Sexy "Heavy Metal" Has Something for All Mature Audiences

Elon Musk reportedly used this sequence from the "Soft Landing" segment of "Heavy Metal" as inspiration for his "starman" project.

"Heavy Metal" (1981) is largely forgotten by most people, but it has a devout cult following among lovers of both animated sci-fi fantasy films and 1970s rock music. It is a film of its time, but if you were there, you recognize the style and the ethos. "Heavy Metal" is enjoyable by modern audiences as long as they can appreciate a wild tale of savage beauty.
Yes, it contains drug and sexual references and a whole lot of violence. However, "Heavy Metal" also offers some wry commentary on cultural conditions amidst a lot of unrestrained and thoughtful imagination. There is a lot of serious insight right beneath the surface of "Heavy Metal" if you care to look and see it.

I consider this scene of Taarna flying one of the highlights of "Heavy Metal" and strikingly good animation.

An anthology mélange like the eponymous magazine on which it is based, "Heavy Metal" is a collection of disparate tales that are tied together with the loosest of thread - much like the outfit of one of the main characters, Taarna.
Despite getting little respect from professional film critics, "Heavy Metal" has served as inspiration for many later works including "The Fifth Element" (scruffy futuristic taxi driver saves redhead), "Blade Runner" (flying cars), an episode of the animated television series "South Park" and "Heavy Metal's own 2000 sequel. That's not a bad legacy at all for a low-key animated feature film not made by one of the major studios.
Produced by Ivan Reitman and Leonard Mogel, who also was the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, "Heavy Metal" was rated "R." How it escaped an "X" rating is a bit of a mystery, but those were different times with different standards. Be advised that "Heavy Metal" is for mature audiences only due to its violence, adult themes, and sexual imagery.
Many veterans of "Second City," a comedy troupe based in Chicago and who were friends of Reitman, voiced the characters. These included John Candy (voicing several characters), Rodger Bumpass, Jackie Burroughs, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, Martin Lavut, Marilyn Lightstone, Eugene Levy, Alice Playten, Harold Ramis, Percy Rodriguez, Susan Roman, Richard Romanus, August Schellenberg, John Vernon (the principal from "Animal House"), and Zal Yanovsky.
Begun in 1977, Heavy Metal magazine was owned by the National Lampoon company, which did "Animal House" and many other very irreverent motion pictures. That explains the irreverent tone of Heavy Metal.
"Heavy Metal" has many different animation styles. They are not all top-flight, but they are original and highly personal. To use one word to describe them all, I would use "gritty." Some of the styles harken back to the 1960s "Yellow Submarine" era, while others are extremely sophisticated and approach CGI quality (which was not available in 1981). Like the magazine, "Heavy Metal" has images that look more like pop art than typical comic book poses.
The rotoscoping technique, wherein actors play out scenes and then are traced as animation, is used throughout. This gives "Heavy Metal" a very realistic appearance.
The "Heavy Metal" storyline is tied together by a mysterious orb known as the Loc-Nar that travels throughout the universe, including Earth. The Loc-Nar takes on different forms throughout "Heavy Metal" and exhibits magical and very dangerous properties. Let's be real - the Loc-Nar is the weakest part of "Heavy Metal" because it is just this undefined "thing" whose only substance is that it serves to frame the other stories. The film drifts far and wide during its different stories, but ultimately they are tied together by a tenuous but ultimately satisfying framing device.
The stories in order are:

• Soft Landing
• Grimaldi
• Harry Canyon
• Den
• Captain Sternn
• Neverwhere Land
• B-17
• So Beautiful and Dangerous
• Taarna
• Epilogue

Rather than go through the different plots, I'm just going to point out the parts of the film that really stand out.

The B-17 story is tight and surprisingly realistic despite the supernatural theme.

