ANI-MOVIES, *Meet The Robinsons

Unless your movie has Feebles in it, any film titled Meet The...." should be avoided at all costs, and yes that includes any Robert De Niro outing. Meet The Robinsons was Disney's 47th full-length animated theatrical release, as well as only the third one to be fully CGI that wasn't done by Pixar, and even though their previous 3D animated movie Chicken Little made twice of its budget back, this film only broke two million making it a serious dud by Disney standards. Based on William Joyce's children's book, A Day With Wilbur Robinson, this is almost a spiritual spinoff to Joyce's previous work on Fox's Robots movie as it involves atompunk elements which you might find in titles like Astro Boy or The Jetsons. For a mid-2000s all CGI production, Meet The Robinsons suffers from seriously dated graphics which Pixar had on its own perfected with their first release of Toy Story. Even Mainframe's work on Reboot and Beast Wars had better animation than this movie, and they came out over a decade before this. Another thing is that the story is stupefyingly sporadic going from one cliched cartoon gag after another following a paper-thin plot, so it's more like a tilt-a-whirl of cartoon gags sewed together in a time travel tale. The best way to describe this is that it is like watching Back To The Future: Part II without ever seeing the original chapter, but even lovers of non-linear narration won't appreciate it.

An orphaned boy named Lewis has been living in the orphanage for 12 years and still never got an adopted family, mostly because he's obsessed with learning who his real mother was and why she abandoned him. This fixation has Lewis diving into science and cobbling together whatever kind of contraption he can get from everyday objects, all of which seriously ticks off his roommate Goob who he keeps up every night with his constant tinkering. Lewis makes a memory scanner to see what his mother originally looked like from within his own memories as a baby and decides to premiere this at a school science fair, although a strange man with a bowler hat sabotages his efforts. A boy Lewis' age named Wilbur claims he's from the future and they journey several years to meet Wilbur's extensively bizarre family of the Robinsons most of which were also orphans and profoundly eccentric. Without getting into spoilers, it becomes obvious how each of these characters are relative to another across the past and the future, even though you don't have to be a Time Lord to realize that time travel doesn't work that way.

Meet The Robinsons is a mismanaged mess of a film that strings together a succession of unfunny non-sequitur cliches. The animation is rank and it's like the Mouse Mansion really didn't give a darn about making anything of genuine quality which is why Disney bought up Pixar just so they could have some type of decent 3D production. Aside from the extensive star-studded cast who make up the whole of the Robinson family which includes everyone from Tom Selleck to Adam West, there isn't any major pull for this as a large portion of the cast is made of different Disney animators and staff. Even with a time travel plot, this disorganized feature isn't worth of being a major Disney cinematic release, so don't even bother.

Rest In Power: Roger Sweet, Co-Creator of He-Man

ANI-MOVIES, *The Croods

The only way they could get Nicholas "effing" Cage to be even more Nicholas "effing" Cage was if they had him play a cartoon caveman version of himself! Directors and screenwriters Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders came up with this update on The Flinstones, but this modern stone age family don't live in a stonepunk civilization and are in constant danger of going extinct. The Croods from Dreamworks went on to make theatrical sequel, plus two separate animated TV series, one a prequel to the first and the other a continuation of the sequel movie. The 2013 film released with a booming success making more than three times its budget back from box office sales. The plan at first was to make The Croods a stop motion production with Aardman Animations at the helm and even featuring John Cleese and based it on a Roald Dahl book titled The Twits, although this wouldn't get its own animated movie until 2025 when it premiered on Netflix. Aardman instead went on to make Early Man about cavemen meeting civilized humans and starting the game of soccer, all this while Dreamworks rewrote the original pitch into their own distinct movie. Instead of ex-Monty Pythoners, the cast features Nicholas Cage as the caveman dad, Emma Stone as the rebellious older daughter, Ryan Reynolds as a lone teenager who has been surviving on his own, plus Cloris Leachman voicing yet again another grandma character which she practically made a career out of.

A prehistoric family living in the time that the continents were drifting apart, the Croods are the only remaining humans in their neighborhood as the rest of the humans were either killed by the local wildlife or died of infection. The ever-shifting landscape causes the Crood's cave collapsing, so they head out into the open world to find a new cave. The elder daughter Eep comes across the slightly more informed boy called Guy who told her about upcoming natural disasters, and gains the rest of the Crood's trust when he shows them he can make fire as well as crafting shoes out of dead animals so they can walk on bumpy terrain. The father Grug realizes he has been holding back his family by having them constantly hiding in caves instead of actually living and eventually comes around to Guy's way of thinking. The whole crew of Croods find a safe sanctuary near a tall mountain and end up adopted several different animals as pets.

The Croods is both an entertaining animated film while also being an enchanting visual experience. The character designs are standard cartoon types you would expect from a Dreamworks production from the 2010sm, but the landscape, backgrounds, and bizarre Seuss-like creatures seem like they come from a holistically different movie. The film won several animation awards, but 20th Century Fox failed to bother genuine merchandising to draw any real attention to its initial release which has made the movie a hidden gem despite all of its animated spinoffs. On its own, the original movie is an uncanny family adventure that is rewatchable.

ANI-MOVIES, *How To Train Your Dragon 2

Taking place after the first theatrical movie, a few shorts, and a series on Cartoon Network, How To Train Your Dragon 2 got released four years after the original and seriously veering off the source material. Based on the book series of the same name, the sequel goes its own route once again written and directed by Dean DeBlois who made it with the intention of turning the franchise into a trilogy. It was so popular that Dreamworks is of course doing a live-action remake similar to the original. The fact there's an entire section of it in Epic Universe proves that the sequel helped add to the brand's stalwart position in family entertainment.

