For reasons of storage space-saving and also for DVDs containing additional content not found on videos, some years back I began replacing much of my video collection with DVDs, except for ones whose movies are not available on DVD or which hold sentimental value for me. On 12 April 2023, despite now having it on DVD, I watched one of my movie videos from the latter category, because when I opened it I discovered that it still contained its original shop receipt, confirming that I had purchased it from Woolworths on 27 December 1997 in its traditional post-Christmas sale. Today, Woolworths is long gone, and so is the life that I was living then, still with my family all around, of which that humble little receipt is a poignant reminder.
And so, a little over 25 years later, I finally sat down and watched this video, which is of the early 1980s animated sci fi/fantasy anthology movie Heavy Metal (not to be confused with the Eddie Kidd motorbike-themed movie Riding High, which came out at much the same time and was retitled in some territories as Heavy Metal, and even featured a not too dissimilar cartoon cover on its video and accompanying paperback novelization).
Directed by Gerald Potterton, released in 1981 by Columbia Pictures, inspired by the long-running magazine Heavy Metal and its graphic art stories of sci fi and fantasy, and very Ralph Bakshian in its depictions of sex, nudity, and violence, Heavy Metal is nowadays widely deemed to be a cult classic, especially within the world of animation.
It consists of several separate segments, each with its own separate plot, voice cast, crew, and animation team, but linked by the presence in each one of a glowing green orb, the Loc-Nar, that speaks, claiming to be the sum of all evils, and revealing its devastating effects upon those who have sought to own it. Originally there were ten such segments, including the short 'Epilogue', but one of them, 'Neverwhere Land', was cut, to prevent the movie from running over its intended length.
There isn't enough space here to go into all the individual segments' plots – which range from a film noir-esque taxicab driver in a futuristic dystopian New York City inadvertently coming into a fortune due to the Loc-Nar's destruction of those who covet it ('Harry Canyon'), and a lonely teenage nerd who is transported to the exceedingly weird alien world of Neverwhere by the Loc-Nar but where he nonetheless becomes a happy hulking super-hero (voiced by John Candy) after rejecting the malign orb ('Den'), to a WW2 bomber pilot who is horrified to find that the Loc-Nar has transformed all of his crew into zombies ('B-17'), and a mute female warrior named Taarna astride a huge battle-bird avenging the destruction of a planet's peaceful scholar inhabitants by a barbaric horde of mutants engendered by the Loc-Nar ('Taarna') – but suffice it to say that the cumulative effect is one that held my attention throughout.
The vivid animation is extremely good throughout, the alien worlds and entities varied in form and invariably colourful in appearance, and several classic Heavy Metal rock tracks accompany the stories, performed by the likes of Sammy Hagar, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, Journey, and Devo. It also includes a score by Elmer Bernstein, his first score for an animated movie.
My only gripe is that Taarna's spectacular-looking avian steed as depicted by acclaimed fantasy artist Chris Achilléos in publicity posters and video/DVD covers for this movie (see this present review's pictures) is, by contrast, far less spectacular within the actual movie itself, which was disappointing. The original Heavy Metal magazine story (entitled 'Arzach') upon which this animated Heavy Metal movie segment is based, conversely, was illustrated by the renowned French comic-strip artist/author Moebius (real name Jean Giraud), who also illustrated the Heavy Metal magazine story 'The Long Tomorrow', which in the movie became the 'Harry Canyon' segment. In addition, his artwork inspired the 1982 animated feature movie Time Masters (click here to read my review of it).
Unlike in the Ralph Bakshi mature-audience animated movies such as Fire and Ice (click here to read my review of it) and Wizards, there is little use of rotoscoping here in Heavy Metal (Taarna being the only notable exception, with Toronto model Carole Desbiens rotoscoped to create her). Consequently, the humanoid figures move in a less life-like, realistic manner, adopting a rather more fluid mode of movement as in traditional animation, but which I actually prefer to rotoscoping.
(Incidentally, if like me you're an animation fan, you'll recognize director Gerald Potterton's name, though his previous forays into animation involved projects very different from Heavy Metal. These included producing via his company Potterton's Productions the 1970s children's featurette classics The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince (both based upon Oscar Wilde short stories) plus The Little Mermaid (based upon the Hans Christian Anderson fairy story) – all three of which I loved as a youngster – and prior to those he had worked on The Beatles' full-length animated feature film Yellow Submarine.)
Some critics dismissed Heavy Metal as mindless pre-pubescent/adolescent fantasy or worse, but I enjoyed it, so what that makes me is anyone's guess, lol. Moreover, not only have I now discovered that there is a sequel movie, Heavy Metal 2000, but also I have found it on YouTube, where it is currently free to watch (click here), which is what I definitely plan to do, and in less than 25 years' time this time!
Also, in 2019 Season 1 (aka Volume 1) of a three-season, multi-episode TV show consisting of a reimagined, rebooted version of the original Heavy Metal movie, and entitled Love, Death & Robots, was released on Netflix. Season 2 followed in 2021, and Season 3 in 2022. The three seasons collectively yield 35 episodes, all stand-alone in terms of subject matter, and of varying lengths (6-21 minutes each).
If you'd like to watch on YouTube an official trailer for Heavy Metal, please click here; you can also watch most of its segments individually on there, as well as trailers for all three seasons of Love, Death & Robots.
Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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