HEAVY METAL

 

My official UK DVD of Heavy Metal (© Gerald Potterton/Guardian Trust Company/Canadian Film Development Corporation/Famous Players/Potterton Productions/Columbia Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

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.

 

The full cover of my official UK VHS sell-thru videocassette of Heavy Metal (© Gerald Potterton/Guardian Trust Company/Canadian Film Development Corporation/Famous Players/Potterton Productions/Columbia Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

FIRE AND ICE

 

Publicity poster for Fire and Ice (© Ralph Bakshi/Frank Frazetta/Producers Sales Organization/20^th Century Fox – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 16 March 2023 was the 198os animated dark fantasy/swords & sorcery movie Fire and Ice, which I'd wanted to watch for a very long time but only obtained in DVD format very recently.

Directed by Ralph Bakshi, featuring characters created by him and acclaimed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, and released in 1983 by 20^th Century Fox, Fire and Ice presents its take on the only-too-familiar and all-too-predictable fantasy-themed plot of an evil despot seeking to conquer a rival kingdom but is challenged by a heroic warrior.

Thus: Lord Nekron (voiced by Sean Hannon), evil ruler of his ice kingdom, is threatening to over-run and decimate via his dark magic the fiery volcanic realm of his avowed rival, King Jarol (Leo Gordon). As a means of subjugating Jarol, Nekron sends a delegation of subhumans to abduct Jarol's daughter, Princess Teegra (Cynthia Lake for rotoscoping, but voiced by Maggie Roswell), which they do, but hot on their heels, journeying from fire to ice, literally, is youthful but valiant warrior Larn (Randy Norton), whose entire village had earlier been destroyed by Nekron's horde. Larn is assisted in his bold quest by a mysterious masked horseman and highly skilled, Conanesque warrior named Darkwolf (Steve Sandor), who has reasons of his own (but which he never reveals) to destroy Nekron.

Although more impressive than a previous Bakshi animated fantasy movie, Wizards, that I'd watched a few weeks earlier, I must confess that, in stark contrast to my high expectations based upon all that I'd read about it in the past, I wasn't overly enamoured by Fire and Ice.

The human characters are largely rotoscoped, as is common in Bakshi's animated movies, and therefore always look impressive and extremely life-like. Conversely, the plot is for me a very pedestrian, somewhat plodding affair, not picking up any real pace until two thirds of the way through its 90-minute running time, even though, paradoxically, it is packed with action.

Although this movie does feature a humungous octopus, a giant lizard, and a phalanx of flighting, pterodactylian dragon hawks, with the exception of the last-mentioned type (animated by nowadays-renowned Korean-American animator Peter Chung in his debut big-screen role) their appearances are far too brief to be effective. Certainly, it could have benefited from more prominent monsters in its prehistoric/barbarian-based fantasy world to add spectacle, especially with the incomparable Frazetta on board, whose significant input via this movie's beautiful background visuals, incorporating over a thousand paintings, as well as the design of its human lead characters, most notably the bodacious Teegra, is readily apparent.

(Having said that, Frazetta didn't actually produce the background paintings himself. Instead, they were meticulously prepared in the style of his work by two young artists who both went on achieve considerable fame in their own respective right. One was James Gurney, who subsequently created and illustrated the best-selling Dinotopia fantasy/sci fi novels. The other was Thomas Kinkade, the so-called 'Painter of Lights', who has achieved immense commercial success via his innumerable 'chocolate-box'-style paintings of rural cottages with their trademark glowing, interior-lit windows and idealized, leafy woodland/countryside settings.)

Just a little humour here and there wouldn't have gone amiss either – Fire and Ice is a VERY serious movie indeed. Time to rewatch Fritz the Cat? Now there's a Bakshi animated movie with humour, not always tasteful, needless to say, but it certainly keeps the movie ticking along at a fair old pace, unlike the less than blazing progression of Fire and Ice.

But if you want to judge for yourself, be sure to click here to watch an official Fire and Ice trailer on YouTube. Moreover, at the time of my posting this Shuker In MovieLand review, the entire movie can be watchd free of charge on YouTube by clicking here.

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.