Set five years after the first movie, Hiccup and Toothless uncover new lands and entire islands covered in green ice. These uncovered territories are inhabited by dragon trappers who are collecting for their warlord, Drago Bludvist. Hiccup is certain he can talk Drago into giving up his tyrannical ways despite everything his father Stoick's advises him about. Along the way, Hiccup finds his mother Valka who has been hiding away in a sealed off sanctuary of dragons watched over by an alpha dragon. Valka has spent the last two decades keeping the dragons safe from Drago who wants to add them to his dragon army. After a brief reunion with Hiccup and Stoick, Drago's army attacks and takes control of the refugee dragons via his own alpha. The alpha has the ability to control other dragons and temporarily causes Toothless to kill Stoick. Hiccup and the rest of his crew make it back to Berk to stop Drago and defeating his alpha, although Drago's fate is never revealed, even in any of the expanded media.

Having Hiccup go from being the shame of his village to following in his father's footsteps as the new chief is a good direction to take the main character as he and the others have grown up. The supporting teenage characters are mostly just sort of there hanging around and not adding much to the plot, although you can see how Astrid and Hiccup's relationship has strengthened over the years. Dreamworks really upped the ante with their production which is a serious evolution from not only the original film but the animated TV series as well which was lacking int the usual Dreamworks quality. The stakes a higher here and there is a darker presence for the heroes to struggle and suffer through. The only downside is that just like the first one is that they never actually explain "how to train your dragon".

MISC. MANGA, *D'orc

With Dungeons And Dragons churning out more animated content, and the rise of isekai being a driving force in anime and manga, then D'orc might be right up your alley. Creator Brett Bean who had previously worked on I Hate Fairyland plus Rocket And Groot came up with this parody of fantasy tropes. Fans of The Dragon Prince will recognize quite a few familiar plot points and story similarities.

In the mystical realm of the Sunderaine, there lies an extended border separating the good side from the bad side of the lands. This area is known as The Scar where there is no good or evil, just ongoing fighting between various factions. However, among the rabble of different races that exist within The Scar is a half-dwarf, half-orc referred to as D'orc. This half-breed wanders the desolate landscape who is constantly trying to avoid either good warriors or bad who want him to join their side. D'orc has a living shield with a large durable eye in the center who keep trying to have him get into fights. This isn't helpful as there's a prophecy which states that the half-and-half is said to bring about the end of the world. Word of D'orc's existence come to light as the kingdoms of light and dark each send their own personal assassin to nip the prophecy in the bud.

D'orc has a modern animation design to it with the numerous other races like humans, goblins, giants, and golems dreamt up by Brett Bean's imagination. The comic has become such an underground hit that some issues are going for hundreds on Ebay and it's already up to its third printing in just a little over a month, plus it had a crossover with I Hate Fairyland. If you ever wondered what a formidable version of Gollum might be up to in Middle Earth, then you should give this romp a read.

Mecha Anime Before The 80s

When most people think of mecha anime, they usually picture hot-blooded teenagers in colorful spandex piloting large robots comprised of rocket-powered vehicles. The sub-genre of mecha was the first anime to gain international appeal, but it all began in 1963 thanks to Osamu Tezuka, otherwise known as The God Of Manga. Tezuka created a manga that ran for 16 years titled Mighty Atom, or Astro Boy as it was called in English about an android modeled after a young lad that would fly around and do normal Silver Age hero stuff, including tangling with robots and monster bigger than him. Mighty Atom was adapted into one of the first serialized anime TV series featuring some amazing character designs for the time.

The first confirmed giant robot anime series came out at the same time called Tetsujin-28 Go that was rebranded as Gigantor in America. The robot in question was originally designed by the Japanese for WWII, but the English version rewrote as taking place at the turn of the century. Tetsujin-28 was controlled by a boy with his radio watch that would battle equally big bots. The creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, wrote a similar manga titled Giant Robo that was turned into one of the first live action mecha shows, but out west was called Johnny Sokko And His Giant Robot.

One of the first definitive mecha superheroes was 8 Man by Kazumasa Hirai about the original cyborg crimefighter. An investigator is murdered by gangsters, so a scientist places his mind inside the body of an elite android with super-speed, plus the power to take on the forms of other people including his old human self. The kicker for this was 8 Man powered himself by smoking cigarettes which replenished his energy. Only in the 60s could they make a superhero with the hook of getting children to smoke.

A step up from this was Cyborg 009 where nine people were turned into cyborgs, each with their own unique ability intended to help the criminal organization Black Ghost. 009 and the other cyborgs rebel against their benefactors and become one of the first superhero teams in anime who would regularly tussle with super-powered agents and other technological villains.

A final mecha anime from the 60s was Flying Phantom Ship which was a full-length movie directed by future Nintendo founder Hiroshi Ikeda. This was the first anime film to be dubbed into Russian and had none other than Hayao Miyazaki working on the mecha designs. This short film had a humongous robot named Golem attacking a city as a weapon of mass destruction.

Once the 70s started, Tatsunoko Productions premiered one of the longest running anime franchises, Gatchaman, which was picked up in America by the notorious Sandy Frank who labeled it Battle Of The Planets, and was rebranded twice onwards as G-Force and then Eagle Riders. The series had a team of five teenagers with attitudes (sound familiar?) that wore bird-themed superhero outfits and used their high-tech vehicles to fight colossal mechs dispatched by the evil organization Galactor determined to rule the world. This was one the first anime to feature gritty character designs and genuine character depth, as well as young heroes putting their lives on the line for the sake of peace and willing to kill to achieve it.

Following this was the dawn of what became called the era of Super Robots. These were big bots piloted by a single daredevil sporting a silly helmet who were the only ones capable of operating the battle machine. This eventually gave way to having a team of multiple young fighters piloting a giant robot, some of which were comprised of several smaller vehicles. One of the first anime of which was Astroganger about a towering robot built to protect Earth from aliens. The downside to Astroganger was that it was an incredibly dumb robot, so a ten-year old is given the great responsibility to make sure that it didn’t trip over its own giant feet.

