| If you've never heard of this movie, chances
are you aren't going to like it. If however you are one of the people who enjoyed the late
70's heavy metal era then this DVD would be a good addition to your DVD collection as it
is a great way to enjoy Heavy Metal. Released in 1981 and starring the voices of Richard
Romanus (Harry Canyon), Susan Roman (Girl, Satellite), John Candy (Den, Desk Sergeant,
Dan, Robot), Harold Ramis (Zeks) the movie is actually a collection of seven animated
short stories from the Heavy Metal magazine loosely bound together around the theme of
this evil green glowing orb. It also shows a fair bit of full frontal nudity albeit
animated and lots of gore all set to the soothing sounds of bands like Black Sabbath.
Essentially, the film is written for a male, teenage audience, with plenty of the elements
teens crave. Naked women, rock and roll, drugs and violence. So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
VIDEO
I am not a big fan at all of animated films, the only ones I've enjoyed are films such as
Toy Story 1 & 2, Bugs Life etc. The animation on Heavy Metal is none of those, this
animation is done rather crudely, although I think animation of this sort was quite common
in the 80's. However Columbia have done a fantastic job in bringing it to DVD. The
video of this disc has been remastered and presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is Anamorphic
Widescreen. It is very good, colours are rich and deeply saturated, while the
blacks are deep and dark. There is no digital edge enhancement or ringing present and
edges are largely clean. There is also no film grain apparent and MPEG artifacts were
minimal.
AUDIO
The disc contains a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital re-mix. This puts
more emphasis on the music and sounds. The mix I found to be well balanced. It also kept
the music mostly in the front channels where it is sometimes drowned out by the wild
effects from all the discrete channels. There was also some good LFE at times and some
good directional effects from the surrounds. Dialogue was also clean and easy to
understand. Also included is a two channel French, Italian & German mix and a mono
Spanish audio track. The soundtrack includes songs from the likes of Black Sabbath, Devo,
Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, Blue Oyster Cult, Journey, Donald Fagan and many, many
more.
EXTRAS
This is what makes the DVD!! Extras are galore. It includes a documentary
titled "Imagining Heavy Metal" which runs approximately 35 minutes. The disc
also includes deleted scenes, including a rough cut of a entire additional segment which
was cut form the movie titled Neverwhere Land, and an alternate framing sequence which can
be heard with or without commentary by Carl Macek. There is a segment called "Artwork
of Heavy Metal" which includes 26 pencil drawings, 59 conceptual art stills (2 of
which are animated), 29 single cell stills, and 191 layered cell stills which expose some
of the layering techniques used during the animation process. There are also 18 production
photos of behind the scenes work which was done on the film and a segment which contains
all the Heavy Metal Magazine covers from 1977 through 1999. But the best extra on this
disc is the entire full-length rough cut of the pencil drawings used to get the look and
feel of the production prior to the final production stage. This rough cut can also be
viewed either with or without a full commentary by Carl Macek.
Overall while certainly not everyone's
taste. If you've seen the movie before and enjoyed it then grab the DVD, Other than that
it might be worthy of a rental first.
| PICTURE QUALITY |
8/10 very good |
SOUND
- Quality
- 5.1 WOW Factor |
- 7/10 well balanced mix
- 3.5/10 mostly front stage oriented |
| FEATURES |
10/10 this is what makes the DVD!!!! |
Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T43W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Toshiba 2109 Region Free
Receiver: Yamaha RXV995
Speakers:-
Fronts: Polk Audio RT55
Centre: Polk Audio CS350
Rears: Polk Audio AB705's
Subby: M&K V125
- Reviewed 5th February 2000 |
