Aeon Flux - Deranged, Violent ... Brilliant

The first time I saw Aeon Flux was the summer of my 16th year. I was up late with a friend watching Liquid Television on MTV. It was a fun, eclectic show and I enjoyed watching the unusual animated shorts. It was the show's last short that took me completely by surprise though. Instead of funny, oddball cartoon characters, a half naked woman wielding a gun came racing across the screen. There was no dialog, and the story was short (about 2 minutes), but I was blown away by the intense action. Instead of the laser guns I was used to seeing in action/adventure cartoons, characters in Aeon Flux were shooting bullets, actual bullets. People were getting shot, bleeding and even dieing. I had never seen anything, ANYTHING, like this before. Keep in mind this is before the influx of Japanese anime to America, and what little had made its way here I had not seen (with the exception of shows like Voltron and RoboTech). The very idea that an action/adventure cartoon could be like this was as mind boggling as the layered story the show revolved around. Re-watching these short stories (as well as the regular series) now, I am once again floored by the absolute brilliance of this show and its creator Peter Chung.

Aeon Flux premiered in 1991 on the avant-garde MTV show Liquid Television. The cartoon's creator was Peter Chung, a young animator working on - or all things - Rugrats. Feeling frustrated with the restrictions of both the character's movements - as well as conventional editing rules - Chung took full advantage of the freedom MTV's late night show offered. With a variety of inspirations Chung created a 12 minute pilot that was broken up into six parts and shown over the course of multiple Liquid Television episodes. In 1992 a second series of Aeon Flux shorts followed. Based on fans overwhelmingly positive response, MTV finally decided to order ten half hour episodes in 1995. For Peter Chung to do a full fledged show however, several changes had to be made. To start with there needed to be actual dialog, something that was all but absent in the Liquid Television vignettes. In terms of story there was no real carry over as well. This is understandable when you consider that Aeon dies at the end of all the shorts (kind of like South Park's Kenny). Another change came in the form of toned down violence, though saying the series is less violent than the short stories is like saying boxing is less violent than ultimate fighting. Still, the regular series - and shorts - each have their own unique qualities, equally impressive and ground breaking. For the sake of sanity however, I will be basing the rest of this review on the full length Aeon Flux episodes done in 1995.

The premise behind Aeon Flux is a little difficult to describe. If I was to try and boil it down to its essence I would have to say the show revolves around the relationship of Aeon Flux and Trevor Goodchild. Aeon is from the nation of Monica, a society that appears to be based around personal freedoms and self expression. Trevor is from the nation of Bregna, where he serves as head of state for the centralized "big brother is watching you" government. This dichotomy is further illustrated in the uniforms that each nation wears. Monican agents are scantly clad in black leather, showing off their unique physical appearance, reveling in their individuality. By contrast, Bregna soldiers are literally covered from head to toe in identical brown and blue uniforms, even their faces are hidden by a nondescript mask. But the show isn't really about warring nations or ideologies, it's mostly about the psychotic, romantic relationship of Aeon and Tevor. Despite constantly finding themselves at odds, Aeon (an anarchist) and Trevor (a controlling, manipulating politician) actually have a mutual infatuation with one another. Further complicating this bizarre love affair is the fact that neither person really desires the other to change, they don't want each other any other way, even if they end up killing one another. This fatal attraction is played out in most of the shows ten episodes, and it's the only real "constant" found amidst the shows episodic format.

As for Aeon Flux's writing, it's layered, psychological, sexual and at times even metaphysical in nature. Ironic Hitchcock like endings are common, as is the use of sexual fetishes and perversions to characterize persons. Obviously this is not your typical action/adventure cartoon. Instead of thinly veiled and formulaic stories, we get a bold, experimental show that goes places few will. Themes such as identity, free will, humanity, reality and the mind are used as a basis for episodes, with the stories being built around them. This can lead to a somewhat inconsistent tone at times, luckily the shows episodic format and self contained feel keep this from ever becoming a problem.

Given the deeper nature of Aeon Flux you will also find that the show stands up well to repeated viewings. You can come away with something different almost every time you watch an episode. This is something that Chung encouraged while doing the show, even now he does not seek to "interpret" story meanings but instead leaves it to the viewer. To say that the show was "edgy" is an understatement. Even if it were to premiere now - some fifteen years later - the series would be considered ahead of its time (though perhaps less visually original since anime has become so prevalent world wide).

It's not all gumdrops and lollipops though, some episodes do suffer from ambiguity, specifically the latter ones. Demiurge is probably the worst offender with an overabundance of symbolism and a story that is far too "loose" for viewers to come away with anything concrete after viewing. This treads dangerously close to the dreaded "p" word (pretentious), and could easily turn off potential viewers should it be their first exposure to the series. Still, given the unconventional nature of the show this is both understandable and forgivable.

At this time I would like to take a brief interlude and talk about MTV during the 1990s. When you think about important or influential animation from the last couple decades certain studios and networks come to mind. Off the top of my head there's (of course) Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros. Animation, Nickelodeon, Fox, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Studio Ghibli. All of this is good and well, but I would like to argue that MTV would make a worthy addition to this list. For close to a decade MTV pushed the boundaries and took chances on experimental animation that few (if anybody) would. I've already mentioned Liquid Television, an obvious precursor to Adult Swim. From this show we got both Aeon Flux and Beavis and Butthead. Of course I love Aeon, but I've never been a huge fan of B&B. Still, you cannot deny both their impact and success on animation, and without them we wouldn't have gotten the fabulous spin-off Daria. In the mid 1990s we were treated to MTV's Oddities, a show featuring The Head and The Maxx. As you may be able to tell from the title "Oddities" both of these shows featured surreal characters and concepts. The Maxx was especially good, sporting a mixture of animation techniques flawlessly executed to tell the story of a homeless superhero. Unfortunately, towards the end of the decade MTV began to stray away from groundbreaking cartoons, dazzled by the enormous ratings found in reality programing. At the turn of the century we did get a couple short-lived gems in Clone High and MTV's Downtown, but eventually the network all but abandoned cartoons to up and comers like the aforementioned Adult Swim. Looking back over their body of work however, one has to admire the courage and gumption MTV showed in pursuing such edgy animation. I personally feel lucky to have gone through both my teens and early twenties during this time period.

With that little love letter out of the way, lets talk about animation. I mentioned before that Peter Chung was frustrated with conventional editing techniques in animation. The end result of this frustration was a very visually unique show in Aeon Flux. Camera angles, perspective, character movements and proportions are all intensely staged and extremely exaggerated. In fact, I would have to say that the word "extreme" is very appropriate when describing the show's look. For example, the way that Chung and crew play with space. I love how characters can slide through narrow spaces you would never expect, or open the gateway located in a mans chest then crawl inside. Legs, arms, even spines can twist and bend to impossible degrees. Characters can run, jump and flip in ways acrobats can only dream of. Fun stuff.

As for the quality of animation itself, I have to say it varies. Some episodes simply look better than others. Character models are always consistent though, and very rarely does anything look "bad". Truth be told the animation from the Aeon Flux shorts is superior. This is probably because the run time was so small and they didn't have to stretch the budget as far. Overall this is a very good looking show though, especially for a cartoon from 1995.

Production design from Aeon Flux is another win. According to Wikipedia, besides the obvious influence of anime, Peter Chung drew much of his visual inspiration from Egon Schiele and Jean Giraud. While watching the special features of this DVD set I did not come across anything to confirm this however, so I cannot say for certain that this is the case (though looking at a couple of images by each artist I would have to conclude that the Wiki author is correct). Regardless the show's design is awesome. Peter Chung's character designs are so fantastically different that people always recognize them. Backgrounds are equally unique and give the quasi-futuristic look necessary to the show. Guns, grappling hooks, robotic spider-bombs and all the other cool spy gear put James Bond to shame. Even the show's color palette is unusually superb, sporting a mute, pastel look very uncommon in animation. All across the board Aeon Flux's design impresses.

As for sound, Aeon Flux is once again excellent. Like so many other aspects of the show, the music is very distinct. I'm not really sure how to describe it, you just have to hear it. Voice acting for the regular series is very good as well. There was a little bit of a controversy with some fans not wanting Aeon to be voiced, but I think that the casting of Denise Poirier in the role was perfect. Even better was the casting of John Rafter Lee as Trevor. He just has that perfect amount of British arrogance to voice the egomaniacal leader. Early on in the regular series there was a couple moments of stiff delivery, but overall I feel that the voice acting - as well as the music - of Aeon Flux succeeded beautifully.

The first Aeon Flux short premiered almost twenty years ago, and it's as mind blowing now as it was then. Visually stunning with complex sub-text, the show doesn't just stand up to today's standards, but in many ways it surpasses them. Admittedly the show is not for everyone, but I have to give Aeon Flux a full recommendation nonetheless (keeping in mind that the show is for mature audiences only). Your DVD options are limited, but that's ok because the 2005 DVD release gives you everything you need (it's appropriately titled "The Complete Animated Collection"). All the Aeon Flux shorts and regular series episodes are included with this set. You also get select commentaries, a featurette and various other special features. Amazon has a listing for a Blu-ray release of this collection, however no date has been given as of this review. A great show and a great DVD set, what more can you ask for?

Dungeons & Dragons - Short, but oh so sweet

The latest 1980s action/adventure show to makes its way through my DVD player is the short lived Dungeons and Dragons. Unlike the weekday afternoon shows (such as Transformers and GI Joe), Dungeons and Dragons was a true Saturday morning cartoon. Instead of watching the show every day you got to watch it once a week. This lack of repetition made the series less impressionable for me in my youth, thinking back on it I couldn't remember if I liked the show or not. Combine that with the small number of episodes produced - 27 in total - and I really had no idea what to expect from this cartoon. What I got was a truly amazing series.