The show that really put Super Robots on the map was Mazinger Z created by gag manga writer Go Nagai. Here, a giant robot made of a special alloy by an eccentric scientist who died leaving control over it to his reckless biker grandson Koji to counter the devious Dr. Hell who had an entire army of mechanical monsters. Mazinger Z had some of the first toy merchandise featuring the heroic robot along with its adversaries. Following this was a sequel series titled Great Mazinger with an even more powerful mecha that would clash with monsters called the Battle Beasts. There was also a spinoff called Grendizer about a robot using a huge flying saucer to travel around in.

Another mecha show by Go Nagai was Getter Robo which is known as one of the first combined robots where a giant robot was really a trio of aircraft. Depending on which configuration was used to assemble the robot, it could take on three separate forms, each with their own particular abilities. The three pilots were all spirited young men who weekly took on the sinister forces of the Dinosaur Empire. Getter Robo would even crossover with both Mazingers in a special theatrical release, plus there was a sequel titled Getter Robo G.

Brave Raideen pioneered the transforming robot craze which marketed it as one of the biggest gimmicks in anime. In it, the Demon Empire awakens after centuries of slumber to conquer the world, and the only one who can stop them is Akira, the last surviving member of an ancient race who takes control of a robot that was built millennia ago. Raideen could change into a godlike bird, making it a first long before Transformers.

Robotic superheroes weren’t absent from the 70s as the character of Tekkaman was a space knight who surfed on top of his own transforming robot Pegas which would create an extra set of armor around his own existing suit. Tekkaman saw success later in the 90s in the Tekkaman Blade remake anime.

Dino Mech Gaiking followed this with another tale of aliens invading Earth, and a psychic baseball player is given control of the robot Gaiking which could take on a humanoid form, a dragon, a jet, and two different tanks.

Casshan is another dip in the cyborg superhero waters. This time it’s a human brain put into an android body called Casshern who now sets out to free the world from evil superpowered robots that have dominated mankind. Casshern and his faithful transforming robot dog Friender along with a hot survivor named Luna set out to take down all the enemy androids and free everyone from their maniacal rule.

Captain Harlock creator Leiji Matsumoto got in on the Super Robot craze too with his own series of Dangaurd Ace. Earthlings are looking for a new planet to colonize, and the mysterious tenth planet Promete, but the warlord Doppler has put together his own armada. It’s up to the brave Captain Dan and young Takuma to utilize Earth’s only remaining giant robot to stop Doppler’s forces. This anime also gained a large international fan base thanks to multiple foreign dubs.

Combattler V is one of the most recognized gestalt robots from this era. This was the first of a series dubbed the Robot Romance Trilogy made by Toei Animation which all had giant robots with their own colorful pilots. In Combattler V, a group called the Battle Team unite their vehicles to form a giant weapon used to protect Earth from the alien Campbell Empire and their devastating robot beasts.

The next chapter in the Robot Romance Trilogy was Voltes V, a super electromagnetic robot whose anime gained major international popularity. The evil aliens from the planet Boazan send their Beasts Knights to of course conquer the world. A scientist assembles the Voltes Team to man their big mecha and defends not only our world but liberate the aliens’ planet as well. The Boazanian Prince Heinel was given significantly more character development as a protagonist that female fans of the show demanded he get a more poetic ending instead of just dying like all other lead anime villains.

Tosho Daimos is the last part of the trilogy by Toei. This has a nobler race of aliens coming to Earth in peace seeking a new place to live, but an assassination caused both sides to declare war. A transforming robot called Daimos which can do karate is driven by Kazuya who pilots it only to try to get a date with a lovely space princess who gets amnesia and is unaware of the war between her people and Earth. There is no specific enemy in this mecha show, but there are parties working on both sides sabotaging any chance of peace.

Rounding out the 70s was the groundbreaking Mobile Suit Gundam from Sunrise which launched the entire Gundam saga. Instead of fighting supervillains or evil aliens, robots were used from two opposing forces in the solar system both stemming from Earth with both sides treating their robots as advanced military hardware to be used in war. The rebellious Zeon was trying to establish their own space empire while the unified Federation tried to maintain peace in this period of war. Most of the main characters are young people who must grow up fast defending their territory as well as their lives while trying to master piloting the tremendous Mobile Suits which is one of the first mechas to come with lightsabers. Zeon is corrupt with the vengeful Char working from within to bring them down, however his efforts form a legendary rivalry with the Gundam pilot Amuro, plus they both form one of the first anime love triangles along with Char’s love Lalah. This also leads into a new evolution in humanity called Newtypes who have the psychic ability to fully coordinate with their space-bound robots in combat.

Most of the mecha anime from the 70s might not have made anyone in America notice if it weren’t for the advent of Shogun Warriors. Mattel teamed up with Japanese toy company Popy to create some of the first diecast metal toys to be released in the US. These included robots and super vehicles from various shows like Getter Robo, Combattler V, and Great Mazinger. Aside from the diecast construction, what really grabbed the attention of toy collectors everywhere was varying sizes from 3.5 inches to a staggering 2 feet tall, making them some of the biggest action figures ever made, even though some of them had loose parts that would’ve been a choking hazard. Mattel even managed to rope Toho into letting them add giant figures of Godzilla and Rodan to their roster, so this one of the few times tokusatsu kaiju were on the same line as anime robots. There was even a Marvel Comics series set in the Marvel Comics universe where three of the mechas could share panels with the Fantastic Four. The Shogun Warriors brand has endured for decades, but with less lethal rocket launching weapons.

Many of these anime titles have eventually been brought over to the States. Some of them were given a new name and broadcast in America like Tranzor Z or the cornucopia that was Force Five. We can thank companies like Discotek Media for finding some of these long-hidden gems and releasing a great number of titles on Blu-Ray and various streaming services, including a few available legitimately on YouTube. If it weren’t for hard boiled mecha such as Getter Robo, we wouldn’t have timeless classics like Transformers or Gurren Lagaan.

