I saw a film!

Animation extravaganza, much of it of the Bakshi (Lord of the Rings) sort that that came out when I was in high school and I never really got a chance to catch it.

So yeah it fell through the cracks. The story is actually more of a loosely linked series of vignettes that appear to be mainly aimed at teenaged boys as the art centers on violence and very well drawn boobs.

The over-arching story, within which the smaller tales happen, is of an alien green orb/blob that is bent on domination, but focuses its evil powers on a poor young girl who has to watch her father get vaporized and then be shown the earlier mentioned vignettes which include strange “primitive” sacrifices, weaponry, chases and fighting. A kind of colorful nightmare.

I think the stories would have gone over a bit better for Beavis and or Butthead. The tales are all largely pointlessly violent, culminating in the final story that includes the most well known image of the film which is of the well built lady riding a dragon-like creature. Which turns out to be a bird that saves her life a couple of times.

Much of the artwork seems progeny of the underground comix scene, especially the works of Spain Rodriguez and S. Clay Wilson among others.

In the end, we’re kind of reminded of films like Robot Monster where an alien comes to Earth bent on universal domination but only manages to accomplish dominating a few lonely and down and out random people, which frankly achieves nothing.

It is amusing that John Candy and Eugene Levy are voice actors on this work, there’s probably a fun story there somehow connected with Second City TV. Also Star Wars artist and creative force Dan O’Bannon wrote a good bunch of the bits.

If I were to recommend a better, more thoughtful, more amusing, and more expansive bit of animation entertainment I’d probably point you toward the recent Netflix series Love, Death and Robots. Well worth your time. Heavy Metal has a bit of nostalgia force due to the music (highlighted by Devo) and is visually appealing but will leave you groaning for some content.

3.99 as I write this on Amazon Prime

Enjoy if you missed it, otherwise, like I said try Love Death and Robots.