To briefly summarize, Dungeons and Dragons is an action/adventure show that premiered in 1983. It was based on - and shared the same name as - the popular roll playing game. This was actually a point of controversy for the show being that overly protective parents had a real hard-on for D&D at this time (kind of like violent video games these days). Despite this similarity in name, Dungeons and Dragons turned out to be a truly harmless and family friendly cartoon. It featured a group of six children who accidentally travel through a portal to another dimension (while on a carnival ride of all things). Once there they are each given a magical object to protect themselves with. These objects correspond with a different D&D character type (Ranger, Acrobat, Thief, Cavalier, Magician and Barbarian), and are provided by their mysterious benefactor Dungeon Master. As for the characters themselves, they consist of Hank the leader (Ranger), Diana (Acrobat), cowardly smart mouth Eric (Cavalier), nerdy Presto (Magician), Sheila (Thief), and young Bobby (Barbarian). Of course being a show of the 1980s the group has an obligatory "cute" sidekick, in this case it's a baby unicorn named "Uni". Trapped in this new realm together, our heroes must learn to work together, brave countless dangers and find a way home.

Normally I start reviews with an assessment of the shows writing. This will not be the case today however. Instead I will be leading off with the shows animation. Overall I would have to say that Dungeons and Dragons looks really good. The animation is pretty fluid for an 80's action/adventure series. Far superior than shows like Defenders of the Earth and at times as good as G.I. Joe. On the bad side there is some shifting of character models and animation style. These shifts are small however and do little to hurt the show (especially when you compare them to the massive changes in style found in Defenders of the Earth). On the positive side Dungeons and Dragons uses scale really well in several places. Things like giant stone guardians and overly large chains feel truly immense compared to the shows characters. This effect is tricky to pull off, and it's something you don't see very often in TV action/adventure animation.

Production design on Dungeons and Dragons is relatively good as well. All the main character designs are solid, however secondary character designs can be hit and miss. Backgrounds look good and have a nice variety, but they are definitely "TV" quality in execution. Like I said, the design work is nice, it's just not the strongest feature of the show and I've seen better from the time period.

In terms of music, I'm afraid that Dungeons and Dragons falls flat. Not only does the show lack an opening theme song (a staple mark of most action/adventure cartoons from the 1980s), it recycles tons of in-show music. I don't mean that they just recycle their own in-show music, they use other shows music. Spider-man and his Amazing Friends, G.I. Joe and the Hulk are all present and accounted for in the Dungeon and Dragons soundtrack. Considering the quality and expense of the series, I would have expected the show to have its own unique sound, sadly this is not the case.

Rounding out the sound department is the show's vocal cast. I really don't have a lot to say here. The actors give solid performances - and the voices are all distinct - but only Sidney Miller (Dungeon Master) stands out as exceptional. Much like the production design, I would grade Dungeons and Dragons voice acting as "above average".

Up to this point I've told you that Dungeons and Dragons has good animation, solid production design, nice voice acting and bad music. So why was I singing the show's praises in my opening statement? Simple, Dungeons and Dragons has the best writing I've ever seen in any 1980's action/adventure cartoon, period. Maybe this is because the show only consists of 27 episodes (as opposed to the 90 or even 100 plus episodes of other shows), or perhaps the writers are just better. Either way the quality of storytelling in Dungeons and Dragons puts most cartoons from this time period to shame. That's not to say that other shows like G.I. Joe don't have well written episodes, far from it. In just the first season of G.I. Joe there was; Traitor, Twenty Questions, The Viper is Coming, Worlds Without End and There No Place Like Springfield. But for every good episode there were also lots of mediocre, and even bad episodes. Episodes like; The Gamemaster, Lasers in the Night, Ea De Cobra, Cold Slither, The Great Alaskan Land Rush and The Wrong Stuff are egregiously bad. By contrast the worst episodes of Dungeons and Dragons would be no worse than mediocre, and those would be in the minority, the bulk of D&D shows are really good.

Still the thing that really sets Dungeons and Dragons writing apart is "Dragon's Graveyard". Considered the quintessential episode of the D&D cannon, "Dragons Graveyard" is the single best action/adventure story done in the 1980s. The emotion, characterization and subject matter are so mature - yet accessible - you almost forget you're watching a glorified toy commercial. Credit has to go to the episodes writer Michael Reaves. I'm sure it wasn't easy to get the network to agree to do such an unconventional story, but it was worth the fight. We wouldn't see these kinds of stories again until Batman the Animated series changed action/adventure cartoons forever in 1992.

Another superior aspect to Dungeons and Dragons is the theme. Basically the show boils down to a couple of kids just trying to find their way home. This is something anybody can relate to. Almost all of us have been lost before, so imagining ourselves in their shoes doesn't take a lot of effort. Especially when consider that other shows were using grandiose ideas like "stopping global terrorist organizations" or "protecting earth from alien dictators". By comparison Dungeons and Dragons just feels more ... personal.

Sadly the series finale never got produced. At the end of the shows third season, NBC commissioned Michael Reaves to write a final episode, one that would have seen our young heroes finally get home. Unfortunately, ratings decline and expense prevented this script from ever being realized. There is some good news though. If you buy the collectors edition of D&D you can actually listen to this story in a radio style format (basically the settings are described and the dialog acted out, just like they used to do on old radio shows). It's not quite the same as seeing the story animated, but being able to actually get closure to such a fantastic series was a real treat.

So where do I rate Dungeons and Dragons amongst the plethora of 1980s action/adventure cartoons? Well at the risk of looking like a cop out, I'm going to put D&D dead even with G.I. Joe. The latter has superior production value and execution, but the former presents a much tighter collection of episodes, including the best single action/adventure story ever. As for the DVD set itself, you have two options. There's the bare bones edition with no extras, and the collectors edition with a ton of extras (including the finale I mentioned earlier). Personally I recommend the collectors edition, but there is a catch. The collectors set is out of print, so you will have to pay a lot more to get your hands on it. If this idea does not appeal to you then I would go with the standard edition, it's still in print and very cheap. Either way I am highly recommending this show to any fan of action/adventure animation.

Hellboy Sword of Storms is Hella Good

Looking through the list of cartoons reviewed on this blog, one thing should become glaringly obvious, I'm a long time comic book geek. Not an unwashed, basement dwelling geek mind you. Just an average joe with several thousand comics taking up room in his closet. I tell you this because despite my long history collecting comics I'm still a relative new comer to the Hellboy franchise. For whatever reason I was never drawn to the character, or its creator's (Mike Mignola) artwork. My first real exposure to Hellboy was the live action movie from 2005 (directed by the fantastic Guillermo del Toro), and despite my generally positive reaction I still lacked any real desire to check out the source material. All that changed with Hellboy animated. Soon after the live action film del Toro and Mignola set out to turn Hellboy into cartoon with two DTV movies. The first was "Sword of Storms" and the second was "Blood and Iron". Something about the look and tone of these two movies piqued my interest in the character, and it wasn't long before I found myself devouring trade paperbacks of Hellboy's original adventures.

Just in case you don't know who Hellboy is I'll explain. Basically Hellboy is a demon from another dimension who was brought to this world - as an infant - to wage war and destroy mankind. Luckily for us Hellboy was rescued and raised by a group of "good men" that later formed the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D. for short). So instead of annihilating us Hellboy protects us from the supernatural things that go bump in the night.

It's this use of the supernatural as an action/adventure vehicle that makes Sword of Storms so much fun. The film starts with a Japanese professor who unwittingly becomes possessed by the two storm demon brothers Thunder and Lighting. The goal of these demons is to free their corporeal forms by destroying the Sword of Storms. Of course the B.P.R.D. is called in and before you know it Hellboy stumbles across the aforementioned sword and is spirited away to another dimension full of feudal Japanese monsters. I could go into more detail but honestly that's all you really need to know.

Not only does Sword of Storms have a solid story (co-written by Mike Mignola himself), it also has fantastic writing. By this I mean that the pacing, dialog and character relationships are all spot on. The film moves at a perfect pace, never bogging down but at the same time never feeling rushed. Banter, especially from Hellboy, is genuinely funny as well. Relationships between the three main characters (Hellboy, Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman) are established early on, feel natural and are fun to watch. This is especially important because the dynamics of Hellboy animated are not the same as the live action film. Liz and Hellboy are not romantically linked in the cartoon, and Abe is far less fragile. I would have to say that with the exception of Liz (who feels like a cross between the comic Liz and the movie Liz), the animated version of these characters are closer to their comic book counterparts than the film versions (personally I think this is a good thing). The story from Sword of Storms also harkens back to the Hellboy comics using folklore as an basis to build the story around (much like Mike Mignola's Hellboy one-shots). The overall movie just feels really tight, not too much or too little, but just right.

In terms of visuals, Sword of Storms is a solid DTV. The animation is very smooth and stylish with nice backgrounds and an attractive color pallet. Compared to other DTVs from the last couple years I will admit that there are better looking films (Wonder Woman and Green Lantern First Flight for example). That said, Hellboy is still on the higher end of animation quality. On the critical side I will call out that there are one or two poorly animated CGI scenes in the movie, still by and large the general look of the film is consistent.

With a great story, solid writing and excellent animation it should be no surprise that the character design from Sword of Storms are - once again - good. This is no easy task since the look of Hellboy animated is completely different than Mike Mignola's comic art style. Where Mignola uses heavy contrast and strong graphical shapes the cartoon version of Hellboy is more in tune with streamlined modern animation styles. Thus the translation of Mignola's art had to be more in "spirit" than in appearance. Luckily the character designer pulls this off relatively well by staying true to the essence of Hellboy while stylizing him in a way that is more appropriate to the medium of animation. Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien also have attractive designs. While these main character design are indeed admirable, the secondary character designs in Sword of Storms are unfortunately lacking. It's not that they look bad per say, it's just a little too "Saturday morning" for my taste. Almost like the characters stepped right out of an episode of the Jackie Chan adventures or something. This is the only real complaint I had with the film, and frankly it's pretty much a non-issue.

Rounding out the strong points from Sword of Storms is the voice acting. Benefiting greatly from their experience in the rolls, Ron Pearlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman) and Doug Jones(Abe Sapien) all give fantastic performances. If you've ever heard Ron Pearlman speak then you know that his deep, distinct sound is perfect for Hellboy. Selma Blair's somber, melancholy voice fits the animated incarnation of Liz Sherman very well, as does the David Hyde-Pierce sounding voice that Doug Jones brings to Abe Sapien. Secondary voice actors also turn in strong performances rounding out- what I feel - is one of the better sounding casts you'll find in the DTV arena.