Twilight Of The Gods: The Unfulfilled Ragnarok

Aside from Tales Of The Black Freighter and Legend Of The Guardians, Zack Snyder has only dabbled in animation. Since he directed the Dawn Of The Dead remake, Snyder created a long line of live-action films mostly based on comic books. His studio of Stone Quarry Inc. produced their first TV series title, Twilight Of The Gods, inspired by Norse folklore which would be entirely animated, and largely in 2D. Hand-drawn animation is rare nowadays such as Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, so to have a streaming title using this same approach is almost like finding a real-life unicorn. This series is co-produced with the French animation studio, Xilam Animation SAS, which was previously behind Kaena: The Prophecy and I Lost My Body. Zack Snyder conceived the series when showrunner Jay Olivia was writing another animated show for Netflix titled Teres, and they worked on this together for a Netflix premiere while Snyder was making his Rebel Moon duology. After a single season of 8 episodes in 2024, it wasn’t until a year later that Netflix decided to cancel the series, partially due to their own original animated productions not paying off as well as some of their direct-to-streaming offerings like K-Pop Demon Hunters.

This is not a kids’ animation. There is a ton of violence, sex, and hardcore violence with no hiding behind cliches or euphemisms. The fact that this is a Viking tale is also an excuse for presenting life as brutal as possible in a world with monsters and mad gods. The animators seriously focused on detail when it came to the epic fighting scenes utilizing magic and superhuman efforts. Twilight Of The Gods goes for the gusto in the action sequences, and the score by Hans Zimmer adds even more light to the fire. Some of the sex scenes are more overt that normal, but it doesn’t shame the relationships between those of the same sex, bisexual, or any transgender characters.

The story has the female warrior Sigrid who is a half-giant princess that left her homeland to explore her human mother’s country which is under sieged by a warlord. Another clan led by King Leif also attacked the warlord at the same time and he falls in love with Sigrid, although they spend some time together before getting married because Leif’s father won’t sanction it since she can’t conceive an heir. Sigrid takes Leif to her village of giants where they are to be married, but none other than the gods Thor and Baldr crash the party looking for Loki who is disguised there as a small lizard. The giants battle Thor for his rowdy attitude, and the thunder god completely decimates all of them aside from Sigrid and Leif who Baldr allows to go uncounted for some reason. Loki brings Sigrid down to Hel where he and his daughter Hel of the same name offer Sigrid a chance for revenge against Thor, although Loki’s deal is ambiguous as he has his own plans which are to alter the destiny of Ragnarok where his children are killed off.

This set up has Sigrid assembling a band of warriors to help her slay Thor including Sigrid’s fellow shieldmaiden Hervor, the rune-crafting poet Egill in Leif’s debt, the witch Aile with her wolf-man partner Ulfr, and later the dwarf Andvari who provides them with god-killing weapons and joins them as he has a secret grudge against Loki for causing the death of his brother. The band of six go to Vanaheim to get passage into Asgard when bargaining with the Vanir who are the gods that lost in the first war against Odin, Thor, and the rest of what’s called the Aesir. After a misunderstanding, Sigrid’s forces team up with the Vanir, other giants, and a pack of wolves unite to launch a frontal assault against Asgard.

The finale has Sigrid’s army attacking Asgard over several days. Meanwhile, Aile is meeting with Odin who wants to know the future, and she shows him the Norse gods being replaced by Christianity. Afterwards, Aile is reborn as a new god while Baldr is killed trying to save Thor from Sigrid which is the prophesized beginning of Ragnarok. Thor’s mother Freya takes him to Valhalla as Loki kills Sigrid so she can follow him. Sigrid awakens in a huge hall with several fallen warriors having a good time, and Thor casually tells her that this is just the beginning, even though this is where the season abruptly ends.

Despite the high praise and good ratings, Netflix waited for over a year to announce they weren’t going to renew Twilight Of The Gods for a second season leaving many people hanging as to what was next to come for the characters and the series. Netflix is notorious for doing this with many of their original shows, but most of them get at least a second season before getting a definitive cancellation. Considering all the high-ranking talent behind it, Netflix wasn’t confident enough to allow a continuation. This might have been because there was a minimum of advertising put behind this since Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon series didn’t perform as well as what was projected, so Netflix was hesitant to give it a full promotional campaign. Also, Netflix already had a similar animated series that vividly told the story of another pantheon, Blood Of Zeus, which might have deterred any prospective viewers from giving it a chance.

Twilight Of The Gods had very much going for it. There were the original character designs, the classic fantasy plot of a handful of misfit heroes on a quest against overwhelming odds, the lightning-fast action, and it broke all the barriers when it came to over the top carnage as it has battles that make The Boys and Invincible seem like a thumb war. To me, this was the best adaptation of Norse mythology which is true to the gods’ vanity and how their petty feuds would cause nothing but turmoil for any mortals caught in the crossfire. Marvel Comics never even came close to representing the divide between the divine and mankind. Hopefully, Zack Snyder will find a way to continue this saga at through a different avenue as the creators of The Dragon Prince managed to. It at least deserves a full-length movie that acts as a grand finale.

ANI-MOVIES, *Inside Out

Apparently, no one told Pixar that when they were making their first Inside Out animated movie that there already was a sitcom titled Herman's Head that they shamelessly ripped the idea off from. The concept of someone's entire self being controlled by different aspects of their personality in one big starship bridge right out of Star Trek isn't totally new as Disney had done this before in the 40s, even though this production stretched the idea out to a full-length feature which works against it in several ways as the film has to layout a lot of filler material to maintain a steady pace. This is one of those Pixar films that expects you to just believe a metric ton of things upfront in order to move the story forward, like how in Cars there are no humans or in Toy Story where all the toys are alive for no explained reason. This was an appealing idea for a movie, but most who saw it were distracted by Pixar's cliched attempts at humor to notice the gaping plot holes in it. Director Peter Docter pretty much recycled this whole move when he created the future Pixar movie Soul.

