalent of the Ginyu Force. Locke defeats all these assassins and discovers that Lady Khan is in her own personal artificial planetoid where she plans on conquering the galaxy. Khan is revealed to be a living corpse in a fish tank hooked up to a supercomputer that controls all her espers through telepathy who gets taken down quickly by Locke. The last 20 minutes of the film has Locke trying to rally the remaining psychics to stop the space base from burning up in a gas giant.

Locke The Superman is an animated adaptation of an arc from a sci-fi shojo manga, so you can see how this film could have been carried out as a TV series. It has some outstanding fighting scenes and sweeping camera sequences that make for a stellar visual experience. There have been numerous English releases of this movie, one with a British dub that had a bunch of mature content edited out, so you're better off getting the more recent release by Sentai Filmworks which is in Japanese with English subtitles. If you wanted to find out what made Super-Saiyans so "super", then you need to give this space opera a spin.

ANI-MOVIES, *Red Shoes And The Seven Dwarfs

While we've seen dozens of retakes of various fairy tales mashed together from properties like Hoodwinked, Once Upon A Time, and Kingdom Hearts, but this mixed drink of kiddy stories is much better than the last few Shrek sequels. It's an American production fully animated by South Korean studio Locus Corporation titled Red Shoes And The Seven Dwarfs which is a crossover of storybook fantasy and pop culture. It was distributed by Next World Entertainment which mainly dealt in releasing movies directly from Korea, so when it came to having it come out in America there was no theatrical release and a limited DVD/Blu-Ray campaign. Even though the majority of the movie was done by Locus, there are some former Disney workers behind its production. The film came out in 2019, but didn't see an American release until sometime later even though it was initially made for an English-language audience. This isn't a release like A Wizard's Tale that got a totally different script for the English version since this film was produced specifically for American viewers. Red Shoes features an all-star cast like Chloe Grace Moretz, Patrick Warburton, and Gina Gershon, but what kept it from getting a wider release was the mistake of the original marketing suffering major backlash that made it appear as if the movie was fat shaming. This set back production about an extra year or so to clean up the movie's reputation. It is now available on several streaming services, some of which are free so you can make your mind up.

The movie takes place in a land which is a patchwork world of different story characters living in several different kingdoms. There was a group of heroes called the Fearless Seven who were the Justice League of this world made up of young versions of King Arthur, Merlin, Hans(Gretel's brother), Jack(don't know which "Jack"), plus a set of triplets named Pino, Noki and Kio who are specialists at making steampunk tech usually comprised of trees. After rescuing a fairy princess from a dragon, they reject her because of her green skin mistaking her for a witch, so the princess curses them by turning them all into small green dwarfs which can only be lifted if they get kissed by the most beautiful woman in the world. Sometime later, Snow White is a strong but chunky princess whose father got remarried to a woman named Regina who in reality is a witch who turns people into wooden creatures and gets help from her living magic mirror. After the king goes missing, Snow investigates her stepmother's chamber where she keeps a magic tree that sprouts red shoes that makes the wearer appear beautiful. Snow takes the shoes and now looks much thinner but weaker. She comes across the dwarfs and they plan to defend her in the hopes she'll kiss them all and break their curse. Regina cons the unpopular Prince Average to using his goons to fetch Snow White now going by the name of Red Shoes. The dwarfs appear to everyone else as short green men, but if there's no one else around they shift back to their human form, and Merlin is the most voracious to get his old body back because his magic is more potent when he's not a dwarf. After sweeping Average and his men under the rug thanks to the triplet's construction of a giant wooden robot, the dwarfs concentrate their efforts on getting Miss Red Shoes to kissing them. Snow White is haunted with keeping up the appearance of her new slimmer body as Red Shoes which she believes is the only reason she believes the dwarfs are helping her as she tries to find her missing father. Merlin has his own paradox of trying to return to his handsome self again while trying to woo Red Shoes into kissing him, but totally missing the fact that Snow genuinely loves him as a dwarf. This all culminates in Disney-esque ending somewhat mocking Beauty And The Beast, even though they end up the going over the fates of the remaining dwarfs in a quick montage during the closing credits.