In case you haven't figured it out I'm highly recommending this movie with the following caveat. Hellboy Sword of Storms is closer to PG-13 than it is to PG. There is mild cursing and violence so please keep this in mind before letting youngsters view the film. With that out of the way, Sword of Storms (as well as Blood and Iron) is an all around solid action/adventure DTV. Packed with a ton of good extras the DVD delivers on all fronts and makes a great addition to any action/adventure cartoon collection.

Titan A.E. - Squint really hard and you might see a good film

Having recently re-watched, and reviewed, the animated sci-fi/fantasy film Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for another epic space opera, Titan AE. Titan AE was an animated feature film released in 2000 by Fox Animation Studios. It was helmed by veteran director Don Bluth (along with partner Gary Goldman) and had a lot riding on its success. Unfortunately the movie was a financial failure, and soon after Fox Animation closed its doors for good.

I remember being pretty stoked for this movie back in 2000. A full fledged animated sci-fi/fantasy film was right up my alley, especially since it encompassed both my favorite genre and storytelling medium. Combine that with Don Bluth (the man behind The Secret of Nihm) and I could not see how this movie could go wrong. Sadly, when the closing credits began to roll I found myself both frustrated and disappointed. I could tell that a good movie was in there somewhere, but finding it would have required many fundamental changes in the films animation and story structure.

The story of Titan A.E. goes something like this; in the year 3028 A.D. Earth has been destroyed and the human race now has to wander the universe as galactic drifters. The cause of Earths destruction is the Drej, an alien race comprised entirely of energy. For some reason the Drej fear mankind (something about our boundless creativity) and with the completion of our greatest invention - the Titan spaceship - they decided it would be best to end the human threat by blowing up our planet (can't argue with that logic). The Titan escapes destruction though thanks to its inventor Sam Tucker. Sam manages to launch the Titan and jump to light speed before the Drej can get to it, but in the process he uses up all the energy needed to power the ships true purpose. Before this escape Sam is forced to send his four year old son away on a separate evacuation vessel (since the Titan was the Drej's primary target Sam knew it would be safer this way). During the dramatic goodbye Sam gives his young son Cale a ring and states that "as long as you wear it, there is hope". Fifteen years later Cale is now nineteen years old and works in a space based salvage yard. Soon after the introduction of teenage Cale (complete with cynical, angry attitude) Captain Korso arrives. Korso shows Cale that the ring he still wears is actually a genetically encoded map leading to the location of the Titan. Turns out the Drej are also looking for Cale and before you know it he and Korso find themselves in the middle of a good old fashioned space station shootout. Eventually they escape aboard Korso's ship the Valkyrie, and begin their quest to find the Titan, mankind's last hope. Of course no spaceship is complete without an eclectic crew, and the Valkyrie is no different. Joining Cale and Korso is another human Akima, she is co-pilot of the Valkyrie and obligatory love interest for Cale. On the non-human side we have first mate Preed, navigation expert Gune, and a cranky female weapons/combat officer named Stith. Can this rag-tag bunch find the Titan before the Drej and save mankind? Of course they can, but it’s not the destination that counts, it’s the journey to get there.

As you may have been able to tell from my description above the plot of Titan A.E. is not exactly groundbreaking. It does make for a good action/adventure vehicle however. Executed properly this would be an excellent film. Instead the movie fails in its delivery with uneven story structure and cliché characters. Problem number one occurs during the film's first act. Once Cale joins up with the crew of the Valkyrie we are whisked away to the maps first landmark. With no time to acclimate ourselves to Cale's new surroundings, the movie begins to feel unnaturally rushed. Worse is Cale's capture - and eventual escape - from the Drej. The capture itself serves no purpose other than to allow the Drej to copy Cale's map, and the escape is far too easy and under explained (how is it that Cale can manipulate the Drej energy fields, or fly one of their space craft?). These events just don't feel organic, instead they feel like forced plot points necessary to progress the story. At the same time other important plot points - such as Cale's ability to fix just about anything and Akima's piloting skill - are almost completely ignored. This is especially bad since these character traits play an important role in the movies' climax.

Speaking of characters, I found all three of the central human characters in Titan A.E. to be exceedingly predictable and cliché. I mentioned before that Cale is your typical angry, jaded teenager. He's mad at daddy for leaving him and all he cares about is himself. Of course the journey to find Titan changes all that. Failed attempts to interject humor into Cale don't help either. Jokes about frozen burritos and naming new Earth "Bob" fall completely flat. Korso is even worse (warning I'm about to spoil an important plot point). At first Korso offers Cale friendship and purpose, but Cale soon discovers the ugly truth. Korso is using him to find the Titan so that he can turn it over to the Drej (gasp!). Don't worry though, Korso's betrayal is eventually followed by his redemption as he sacrifices his own life to see the Titan's purpose achieved. Though these are not age old character archetypes they definitely fall into the "modern stereotype" department (much like the space smuggler with a heart of gold, and the naive young hero found in the 1980s). Akima is not as bad but mostly because she lacks definition. Outside of her past as a colony drifter there is very little to be said about Akima. This is unfortunate because I think she had the most potential. A flashback or two from her childhood could have really driven home her passionate desire to find the Titan.

Though I found the story and characters of Titan A.E. somewhat lacking, my real beef with the movie comes from the animation. Have you ever met two beautiful people and thought their children would be gorgeous, only to later find out the kid's butt ugly? Such is the case with Titan A.E. The traditional cell animation and painted backgrounds are fantastic, not surprising when you consider Don Bluth's involvement. Character models are consistent, movement is a fluid 24 frames per second and the overall craftsmanship is decidedly feature film worthy. The same can be said in regards to the movies CGI (computer generated images). Though not as good as the traditional animation, Titan A.E.s CG stands on its own very nicely and there is nothing cheap looking about it. So what happens when you combine these two beautiful forms of animation? You get crap. How can something like this happen you ask? It's simple, the traditional animation and CGI animation look drastically different. Separate from each other they work fine, once they occupy the same space however, the whole illusion necessary for animation to work is destroyed. This is a classic mistake made in other animated films such as Sinbad and Anastasia, it's also baffling. The use of CG in traditionally animated movies was not that new in 2000. Other movies like The Iron Giant (if you have not seen The Iron Giant stop reading and do so now!) and Tarzan were made prior to Titan A.E. and they figured out how to do it, so why couldn't Don Bluth and company do the same? Some scenes do work better than others, but on a whole the effect is simply too distracting. The final scene of Cale and Akima standing atop new Earth is exceptionally bad.

Production and character design is mostly good. I loved a lot of the space colony and space station design as well as the various alien designs. Korso, Preed, Stith and Gune all look good, as does the Valkyrie. Sadly Cale and Akima do have issues. Cale's haircut is exceedingly dated (even back in 2000 it was dated) and Akima's look, though nice, comes across as a little "hipster". Still these are small complaints and do little, if anything, to hurt the film.

Unfortunately the voice acting in Titan A.E. does hurt the film. I've always liked the saying "He has a face for radio", but wondered if the reverse could apply. Well thanks to Matt Damon I now know that the answer is a resounding yes. Matt Damon must have a face for live action entertainment because he certainly does NOT have a voice made for animation. Cale's voice (performed by Damon) is so flat and monotonous it actually becomes distracting during the course of the film. I know studios want to cast big name actors in these roles, but they should at least make sure the person can pull it off first. Drew Barrymore is better as Akima, but there are so many actresses that could have done a better job it’s just sad. On the plus side Nathan Lane (Preed), Janeane Garofalo (Stith) and John Leguizamo (Gune) all turn in good performances. Surprisingly the big standout of the group is Bill Pullman (Korso). I never would have expected such an unassuming actor to have such a distinct voice. His inflection and cadence gives much needed dimension to an otherwise formulaic character.

I don't have much to say about the music of Titan A.E. The movie uses a lot of "popular" songs from 2000, something that can be dangerous if done incorrectly. Luckily the choices were all good and actually complement the film. Still I worry that in another ten years or so the movies soundtrack will date it the same way that the Transformers movie soundtrack does (animated movie from 1986, not the crappy Michael Bay stuff).

Looking back at Titan A.E. I continue to wonder what could have been. If all the issues I've detailed were fixed would the movie be a classic? Probably not, but I do think the film had a real shot at respectability. As it is the movie still has enough positive qualities to warrant a viewing, if for no other reason than the fact we don't get a lot of epic space opera animation these days.

Starchaser - The Legend of Orin (AKA: Star Wars and the Temple of Doom)

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is an action/adventure animated movie released in 1985. Since it was clearly attempting to attract a Star Wars audience you would expect a 9-year old, such as myself, to have been all over it. However this was not the case. The truth is that I wasn't even aware of this films existence until 2005 (20 years after its initial release). The first place I encountered Starchaser was at a business conference. I was in my hotel room between sessions and while flipping through the channels I came across an exciting spaceship battle that I did not recognize. Curious, I left the movie on and quickly realized that what I was watching was an older animated movie that I had (surprisingly) never seen (at the time I thought it was from the late 70's or early 80's). Unfortunately I had to get to my next conference session and left the film before learning its name. With no real information to go on I let the movie bounce around in the back of my mind for about six months. Then one day while browse my local FYE I saw a DVD featuring characters from that same unknown movie, the movie was (of course) Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. The DVD was on sale for under ten dollars so I picked it up and gave it try. What I found was a truly unoriginal yet entertaining film.