A young girl named Riley is moving to San Francisco where she has to deal with conflicting emotions of losing her old friends and surviving in a new home. This internal struggle takes on the forms of five beings operating a panel within Riley's head including Disgust, Fear, Anger, Joy, and Sadness who accidently lose some of their hosts core memories, so Joy and Sadness get shafted out of the control room to find the lost memories in the form of glowing orbs. Riley's head consists of different theme parks representing things she cherishes such as family and zaniness which all begin to crumble as Joy and Sadness fail to get back to headquarters and even results in the definitive death of her imaginary friends. Joy and Sadness do eventually make it back to the central hub through of Riley's subconscious and help her stabilize and deal with her new surroundings, even though the audience is never given any idea whatsoever the effect of having entire parts of her mind just disintegrated and why this poor girl isn't lying in a coma for most of the film.

Inside Out does make up for its bad pacing with Pixar's stellar animation. It's an entertaining enough feature for children with all its bright colors and fluid animation even if much of the material going over most kids' heads, and some adults can relate to their past experience growing up. However, there is little compelling to this story, and the main characters is slightly bland who has no control over her own life as it's under the absolute domination of bickering inner emotions. The obscure vagueness that Pixar decides to once again rehash when they create some new take on the common world with living toys or cars is getting stale. This film also misleads people into thinking that sadness can only be lifted if they get help from someone else instead of relying on yourself to find your own steady ground. Inside Out was a big enough hit for Disney to make a sequel to, but then they also never released that Dumbo continuation they were planning either.

ANI-MOVIES, *Inu-Oh

Hideo Furukawa wrote a novel about a true feudal Noh dancer called Inu-Oh. Science Saru made this into a rock opera in 2021. Much about Inu-Oh’s life was unknown, so the book and the film took several liberties with his history.

A boy named Tomona is blinded when his father finds an ancient sword and spends years training to become a biwa player. He comes across a deformed lad who calls himself Inu-Oh, the cursed son of a Noh performer. Tomona discovers that Inu-Oh is haunted by the spirits of deceased soldiers who want their stories to be told, so the two of them put together the equivalent of a rock concert with theatrics telling one of the deceased warriors’ tales which slowly help Inu-Oh become more human. They gain great success, but the newly formed government forces them to tell only stories that meet their approval. This leads to Tomona being slain for rebelling with Inu-Oh waiting 600 years to find his old friend’s spirit.

Inu-Oh is an insane musical which you will need to watch in Japanese with subtitles to understand them. The Noh performance merged with biwa music is the equivalent of a Queen concert. Masaaki Yuasa of Devilman Crybaby fame directed this madcap animation feast for the eyes that has a rocking soundtrack and picturesque visuals.

R.I.P., James Tolkan. A true Master of the Universe

ANI-MOVIES, *Animalympics

In what could be the first American animated compilation movie, Animalympics was originally supposed to be a pair of TV specials done for the 1980 Summer and Winter Olympics. The winter one aired and received a few awards, but because Jimmy Carter boycotted the summer games after an incident with Russia, the second special never aired. It was aired during the next Olympic games on cable TV but this time as a single film, which is strange because they had summer and winter sports in the same place at the same time. Directed by Steven Lisberger who would go on to create Disney’s Tron franchise, this was animated by his own production company. The film works well enough as a collected edition, although the entire film is collage of sketches done that you would normally catch in one of those old Tex Avery cartoons where the entire thing is like a newsreel, even though stretching that out to 78 minutes might be pushing a little. The film had a gaggle of actors with Gilda Radner doing most of the female characters, future Mr. Burns voice Harry Shearer, Billy Crystal doing his best Howard Cosell impression, and audiophile Michael Fremer doing at least half the cast. Much of animation is reminiscent of Looney Tunes and some of the Goofy cartoons that spoofed sports documentaries. A good portion of the film is padded out with musical numbers, some of which are dream sequences or trippy scenes to get high with.

The entire plot is really a telecast of the first ever Animalympics from Animalympics Island which was originally the lost city of Atlantis. There are no humans in this reality, just anthropomorphic animals that managed to live together in peace before Zootopia even got out of the stable. The network covering this is ZOO with several different reporters and news anchors. Some of the athletes have a whole story behind them like a dog skier getting lost in a Shangri-La type land in the mountains, plus a daring bird countess who wins a fencing match. The one segment that gets the most attention is a marathon that goes on for several days between a French goat and an African lioness who run together over the finish line after falling in love with each other. There are jabs at pop culture of the time like disco which aged badly when the movie finally released, plus some of the characters were analogs of celebrities like John Travolta or Muhammad Ali that were dated.

The film was a launching pad for future animators including Brad Bird of The Iron Giant, Roger Allers of The Lion King, plus Bill Kroyer who joined Disney to do the CGI effects for Tron. Most of the humor is lost on younger viewers even in the 80s since it was mostly written during the late 70s. The soundtrack is slightly memorable, but the entire film is random vignettes tied together like an episode of Wild World Of Sports, so the attention span on any real plot is as sporadic as a roller coaster off the rails. Animalympics is more of a great study case for young enterprising animators than an entertaining theatrical production, although it did awaken the furry fetish for a whole generation.

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.

 

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.

MISC. MANGA, *.Hack//Legend Of The Twilight

As part of the triple-pronged hit of the anime TV series and video games, this .Hack chapter was actually the first one to be released in Japan, or at least as part of a monthly manga publication magazine. Legend Of The Twilight is in fact a sequal to .Hack//Sign, the RPG, and the underhyped OVA, Liminality, taking place four years after the apparant threat to the virtual world of The World has passed.