Red Shoes And The Seven Dwarfs(and they do make a point about whether the term is "dwarves")does maintain some dazzling animation and great voice acting. Some of the pop songs that were incorporated into the soundtrack don't fit well in certain scenes. The film has engaging CGI making the characters more lifelike while keeping their cartoonish designs. As far as the past fat shaming controversy, you'll discover upon watching this that it was just bad advertisement as the film handles body positivity with considerable care. It's a fine feature for the whole family despite the fact that it goes over some overly familiar source material.

ANI-MOVIES, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Seth Rogen totally fumbled the ball with his last theatrical adaptation of a comic book series, so he worked out a deal with Nickelodeon and Paramount to do a new take on the TMNT just after their TV series and movie of Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reached a finale. Mutant Mayhem is the second all CGI-animated film of the Turtles franchise as well as the second animated theatrical release, and became the overall pilot for the new Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. Including Rogen, there were a total of five writers behind the screenplay, including some from the Prime version of The Tick, so after watching the movie you can see how the story got a little muddled as it went along. This new incarnation of the Turtles employed the more graffiti style of animation that the Spider-Verse movies have taken in making the half-shell heroes look like a cross between claymation and 3D effects.

The story starts out as yet another retelling of the Turtles origin., Rogue scientist Baxter Stockman breaks away from the shadowy TCRI organization to secretly concoct an ooze that mutates animals into intelligent humanoids. Stockman gets captured by TCRI goons and we never see him again for the rest of the movie. A sample of the ooze drops down the sewers of New York City which mutates a common rat and a quartet of baby turtles. Fifteen years later, the rat named Splinter calls his new sons Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, and tries to protect them away from the inviting human world by teaching them the art of ninjitsu from how-to videos and martial arts movies. The turtle brothers want to be accepted by humans, so they figure the best way to do that is to use their fighting skills to bring the city's biggest criminal to justice, who happens to go by the handle Superfly. The turtles help out teenage girl April O'Neil after her scooter is stolen by some crooks who have a connection to Superfly, and they take the gang's place when they're supposed to handing over some heisted tech. Turns out that Superfly and his crew are all mutants also made from the same ooze, and they're planning on using the stolen tech to create a device which will mutate all the animals in the world to take over the planet while killing off mankind. The Turtles pretend to be into Superfly's scheme, but they get caught by TCRI who want to bleed them dry. April gets Splinter to rescue them, and the ninjas confront Superfly while talking the other mutants into going against him. All the mutants destroy the mutant-making machine as Superfly falls into an exploding pool of ooze which mutates him into a kaiju-sized monster made up of other animals. The Turtles use an anti-mutagen weapon they got from TCRI to reduce Superfly back to normal and are recognized by the citizens of New York as being heroes. The other mutants move in to the Turtles' underground lair as the boys themselves start their first day of high school. TCRI is still waiting in the wings to unleash their commrade Shredder on the Turtles.

Mutant Mayhem is an adequate new take on the hit 80s underground comic book, but seriously misses the mark at trying to capture the nostalgia of its previous incarnations. The Turtles here are just walking dispensers of pop culture references, and it could have used a slightly more serious enemy to fight instead of a mutant fly gangsta rapper that is overplayed by Ice-T. The extended cast of mutants who eventually become the Mutanimals don't add much either with non-actors like John Cena as one of the voice overs, and even Paul Rudd's appearance isn't helpful. The fact that the movie gender-flips some of the secondary characters isn't a dealbreaker but it didn't add anything to the movie either. Hardcore Shellheads will deem this worthy, but newbies might be a little turned off by the contrasting art style. Donatello with glasses? Who needs that?

ANI-MOVIES, *Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe

After doing America, Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe. Mike Judge began the third incarnation for his satirical teenage animated comedy as a full-length movie, but wheraes Do America seems like an actual motion picture, Do The Universe is more like a collection of multiple episodes with a loose storyline tying them all together. The animation was handled this time by Titmouse who had also picked up the production for The Venture Bros., so they're familiar with taking on an existing adult animation franchise.