Before I summarize the plot of this movie I want to talk about the story in broader terms. Starchaser shamelessly borrows - both in theme and design - from other popular films of the same genre. The parallels to Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and even Heavy Metal are glaringly obvious. This led to heavy criticism regarding the films originality (or lack thereof), but while this unfavorable analysis is certainly founded I also believe it to be somewhat ... exaggerated. True, the movie is derivative, but it's not the one to one rip off that some would have you believe (especially when compared to stories like Eragon, which is basically Star Wars with Dragons). What you have are a bunch of popular ideas thrown in a blender, thoroughly mixed and served up in an entertaining way; and make no mistake the movie is entertaining. The story is well paced, with very few "slow" spots. The action is fun and there are even a few humorous moments. Sadly it's not all good news. I must admit that the characters - while enjoyable - are ultimately clichéd. You have the wide-eyed, naive young hero (Orin), the grizzled smuggler who acts tough, but ultimately has a heart of gold (Dagg), and of course there's the pretty young princess who's just along for the ride (Aviana). All of these characters (and others) feel like superficial stereotypes, a feeling that is undeniably present in many aspects of the movie. The villain Zygon is also emulative, both in appearance and motivation. I don't want to give too much away but let’s just say the played out theme of robots destroying mankind is well represented here. Other failings include a very forced and unnatural romance between Orin and Aviana, as well as a confusing, under explained mythology known as the "Kakann" (the mysterious power that resides within Orin).

I don't want to retell the entire movie here so instead I'll move forward with a brief synopsis. Our story begins with the young hero Orin. Orin lives as a slave in the hellish realm of Mine-World where he's forced to mine red crystals day and night (not that he would know the difference since Mine-World is entirely underground). After discovering a mystical sword hilt Orin is given the task of escaping his imprisonment and traveling to the surface world. Once there he must find the hilt's blade and free his people. Orin encounters several colorful characters along the way to help him on his quest. First is the thieving, Han Solo wannabe, Dagg. Initially Dagg wants nothing to do with Orin, but eventually he warms up to the "water moccasin" (that's Dagg's affectionate nickname for Orin) and the two traverse various planets using Dagg's starship (complete with wise cracking computer). Along the way they pick up a sexy robot secretary named Silica and the obligatory princess Aviana. Unfortunately Aviana is nothing more than a one-dimensional love interest for Orin with next to no motivation or characterization. To complete his quest Orin must defeat Zygon. Zygon is your typical cape wearing bad guy bent on universal domination. He's also responsible for the subjugation of Orin's people.

With the basic story now behind us I'll forge ahead with the movies production quality. The overall production value of Starchaser is pretty solid. Though it's not as good as a classic Disney film the movie clearly had a reasonable budget. My only real hang-up in terms of visuals was the use of rotoscoping. For anyone who doesn't know, rotoscoping is an animation technique where the animator traces over recorded live action movement one frame at a time (this can be quite time consuming). Personally I prefer the more expressive look derived from non-rotoscoped animation (same goes for that ugly motion capture technique that Robert Zemeckis is so obsessed with). Fortunately the rotoscoping used in Starchaser is done in a tasteful way (as opposed to movies like Wizards and the LOTR animated films). True some of the interaction between characters is awkward, but generally speaking the movements are fluid and realistic enough for me to be un-offended. But while the character animation is merely decent, the starship animation used throughout the film is excellent. Turns out Starchaser was animated for 3-D. Of course I've never seen the film in 3-D, but it's easy enough to tell that the main use of the format was during the spaceship battles. From what I understand to accomplish this feat the animators used computer generated models that they then rotoscoped. To maximize the effect we are treated to lots of dramatic shots of starships coming directly at the camera, and plenty of mid-air flips. Considering the movies age I was exceedingly impressed by this choreography. In all my years of sci-fi and animation fandom I have never seen anything quite like the ships in Starchaser. I would love to have seen them in the theater in actual 3-D.

The background paintings from Starchaser look very good as well. Once again, they're not as strong as a movie like Lady and the Tramp, but they are more than able to get the job done. With a diverse series of locations you are treated to everything from underground slave mines to swamps to deserts to pristine forests and even a futuristic cityscape. On the negative side some of the design work on  characters and starships is lacking, both in originality and aesthetics. The character design is such a mishmash of borrowed looks that it can become frustrating. Whether it’s the robots that look like something out of Heavy Metal, or the superhero cape sported by Zygon, I just felt like there was nothing new being offered from the movies design team. As for the starship design, the best word I can think to describe it is forgettable (but only in design, not in execution). When compared to things like Tie-Fighters, X-Wing fighters and especially the Millenium Falcon, the ships from Starchaser feel tame by comparison.

Like many aspects of Starchaser the audio from the film is noticeably recycled and dated. Things like laser blasts and starship sounds can be traced to various other films of the same genre. Of course I didn't expect the film to reinvent these sounds, but it would have been nice to at least see an attempt at originality. The voicing cast is manageable, but nothing special. Only Dagg's voice (performed by Carmen Argenziano) is remotely memorable. Musically Starchaser is certainly a product of its time. You can just feel the 80's oozing out of it when you listen to the booming orchestra (reminders me a lot of Ice Pirates). Where some would be critical of this I - on the other hand - found the nostalgia utterly charming.

Though I would never accuse Starchaser of being original, I none the less found the movie to be an enjoyable ride. Yes the film unabashedly "borrows" from other movies of the same genre, I just think that it does so in a charming way. Beside the vintage look and feel of 1985, what I really like about Starchaser is that it is a "complete" movie. There's a lot of feature film animation from the late 70's and early 80's that comes across as hodgepodge. For all of its shortcoming Starchaser never falters in its execution. Even the more ambitious elements - such as the rotoscoped/CG starships - look professional and polished. I'm not trying to elevate the film to classic, or even cult status. What I am trying do is tell you this; if you are a fan of 80's sci-fi/fantasy and you haven't seen Starchaser, you should check it out.

G.I. Joe - One of the absolute best (of the worst)

I would like to start off this review with an admission. G.I. Joe holds a very special place in my heart. I still remember the first time I saw the toy line at my local Children's Palace around the age of seven. Soon thereafter the cartoon premiered and I fell in love with the eclectic cast of wise cracking military heroes. So you'll have to excuse this review should I wax nostalgic to a disgusting degree, or appear biased in my opinions. All that said I would like to declare that G.I. Joe is one of the best action/adventure cartoon of the 1980s (shocking I know).

For those of you who don't know, G.I. Joe can be summed up very simply with the following opening credit narration: "G.I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world".

G.I. Joe the animated series premiered in September of 1983 and ran for a total of 95 episodes and one movie in length (even by the standards of the time this was impressive). The show began with a five-part mini-series titled "The M.A.S.S. Device" (1983). One year later the show followed this up with a second mini-series titled "The Revenge of Cobra" (1984). Finally, one year after that the official Season One of G.I. Joe began with another five-part story "Pyramid of Darkness" (1985). So basically the first 15 episodes were comprised of 3 five-part stories, then the show moved into an episodic format.

If you were to only watch these first 15 episodes of the series my bold declaration of greatness would certainly seem unfounded though. I say this because the first three story arcs are practically identical. Basically there is some kind of secret weapon developed by Cobra that will allow them to take over the world (there was a teleportation device, a weather denominator and a space station capable of creating a pyramid-like zone over the earth that no machines could function within, including guns. Go figure.). To save the day our heroes need to race across the globe and achieve certain objectives before Cobra does (kind of like a scavenger hunt, but for world domination). Finally the sinister scheme collapses in on itself - often times due to the stupidity of Cobra's inept leader Cobra Commander - and the day is saved. To say that these stories are derivative is an understatement. Yet once you get past them and begin watching the one-shot episodes things take a turn for the better. Ultimately it's this episodic format used throughout the rest of the series that allows G.I. Joe to truly shine.

Now I'm not going to try and tell you that this show isn't cheesy. It's every bit as silly as the other action/adventure cartoons of the time period: Transformers, Thundercats, He-Man etc. You may have heard jokes about pilots always being able to bail out their airplanes/helicopters before they crash, or sarcastic comments regarding the marksmanship of supposed elite soldiers who can never hit opposing troops (yet they can hit any non-living target they aim at). All of this is 100% true and is only the tip of the iceberg (I about died laughing when Snake-eyes started break dancing in one particularly silly episode). Still the writers of this show actually acknowledge the silliness and often make light of it, almost like a sly wink to the viewer. One example can be found in the episode "Lasers in the Night". In this episode Cobra Commander comes up with the bizarre idea that by carving his likeness into the moon with a laser (kind of like a cosmic Mount Rushmore) he will prove to the world just how unbeatable Cobra is. When Destro (resident arms dealer and weapons developer) finds out that this is the purpose behind the over elaborate scheme he actually berates him for being stupid enough to waste millions of dollars on something that amounts to nothing more than cosmic graphite. The same thing can be found in "Eau De Cobra". When Cobra develops an irresistible mind control love potion they decide to use it on a Greek shipping tycoon (apparently they wanted control of his shipping fleet). Well the bottle ends up going overboard during a struggle and divers from both G.I. Joe and Cobra try to retrieve it. In the end neither side gets it because a crab takes the perfume bottle into its hiding hole under the ocean floor. Naturally Cobra Commander is pretty pissed about losing his precious perfume to a crustaceans, but Destro just laughs and comments that it was a fitting end to an absurd scheme (my sentiments exactly). Of all the 80's action/adventure cartoons I've re-watched of late this is the only one willing to acknowledge its own ridiculous nature, and that was kind of refreshing.

The writers of G.I. Joe also do a good job of using a large cast. One of the benefits of having so many characters is that you don't need to use the same ones every episode. This helps keep the cast from becoming stagnate and with so many characters to choose from the show could mix and match them for different dynamics (though specific pairings like Flint and Lady Jaye or Alpine and Bazooka were common). I do have one complaint about this practice though. Some of the fan favorite characters like Snake-eyes and Duke suffer from severe under usage as the series progresses. This is a result of the show trying to feature new characters and thus push the corresponding action figures. Sadly this is just another example of how merchandise drove cartoons of this era with the focus of shows being on selling new toys and not on telling good stories.

Before I start examining the production side of this series I would like to take a break and talk about a game I thought up while watching this show (you must be 21 or older to play though). As an adult you have a tendency to notice things you don't as a child. For example G.I. Joe goes through more military hardware in a single episode than the entire US army would in a full scale war. I could not count the number of Sky-strikers (F-14 fighter jets), tanks, helicopters ect. that crashed and burned just in the first season. Whole squadrons of million dollar jets get destroyed on a regular basis. So here's the game. Get some friends together and set up some shots (liquor of your choice). Every time a G.I. Joe military vehicle is blown up you drink one. The last person left conscious wins! You can even change things up and have some people drink every time the battle cry "Yo Joe" is used, and others drink when the bad guys yell "Cobra". The possibilities are endless.