Here, Shugo and his twin sister Rena have won the character avatars of original .hackers Kite and Black Rose, meaning that their online selves resemble those of the playable characters from the RPG, accept slightly younger looking. Once online, Shugo dies during a quest, but is brought back thanks to Aura, who is an AI that exists within The World's mainframe. She grants Shugo a bracelet which has the same abilities that Kite's did, accept this one can actually be seen as a real wearable item. This attracts the attention of a young rare item hunter named Mirielle, who is really the 4-year old daughter of one of the original .hackers. They also befriend an American player named Hotaru, and Ouka, a female werewolf who fights barehanded. Shugo also attracts the attention of Balmung, who was a key player in the video games, but now is a system administrator for CC Corp who runs The World. Shugo later runs into Zefie, a young AI who turns out to be Aura's "daughter". Shugo and the others then set out to find a way of reuniting Zefie with her mother, despite that fact that Zefie is selfish, pushy, and clings to Shugo like a monkey. However, the Cobalt Knight Brigade, who are an official group of player thugs for CC Corp, like a Nazi version of the Crimson Knights, learn of Zefie's existance and plan to wipe her out. After capturing Shugo and his party, they lock them up. But Zefie's abilbity to manipulate the world Neo-style allows them to escape and seek out Aura.

The manga follows a different approach than the anime based on it. In the .Hack//Legend TV series, Zefie isn't in it at all, and Shugo's party has to take on a sort of anti-Aura and her group of hacking followers from destroying The World. The manga goes on for two regular-sized volumes, and then one double-sized third volume complete with bonus chapters. Rei Izumi's artwork is great though and really brings the story to life offline. This is for real fans who've played all four video games, and seen both prior anime series. It might be a little hard for others to integrate themselves in the .Hack universe though.

ANI-MOVIES, *Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone

Since the original TV series and movies left most of the average otaku with a serious WTF taste in their mouth, director Hideaki Anno decided to do a Star Wars: Special Edition take on the Neon Genesis: Evangelion saga, except this time it's a whole remake of the story. This was the first a four-part movie series which will retell the story but add several new elements to it. Although it might not seem like it in this first film, as it's mostly a newly scripted adaptation of Eps. 1-6 of the TV series.

It begins during the 20-teens, some years after what was called the Second Impact which destroyed Antarctica by a monster classified as an Angel. This caused a large portion of the world's population to be killed, so in order to prevent a possible Third Impact a special organization called NERV is put together to protect the Second Angel called Lillith underneath an underground base in a geo-front. When a new Angel appears, NERV springs into action to prevent it from coming in contact with Lillith which could cause Third Impact and end the world. Gendo Ikari, the head of NERV, gets his unwilling son Shinji to pilot their ultimate weapon, Evangelion Unit 01. The Evas are giant mechanical humanoids that can be operated only by a select group of fourteen-year-olds. Shinji manages to take out the one Angel and starts to settle into his new life in the city of Tokyo-3 where NERV headquarters is. He moves in with the sexy captain Misato and her pet penguin, although his school life is a little harsh. The arrival of another Angel breaks Shinji in with some new friends though. As he starts to learn more about the pilot of the prototype Unit 00, the enigmatic Rei Ayanami, the next Angel attacks which proves to be more of a problem. With the combined efforts of the Japanese government and Rei's near sacrificing herself, Shinji manages to snipe the Angel's ass away. The film ends with the character of Karou(who doesn't show up in the TV series until near the end)awakening on the moon and talking to the head of SEELE, the secret cabal that actual commands NERV.

Now, this first movie seems like the other three flicks will be also just rewrites of the original story. However, the recently released second movie actually takes a very different turn with the introduction of new Eva Units and new pilots. Plus, major changes in the characters, like Asuka is now a captain, and a slightly different take on Rei's origins. The story folds out a little better in this movie than it did in the first few TV episodes, aside from no explanation given as to why Shinji got beaten up by Toji at school. However, a lot of positive factors were added to it, like Gendo's planning in advance for Rei and Shinji to develop a relationship, and the revelation of Lillith in NERV very early on which is something that unknown even to Misato until much later in the TV series. The animation is of course seriously upgraded and makes a real difference in the theatrical quality. I have the feeling that despite this film seems like a retread of the old show, that when it's compared to the other three movies after they're released it will look like a more fitting beginning to this tetralogy. But only time will tell that.

R.I.P. Masako Ikeda. The Original Maetel.

 

ANI-MOVIES, *The Adventures Of Prince Achmed (Centennial Celebration)

Lotte Reiniger directed several silent animated movies in her career, but one of the few to not have been lost to time is the oldest surviving full-length animated film, The Adventures Of Prince Achmed. This features silhouette animation which gives off the appearance of a totally black appearance of all the characters and parts of the background using cutout figures shot frame-by-frame. Reininger had already done a few shorts based on fairy tales such as Cinderella, but for this film she went above and beyond the normal scope by merging three stories from Arabian Nights into a single plot using her own personal style of animation inspired by Javanese wayang puppetry. When the film was released in 1926 it didn't get a warm reception, but when it premiered in France it was considered ahead of its time with its romantic and sometimes arousing movement plus its poetic storytelling. Considering the film didn't even have a distributor and was denied an initial theatrical release in Germany, is still managed to gain a wide reputation thanks to a privately funded screening including filmmakers like Fritz Lang. The movie went through a restoration in the late 90s which helped reinvite it to a whole new century.

