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.