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Wednesday, May 10, 2023

HEAVY METAL (1981)

Yes, the rock music genre is well represented on the soundtrack (along with an Elmer Bernstein score), but this is mainly a series of dystopian sketches from the eponymous magazine, done in ‘80s hallucinatory animation style.  And quite effective, too, though the eight stories tend to merge into one big search for a green orb of power by fighting alpha-males & flying alpha monsters along with a single bare, busty warrior princess type for almost every chapter.  (Just right for the presumed target audience of horny nerds.)  A Canadian production, Ivan Reitman was one of the producers, it’s loaded with SCTV vocal talent, but is largely held together not by narrative drive (that’s all over the place), but by all the violent action, its Space Opera æsthetic, Mayan architectural style, and lesbian leather-bar couture.  Some of the animation looks distressingly rotoscoped, but most of the drawing & effects have a stylish ‘80s period feel, pleasantly nostalgic.  The whole project, in spite of each segment having its own crew, held together by supervising director Gerald Potterton* along with R-rated erotism & ultra-violence.  (How many of the stories feature decapitation?)  Unlike the artsy FANTASTIC PLANET/’73 or some of Ralph Bakshi’s would-be edgy animated features, this one still cool, still fun.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Potterton worked on YELLOW SUBMARINE/’68, but is probably best known not for animation, but for the cross-Canada-by-mini-train comic travelogue, THE RAILRODDER/’65, a miraculous little short with Buster Keaton who more-or-less co-directed.  (As can be seen in the equally essential documentary on its filming: BUSTER RIDES AGAIN/’65.)

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