Heavy Metal (1981)

I was recommended this film from a friend after having never heard of it. I absolutely love the animation and truly made me feel nostalgic for '80 style animation, even though I was born in '91. The face that the film features voices from the Second City crew makes for some interesting and funny voice acting. Some of the stories fell flat for me and felt a bit boring and that is why I can't give this a higher rating. However it was definitely an above par film and if I saw it on television, I'd probably stop.

I think my original viewing of this film was the best possible way to see it, a midnight showing at a local art-house theater (one that actually used to be a mortuary). This anthology animated film that features science fiction shorts from animators from around the world was cutting edge at the time, but now seems incredibly dated. What stood out most re-watching it now was the film's gross misogyny. When I first saw this as an adolescent boy, that didn't stand out so much, but watching the film now, it's objectification of the female characters is so over-the-top that it's uncomfortable to watch. I suppose this is reflective of the comic book this film was based on, but that doesn't really make it okay. Some of the shorts are better than others, but none of them stand out as great. The best is probably "Den," a segment that seemed to fully embrace the ridiculousness of this film's adolescent boy point of view. "Den" tells the story of a young boy who finds himself in the musclebound body of an intergalactic hero, voiced by John Candy, fighting bad guys and saving buxom damsels in distress. That segment is entertaining, but nothing great. The film's 80s heavy metal soundtrack (along with a solid Elmer Bernstein score) are fun, as is the voice acting by John Vernon, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, and Harold Ramis, but overall, this film is pretty weak and does not hold up, despite it's cult reputation. Mostly what I'm going to remember about this film is that first time I saw it in the theater when a very high theatergoer behind me would randomly shout out, "Loc-Nar!" every time the glowing green orb appeared on screen.

It's interesting to see Moebius art in a feature film. That said... it's nothing compared to his comic books, the visuals are mostly rough and stuff is flickering a lot. The animation is roto-like, meaning lifeless, no contrasts, the motion of everything is even and slow-ish. But hey, it's animated in 1981. The story... I don't know, it's probably interesting if you're high. Very, very high. This film was probably made by people who understand comics, not film, and it's not a good adaptation of comics to motion pictures. I think the film does have merit though, for being a feature that looks like a comic book, not like the usual 2D animation stuff: the line is more complicated, lots more details in the drawings. Some of the backgrounds are quite interesting, and they use line art, so the whole picture is colored line art.. as opposed to the usual animation look which has painted backgrounds and colored line art for animated elements (and it doesn't look cohesive). Anyway, overall... this film is more or less a creative mess. It has some remarkable bits of eroticism, not normally found in animation. Personally I would love to see more comic-book-like feature animation. But made today, with modern tools and animation and film knowledge, and with better character design and better overall visual style.

A glowing orb called the Loc-nar proves to be the linking device for an anthology of science fiction tales.This film, seeded by the magazine Heavy Metal, is very much an animated movie for adults - there is a moderate amount of nudity and sex in it. Old school comics enthusiasts will recognise some of the names whose pieces live behind the 6 pieces (and linking sequence) here - Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson, to name but two.It's well worth a look if you know your interests lie in that direction, albeit it isn't 100% successful - for one thing, you can have too much of a good thing. Having said that, it's not the sort of film that gets made very often, so we should value the fact that it exists at all.