An evil Sorcerer tries to win the heart of the lovely Princess Dinarzade by offering her father the Caliph a mechanical flying horse. Prince Achmed is having none of his sister marrying a shifty sorcerer and accidentally launches the horse far and away. Achmed ends up in the islands of Wak Wak ruled by the fairy queen Peri Banu who he comes across taking a bath, and unlike most chivalrous princes he ends up kidnapping her on the flying horse taking her to China. After saving Peri Banu from marrying the fool of an emperor thanks again to the Sorcerer, the genie woman returns Achmed's fondness only to be captured by the demons of Wak Wak who are cross with their lovestruck leader. Achmed gets help from a Fire Witch who is the Sorcerer's enemy and they happen to run into the young lad Aladdin who stops the plot to tell his backstory of how he found a magic lamp with multiple spirits in it to grant him wishes as he tried to marry Dinarzade. The Sorcerer stole the lamp which the rescuers need to enter the sealed off realm of Wak Wak, so the Fire Witch ultimately defeats him and reclaims the magic lamp. Achmed and his allies unleash the spirits of the lamp to repel the demon horde and save Peri Banu. They use Aladdin's enchanted castle to fly back to the Caliph's kingdom where both the Prince and Princess are wed to their soulmates.

The Adventures Of Prince Achmed is considered to be Lotte Reiniger's greatest works even at the time it was release since most of her other films are considered lost. Most filmgoers consider Disney's Snow White to be the first animated feature film, but Reiniger had Uncle Walt beat by more than a decade. This movie's influence is seriously underappreciated as both a relic of cinematic history and a visually enchanting adventure, so since it's in the public domain there are several formats to watch it on.

ANI-MOVIES: *The Story Of Hong Gil-Dong

The Story Of Hong Gil-Dong was the first full-length animated feature from South Korea. This 1967 movie was done by Seki Productions who up until then handled the Korean release of various Disney films. The film was directed by Shin Dong-heon along with his brother, Shin Dong-won who also created a comic titled Hong Gil-dong The Hero based on the 16th Century Korean novel about the country's first known superhero figure. Hong Gil-Dong was the Korean equivalent of Robin Hood but with Dragonball levels of martial arts skills. The Story Of Hong Gil-Dong was a huge success in its home country and led to Korea becoming its own small empire of successful animated movies such as The Golden Iron Man and Lightning Atom. Granted, this was before Korea became infamous for making anime knockoffs like Johnny Destiny: Space Ninja. There is no dub of this particular movie, and most streamed versions of this is subtitled with closed captions, but it is possible to find a version that doesn't just present text for what kind of music is playing in the background.

Hong Gil-Dong is the bastard son of a nobleman who fathered her with one of his concubines and the boy lives with his father in his estate. One of the royal ladies makes the nobleman think Gil-Dong will bring a prophesized doom upon their house, so he is cast out. For the next few years, Hong Gil-Dong spends his time fighting injustice at a nearby kingdom along with his newly acquired sidekick Chadol Bawi and he embarrassed the evil magistrate by beating up his entire army with his inherited noble strength. Gil-Dong then takes a few years to learn awesome sword fighting from a local wizard who teaches him how to ride on clouds similar to Goku. Afterwards, Gil-Dong joins the ranks of the rebel leader Long Beard as they plan to kill the evil magistrate. The royal minister takes offense of this and holds Gil-Dong's father and mother hostage because apparently the nobleman's adultery was public knowledge at this point. Gil-Dong along with Long Beard's forces free his parents and defy the evil minister and hopefully living ever after.

This movie has some rough animation in it reflecting on American cartoons of the 40s such as Popeye and Looney Tunes with some repetitive sequences and running cycles, but for being Korea's first big animated production it works out fairly well for a country just getting their feet wet in the industry. Even though the movie is a little over an hour long, you can tell the creators would pad it out with some of Chadol Bawi's sidekick buffoonery. You can find this on several streaming channels as well as DVD and Blu-Ray, but again your mileage will vary with the quality of subtitles.

ANI-MOVIES, *Panda And The Magic Serpent

The White Snake Enchantress was the first feature-length anime movie done entirely in color as well as Toei Animation's premiere motion picture in 1958. It was released in America under the title Panda And The Magic Serpent with one of the most questionable English dubs of all time. Even though it was a Japanese production, the original source material was inspired by one of China's Four Great Folktales which has traditionally been used as the inspiration for various operas, plus as a live-action movie by Toho two years prior to the anime. The tale has been retold so many times that it's difficult to say whether or not there is an actual antagonist in it or just a supernatural love story as it became more romanticized over the years. Panda And The Magic Serpent was officially the first anime movie to be shown in American theaters within months of two other releases, Magic Boy plus Alakazam The Great, and the dub had abnormal dialogue inserted into it with scenes sometime just using the Japanese language track while also keeping the music numbers undubbed with only the narrator translating what the lyrics were saying in a truly routine manner, which considering the original film had a cast made entirety of two actors, it becomes understandable how unprepared America was for formatting anime to English audiences, especially with the rushed pacing. A great chunk of the movie is either funny animal schtick or the two main leads fawning over each other, and the dub gives such a rapid exposition that's it's hard to clarify the plot.

Xu Xian is a young man who as a boy had a white snake for a pet. Years later, the snake is transformed into a human named Bai-Niang with miraculous powers who along with her fish-turned-lady-in-waiting Xiaoqing try to win the favor of her former owner. Xu Xian and Bai-Niang try to establish their relationship, but because of the hijinks of Xu Xian's panda and red panda sidekicks he ends imprisoned for looting the main treasury. A monk mistakes Bai-Niang for being an evil spirit, so he tries to cast her away only for her to renounce her immortality and powers to gain the Flower of Life to save Xu Xian. After some epic magical showdowns and help from the panda and his newly acquired street gang, the monk realizes that Bai-Niang is benevolent who reunites with Xu Xian making for a happy ending.