The animators basically went where they wanted to go - the B-17 story was made by a World War II veteran who just wanted to tell a supernatural tale from that conflict - and things branch off in different directions. "Heavy Metal" thus features creativity run wild, which either comports with what you want from an animated feature film or doesn't. Any fan of animation should get a thrill out of it.
After the brilliantly drawn introduction, "Soft Landing," the first memorable sequence is "Harry Canyon." This tale follows a savvy cab driver in a dystopian New York City. The city of "Harry Canyon" is an obvious extension of trends that had been playing out in the decaying NYC of the 1970s. It is full of seediness and squalor with nobody really giving a damn about anything but their own self-preservation and enrichment. However, the city tableaus are instantly recognizable despite the futuristic elements of being set in 2031 if you are at all familiar with the New York of the late 1970s.
Easily the most memorable and exciting story, however, is "Taarna" near the end. She is a Taarakian warrior, the last one, in fact. Taarna is summoned by city leaders who are under attack by the Loc-Nar (it is never explained why the Loc-Nar does what it does, it just... does it). This story obviously was strongly influenced, if not directly inspired, by the comic book story "Arzach" by Moebius (real name Jean Giraud, who founded the French magazine "Métal hurlant" that led directly to "Heavy Metal" magazine). "Taarna" is replete with scenes of righteous fury, sheer savagery, and absolutely stunning animation. This ain't Disney, folks. The wicked tale of revenge and retribution in "Taarna" serves as a fitting and fulfilling climax to "Heavy Metal."
Strong, beautiful, and mute (like the character in "Arzach"), Taarna acts like a gunfighter from the Spaghetti Western genre, although she uses a sword instead of a gun. The "Taarna" segment exemplifies fantasy fulfillment for both men and women. Taarna's physical attributes are amply on display for the guys while her cool, savage, effective dispatch of the bad guys portrays a unique female superhero that has not been equaled.
By now, I hope you have a good idea of what "Heavy Metal" is about. While full of obvious 1970s drug references, it is not a film only for potheads or lovers of "Dungeons and Dragons." "Heavy Metal" some real art and some amazingly good rock songs from the likes of Don Felder of the Eagles (his "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" is a showstopper tune),  Blue Öyster Cult (yes, they did songs other than "Fear the Reaper"), Sammy Hagar, Devo, Cheap Trick, and Stevie Nicks). Elmer Bernstein of all people did the score, which shows clear echoes of his score the same year for "An American Werewolf in Paris."

This is an animation by adults for adults. It is uplifting in a very strange and savage sort of way and is a virtual peek into a certain mindset of the late 1970s. If you are interested in animation other than Disney princesses and are adventurous, I say, give it a whirl.




2021

"Bob's Burgers."

"Bob's Burgers" Wins Animation Emmy.


In something of an upset, "Bob's Burgers" on Fox beat stalwarts "Futurama," "South Park," "TMNT" and "Archer" for the 2014 Outstanding Animated Program Emmy.  At Saturday's Creative Arts Emmy Awards, it beat its better-known peers - winning its first award for Outstanding Animated Program.

The award was given for the episode "Mazel Tina," in which Bob Belcher's family learns a few lessons about Judaism and eldest daughter Tina tries to get a back-door invite to a popular classmate's party. The clip above is from that episode.

We mentioned Bob's Burgers a few months ago due to its James Bond spoof episode to close out last season. That was a fun episode in which Linda Belcher belted out a James Bond spoof.

Bob's Burgers follows the misadventures of a family operating a small independent hamburger restaurant in a boardwalk community. It is scheduled to begin its fifth season this fall on Fox, with reruns currently syndicated to the Adult Swim network.


Created by Loren Bouchard, a Home Movies veteran, "Bob's Burgers" is somewhat low-key compared to other animated shows. It beat the series finale of Futurama, South Park's "Black Friday," Nickelodeon's TMNT and Archer: Vice, - with which it shares lead voice-actor H. Jon Benjamin and has done a crossover.

The fifth season premiere is on 5 October 2014 at 7:30/6:30 p.m. Central on Fox.


2020

"South Park."

