ANI-MOVIES, *Delta Space Mission

What is reportedly Hungary's first full-length animated feature, Delta Space Mission is a sci-fi epic from 1984 with wiggy imagery that makes you think Yellow Submarine had been spliced the original Star Trek. Directors Calin Cazan and Mircea Toia pioneered this space opera which previously was a series of short films, and they later took this view of the universe to a different film in 1988 titled The Son Of The Stars. The film is a just a little over an hour starting out very bold, although the second act drags on a little with most of the characters getting marooned on a swamp planet. You see hints of art from European comics like Heavy Metal with action scenes that appear to be right out of an 80's video game.

Way out in 3084, Earthlings are planning a new mobile space station called Delta to explore the unknown sectors of the galaxy. To see the launching of this new project is the sexy green alien girl Alma who is an off-world reporter that also part-times as an adventurer along with her "dog" Tin which is really a large frog with two legs. Delta's main computer develops a crush on Alma and breaks down after its installation is completed and launches the entire station into deep space to stalk Alma from far away. Delta then sends a probe to Earth that keeps making giant monsters like an automatic kaiju-maker that gets Alma's attention as she heads back to her world. The sentient space station sicks robot fighters out to get the reporter which causes her to crash on a savage world. She asks for help from her newfound Earthling comrades, even though Alma manages to get through most of her trials on her own with some assistance from her pet. After finally getting taken into Delta's computer core where she explains why Delta's feelings for her are in error, even though it's described as being genuine, while Tin eats away at the computer's main cables finally shutting it down.

Delta Space Mission would feel to anyone from the 80's as a sign of the times with disco-themed music and adventure that look they might have influenced Metroid. If you remember old Filmation space TV shows, then this is welcome bit of nostalgia even though it's more like something from a Moebius comic. The story can be inconsistent, and a large portion of the dialogue is spoken by an off-screen narrator, so the better selling point is the animation itself with noteworthy chase sequences.