Now assuming everyone has sobered up from that awesome drinking game we'll continue. In terms of visuals G.I. Joe impressed me. While many of the 1980s action/adventure cartoons used the infamous minimal animation technique - which would result in choppy, stilted movements - G.I. Joe apparently benefited from a large enough budget to go with mostly full movement and thus the show still looks pretty good (though I must admit the use of movement is still "economical"). Characters are always on model and even though some episodes appear better than others the overall look and feel of the show is consistent. Backgrounds are equally impressive with nice paintings of exotic settings being the norm. Once again I have to say that of all the action/adventure cartoons of this era G.I. Joe stands out with some impressive visuals.

The audio elements of G.I. Joe are pretty solid as well. The actors give good performances while providing unique voices for each character. The villains of the series (Destro, Cobra Commander, Zartan) are especially good. Some of the accents are overdone (Barbecue's Boston accent for example) but on a whole this is one of the better voicing casts you'll find in the genre. The show's musical score also gets high marks and is one of the most memorable aspects of the series. The opening theme song is widely considered one of the best cartoon openings ever, and the in-show music is similarly strong (though perhaps a little dated). Unfortunately that same in-show music is so heavily recycled that you get sick of it fast. Despite being common practice I have to knock off points for using the same sound track over and over in the same way without even trying to mix things up a little. Even with these flaws I would still rank G.I. Joe as one of the better sounding action/adventure shows from the 1980s.

Taken in its entirety, I would like to reiterate that G.I. Joe to be one of best 1980's action/adventure cartoons you'll find. Though it contains many of the same failings found in other cartoons of the genre, G.I. Joe was willing to laugh at itself when others were not while pushing for a higher standard of production quality. As far as recommending this show I have to fall back on my standard conditional recommendation. If you don't like 1980's action/adventure cartoons stay far, far away. If you loved this series as a kid then you may have some fun revisiting it, even if it's just to see how silly the show really was. As for the DVD's themselves there are several options available. I bought the collectors edition complete series footlocker. This gives you all 95 episodes with a companion booklet, additional bonus material and a dog tag flash drive containing two silent comics. This is a good deal but also pretty expensive at $149.99. For those not interested in breaking the bank, the series is also being released in smaller chunks costing between $20 and $25 each. You get over twenty episodes in each volume and many of the special features found in the collectors edition.

Superman/Batman Public Enemies - Beautiful house with a bad foundation

The latest DTV from DC animation has all the excellent production value that we've come to expect from Bruce Timm and company. Despite this beautiful execution however, the films foundation - its story - fails to deliver the same punch as its visual counterpart (metaphorically speaking, there's actually a ton of action in this movie).

Superman/Batman Public Enemies is an adaptation from the comic book of the same name (Public Enemies took place during the first six issues of the series). The original comic premiered in 2003 and was penned by veteran writer Jeff Loeb with illustrations by Ed McGuinness. The series was understandably successful being that it featured artwork from some of the industries most popular artists (the aforementioned McGuinness and the late Michael Turner) and starred the two most popular characters inhabiting the DC universe. Loeb had built a strong reputation earlier in his career with notable stories like Batman the Long Halloween, Superman for All Seasons, Daredevil Yellow, Spider-man Blue and others. The strength of these books came from Loeb's great use of the mystery genre as well as his ability to tell very intimate, character driven stories. Sadly it was when Loeb started writing more "epic" and "blockbuster" comic books - like Batman/Superman - that he lost his way. Since then Loeb has been responsible for helping make Smallville the television series an absolute abomination, played no small part in ruining the hit show Heroes (for which he was fired) and wrote my nominee for worst mini-series of the decade Ultimatum.

With Public Enemies falling into the "not so good" portion of Loeb's career, one has to wonder why DC animation chose to adapt it into a full fledged animated movie. I'm sure they have a lot of "good" reasons for this, but my guess is that it was purely sales driven. Batman and Superman sell far better than lesser known DC properties (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern) and putting them together into a "Buddy" movie just makes good financial sense. All you need is an existing story that teams them up and you're all set. Of course I could be way off base on this, but I'm willing to bet I'm more right than wrong.

Normally I try to keep my reviews generalized in regards to plot detail, but for this review I'll be recounting pretty much the entire story, spoilers and all (you've been warned). The story for Public Enemies is this. Lex Luthor has been elected president of the United States and he's going to fix all of America's problems while at the same time taking a hard line stance against vigilante justice. So if you want to be a hero you need to go legit and work for the government, and by government I mean Luthor. Naturally our heroes Superman and Batman don't trust the new Commander and Chief and will have none of this. The thing is Luthor actually does a good job. Crime goes down, work is plentiful and the future is looking bright ... then we find out a Kryptonite asteroid is headed for earth (Dammit I knew I should have voted for McCain/Palin). Luthor's plan to save earth involves blowing up the asteroid with missiles, but others think he should enlist the help of heroes like Superman just in case the missiles don't work. So Luthor does just that, he publicly asks Superman to meet with him to discuss the impending crisis and let bygones be bygones. But it turns out to be a trick. Luthor only wants to meet with Supes so that he can frame him for murdering his old archenemy Metallo. Now a fugitive, Superman and Batman try to figure out a way to both stop the oncoming asteroid and clear Superman's name. Making matters worse for our heroes, Luthor has placed a 1 billion dollar bounty on their heads, thus making them a target for every villain - and most heroes - on the planet. At this point in the story things are holding together ok. Granted the idea of a doomsday asteroid is unoriginal and clichéd, but it doesn't look like this is going to turn into a train wreck or anything.

The second act of the film is primarily made up of fights ... lots of fights. I'll be honest, it's pretty darn cool. The action is fast paced, intense, beautifully animated and epic in scope. Rarely have I seen such a large cast of unique characters used in an action/adventure cartoon. Once the fighting winds down we learn the identity of Metallo's real killer and Luthor's plan begins to unravel. Oh and the missiles Luthor shot at the asteroid don't work. Alright we got just one act left and our movie is still doing alright. Nothing short of a complete meltdown could derail us now. What are the odds of that?

Upon entering the third act a now exposed Luthor begins to go crazy declaring that the asteroid is necessary to thin out humanities numbers. This insanity is attributed to the continued injections of synthetic Kryptonite and steroids that Luthor has been giving himself since earlier in the movie. Batman and Superman fight their way through some more opposition before confronting Luthor and demanding that he provide them with data on the asteroid so that they can stop it themselves. Luthor doesn't help of course, but his assistant (or maybe it's the vice president, they don't really say) gives them what they need and they take off to Japan to enlist the aid of some super geniuses (I think they said he was the new Toyman or something). Luthor escapes his assistant, hops into a battle suit and takes off after them. Now by this point things have gotten a little weird with the whole "synthetic Kryptonite" and "mad man Luthor" stuff. Our metaphorical train is starting to careen out of control, but that's ok. As long as the climax works all is forgiven. Wow that bend up ahead sure does look sharp, I hope we don't jump the track.

Entering the film's climax Batman and Superman meet up with our mysterious Japanese savior. Turns out he's a kid with a giant robot fetish. Wait, who said anything about giant robots? Well as luck would have it the super smart adolescent that Superman and Batman go to for help loves big Gundam sized robots (like most boys in Japan), thus he provides our heroes with a giant robot to fly up and destroy the asteroid with (Lookout! The train is starting to tip over!). But this isn't some Voltron wannabe. No this robot was built to look like both Superman and Batman (Oh God, we've gone off the rails!!). Let me put that another way, half the robot looks like Superman and the other half looks like Batman (Noooo the humanity, good God the humanity!!!). If that sounds really corny don't worry, that just means you're still sane. The movie does its best to try and make light of the situation, almost as if they're trying to disarm our reaction by acknowledging how insane this looks. The result is still the same though, the audience gets taken out of the moment. This is what you've been building up to for the last sixty minutes, a giant robot? I don't know what the rationale was for doing something so overtly lame, but no matter how I look at it this is stupid. If you make the argument that this is some kind of throw back to good old "cheesy" comics then the whole story should have been in the same vein. Added too that is the fact that this is a PG-13 movie. If you're going to go do something childish then make the movie PG and aim it at children. In fact if you removed the cursing and toned the violence down just a little, this could easily pass for PG. That's why I have such an issue with the choice of source material. The producers knew this story didn't quite fit their DTV line (which has been more mature and aimed at older viewers) but they used it anyway.

Alright, I've come this far so I might as well finish up my synopsis. Basically Luthor shows up and tries to stop Batman/Superman from saving the planet. Superman gets into a big slugfest with Luthor while Batman flies our super cool robot into outer space and blows up the asteroid. At first Superman thinks that Batman perished in a heroic act of sacrifice, but it turns out he's still alive inside of the robots control module. When Superman finds out he simply flies on up and brings him back home. Luthor goes to jail, the world is saved, everyone cheers and I die a little on the inside.

Now you may get the impression that I don't like this movie, but that's not entirely true. The truth is there are a lot of things about this film that I really enjoyed. Not only does it reunite the voicing cast from the original Batman and Superman animated shows (Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy and Clancy Brown) it also has excellent animation, cool character models (based on Ed McGuinness's art style), tons of action and a solid musical score. Even the writing I've been so critical of has good moments. In particular I enjoyed Batman/Superman's banter as well as the exploration of ideological differences between the two heroes. To give some frame of reference as to where I would put this movie on my list of favorite DTVs it would fall somewhere below Superman Doomsday and above the Ultimates movies by Marvel. If you love action or Superman/Batman then you should pick this up, it's a fun movie but doesn't live up to the standard that Wonder Woman and Green Lantern set.

Batman Beyond - Even better the second time around

The year is 1999, I'm getting ready to enter my final year of college and much to my disappointment both Superman the Animated Series as well as Batman the Animated Series have come to an end. So I asked "What new action/adventure cartoon could possibly replace these classic shows?". The answer was ... Batman Beyond. I then asked "What the hell is Batman Beyond?". The answer this time was "It's teenage Batman set in the future, but he has a really cool cyber suit!". My reaction ... "What the @#$*?". Alright all kidding aside this show could have been an absolute disaster, in fact it should have been.

