Heavy Metal

Starring: Charles Jolliffe, Ned Conlon Director: Gerald Potterton, Jimmy T Murakami Original UK Premiere: 1996 Dvd Release: 13th December, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Animated, PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding Subtitled In: Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish Dubbed In: French, German, Italian, Spanish

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Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian animated film from executive producer Leonard Mogel, who also was the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine. With Ivan Reitman producing & Gerald Potterton directing, the work flow was expedited by having several animation houses working simultaneously on different segments. The film is an anthology of various adult-oriented science fiction & fantasy stories adapted from Heavy Metal magazine & original stories in the same spirit. Like the magazine, the film has an unusual amount of bloody violence, nudity & sexuality for a North American animated film, especially in the time before the popularity of adult-oriented Japanese anime. Mogel planned another film to be promoted under his Heavy Metal Presents banner & Scott Roberts did extensive work scripting an adaptation of William Gibsons short story, Burning Chrome, writing a total of six screenplay revisions. However, this project, planned as a live-action film, was eventually sold by Mogel to Carolco & the film was never made. Posters Of Heavy Metal

As long as there is a need for adolescent male sexual fantasy, there will be an audience for Heavy Metal. Released in 1981 & based on stories from the graphic magazine of the same name, this silly & senseless the movie is an aimless, juvenile amalgam of disjointed stories & clashing visual styles. Hundreds of animators from around the world were employed, resulting in a near-total absence of creative cohesion in the finished product. It remains, for better & worse, a midnight-movie favourite for the stoner crowd, a movie best enjoyed by randy adolescents or near-adults in an altered state of consciousness.

With a framing story about a glowing green orb claiming to be the embodiment of all evil, the film shuttles through eight episodic tales of sci-fi adventure, each fuelled by some of the most wretched rock music to emerge from the late 1970s-early 80s period. The most consistent trademark is an abundance of blood-splattering violence & wet-dream sex, the latter involving a succession of huge-breasted babes who shed their clothes at the drop of a G-string. Its rampantly brainless desire to fuel the young male libido becomes rather fun, & for all its incoherence Heavy Metal impresses for the ambitious artistry of its individual segments. Produced by Ivan Reitman , the voice talents include several Canadian veterans of the Second City improvisation comedy troupe, including John Candy, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy & Joe Flaherty, many of whom went on to greater fame on the US TV series Saturday Night Live. ,

DVD Special Features Feature-length Rough Cut with Optional Commentary by Carl MacEk, Production notes Theatrical trailer Documentary: Imagining Heavy Metal Art Galleries Deleted Scenes, Carl MacEk reading his book Heavy Metal: The Movie 1:85:1 widescreen anamorphic Dolby Digital 5.1

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