Gen¹³

I've known Kevin Altieri for decades. He spent a pile of his own money premiering this film years ago only to see the thing crammed into a vault at Disney because Wildstorm Comics, the publisher of the Gen 13 series, sold itself to DC Comics (owned by Time-Warner) and Disney decided it would rather eat the cost of the film than help sell a rival conglomerate's merchandise. So, an entire film swallowed whole due to studio politics. Amazingly, years later, it still sits, only viewable as a bootleg because of a minor release in Australia and Europe. Kevin just shakes his head at the waste. He did quite a job on this considering the limits of the budget. The uncut version does not feature nudity except in the slightest cheesecake variety. I disagree with a fellow poster regarding the music. Amotz Plessner (from the Czech Republic) provided an excellent score with none of the usual tinny synthesizer drivel typically larded over action-adventure animation. As for any heavy-breathing lesbian characters or material, you have to consider that this film was financed by Disney, so what would you expect? Sure, this film is not Miyazaki, or something worthy of putting in the Smithsonian, but it is a well-made little feature. And though I haven't seen the bootleg version(s) available for download, I'd be suspicious of the quality (although the original not being available it would be impossible to tell at this point).

On the downside, the animation was uninspired by the standards of other projects associated with Kevin Altieri (ie. Batman:TAS). I also found the lack of Burnout and Rainmaker (aside from two good cameos), though it wouldn't matter to anyone unfamiliar with the Gen13 comic, mattered a great deal to me even though I don't consider myself a huge Gen13 fan -- thus, I'm sure, this also had to have an impact on to anyone else watching this, seeing as the initial audience HAD to be fans.

Of the voice cast, only E.G. Daily seemed to really hit her stride as Roxy (you could hear the Buttercup 'tude shining through!), although Alicia Witt's Fairchild was endearing in her plain candor and Cloris Leachman's Helga was terribly amusing. However, I also feel that, no offense to Flea, but I never imagined Grunge sounding quite THAT dumb.

On the upside, it was highly amusing to watch the movie earn its "not-for-children" boundaries with the occasional cussword and plenty of cheesecake. ;) More seriously, the climactic sequence was worth the wait. We finally got to see Grunge kick some ass -- as always, the character is best when he stops being a doofus and actually uses his head (and powers) to help out his friends. Roxy's power manifestation was downright gorgeous -- and impressive. And Fairchild...well, she was about as spot-on as any appearance in the comics. Go, girl!

I wouldn't give this movie a high rating, but I wouldn't trash it either. It was...well, fun. Whereas I can see and understand why it didn't get a series, I do wonder if/how they would have brought in their other two teammates -- and if the cartoon would have had enough balls to maturely tackle a certain canon controversy surrounding Rainmaker after a season or two. I would have tuned in for that. ;)

Ok, they did stick pretty close to the comic, but why never release it? The animation was close to Batman/Superman WB, which I really like. But to not include 2 other members is a shame. Mark Hamil was at points too close to laughing like the Joker, but I love his voice in the WB cartoons, it is perfect, but for this it is not how I heard Threshold in my head, but still pretty good.

I heard about Gen13 the comic book but I can't find it in Thailand so I don't know the storyline in the comic.

I saw this cartoon today and I love it. The story is great. Mark Hamill's voice as Threshold is so powerful.

If you are a fan of Gen13 or like comic books, you should see this cartoon.

i was a fan of the comic back way back and was excited to hear that an animated film was being made.And then,i heard nothing about it for years until i recently found a bootleg copy.

This film is not your children's Saturday morning cartoon since it's got scenes of bloody violence,about two dozen bad words(mostly religious related words but no f words) and characters who either smoke or talk about wanting to smoke.

it's sexy in some parts but don't expect any nudity or you'll be really disappointed.

The story is somewhat interesting but the animation didn't match my high expectations.

Maybe there will be a really great GEN 13 animated film done one day but this simply isn't it!