The Maxx Animated: A Sam Kieth Tribute

The dearly departed Sam Kieth started out as the co-creator of DC’s Sandman comic for their Vertigo line, plus artwork for Epicurus The Sage from DC’s Piranha Press. Afterwards, he signed up with the freshly founded Image Comics made up of former Marvel artists like Rob Liefeld to add to their new Wildstorm line up made of various superheroes like Wildcats. Adding to this same universe was Kieth’s own original character, The Maxx, which started out as semi-monthly series in 1993.

Meanwhile, MTV was just beginning to come up with its own original animated programming following the success of their anthology series Liquid Television which spawned off a pair of shows, Aeon Flux, plus none other than Beavis And Butthead. They expanded with a new show titled MTV’s Oddities in 1995 which was originally intended to be an anthology featuring two separate titles, one of which was The Head created by Daria director Eric Fogel which went on to have its own series and became the first animated series that got a graphic novel conclusion after the original show was cancelled. The other title on Oddities was The Maxx based on the comic book, and the plan was to play one 10-minute episode of each title in a half-hour time slot but was instead split into showing the entire run of The Head followed by The Maxx which finished out the series in a single season.

Sam Kieth came up with the idea of a homeless superhero, even though Image Comics already had a similar character in Spawn by Todd McFarlane who not only got his own animated series on HBO but also a live-action movie. The Maxx stands out though as he wears a purple costume, a color that most superheroes stay away from. This is possibly meant as an homage to The Phantom as when Maxx isn’t fighting crime in the city, he’s caught in a dreamscape where he believes he’s a jungle king in a savage land called the Outback. This wild country is inhabited by another hero named the Leopard Queen, but she’s really Julie Winters, a freelance social worker who is constantly being called in to bail Maxx out of jail for his vigilante antics. Civilians don’t seem to regard Maxx’s appearance as anything of note as spandex-clad superheroes are commonplace in the Wildstorm Universe. Aside from the purple duds, Maxx sports a mask that gives the appearance of a row of teeth, plus both of his middle fingers are a huge claw that are nearly invulnerable that he can cut with like Wolverine. Conveniently, Sam Kieth went on to draw a few Wolverine comics. Maxx keeps flipping between reality and the Outback which it turns out is Julie’s dream world that she created after being raped, and Maxx is trapped in this cycle because Julie accidently imprinted her spirit animal on to him. All this is going on while a serial murderer named Mr. Gone is plaguing the city who happens to know what is really going on with Maxx and Julie, and he enforces his evil plans with a horde of carnivorous beasts called the Isz who act as Mr. Gone’s snickering minions.

The entire 13-episode run covered only the first 11 issues of The Maxx comic book along with a few specials. Since The Maxx takes place in the Image Comics reality, various other characters make guest appearances like Pitt or Savage Dragon who for the cartoon had to be replaced by original characters to avoid licensing hassles. The actual comic went on for a full 35 issues, so the TV series only covers the first third of the original run.

The show was directed by Gregg Vanzo and animated by his company Rough Draft Studios which went on to handle Futurama. Rough Draft would be one of the first studios to utilize digital and hand-drawn animation when producing The Maxx. Each episode is almost a motion comic taking artwork from the original comic issue that goes from panel-to-panel plus long panning shots featuring multiple panels in the same way a reader would scroll down a comic page. The animation would sporadically change for each scene, sometimes with generic 2D drawing, to CGI, and even live action. The animators saved a ton of money by showing as little movement as possible including lip flaps which works great for Maxx as he’s always masked, although this helps brings in the viewer even more because the dialogue was one of the most intriguing parts.

The cast would give each character their own distinct presence. The Maxx was played by the late Michael Haley who made the delusional homeless hero talk in a standard normal voice which really grounded Maxx as a believable character trapped between worlds. Singer Glynnis Talken was Julie and her take on the comics damsel was of someone trying to get their life together after a horrific incident while still being blissfully unaware of how her dreams are affecting the lives of others. The single best of all was Barry Stickler as Mr. Gone who is a charismatic over-the-top villain who completely revels in his nefarious deeds and takes great pleasure at being the only one who seems to have all the answers, even though he keeps getting his head cut off whenever he tries to explain the truth behind the mystery.

The Maxx gained a cult following during its broadcast which received a compilation movie on VHS that left out a decent amount of material from the series. Amazon would later release all 13 episodes on DVD along with a recap episode and other bonus features. Prior to the TV series, there was an awesome radio drama covering the first 4 episodes put out on audiotape. The Maxx character has also gone on to have various crossovers with Batman and Gen13. The animated series itself is also available digitally on Prime Video.

