HEAVY METAL
 
VOICES OF: Richard Romanus, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks,
Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, John Vernon
1981, 90 Minutes,
Directed by: Gerald Potterton
 Description:
Released in 1981 and based on stories from
the graphic magazine of the same name, this film has since become the most
popular single title in Columbia/TriStar's entire film library. It is an
amalgam of disjointed stories and clashing visual styles, employing hundreds
of animators from around the world. With a framing story about a glowing
green orb claiming to be the embodiment of all evil, the film shuttles
through eight episodic tales of sci-fi adventure, each fueled by rock music
from the 1980s. —
Amazon.com
This
animated movie based on the comics of
the same title is fun once you accept it on its own terms, i.e., brainless and adolescent.
The movie mostly resembles the magazine in that it
consists of several disparate story segments, each made by a different
creative team of animators, writers and so forth. (The comics also usually
have several such storylines in each issue, most of them liberally
sprinkled with violence and sex.)
Heavy Metal should
obviously be seen on the big screen with a great sound system since it is basically a
series of animated graphic fantasies set to hard rock music. No doubt much gets lost in
the translation to video, but the film is worthwhile seeing even if it is only for the
sequences featuring the New York cabby (later on pilfered by
The Fifth Element) and the boy whose macho fantasies comes true. (The
movie is actually the product of many writers and animation studios across the world,
which accounts for its episodic look and feel.)
However, be warned that
the film tends to drag in some bits and isn't everybody's cup of tea. Chances are your
granny wouldn't like it.
Heavy Metal was
followed by a largely pointless and inferior sequel 19 years later which
eschewed the fragmentary approach of telling several stories and settled for
only one instead. Ironically the sequel was
mostly inspired by this movie's final story of a scantily clad female
warrior atop a flying creature (most often seen in the posters). Ironic
because while this sequence is technically competent, it is probably the
weakest.
The sequel is titled
Heavy Metal 2000 (also known as Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2
for some reason).
Sci-Fi Movie Page Pick:
Animated movie inspired by the French Metal Hurlant comic series consists of four
fantasy/sci-fi story segments all propelled by late-1970s heavy rock riffs. Cool fun -
even though it is of varying quality . . .
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