I realized I didn't have anything about the "South Park" television series on here, which was a major omission, so here we go! Here are ten great South Park episodes.

There isn't too much about television animation such as Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's "South Park" on here because, frankly, the quality of animation on tv isn't nearly as high as that of feature film and films are easier to review. Now, I can imagine the howls of protest at that, but it's true. That is not to say that tv animation is valueless or anything like that. However, if you try to stack a 30-minute show's animation against "Frozen" and you're going to come up short every time. "South Park" follows in the tradition of shows like "Ren & Stimpy" which push the limits, and that is one of its main attractions.

Smug Alert!

That is not to say that tv animation is an inferior product, just that the quality of that animation is from an earlier technical era. The animation you see on the small screen certainly can be as brilliant as anything you see in the theater if you are measuring impact and cleverness. It also can address topics that you'll never see in a full-length animated feature film because the extended length of a tv show over the course of an entire season allows all sorts of meanderings not permitted to a highly focused feature film. You could be watching shadows on the wall and be engrossed if the story is good, so having cutting edge animation isn't always determinative about quality.

"South Park," of course, had its moment in theaters with "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." That film did all right and was entertaining, but it had trouble making the transition to the big screen for a few very good reasons. First, it retained the topicality that is a trademark of television programs but anathema to feature films. Some of the biggest comic set-ups involved people like Saddam Hussein, and, to be frank, he really wasn't that funny then and he's a lot less funny or interesting now. The Baldwin brothers? Minor leagues, baby.


Second, the primitive animation of "South Park" that is perfectly adequate on television is simply inadequate and non-competitive in a theater. It just doesn't look right in the age of Pixar and DreamWorks products. Nobody expects cutting edge animation for free in your living room, but they sure do after paying their $12 and buying some popcorn and juju beans.

Third, there simply isn't that much that is special and unique about a particular episode of a tv show that is expanded for the theater. Just as most folks wouldn't go way out of their way to find episode 8 from season 10 (whatever it was), there isn't much unique about just another rendition of the same South Park characters you see all the time on tv that is worth spending $12 on. Not enough, anyway, to say that the movie's story is anything special, and many fans of the tv show delight in the backward idea that liking the film version is disloyal to the tv show. And heaven forbid that the movie introduce inconsistencies into the canon!

Look, devoted fans are like that.

All that said, some tv animation overcomes its inherent limitations and is top-notch. Even someone who is more into the more expensive feature film productions can enjoy some television animation just as much. While "South Park" is generally accepted to be running out steam after 16 seasons or however long it's been on, it packed a punch during its middle seasons. Almost all of these are from seasons 5-12, showing that the series was at its peak then.

Herewith, we present Ten "South Park" Episodes Worth Watching.

"Come out, Tom!"

1. "Trapped in the Closet"

Season 9 Episode 12 

This may well be the most famous episode for non-fans, and for good reason. In it, Stone and Parker take on the easiest target in Hollywood, namely, Scientology.

Stan is mistaken for the reincarnation of Scientology’s founder, L. R Hubbard. After many meanderings - including Tom Cruise hiding in a closet - the episode ends with Stan concluding that ”Scientology is just a big fat global scam.”

It's not Scientology that makes this a classic, though the ending, where a Scientology leader explains its theories about aliens and such to Stan as the words "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS REALLY BELIEVE" is shown at the bottom of the screen, is riotous. No, the episode reaches for the gold when it seriously lampoons Tom Cruise, Parker voicing him as a whiny brat who won't come out of the bedroom closet - with obvious unspoken implications aside from religion.

The show is infamous for taking on as many targets as it can, and Scientology gets its lumps here. However, the episode is extremely pointed and personal satire, and Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef, decided it had gone too far. He abruptly resigned because he is a Scientology member and didn't like his religion being made fun of. Parker and Stone were nonplussed, saying in a statement, "”In 10 years and over 150 episodes of South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show.”