Sam Kieth went on to have a masterful career in comics working on titles like Lobo, Hulk, and Spider-Man. He created a few Maxx spinoffs, as well as the mini-series of Zero Girl. One other thing he did most people are unaware of is that he co-wrote the pilot for the Cartoon Network series Cow And Chicken which was created by his cousin David Feiss. Kieth unfortunately passed away from Lewy body dementia, but The Maxx TV series went on to be his most notable effort since he worked so closely with the studio animating it. The Maxx is a memory box of psychological 90s nostalgia that is just begging to be open for new viewers.

ANI-MOVIES: *The Secret Of NIMH

Aurora Productions started out by former Disney executives and their first project was done with former Disney animator Don Bluth who had also left the company at around the same time to form his own studio. Bluth worked on classics like Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers, but took a few other animators from the Mouse House and put together their first project titled Banjo The Woodpile Cat that was released through Fox. Eventually, they got their first feature-length production through MGM based on the book by Robert O’Brien that was rebranded for theaters as The Secret Of NIMH. This came out in the same year of E.T. and was referred to as the “E.T. of animation” even though its not sci-fi, but instead a fantasy adventure with common field mice and other rural animals. The film had a star-studded cast with Elizabeth Hartman in her last role as the brave Mrs. Brisby, plus Dom DeLuise, John Carridine, and Wil Wheaton. This movie has stood out as being one of the greatest animated outings of the 80s and was praised by audiences and critics during Disney’s decline before they leveled up with The Little Mermaid starting their renaissance.

Taking place in a forest near a farm, Mrs. Brisby is a widowed mother left to care for her four children after the death of her husband Jonathon. Timothy is her youngest son and is sick with pneumonia which is poorly timed as the whole family needs to move out of their endangered cinderblock home in the fields with the farmer plans to plow through there. After seeing her family friend Mr. Ages, an old mouse that knew her husband, who tells her Timothy can’t be moved while he is ill. Mrs. Brisby befriends a chatty crow named Jeremy who she saves from the farmer’s colossal cat Dragon, and later flies her to see the oracular Great Owl for advice. The Owl tells her to get the rats living underneath the farm to help movie her house with Timothy still in it. The rats turn out to be escaped animals from the National Institute for Mental Health along with Mr. Ages, and that Jonathon was the one who helped free them. All the rats have enhanced intelligence because of the experiments that NIMH subjected them to and led by the wise old Nicodemus, but a scheming rat Jenner uses the opportunity of the rats moving the Brisby home to kill and usurp him. There’s some unexplained magical connection to a stone Nicodemus gave Mrs. Brisby and she uses it to move her hound in an almost biblical effort. The Brisby family is saved, and the rats move away from the farm before NIMH can find them.

The Secret Of NIMH is one of the first times in American cinematic history that an animated movie was able to truly compete with Disney. Don Bluth Studio went on to even greater success with their LD video game Dragon’s Lair, plus teaming up with Steven Spielberg to make a pair of films, An American Tail as well as The Land Before Time. Bluth experienced varying levels of up and down with his future projects which eventually folded with the release of Titan A.E., Bluth would cross swords with Disney over the years having his films being released at the same time as some of their films, plus his falling out with Spielberg didn’t help. Despite how often he faced bankruptcy, Don Bluth initially created probably his single most enduring title of The Secret Of NIMH which wasn’t just a family flick as it had dark and dangerous elements which helped change the course of fantasy films in the years to come.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Swan Princess

Richard Rich was not the similarly named comic character, but an ex-Disney animator who formed his own studio in 1986 called Crest Entertainment. Most people know them nowadays as the original animators behind Alpha And Omega which spawned off several sequels even after they closed their doors in 2013. One of their earlier productions was inspired by Peter Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake titled The Swan Princess directed by Richard Rich. This was released in theaters by New Line Cinemas to little applause, however its home video release gained the film greater praise which led to franchise consisting of a dozen movies some of which eventually were animated in CGI as opposed to their original hand-drawn style. It’s hard to say what caught the eye of audiences back then except it was back in the haze of Disney’s renaissance which was brimming with fairy tale princesses and was just used to satiate kids while their parents ignored them. Crest did a reasonable job on the animation, but there were just so many copy/pastes of Disney material that made this so wafer-thin that it’s a bland concoction of zany madcap filler material. There are too many additional supporting characters, human or animal, that the main leads are practically transparent. Not to mention that none of the songs would ever end up in anyone’s movie soundtracks playlist.

Princess Odette is raised to be forced friends with Prince Derek who both can’t stand each other until they both finally pass puberty and achieve hotness. Derek now wants to marry her, but only because she’s foxy now, so Odette disses him to end up getting kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Rothbart. Odette is now cursed to turn into a swan at Rothbart’s castle accept when the moon is out when she can change back. Odette’s animal friends help lead Derek to Rothbart’s and discover Odette’s secret, and the two of them plan to break the curse. Rothpart learns of this and plots against them with Odette dying of the curse, although she somehow survives with the curse being lifted and Derek killing the powerful warlock with a simple everyday arrow.

