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A glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with a collection of stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.
John Candy: (Voice)
Heavy Metal is a boldly created animated film, upon its release in 1981, it featured daring content. Unlike most animated films at the time, Heavy Metal combined heavy metal music, blood-n-guts and nudity in an animated feature. The result was a somewhat daring film. While adult animation had been done before, Heavy Metal took the ball game alot further.
Based on the magazine of the same name, Heavy Metal results in being an anthology. It has six different segments, all threaded together with a singular plot. A green orb from a dimension named Loc-Nar tells the stories in which it had a part.
The first of these stories, Harry Canyon, is an original story not from the magazine. However, it does draw inspiration from some other stories featured in the adapted content. The Harry Canyon segment is well-told and has a touch of detective intuition layered with futurism. The portrayal of New York in 2031 was rather grim yet necessary.
Den, based on Richard Corben's character, is the story of a 14-year-old kid who becomes a muscular man in a place called Neverwhere, due to an experiment he conducted one night. This segment was pure fantasy, with fight scenes and fantastic artwork throughout. In this story, the Loc-Nar is worshipped.
Captain Sternn is a superlative comedic segment in the film. Captain Sternn's pleads "not guilty" during his trial. His angle, Hanover Fiste, is there to praise him, as he will be paid to do this. However, with the Loc-Nar in his hands, he begins to reveal the truth about Sternn and becomes a giant and chases Sternn throughout the space station.
''I'm just scared I'll come home one day and find you screwing the toaster.''
B-17 is my favourite segment in the film, based on the story by Dan O'Bannon. During WWII, the Loc-Nar hunts down a severely damaged B-17 bomber and turns the dead crew into zombies. This sequence truly borders upon the psychological horror, and unlike most of today's horror films, it gets to the point and ends in a twisting, enigmatic conclusion.
So Beautiful, So Dangerous is not a strong segment story-wise, but it's one of the funniest segments in the film. Some of the best songs on the soundtrack are listed upon this part, and the animation is very colourful and detailed here. The two stoner aliens are essential comedic elemtsts for the middle of a multi-storied film.
The film concludes with the last story, the epic Taarna segment, an original story that is somewhat lengthy in it's ominous structure. With its epic fight scenes, amazing backgrounds and its grand scope, Taarna is a great finale and an epic closing point to wrap up the whole affair.
Heavy Metal has nearly twenty different songs from many different artists, ranging from Black Sabbath to Sammy Hagar to even bands like Grand Funk Railroad and Journey. It's a very diverse mix and the songs on here are all very good. Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules" goes great with the barbarians' invasion of the peaceful village in Taarna, and Don Felder's Heavy Metal(Takin' A Ride)" makes the beginning of the B-17 segment pure excitement.
The weakness of Heavy Metal has to be the animation, although having some great effects (particularly on the Taarna segment), some of the character animation is disappointing. There was a lot of roto-scoping used in the film, which makes me wonder why character development lacks subtlety in their creation? Perhaps the makers rushed some parts as opposed to others.
Aside from a few flaws in the animation and then at times lurid, erotic obsessed story, beside all that, Heavy Metal is still an enjoyable experience. Even though some critics look back on it and called it dated and juvenile, it doesn't seem to effect the quality, art and fun it still instils. Some say it hasn't aged well, and it's true to a certain degree. It is juvenile, yes, and drenched with nudity, big breasted women worshipped as sexual lionesses, and there is a geeky animosity residing over the whole affair.
However, Heavy Metal did show what the animation medium was capable of doing. This film proves that animation can do anything. It also shows it can be adult and redefine storytelling.
''...Very few escape my grasp...''
8/10