Starting off in 1998(which might completely skip over Season 8 from 2011), Beavis and Butt-Head destroy their school's science fair which by proxy of their dumb luck gets them a spot in space camp. Thinking that the boys' constant fondling of a docking simulator is a leap ahead for human genius, the NASA idiots decide to bring the two of them along on a mission in the space shuttle. Beavis and Butt-Head cause the shuttle to get wrecked and are tossed off into space by the female captain Serena, even though they thought it was all a plan for them to get laid with her. The boys go through a black hole and wind up in the year 2022 several miles from their home. They are then visited by alternative universe versions of themselves dressed like Marvel's The Watcher called Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head that tell them they have to go through a portal back to their own time or both universes will be destroyed. Regular Beavis and Butt-Head totally forget about this as they make their way back home where they think Serena is waiting for them to score. Serena is now the governor of Texas and seeks to kill the boys to cover up her botched murder of them, while at the same time the Pentagon has agents looking for them believing them to be aliens. The dumb duo journey through a college where they think they can get away with anything because of "white privilege", they end up in jail, stuck in a port-a-potty, and go on a nacho shopping spree after getting a smartphone from naive tourists. Everything of course works out in the end with our boys having their house rebuilt and no one in Highland to have aged at all in the last 24 years, or at least according to Season 9 on up of the TV series as its currently playing on Paramount+.

Do The Universe helps breathe new life into an old sitcom premise of two dolts watching music videos and stumbling through life merely on their own stupidity. The current run on Paramount+ is a step up from 2011 revival, even though they don't explain how no time seems to have passed in Highland over the years Beavis and Butt-Head were gone. We do finally find out that the house they've been squatting in the last few years was Beavis' mother who is the only one of the cast to have disappeared during the time skip. Another bonus is the obligatory appearance of Cornholio. If you've never seen any of the 90s episodes or the original movie, you will probably be lost on the subtle but sensless comedy that Beavis And Butt-Head fed to an entire generation.

R.I.P. James Earl Jones

 

From Here To Eternia: A Look Back At He-Man & She-Ra In Animation

He-Man and She-Ra have had ongoing franchises since the early 80s. The entre Masters Of The Universe toy line was a giant melting pot of concepts and ideas that each incarnation would add on to its legacy. Whether it was animated, live action, in comics, or storybooks, the ongoing saga of the worlds of Eternia and Etheria helped this sci-fi/fantasy/superhero/adventure epic create its own mythology over the last four decades.

Masters Of The Universe was conceived because Mattel president Ray Wagner turned down Star Wars toy line. Former Mattel employee Bernie Loomis bought the rights to Star Wars. Mattel has instead licensed movie tie-ins like Flash Gordon, and Clash Of The Titans, both of which bombed. They got the rights to Conan The Barbarian in 1982, but it was a Rated-R movie, so they couldn't make it, unlike various other toy lines like Rambo, Robocop, and Toxic Avenger that eventually did get their own kid's merchandise. 

MOTU came out of the need to create an original toy line not based on an existing franchise. Roger Sweet designed made first concept art for He-Man. Mark Taylor created initial MOTU designs, including Skeletor based on a carnival ride. Castle Grayskull was a collector set as MOTU’s “Capture the flag" where whoever currently ruled the castle would raise their own flag on Grayskull. Battle Cat was originally modeled from a tiger in the Big Jim toy line. MOTU was originally called Lords Of Power when it started in 1982, but was changed when they thought it was too religious themed. Power Lords was however used by Revell in their own toy line in 1983.

Action figures first came with mini comics that established the initial lore. He-Man here was a solo savage warrior with the Power Sword split in two. Teela and The Sorceress were the same person, sometimes with green skin. DC Comics created a mini-series that altered He-Man's origin to secretly be Prince Adam. This also included a crossover of He-Man fighting Superman.

Mattel got Lou Schiemer and Filmation to handle the original animated series. Filmation also created Blackstar, another sci-fi series about a hero with magic sword split in two. Filmation’s past experience with the character of Shazam played a part in Adam’s transformations. They also made Queen Marlena coming from Earth, like in Blackstar. Orko was added to the show to help teach children lessons based slightly on an annoying dragon that Filmation used in the second season of Flash Gordon.