How this low effort production gained more sequels than most slasher flicks is one of the greatest mysteries of our time. It doesn’t contain any of the majesty of the original source material, least of all the music, and is full of buffed-out cartoon gags solely meant to cash in on Disney’s princess mojo. At least when animators like Don Bluth tried to keep up with the fairy tale theme in movies like Thumbelina there was some effort put into it, but Richard Rich’s attempt is a disgrace to Tchaikovsky’s legacy with infinitely contrived cliches and a limited budget that only kicks in for Odette’s magical girl transformations.

R.I.P., Sam Kieth.

 

R.I.P. Chuck Norris

 

ANI-MOVIES, *The Snow Queen

Way before Frozen, one of the earliest feature-animated movies to tell Hans Christian Andersen's tale was done in 1957 directed by Russian animator Lev Atamanov. Only a few others of Atamanov's works have been released in English, but this particular one has had four separate dubs, the first one of which was in 1959 that was also the first full-length animated movie released from Universal Pictures which is quite the stretch considering it took came out during the Cold War. This is one of the classic movies that helped influence Hayao Miyazaki which is also one of the few to be inducted to the Ghibli Museum Library. The original dub of this had a special live-action piece at the beginning of it with Art Linkletter celebrating Christmas even though it's well known that The Snow Queen is not a holiday story. The 1959 release had voice over icons like Paul Frees and June Foray, plus other actors like Sandra Dee and Tommy Kirk. Atamanov did implement rotoscoping into the film's production, and the fluid movements of the characters made you actually care about them and feel the despair that most of them face. Quite a few reviewers preferred Atamanov's adaptation over the original Andersen story as it was considered more coherent, possibly due to the fact that there was a Jiminy Cricket substitute shoved into the film to act as the narrator, a small elf called Dreamy who claims to be Andersen's muse.

Kai and Gerda are neighbors and very much in love with each other even though they are barely in their tweens. After hearing a story about the mystical Snow Queen who brings about winter, Kai jokingly says he would melt her which ticks off the actual Snow Queen to no end, so she makes Kai's heart cold as ice and takes him her ice castle far away. Gerda goes on a journey to reclaim her boyfriend and runs into all manner of obstacles such as a well-meaning witch, a generous prince and princess, talking ravens, and highway robbers. After being kidnapped by bandits, Gerda is added to the menagerie of animals of the thief girl Angel who after hearing Gerda goings on about her quest has a change of heart sending her away on a talking reindeer. Gerda eventually gets to the Snow Queen's pad and just tells the frosty femme to blow off since its now spring. Kai and Gerda head back home free of the Snow Queen's cougar tendencies.

The Snow Queen is one of the most impressive hand-drawn animated movies ever made, although the 1959 release which is the only one usually available does have some footage missing and much of the darker scenes are hard to make out leaving you longing to watch one of the restored editions. The 1959 version is charming in its own way and even added some of its own original musical numbers, but if you want to enjoy its complete visual brilliance you might want to check out one of the other releases even the restored Russian edition.

Rebuild Of Evangelion Retrospective

In 1995, the studio of Gainax was planning to do its second anime TV series after Nadia: The Secret Of Blue Water. Gunbuster director Hideaki Anno headed up a new project combining some elements from the latter half of Nadia and allied Gainax with Tatsunoko Production to create a new anime titled Neon Genesis Evangelion. This was intended to be a breakdown of the mecha genre as up until then it was all super robots and space operas. It also blended Christian mythology with a deep psychoanalysis of humans confronting trauma. Evangelion went on to be the most groundbreaking anime of its time, however the final two episodes seriously through audiences off, so a theatrical retelling of the conclusion called End Of Evangelion was met with better praise. Cut to a decade later, Anno decided to do a complete reboot of the franchise branded Rebuild Of Evangelion which would be a tetralogy, and Studio Khara would handle the production instead of Gainax which utilized traditional animation along with CGI that was a step up from the 90s TV production. This 4-part movie series would not be just a retelling of the original story but instead taking it in a totally different direction halfway through the saga. The Rebuild was intended to be more understandable to fans for the new millennium without having to view the original anime.