The movie's director Taiji Yabushita went on to helm several Toei animated films, and Americans will recognize the western influences in his style, especially with the anthropomorphic antics of the animal characters. Most other adaptations of The White Snake legend had a better grasp on the mythological lore whereas this anime version suffers from filling out the run time to over an hour long. If you consider yourself a pioneer in anime then Panda And The Magic Serpent is largely mandatory, although aside from its cemented place in history the film isn't a mainstay for standard otaku.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Princess And The Goblin

Even though there had already been a segment of Fractured Fairy Tales that covered the George Macdonald's novel The Princess And The Goblin, Hungarian director Jozsef Gemes and his Pannonia Film Studio did their own feature-length animated movie in 1991 produced by Welsh TV network S4C making it the first ever cartoon movie done in Wales. It got a British dub in 1992 which fit in as Disney's renaissance was chugging on well giving it some leeway since it was a princess fairy tale. The film didn't fair to well in American theaters since it was released at the same time as The Lion King and only got a minimum amount of praise because they gave away a free phone card for kids to use in an emergency. The animation for the early 90s is mildly conspicuous, but nothing all that breathtaking except possibly the unique backgrounds. The main selling point was the English cast with the late comedian Rik Mayall playing the titular goblin, although if you're a regular of British animation, you'll notice it's pretty much a copy of David Jason's original incarnation of Count Duckula with a Daffy Duck lisp, so it's sort of a waist of Mayall's talent.

Taking place in a castle near a mountain mine, Princess Irene gets lost from her guardian and cornered by some dark creatures only to be saved by the miner boy Curdie who scares the monsters away with singing. Curdie finds out there are goblins living underground near the mines and are planning on flooding them out. The goblin prince Froglip wants to capture Irene and make her his bride to get back at humans for forcing them underground years ago for not being nice, but Curdie is imprisoned by the goblins when they find him. Irene gets some help from the spirit of her great-great-grandmother who she was named after and receives a magic ring which will lead her to free Curdie due to an invisible thread. The goblins attack the castle leaving Curdie to save Irene from Froglip just as the flood intended for the mines ends up a wrecking most of the castle instead which washes all the goblins away.

The Princess And The Goblin is a serviceable movie for children with decent storytelling, just not all that gripping. The design and strange antics of the goblins are jovial enough going the route that you might not see in your average Looney Tunes, although it seems some of the animators had a bizarre fetish for the loathsome goblin queen who is the fiercest fighter out of the whole lot. There are times especially near the end when you can tell the quality of animation was slipping possibly because of budget issues. You're not really missing out on giving this particular movie a pass, so don't worry if you can't find a copy of the old VHS or the DVD release as its not regularly available on streaming.

ANI-MOVIES, *Rock & Rule

For the first full-length movie from the now defunct Nelvana Studios, the adult animated production of Rock And Rule was actually inspired by a TV short they created in 1978 titled The Devil And Daniel Mouse based on the Stephen Vincent Benet story. Clive Smith directed the original short as well as the big budget remake which premiered in 1983, even though they turned down working on the more controversial movie Heavy Metal to make their own animated rock opera. The 80s were a different time for animation as before most studios went on to making TV shows based on toys, and Disney itself was struggling to keep itself afloat as their renaissance was still a few years off, so Nelvana trying to create a mature animated production with a rock-themed soundtrack was a serious stretch for anybody at that point, even with an 8 million dollar budget. The studio was first owned by United Artists which was later incorporated into MGM who greatly receded Rock And Rule's release which led it to becoming a huge flop in theaters. MGM also reformatted the American release that added to its disappointing turnout, although the original widescreen version done for Canada was burned in a fire making the intended edition of this lost to time. MGM also added new scenes to the film along with a narrated opening crawl which made the edit chopped to pieces. Most people would remember this as being one of those bizarre films you would catch on rotation on HBO sometime on a late weekend night, but this helped the movie get enough traction for animation fans to make it a cult classic. Nelvana put a huge effort into this production helmed by their team of over 300 animators, despite the false rumors that some former legendary Disney animators worked on it and that Ralph Bakshi was also somehow involved, although the movie featured the best of the studio's fluid animation which helped them gain the respect of George Lucus as they went on to work on the first animated Star Wars productions. The main draw for the movie was the musicians that were signed to provide the soundtrack such as Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop which helped make some of the music numbers seem like their own 80s music video. The cast was split up into having some actors for the Canadian version only to have them being replaced in the American dub, but the best of them all was the main villain performed by Don Francks who most will know as the original voice of Boba Fett and the first Sabretooth from the X-Men 90s series, plus there was also a small appearance by Catherine O'Hara. All the work Nelvana put into this was flushed away due to MGM's meddling, however the movie did manage to gain a new audience with its various physical releases including VHS, LD, DVD, and Blu-Ray.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where all the humans were killed off in a nuclear war and the rodents evolved to take their place, Mok is the most popular singer in the world with a reputation for using actual magic in his acts, but since some of his last few concerts weren't completely sold out. Like all disgruntled rock stars, instead of going into a drug-induced depression, Mok decides to summon a demon from another dimension to become popular again. The only way to achieve this was with a special voice, so Mok goes all over the globe looking for one, but only when he gets back to his home of Ohmtown does he find the voice in a local girl named Angel who is part of a 4-player band including her rowdy boyfriend, Omar. Angel is not willing to join Mok without the rest of her band, so Mok and his trio of goons kidnap her and take her to do a concert in New York, now called Nuke York. Omar and the rest of the band go to get her but fail, and Angel is forced to try and summon the demon. Fortunately, the demon wasn't able to manifest because of insufficient power which there is an abundancy of back in Ohmtown. Mok sets up another concert and manages to conjure up the demon, but the combined power of Angel and Omar's voices send the demon and Mok back into the darkness.

Rock And Rule broke conventional animation film standards for having even greater quality that most of the Disney movies of that era and was one of the first ones to incorporate computer animation as well. MGM's negligence in holding back promoting the movie really bit Nelvana's streak which up until then was known mostly for animated holiday specials. There was also no wide release of the movie soundtrack which is the one thing that kept Heavy Metal from its initial obscurity, even though there was a good comic book adaptation by Marvel. Rock And Rule is a trippy psychedelic ride with memorable songs and shooting from the hip humor that will leave a solid groove in your mind.