amcornelius74

While this might be a cute film and "family-friendly", it is in no way an original piece and suffers from the "Disney syndrome" of blatantly ripping off from other works. The conversation between Manny and Sid upon their meeting is almost identical to the exchange between a certain green orge and grey donkey that I don't think I have to mention. Sid is nothing more than clumsy mammalian version of Wallace from the "Wallace and Gromit" shorts. While these carbon copies got on my nerves a bit, I will have to admit that the "Bambi vs. Godzilla" reference got a chuckle out of me.

Despite these flaws, the movie was fair, the animation was pretty good, and the best part was constant appearance of Scant the squirrel. The story was a bit weak, though. I would have liked to have seen a better plot. Of course, being Hollywood, they just had to put the "Kyuds and famblee make everything BBBEEEETTTTEEEERRRRR!!!" bit in, which annoys me to no end, but at least it was a short scene.

Too many people watched this movie with their heads instead of their hearts, or with the wrong part of their brains switched on. Anyone going in expecting a "comic book action flick" of your normal proportions is going to be disappointed. For those of us who know better, sit back and enjoy the ride. To be honest, I avoided the film until my fiance strapped me down and forced me to watch it. And am I ever glad that he did.

Basically you know the story by now. Captain Amazing, who resembles a NASCAR driver more than a superhero, keeps the community of Champion City safe from supervillians and various do-no-gooders. Trying desperately to ride on his coattails are three hapless "heroes" who only want the same recognition as Captain Amazing. The Shoveler has a wife and family to support, despite the fact that God gave him a "gift" to shovel and shovel well. The Blue Rajah, a skilled cutlery thrower, lives with his mother, who has no idea just what he does at night and wonders why he burns so much incense in his room. Mr. Furious is always just THIS CLOSE to going Chernobyl on someone, even though his hand-to-hand skills could use just a bit of work, okay, a lot.

Meanwhile, Captain Amazing has a problem: there are no more supervillians for him to go after and his sponsors are getting restless. A plan is hatched to get him back on the winning track by releasing one of his arch nemesises, nemesisi...what's the pleural of nemesis? Anyway, one thing leads to another and the plan goes haywire, leaving Captain Amazing captive in Casanova Frankenstein's lair being guarded by two disco baddies. So, the Shoveler, Blue Rajah, and Mr. Furious are out to save the day and rescue Captain Amazing! But they need help....

Sound silly so far? Wait, it gets better, but I'll let you find that out for yourselves.

A movie like this is just made for sci-fi freaks, comic book conventions, and Monty Python fanatics. The entire cast is incredible. Ben Stiller is amazing as Mr. Furious (his friends call him Roy) who may or may not have superpowers. Jeanene Garofalo's depiction of The Bowler, who has constant arguments with her father's skull that is encased in her ball, is pretty similar to some of the conversations I have with my dad and Jeanene, as always, is an absolute gem. It's really nice to see Paul Reubens reprise his "Pee-Wee" role a little bit in his portrayal of The Spleen. My personal favourite, however, is Eddie Izzard as Tony P., one of Casanova's boys who insists that disco is NOT dead! Eddie was born to play that role and anyone who has seen his stand-up will know what I mean.

The main thing to remember during this movie is to keep your sense of humour wide open, as well as your mind. You'll enjoy it all the more if that is done.

Before X, before Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, before Akira, there was Neo Tokyo, a fine blend of high-end animation and artistic expression, as well as experimentation. This is far from the typical "big eyes, small mouth" anime with big guns, big robots, and girls with big, um, "talents". In other words, this is not your younger siblings' anime.

The first selection, "Labyrinth" by Rin Taro, is a child's imagination run wild. If Cirque de Soleil was animated, it would be this. A little girl and her faithful cat cross over into a bizarre world via a mirror and are entertained by a mime-like clown, a traveling circus, and a surreal world of high walls and mindboggling imagery. Much like the imagination of a child, this is not a short to be analyzed, picked over, and dissected. "Labyrinth" is meant to be simply enjoyed. Other than the basic storyline, the short bounces around at a moment's notice from one scene to another and doesn't seem to fit together at all, but in the end it does. This piece is what I like to call "moving artwork". Several of the scenes could be plucked from the screen and hung on a wall.

The second short was a favourite of MTV's "Liquid Television" in the early 90's. Yoshiaki Kawajiri's "The Running Man" tells the story of a driver who has been surviving death-defying form of racing for ten years. It's a brilliant accomplishment and unfortunately, one that's been wearing on him, since other drivers are dead in a year. A reporter begins covering the driver's unstoppable career and accidently discovers why this man always wins. Finally, the stress of tempting death night after night breaks him and in an instant, all hell breaks loose. The design of the characters is very realistic, atypical for early to mid-80's anime. The speed and look of the racing vehicles is fluid and the piece is never boring, even sticking around with you after the very end. Despite the morbid nature of this short, I honestly believe that "The Running Man" should be part of Speedvision's Lost Drive-In collection.

The finale could easily be subtitled "The Akira Experiment Project". Three years before he would reshape the world of anime forever, Katsuhiro Otomo wrote and directed "The Order To Stop Construction", the tale of a hapless Japanese executive sent to shut down an overblown project in a tropical rainforest powered by robots and void of humans. Unfortunately, what stands between him and his orders is a foreman robot on a strict work schedule that it is hellbent on keeping, so much that the last human sent to supervise the place has disappeared without a trace. Despite the fact that the worker robots and the machines they operate keep exploding day in and day out, the foreman is convinced that if the others work just a little bit harder, it can meet the ever important deadline and nothing is going to stop that, including the human sent out to do so. Every element of "Akira" can be seen here, from character and vehicle designs to pipe movements and mud bubbles. It's like watching a mini-version of "Akira" without any psychic goings-on. Also like "Akira", "The Order To Stop Construction" is also a bit of social satire, making fun of the important and somewhat overbearing work ethic of the Japanese. My only complaint is the dubbing. The original Japanese language with subtitles would have added a bit more to this instead of the weak English voice-acting. This short would have been a fun addition to the "Akira" special addition recently released, as well as an important one.

This fine, yet brief, collection of mid-80's animation from Japan is definitely worthy of DVD consideration and it's a shame that it hasn't received one as of yet.