The idea to do Batman as a teenager actually came from the head of the Kids WB programing department. Basically they (the higher ups on the Kids WB) loved Batman TAS but felt the character was a little old to attract younger viewers. The answer to this dilemma was - of course - to make Batman a teenager. This brilliant concept (that's sarcasm) was then thrown at Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (the guys who made Batman TAS and Superman TAS). Their reaction ... "What the @#$*?". Okay maybe that wasn't their exact response, but they were not thrilled. So they brainstormed some ideas (one of which was Batman Beyond) and ran them by Glen Murakami (another Batman/Superman alumni). His response ... "Cool!". Thus Batman Beyond (originally titled Tomorrow Knight and later Batman Tomorrow) was born.

Batman Beyond ran over the course of three seasons totaling 52 episodes and one DTV (Direct to Video) movie in length. Despite my original skepticism I enjoyed the show's initial run. A couple years back I bought all the DVDs with the plan to someday re-watch the series in its entirety. Finally that day came and I found that the show had aged beautifully. This is - without a doubt - one of the better action/adventure cartoons ever done and is a very worthy successor to the Batman/Superman series.

I should probably extrapolate a little on the premise of the show. Batman Beyond takes place in the year 2039 and features a teenager named Terry McGinnis. One day - by chance - Terry runs across an 80 year old Bruce Wayne while fighting a local street gang called the Jokerz (the z is intentional). After they dispense of the riffraff Bruce's heart condition acts up and he needs Terry's help to get back to Wayne Manor and take his medication. Once there Terry stumbles across the Batcave and discovers that the old man who just helped him used to be the Batman (Bruce had to give up being Batman 20 years prior). Soon thereafter Terry returns home only to find that his father (Terry's mother and father have been divorced for several years) has been murdered. Wanting to bring the killers to justice Terry asks Bruce to help him out. Bruce tells him no. So Terry takes matters into his own hands and steals Bruce's last Batsuit, a cybernetically enhanced getup he was using to compensate for his old age (Bruce couldn't give up his crime fighting obsession and needed an edge as he got into his 60s). Naturally Bruce is pissed, but he gets over it and the two join forces to bring Batman back to Gotham City.

I usually like to start my reviews with a show's writing, and today will be no different. As you probably suspect the writing from Batman Beyond is fantastic. The show's staff does an excellent job of incorporating elements from the original Batman series to tell a tale that is familiar but at the same time unique. A couple of villains from Batman TAS do show up, most notably Mr. Freeze and the Joker (the Joker only appears in the DTV movie), but for the most part the series consists of original villains made specifically for the Batman Beyond universe. Though none of the villains really come close to the original Batman rogues gallery, they do work very well within the context of the show. Since Batman Beyond features a teenage hero we also get a couple episodes that are high school centric and feature teenage themed issues (addiction, performance enhancers, bullying). Thankfully the show avoids the traps that other shows fall into and keeps the messages from becoming too heavy handed. Really the show just has solid overall story telling.

Now as much as I enjoyed the writing of this show I did not agree with everything the series creators did. For one thing it is revealed that back when Bruce Wayne was younger he and Barbra Gordon (Batgirl) had a romantic relationship. My reaction ... "What the @#$*?". It had always been alluded to that Barbra and the original Robin - Dick Grayson - had a thing, so this pairing comes way out of left field. Honestly it just feels .... well dirty. For Bruce to hook up with his former wards ex-girlfriend was exceedingly creepy and sleazy. Since when is Batman picking up Robin scraps (okay maybe that was a little harsh)? To the producers credit though it was a very interesting plot point (still gives me the willies though). I was also disappointed that we never learn the fate of the aforementioned Dick Grayson. We find out what happens to Barbra Gordon (she follows in her fathers footsteps and becomes police commissioner), we find out the fate of the second Robin, Tim Drake, but we never find out about Grayson. He is mentioned several times in the series - and it's implied that he is still alive - but I would have loved to have seen a story about how things with him and Bruce ended up shaking out.

The cast of characters from Batman Beyond is also superb. Terry McGinnis isn't some carbon copy of Bruce Wayne. In fact it turns out he has a criminal past. Back when Terry was fourteen (about the time his folks split) he ended up doing some breaking and entering that got him three months in juvenile hall. He's also brash and makes numerous mistakes while learning the ropes of costumed crime fighting. Luckily he has Bruce Wayne as a mentoring figure. I have to say 80 year old Bruce is a blast to watch on this show. Gone is the facade of the playboy millionaire from the original Batman series. In its place is a lonely bitter recluse who has spent the last 20 years of his life in a depressed haze. With Terry though Bruce finds his life's purpose re-invigorated and the two form a strong bond as teacher and student. Terry's mother (who he now lives with) and little brother are not used often in the show but when they are I find the dynamic very interesting, especially in the early goings of the series. There are times that you just get the impression that Terry's mom doesn't quite trust him, like she is waiting for him to slip up and get in trouble again. Though not really a plot point, it's this kind of underlying tension that gives these characters such fantastic dimension.

Unfortunately not all the characters on the show have such depth. In particular there is one secondary cast member that truly falls flat in this show, Terry's girlfriend Dana. Dana and Terry have been dating for an unspecified amount of time when the series starts, and once Terry becomes Batman (a secret that Dana knows nothing about) she finds herself neglected constantly. This leads to a lot (and I mean a LOT) of nagging. Now even though Dana has every right to be pissed her only real charter trait is the superhuman ability to BITCH INCESSANTLY! This does not make for an interesting addition to the show. At no point do we - the viewer - ever really root for these two crazy kids to work things out. I see no reason for Dana to stay with Terry and vice versa. This divide is made bigger (in my opinion) by the introduction of Max in season two (FYI, Max is short for Maxine. So yes she is a girl).

Max is friends with both Terry and Dana, but when she discovers that Terry is Batman she also becomes Terry's confidant. By that I mean she helps him work through tough decisions and lends him a sympathetic ear when needed. Because she's a computer geniuses she also helps him out with crime fighting when necessary; though her desire to get involved in this aspect of Terry's life gets her into trouble more than once. Already you can tell that Max is far more three dimensional than Dana and even though the shows creators never use Max as a romantic interest for Terry (despite the best efforts of Alan Burnett) she would have made a far better one than Dana ever did. I'm not saying that Dana should have been written off the show or anything, I'm just saying she needed more development. Why does she try so hard to stay with Terry? Give us some background on their relationship. Get her involved in Terry's life as Batman (just don't turn her into a constant damsel in distress like Lana Lang in that horrendous show Smallville). If I had any real complaint about this show I would have to say it's the underdevelopment of Dana. Other than that Batman Beyond has a great cast.

As you would expect the production quality of this series is outstanding. All the characters are on model, the animation - for the most part - is great (though there are a handful of mediocre animated episodes) and the voice acting is exceptional. I especially admired the design work of the series. The costumes and backgrounds are some of my favorite of any action/adventure cartoon. I'm tempted to go as far as to say they are the best in the entire DCAU (DC animated universe), but I'll stop short of making such a bold claim. In terms of quality it's easy to take DCAU shows for granted, they've been so consistently good in every department for so long that we've come to expect excellence. Still when you watch some of the other shows that were on the air at this time it's a sobering reminder of just how good these guys really were.

My final thoughts are pretty straight forward. With the exception of a couple minor complaints Batman Beyond is a classic. After ten years the show has lost none of its charm, and in some ways I enjoy it more now than when it first aired. If you don't have these DVDs I recommend you pick them up. Not only do you get a great cartoon but you also get some fantastic special features (commentaries on select episodes and a great series of round table discussions with the shows creators). All 52 episodes are collected in three volumes and don't forget the DTV "Batman Beyond Return of the Joker" (FYI there are two versions of the DTV, Standard and Directors Cut. The Directors Cut is PG-13, so be aware of which you are getting).

Defenders of the Earth - A mixed bag of 80s animation

Back in 1986 Defenders of the Earth premiered. It featured three popular characters from the King Features Syndicate comic strips: Flash Gordon, the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. I was about ten years old when this came on and I remember watching the show, though not consistently (my cartoon mainstays from that time were GI Joe, He-Man and Transformers). Still the show stuck with me over the years and when I had a chance to pick up the entire series for twelve dollars (got to love some of those Amazon deals) I did so. Having only a vague recalection of the shows plot I was none the less looking forward to re-watching the series, keeping in mind that it would suffer from the same pitfalls that all 1980s action/adventure cartoons do. Even with that filter - and my strange desire to like the show - I have to say this series is truly a mixed bag of Good, Bad and horrendously Ugly.

In a nut-shell Defenders of the Earth follows the adventures of Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician and Lothar as they battle Ming the Merciless who wants to take over the earth (thus the clever title Defenders of the Earth). Joining our heroes are their teenage children. Flash has a son named Rick Gordon, the Phantom has a daughter Jedda, Lothar has a son LJ (Lothar Junior) and Mandrake has an adopted son Kishin. Kishin is the youngest of the children being in his early teens while the others are in their late teens. As with most 80s cartoons the team also has a "cute" animal sidekick. In this case we get Zuffy an alien creature from the planet Mongo.

Now if you are a child of 80s TV animation - like myself - then you may remember coming home and having new cartoons to watch every afternoon. This was possible because large numbers of episodes were created in short spans of time so that you could have one for each day of the week. At the time this seemed great, you had a new adventure almost every day. Sadly the drawback to this method of entertainment is that the show's crew had to jam through a large number of episodes every week to meet the deadlines. So instead of crafting consistent well thought out stories, these shows churned out material as fast as possible, good or bad. The end result of this is a very inconsistent set of stories featuring a stagnate cast with little to no characterization. Of course this is nothing new when you're talking about action/adventure cartoons from the 80s.