Starting with Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in 2007, the first installment covered the first few TV episodes with a couple of new additions where Shinji Ikari is a teenager coerced to pilot a giant mecha called an Evangelion along with the lonely Rei in a post-disaster Japan which is continuously being attacked by monsters labeled as Angels and only the special organization of Nerv can stop them. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance came out two years after that which went over much of the next quarter of the series with the introduction of Asuka and the premiere of a brand-new character, Mari who is original to the movies. Three years later, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo was released and became a full departure from the previous plot taking place 14 years later with the planet suffering the consequences for Shinji’s failed attempt to save Rei. Then, an entire nine years passed until the finale, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, was at long last shown in theaters to great success with Shinji trying to stop his father Gendo’s mad scheme to bring about the apocalypse. The lengths of each film varied, although the concluding movie was the longest of all trying to wrap up most of the loose plot threads.

Originally, Anno was just going to redo the Evangelion saga hoping it would act as a gateway for new generations to make it into the next Gundam franchise with various others eventually making their own take, but he decided to take control of the revamped anime himself with the intention of doing a modern update with another altered ending. Anno changed gears after the second movie gained notoriety with the addition of Mari to the cast, as well as his depression kicked in again after the third chapter while he was also directing Shin Godzilla and voicing the main character in Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises. Anno also had to leave Gainax and founded Studio Khara to reach his ideal vision of a new Evangelion anime. All of these factors along with the pandemic were what caused the nine-year delay of the last movie.

Many American fans experienced the movies in a sporadic manner. The first three films were dubbed by Funimation with some of the original ADV actors with their own physical release. The final movie was instead released by GKids featuring some more of the ADV cast added in which received a separate distribution from the Funimation line. Eventually, Amazon Prime streamed all four movies with a second dub of the first three movies to fit in with the fourth, and GKids released all but the third movie on DVD and Blu-Ray with the first two only being sold as limited single hard-copies. No word so far if the entire quartet will get a physical release and if it will include both dubs.

The Rebuild movies are very aloof from the original Evangelion plot as they start out like the TV show timeline, but as the story goes along, we learn that there is a multiverse, most of which the character of Kaworu is the only one aware of the fact that there are several timelines and that there is an incarnation of himself present in them. When Shinji is fighting with his father in the Anti-Universe in the end and learns of the myriads of different realities with Evas in them are a cycle like Ragnarok that has gone on numerous times. The solution to ending the cycle was removing the Evas and Angels altogether which sends Shinji to a rebuilt reality and was finally allowed to age as one other addition to the Rebuild series is that all Eva pilots are stuck physically as a teenager which is why Asuka and Mari didn’t age during the time skip between 2.0 and 3.0. However, this does not mean that the possibility of future installments of Evangelion aren’t unlikely.

The character of Mari is another major adding to the mix that jarred a few fans. The inclusion of another Eva pilot in some of the Evangelion games that also acts as a possible girlfriend for Shinji is not uncommon. Mari had no presence in first movie, a slight introduction in the second along with playing a part in that film’s final battle, she’s given little to do in the third movie, and the final one only has one scene when she is physically in the same room with Shinji and Asuka. Mari is believed to be inspired by Hideaki Mono’s real-life wife Moyoco who is also a manga creator responsible for Sugar Sugar Run, although whether she was the physical model for Mari is up in the air. Moyocco created a gag manga titled Insufficient Direction which parodies her marriage to a famous anime director which further concretes Mari’s status as a welcome character. This also added to the waifu culture where the main character has multiple love interests which had divided fans since the original TV anime.

The roulette wheel of realities that the finale presents us with informs the viewer that there are numerous outcomes where not only Shinji but much of the cast could have their own distinct conclusions. The curse that leaves the Eva pilots stuck in the body of a teenager represents how otaku and the anime industry can become stagnant when it comes to their willingness to improve themselves without relying on nostalgia. We learn that the multiverse concept means that the Rebuild movies are adjacent to the original TV series just in an alternate timeline, especially when it flashes back to scenes from End Of Evangelion. This presents a more optimistic approach where if someone who forms relationships with others does so to give something instead of gaining you will reach a better level of self-consciousness.

A large deterrent for most watching the Rebuild films one after the other is that there is a tremendous amount of lore thrown into backdrop of the plot. The original TV series delved somewhat into Christian dogma, but the Rebuild movies have more backstory than Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings combined. This is like the technical jargon used in nearly any Star Trek episode, but during the action scenes on the Eva films they demand that you have the entire fan wiki hardwired into your brain so you can pick up on every single tidbit they briefly mention like something from the Dead Sea Scrolls or alluding to some military arrangement from the Vatican which can change the viewing experience into an esoteric trivia contest.

Rebuild Of Evangelion was a grand experiment that tested the limits of the creators’ efforts plus the patients of old and new fans. The tetralogy’s prolonged theatrical run made many recognize the weak world-building, but at the same time you become aware of how Anno’s depression brought a sense of deja vu to some of his past productions like Diebuster. For some, the Rebuild films were a coming-of-age ceremony while older otaku are left with a more gratifying conclusion.