MOTU set up 80s original TV toy boom where a whole TV series would be based on a toy line. Hasbro made an entire empire on this with their franchises like G.I. Joe, Transformers, Jem, and My Little Pony.

Ironically, there was a Filipino live-action knock off movie titled Hee-Man: Master Of None that was a barbarian parody with a scrawny main character.

With the He-Man show gaining as many girl watchers as there were boys, Mattel’s Barbie department first set up the idea for She-Ra. Adora was He-Man's twin sister who initially wore a mask made from her headdress. In the original mini-comics She-Ra originally had her whole team fighting only Catra and Entrapta. Catra was the one who got powers from her mask and had a pink lioness named Clawdeen. She-Ra was another parallel of He-Man to Shazam as he also had a missing twin sister who shared the same power as him.

Hordak and The Horde began the “third faction” in toy lines similar to The Stingers from Jem, or the Lunatacs in Thundercats. The Horde became She-Ra's enemy as she led the Great Rebellion against them to free the planet Etheria.

Oversaturation of extra characters on both MOTU and She-Ra lead to slowing Mattel’s expansion. The He-Man/She-Ra Christmas Special was the last production of Filmation’s He-Man franchise while the She-Ra show went on for another two years.

King Hiss and the Snake Men were brought in as a fourth faction in the MOTU action figures. This was going to lead into a new lineup lead by a different character named He-Ro, but it was cancelled due the 80s generation growing out of the collecting action figures.

In 1987, a live-action also motion picture based on MOTU crashed entire line. The film also began the “fantasy characters coming to Earth” trope also used in Beastmaster and The Smurfs. She-Ra was supposed to be in the film too. 

Mattel tried a comeback in 1989 with The New Adventures Of He-Man that gave into “putting the characters into space” trope, similar to Gilligan's Island and Josie And The Pussycats. Jetlag Productions did the animation, which later produced Conan The Adventurer. New Adventures also first introduced the character of Mara as He-Man's love interest.

In 2002, Mattel started a total reboot toy line and TV series which was animated by Mike Young Productions and ran on Cartoon Network. It was developed by Michael Halperin who worked on the original series. This new lore was introduced including King Grayskull becoming the original He-Man. Skeletor’s origin of Keldor is also revealed. 

Shortly after the 2002 MOTU series ended, nostalgic toys for kids were suddenly rebranded as adult collectibles. DC Comics did three series of MOTU comics with Skeletor being Adam’s uncle. Adora worked for the Horde as Despara. They later did a crossover with Thundercats, as well as one with Injustice.

Dreamwork’s She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power came out in 2018 developed by N.D. Stevenson. He went on to work on the Lumberjanes comic, and creating the Nimona graphic novel that Netflix picked up the movie rights from Blue Sky Studios after it was bought up by Disney. This show didn’t have any connection to MOTU. Adora and Catra were friends. Clawdeen was replaced with Melog. Melog went from a golem to a space cat. Double Trouble was added as a shapeshifter. Mara was brought back as the original She-Ra. There was a ton of fan backlash over giving She-Ra battle shorts instead of a skimpy mini-skirt.

Masters Of The Universe: Revelation came out in 2021 for Netflix by Kevin Smith through Powerhouse Animation Studios. It was a pseudo-sequel to the 80s show which ran for 10 episodes. The first part was well played as a quest, but the second half got bogged down trying to focus too much on Teela and Evil-Lyn trying to find their place in a world run by musclebound men.

Netflix created a new He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe which also premiered in 2021 meant to sell toys. It took inspiration from video games like Final Fantasy and Overwatch. Skeletor is confirmed to be He-Man's uncle Keldor, and Ram-Man was gender-swapped into the original character of Ram-Ma'am. It finished up after 24 episodes, even though there were plans to have He-Man and his friends fight Hordak on modern day Earth in future seasons.

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution was released for Netflix in 2024 as a follow-up to Revelation where Skeletor remembers his true origins as Keldor. This season only had five episodes with a slightly rushed plot, but was satisfying with the characters evolving and accepting new responsibilities, as well as a star-studded cast.