As with many action/adventure cartoons the key to quality lies within the shows writing. Unfortunately due to the situation I described in the previous paragraph DOE (Defenders of the Earth) suffers from a very mixed bag (yes I will be using that phrase a lot in this review) in terms of story. Most of the 65 episodes from Defenders are stand alone episodes. This is typical of the genre from this time period, but DOE does have a couple multi-episode arches (there were a couple 2-part stories and two 5-part stories) that proved to be pretty enjoyable compared to the one and done stories that comprised the rest of the series. As a whole though the writing quality was immensely varied. Some episodes were pretty respectable and I felt that the stories stood the test of time rather well. Then the very next episode would be so unbelievably stupid that even a young child would find it insulting. But what makes these episodes so unwatchable isn't just the silly plots, it's the bad story structure. All too often the writers would fall back on lazy plot devices and ridiculous character decisions to move the plot along. I lost count of the number of times that the heroes simply asked their super computer (Dynak X) why something was happening, or had it calculate a cure for some evil disease and the computer had all the answers. Other times the story relied upon characters simply forgetting something very important or doing something asinine like pushing a button on the Defenders secret weapon (despite being specifically told not to). I could go on all day with more examples, but I think you get the idea.

As it was the standard of the time DOE also has a handful of PSA (Public Service Announcement) episodes. Now as a rule I have never liked PSAs but I try to keep an open mind when watching these old cartoons. That said DOE's PSAs were - once again - a mixed bag. The "don't do drugs" episode was actually really good. It showed how the pressures of teenage life (not just peer pressure but the pressures of responsibility) can lead to problems with drugs. The story even touches on how parents who don't take the time to listen to their children can contribute to this. On the opposite end of the spectrum the episode about teenage drunk driving was egregious. All the teenage drinkers are portrayed as fall down laughing party drunks and the black-and-white message that drinking underage equals death was exceedingly preachy. At no point does the episode handle substance abuse in a realistic fashion or touch on the dangers of alcoholism and drunk driving to anyone who's not underage.

Our next mixed bag involves the shows characters. Flash and the other established heroes each have episodes that delve into their pre-existing mythologies, and this is a good thing. However they only total a half-dozen at best which isn't really a lot considering there are 65 total episodes. I would have loved to have seen more stories involving Flash's early adventures on Mongo, or an episode dedicated to how Mandrake and Lothar first meet, but apparently the producers needed to leave room for story gems like frozen dinosaurs getting thawed out by Ming to destroy mankind (and I thought Jurassic Park had spotty science).

As frustrating as the adults are in this series, it pales in comparison to the disappointment that I felt in regards to their children. The frustration is not with how bad the teen heroes are (well with the exception of Kishin, he was pretty bad) it's actually with how much potential they have and how the writers never fully tap into it. Rick Gordon is a little vanilla but at times the writers would touch on things like his occasional jealousy or the difficulty that comes from being the son of the legendary Flash Gordon. These brief moments of characterization opened worlds of possibilities, but due to the rapid production pace writers never had a chance to do anything with it. Jedda (the Phantoms daughter) is equally - if not more - frustrating. Unlike the shows other characters Jedda is not trying to step out of her fathers shadow, but is actually preparing to step into his shoes (due to the fact that she is next in line to take up the mantle of the Phantom). On the rare occasions that we got to see this side of Jedda develop it was truly a treat. Sadly the show's writers would all too often abuse Jedda by portraying her as a vapid, brainless plot device who does the dumbest things to further the story. LJ was the most underused of all the young heroes. In the few episodes that revolved around him (I can only recall two LJ centric stories) we got to see a brash, arrogant and even chauvinistic youngster who was far too cocky for his own good. These are great character flaws to explore but unfortunately it never happens. Kishin is the weakest of the bunch. Basically he is just the prototypical "left out" character due to his young age. Kind of like Speed Racer's little brother who would stow away in the trunk of his race car, Kishin would ignore orders to stay behind and follow everybody else into danger.

The show also messes up the interpersonal relationships between our younger heroes, specifically in terms of romance. Early in the series it is alluded to that Rick and Jedda have a mutual attraction. However this theme disappears, re-appears, disappears etc. Sometimes they're into each other then at other times they would fall for some stranger they just met, Jedda being the worst offender in this regard. There was at least a half dozen episodes where she would fall for some guy that she had only known for a matter of minutes. Rick was also guilty of this on at least two separate occasions further confusing the budding romance between him and Jedda. Now I don't expect there to be some epic romance here (nor would I want one) but you need to be consistent. Even the 80s cartoon GI Joe understood this. You knew that Fint and Lady Jay were an item and you didn't see them hooking up with other characters whenever it was convenient for the plot.

On the bright side the voice acting in DOE is pretty good. Each voice is distinct and they were mostly recorded as an ensemble allowing for the actors to better play off of one another. The music from the series is also decent. Like most action/adventure shows the in-episode music is recycled throughout the series but it wasn't as noticeable as other shows. I would also like to call out that I absolutely love the series opening theme song. I don't know if it's the catchy lyrics or the electronic keyboard but there is something so 1980s about this that I can't help but feel nostalgic every time I hear it.

Rounding out the production of this series is the animation. DOE was animated in Korea, a very common practice these days but back in 1986 it was still kind of new for American produced cartoons. So how did it come out? Well as you may have guessed it's a ... (wait for it) mixed bag. When the studios "A" crew was working on the show the results were pretty good. Well they were good for a show using minimal animation (minimal animation is the technique where you use fewer in-between drawings than is necessary to fool the human eye into thinking it's seeing movement. Thus the movements of the characters are often jerky and unnatural). When the good crew wasn't working though you got the "B" crew, and these guys were bad. The animation not only suffered from the minimal animation technique but also suffered from off model characters, goofy gesturing and terrible disproportion. The difference between the "A" and "B" crews was so vast that you didn't even have to look hard to tell which you were watching, it was as clear as a Hollywood teenagers complexion. In one exceptionally odd situation there was an early episode in the series where the animators actually used the wrong model sheets! They ended up using early character designs instead of the finalized designs. Lothar is wearing an unusual jungle costume, Jedda's hair is way too long and Ming is actually the wrong color (he supposed to be green and they made him blue). You can view the original model sheets on the DVD special features and see that this is indeed what happened. The fact that the shows producers even allowed such a big oversight to air is shocking.

To sum up Defenders of the Earth is a lot more bad than it is good. Sure the potential was there but even viewed through my rose colored 1980s animation glasses I have to admit this was not the best show from the decade. It's not the worst mind you, but it falls well short of the better shows like Galaxy Rangers, Dungeons and Dragons and GI Joe. On the plus side the DVD set is really nice. The packaging is beautiful and you get some really cool special features. My favorite is that each episode has a couple bullet points calling out interesting facts about the show. They even point out the bad things like poor animation and silly plot holes. If you have never heard of this show you should definitely stay away, but if you watched the series as a youngster and you don't mind a little pain then it might be worth your time to check it out.

Spectacular Spider-Man? - You better believe it is

When it was announced that a new cartoon titled "The Spectacular Spider-man" would air in 2008 I was skeptical. Over the years there have been a number of Spider-man cartoons, none of them all that memorable. There was the minimally animated cartoon from the 1960s. Later in the early 1980s we saw the extremely tame Spider-man and his Amazing Friends. In the mid 1990s the world was treated to the ambitious - but ultimately disappointing - Spider-man the Animated Series. The success of the first Spider-man movie spawned a strange CG cartoon that aired briefly on MTV. Finally last (and most certainly least) was Spider-man Unlimited (don't get me started on this one). The best of these can be considered nothing more than a mixed bag.

Despite these reservations however, I was liking the direction of Marvels animation and wanted to give the show a chance. I watched the first 4 episodes and felt ... underwhelmed. The show was ok, but the stories just weren't doing a lot for me and the non-costume character designs bugged me (too simple and the giant irises were just creepy). It was at this point that I dropped the series and moved on.

Over the next year I kept hearing positive buzz about the show. Being a firm believer in second chances (after all I tried re-watching the Real Adventures of Jonny Quest) I gave the show another shot. So I picked up with episode five and prepared for the worst. All I can say is that I wish being wrong was always this pleasant. Within three episodes I was hooked. Yes the giant irises still bothered me but I quickly got over it once the series kicked into high gear. This is without a doubt the BEST Spider-man cartoon ever made, and one of the best action/adventure cartoons in quite some time.

The strength of the show stems from its writing. The initial episodes that I found lacking were actually laying the necessary groundwork for the payoffs we would get throughout the season. In other words this is the kind of show that has layers. Things that happen in one episode often have repercussions in later ones. That's not to say that the episodes don't stand well enough on their own - far from it - but there is a larger picture being created and watching the series writers and producers pull it all together is a real treat. They also deserve a lot of credit for having the sense to borrow from the best that the various Spider-man incarnations have to offer. Elements from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are clearly present, as are influences from John Romita and even Brian Michael Bendis (the writer of Ultimate Spider-man). This may seem like a no brainier but I have to applaud them none the less; especially when you look at the choices that other Spider-man cartoons have made regarding influence.

Characters are unique, flawed and very three dimensional. Our hero Peter is truly clueless when it comes to romance, but through it all he's the kind of tough luck hero we love to root for. Supporting cast characters are also well developed. We feel the disappointment and frustration of Gwen Stacey as she tries to win Peter's heart. Harry Osborn's desperate attempts to make his father proud are heart wrenching. In short these fictional characters feel real, something that can be sorely missing from many action/adventure cartoons.

Spider-man's rouge gallery is admirably represented here as well. You get all the big names like Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Sandman, Mysterio, Kravan, Shocker, Vulture, Lizard, Green Goblin and of course Venom (this covers two seasons worth of regulars). However my favorite antagonist is season one's primary villain, the criminal godfather The Big Man. Normally I would expect the Kingpin to fill this roll but the shows producers went in a different direction, they used a little known Spidey villain named Tombstone. I absolutely adore Tombstone (wow that felt strange to write). The way he makes Peter feel like a kid playing at an adult game is great; and his explanation to Spider-man as to why he is creating super villains is one of my favorite rationals ever (I won't spoil it here, you'll need to watch to find out).

I would like to also hand out an honorable mention to SSM's version of Eddie Brock (Venom). If you have ever read the comics - or watched the atrocious Spider-man 3 - then you should know that Eddie has a less than inspired origin; especially in terms of motivation. What SSM has done is to take the revised Eddie Brock from the Ultimate Spider-man comics and further improve his background so that he becomes more of a willing victim. So instead of being some pissed off reporter who is discredited, Eddie is a life long friend of Peter and a science major at Empire State University (both Eddie and Peters parents died in the same air plane crash). Bound together by tragedy, these two are like brothers, they even refer to one another as bros. Sadly through a series of unfortunate events (the kind that can only happen to Spider-man) Eddie begins to feel betrayed by Peter, and later by the supposed hero Spider-man. The tension builds throughout season one and culminates when Eddie finally bonds with the symbiont (Spider-mans black alien costume) and discovers that the two people he hates most - Peter and Spider-man - are one in the same. Yes Venom is looking for revenge, but it's revenge born out of betrayal. A much strong emotion than previous incarnations of the character.

Though the story and character writing is without a doubt cleaver, the show's dialog is nothing short of brilliant. In case you don't know, Spider-man is supposed to be a smart-ass. This has been a part of the character's identity since his inception back in the 1960s. The problem over the years has been that this quality has never translated well outside the medium of print. Every Spider-man cartoon prior to SSM has failed miserably at providing witty banter, the same can be said for all three Spider-man movies as well. Spectacular Spider-man changes all that. Spidey's one liners in this series are not only funny, they are laugh out loud funny (and I'm not the kind of person who laughs out loud at action/adventure cartoons). Credit must also go to the voice acting of Josh Keaton (the voice actor who portrays Peter and Spider-man). Keaton's timing, inflection and pauses provide maximum effect for these fantastically written lines.

In regards to the production quality of the show, SSM it is definitely a well made series. The animation is fluid and the character models are always consistent with the last couple episodes of season two being particularly impressive. I still would have liked to have seen non-costume character designs that were a little less ... cartoonish (yes I can appreciate how ironic of a statement that is) but it's something that I got over pretty quickly and in the grand scheme of things it's a small complaint. Voice acting is excellent all around (though some voice actors noticeably do multiple characters, most of them one shots) as is the music. Top to bottom this show is about as good as the action/adventure genre gets.

If you have not seen this show then I recommend that you do so. The first season is available as a two-disc collectors set and can be found relatively cheap. Unfortunately the second season is currently only available in the form of four individual volumes. That may not be the best way to watch season two, but I do feel it is worth the effort to pick them up.

Jonny Quest - The Real (Bad) Adventures

Back in 1996 - about a year after I graduated high-school - there was a HUGE premiere for the revival of Jonny Quest. This new series was titled "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" (as opposed to the 1960s show which was fake?) and it was shown on multiple networks. With all the hype I couldn't help but get excited. I was a casual fan of the original show and I desperately wanted a new action/adventure cartoon to fill the void left by Batman the Animated Series. Much to my dismay however, this reboot turned out to be a mistake of Jar Jar Binks proportion.

I originally watched something like the first 8 episodes of this series before giving up on it (thankfully Superman premiered not too long after). But with the recent release of the first 13 episodes on dvd I decided to give the show a second chance. Well you know what they say, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Please note that this review is for the first 13 episodes of this series only. The show ended up running 52 episodes in total. I believe that the shows original producers were replaced so the remainder of the series might be better than what I saw here.

To start I would like to single out the biggest flaw of this series, the tone. Actually it would be more appropriate to say that the show had too many tones. There were episodes about religious zealot terrorists followed by episodes of aliens followed by episodes about saving endangered animals followed by episodes about a mad geniuses attacking through virtual reality and best of all an episode about ghost pirates (we'll get back to this one later, trust me). None of these themes is really that great (well maybe the ghost pirates is great) but it's the use of all of them in such a small number of episodes that proves so problematic. You just can't go from "save the whales" to "there is an alien posing as the vice president", it's too jarring. Your show needs an identity, something that the audience can always anchor itself to. Instead the produces of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest just throw as many popular ideas of the time at us as possible and thrust the characters into each premise with no concern about how much sense any of it makes.

As for the series cast, it consists of Jonny Quest, his father Dr. Benton Quest, family body guard Race Bannon (ex-special services), Dr. Quests apprentice Hadji and Races daughter Jessie. Overall this would be a pretty solid base of characters if they had been properly developed. Unfortunately they all come off as generic stereotypes that serve no purpose other than to further the shows so-called plot. Jonny is brash, reckless but ultimately a good natured person who never pushes things too far. In other words he's boring. Jessie provides some much needed estrogen to the show but little else. Given her fathers background you would expect her to have a lot of military skill sets like hand-to-hand combat, weapons expertise etc. This happens to a extent but honestly you never get the feeling that the rest of the characters (she is usually teamed with Jonny or with Jonny and Hadji) really need her, or that they couldn't just as easily do what she can. Hadji serves up nothing more than Indian mystic wisdom cliches while training himself to be some kind of David Blane type endurance expert (so he can put himself into trances so you think he's dead and he can hold his breath for a long time). Race is a body guard with military ties, that's about all I got from him in the first 13 episodes. Finally Dr. Quest is ... well it's hard to say. He's supposed to be some kind of super geniuses scientist but he seems to spend all his time looking into the paranormal and searching for artifacts. More of an archaeologist/ghost hunter than a scientist I would say.

Another problem with the cast is that none of them have any notable flaws. That may seem like a strange thing to say, but having characters who are flawed in some way helps humanize them for the viewers. Make Jonny's reckless nature a problem that ends up hurting someone he cares about. Maybe Jessie has trust issues because her mom abandoned her. Have Race's past come back to haunt him due to questionable actions from his secret service days. You get my point, I want to have characters that grow and change with the show. I want them to have baggage from their past, not just stagnantly stumble their way from episode to episode never any different from the experience.

Alright now I want to talk about the show's writing a little bit; specifically I want to talk about the show's premiere episode "The Darkest Fathoms". In this episode we see the pirate ship of Blackjack Lee sink into the ocean's depths somewhere near the Bermuda islands. Of course there was treasure on board, treasure that Blackjack Lee swore no one would have. Skip ahead to modern times and some divers discover the ship (named The Ivory Web) while searching for oil. Well old Lee won't have none of that so ghost pirates attack the oil expedition. Naturally(?) Dr. Benton Quest is called in to investigate after the attack. Through a series of predictable events Dr. Quest and Jessie get captured by those pesky ghost pirates and Jonny takes off to rescue them. However it turns out they're not real ghost pirates (gasp!). They're just a bunch of shady criminals who are trying to get the gold for themselves and they're using the legacy of Blackjack Lee to scare off anyone who gets too close. To do this they have concocted an over elaborate plot complete with fog machines, wind machines and other special effects to make people think that there are real ghosts guarding the treasure. Now if this plot sounds familiar it's because it's the same plot of EVERY SCOOBY DOO EPISODE EVER MADE!! Seriously ghost pirates? Common Hanna Barbara haven't you covered this ground enough already?

Other horribly offensive plots include 3 "save the animals" episodes; one about elephants, another about a tiger on the loose in the city and the last involves whales. I'm all for going green and what not but after Captain Planet I have a violently allergic reaction to cartoons that preach at me. Also Alien in Washington is so stupid it made me want to travel back in time and punch the show's writer square in the neck. I mean an alien has spent years on earth posing as a human so that he could become vice president and try and stop our government from doing experiments in outer space. How exactly did he come up with this plan? It takes years of political service, maneuvering and media scrutiny for someone to be able to serve in this position of office. Did you start preparing for this knowing that we would some day start experimenting in space? Because this strategy would take years to pull off, not months. What if the presidential candidate doesn't choose you as a running mate? What if you had lost the election? The plot holes in this thing are so big you could fit Rosie O'Donnell's head through them. It would have made more sense for the alien to have taken over the vice presidents body, but the show actually makes a point to tell us that this was not the case. There were several other "alien" themed episodes that were nearly as bad; you can just imagine the shows producers and writers sitting around trying to come up with ways to emulate and leach off the success of the X-files (one of the biggest hits on TV in 1996).

The production quality of these episodes also falls far short of the standards for the time. Based on the inconsistent look you can tell that the animation was sourced out to different studios. The quality of this animation ranges from passable to awful. There are some episodes where the characters are truly flat, with no shading or depth at all. The backgrounds lack any detail or stylization. The merging of CG backgrounds and cell animation is so bad it looks like an armature did it in Photoshop. Character models are inconsistent with changes to hair color and even age happening regularly (Jonny will look 13 in one episode then 16 in another!). Lastly the CG realm of Quest World has aged really badly. Even at the time this was not impressive CG but compared to the standards of today - even TV standards - this stuff is laughable.

Voice acting is at least passable. The characters all have distinct voices that fit their design. Hadji and Races accents are not the best, but I've heard worse. The shows music is serviceable as well. It feels kind of strange to have to use aspects of the show I consider average as a means of complementing the series, but there just isn't much to celebrate here. Actually I do want to call out one aspect of this show that I was impressed by, people die. If you know anything about action/adventure cartoons you know that people - even villains - rarely die (don't want to scare the kids after all). So the fact that numerous people - good and bad - bite the big one in this show was very surprising. And the deaths weren't exactly tame ones either. One villain is stomped to death by an elephant. The oil expedition divers from the premiere episode freeze to death when their heat supply is cut off. Another villain is even mauled by a tiger. Now none of these deaths are shown on screen of course, but the implication is obvious. For a show like this to have the guts to tread on such taboo ground is something to be applauded. Even now it's rare to see people die in an action/adventure cartoon.

As you can tell I didn't like this show. Have I been a little hard on the series? Maybe just a little, but I stand by everything in this review. Much of my displeasure comes from when this show was and not just what this show was. I hold any action/adventure cartoon made after 1992 to a higher standard than the shows that came before (the GI Joes and Thundercat type cartoons). This is because Batman the Animated Series set a higher bar for the genre and any show that was made after that should - at the very least - try and meet or exceed that higher standard. Instead The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest crawled under that bar without even looking up to see where it was. I have no idea if the remaining 39 episodes of this show are any good, but I will say that you should avoid these first 13 at all costs.