The episode is hardly profound, and the phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" springs to mind, but it illustrates one area in which tv animation can trump film animation: topicality and the ephemeral nature of celebrity. Nobody would waste an entire film on such a flimsy plot-line as an attack on Cruise and Scientology, but a 30-minute tv episode? For sure.

"Hey, have you guys ever seen this trick?"

2. "Asspen"

Season 6 Episode 2

Tad Mikowsky is a bully and takes on Stan. That's all there is to the episode, but how it is done is what sets this episode apart. Along the way, every sports film from the '80s is satirized, and along the way, we get the "Montage Song" from "Team America."

"Well, I'm just a typical little girl."

3. Marjorine

Season 9 Episode 9 

Butters fakes his own death and then pretends to be a girl named Marjorine. His hope is to weasel his way into the girls' slumber party and snatch a paper fortune teller. Parker has fun exaggerating horror film conventions and explores childhood innocence. It's a fun episode that focuses on Butter, the innocent guy in the "South Park" universe who always says wacky things.

"I gotta dance!"

4. You Got F’d in the A

Season 8 Episode 4 

It's the Goth Kids to the rescue in this episode when they reveal that the only proper way to dance is to shuffle with your arms at your side with your eyes fixed to the floor, occasionally taking a drag on your cigarette. The tallest Goth kid busts a move or two, and we are shown just how silly all those "dance-off" films are. If you hate the modern dance hype on tv, this one's for you.

"If this is what's cool now, I'm done."

5. Elementary School Musical

Season 12 Episode 12 

This episode turns the obvious tropes of coming-of-age films on its head. Mr Güermo, unlike every other father in those types of films, actively wants his boy to take up dancing rather than play basketball as is he preference. The dance-obsessed father is a riot, and while "High School Musical" may not even be worth a half-hour of satire, it's still cathartic to stab that brief insane fad with your steely knife when you have the chance.

"Remember, kids, if you smoke you could grow up to be a failure."

6. Butt Out

Season 7 Episode 13

Everybody had to sit through some puerile speech at some point in their lives from some motivational speaker. It's all about blaming others for things, and it works with extreme cleverness. After some over-the-top speakers decry the horrors of smoking, naturally the boys are caught smoking out behind the school. Trapped, they try to pin it on cigarette advertising in order to not get in trouble. Parker and Stone also throw a few shots at Rob Reiner of all people, who are portrayed as an anti-smoking zealot who has a few health risks of his own. Some very adult issues about freedom and the right of others to impose on what you do are touched upon, zooming this episode way above where you expect it to go.

What awaits each person in heaven is eternal bliss, divine rest, and $10,000 in cash."

7. The Death of Eric Cartman

Season 9 Episode 6

For pure fun, nothing in "South Park" tops "The Death of Eric Cartman." Cartman, of course, is evil and conniving, that kid you knew who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but you still hung out with him anyway. There's even a musical interlude in the middle of the episode that underscores in a cynical way just how meaningless Cartman's attempts to "do the right thing" are. It's all about what a bad guy thinks being good means and goes off in all sorts of wacky directions.

"Jesus, Jesus, why don't we just shut off the lights."

8. Christian Rock Hard

Season 5 Episode 4

Cartman takes on Christian Rock and gets his comeuppance. That about sums up this episode, and it has a nice twist that shows there are two sides to his issue. While Christian Rock is easy to satirize, Parker and Stone are careful to show that while there are inherent ridiculous aspects to the whole genre, it also isn't polite to dump on what other people like, either. Thus, Token takes a heap of abuse from Cartman, but then ultimately shows him what's what and serves up some righteous justice. A great and satisfying episode that shows that being cool and cynical can go just a little too far when not leavened with a little understanding and true tolerance.

"Love is like taking a dump, Butters."

9. Cartman Finds Love

Season 16 Episode 7 

Cartman is a busy-body who gets into other people's lives. Here, he takes it to the next level and creates Cupid Me, which goes around making sure that people only get together with others from their own race. The whole notion is stood on its head with the conclusion that, despite all the liberal push to be encouraging for people of different races to be able to be together, sometimes people don't want to live an agenda and actually do want to be with others like themselves. It's a great insight into the Cartman character and a deeper look at what allowing people to do what they want really means.

"Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness!"

10. Scott Tenorman Must Die

Season 5 Episode 4 

Cartman is a hate-filled malevolent creature who balances hideous un-PC attitudes while hiding behind the blanket defense of childish innocence. This episode brings us Scott Tenorman, a ninth-grade bully who cons Cartman out of his lunch money. This ignites Cartman into a raging ball of fury that must scale the heights of heroic retribution - only it doesn't quite work out the way it does in the movies. Operatic retribution just doesn't work when it comes to Cartman. In fact, he does become a sort of dark hero who must battle the even evil-er Scott Tenorman with the fate of the Galaxy, or at least his ninth-grade pride, at stake.

SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE

I have given this episode a special category because it exists outside of ordinary lists. This episode is either great or revolting, and I think there are a lot of people on both sides of that equation. So, I leave it up to you whether it belonged on the list of great episodes. If so, it also might belong on a list of truly awful episodes.

Oh, here's a hint: if you are easily offended, turn back now.

Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo

This episode aired on December 17, 1997, right in time for Christmas. It's the only season 1 episode with a shot at making our "Great" list. Let's just allow Trey Parker himself (in 1998) discuss what makes this episode - "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" - about talking poo so special, no need to embellish this story:

“When we were getting courted by all the networks, for people wanted the show, I remember I sat down with (Comedy Central executives) Eileen Katz and Debbie Liebling at our first meeting like two years ago, at dinner. I said, ‘You know, one thing I have to know before we really go any further. How do you feel about talking poo?’ And Eileen, I remember, just was like ‘I love it’. We had the idea for ‘The Mr. Hankey Show’ even before South Park. It’s what we originally pitched to Brian Graden (who became the president of MTV) and he was like, ‘Sounds great. Let’s NOT do that.’

“John Kricfalusi, the guy who created Ren & Stimpy, after the Christmas show had aired was making some big noise about the fact that Mr. Hankey was a rip-off of some character he created on his website (Nutty, the Friendly Dump). It really pissed me off just because I actually wrote him specifically saying ‘Mr. Hankey has actually appeared on the opening sequence of South Park since it aired in August and even before that when we made the pilot a year before that’. Like I said, we pitched that to Brian years ago and before that Mr. Hankey was something I did in college.

“And so, you know, Brian Graden was the first one to come out and say ‘I was pitched Mr. Hankey four or five years ago’. (Kricfalusi) wrote a letter back saying ‘Oh, okay, I see how it could just be a coincidence but you should admit to the press you are a big Ren & Stimpy fan’. I’m not a Ren & Stimpy fan. I have nothing against it. I saw an episode or two but that’s about that.”

2020

South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut - Blame Canada!

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999).

The modern kind of animation film - that is, the kind aimed at teens and young adults at least as much as children - aims to press as many hot buttons as possible. We're definitely not talking about fair maidens waiting for their prince, or lonely alien robots just looking for a nice young kid to have as a friend. Instead, it is all about knowing bathroom humor and picking relatively safe and defenseless targets to attack. That way, the audience can feel a sense of community in the foulness of their real lives, which are never as pure and pretty as Hollywood would have us believe.

Class is in session!

As usual, Television started breaking down the barriers. The "South Park" (1997) franchise exemplifies this trend, though it began with the animated "Beavis and Butt-Head" (1993), the live-action "Married with Children" (1987) and even, if you think about it, "All in the Family" (1968). The creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone unleashed a juggernaut of bathroom humor that just keeps rolling.


They are Colorado boys, and their work is loaded with references to their home state (South Park is a plain between mountain ranges in the Rockies).  In the animation world, they are kings, even though as animators they aren't all that special. It is their swagger and hook that keeps 'em coming back. They get top celebrities such as George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston to voice their characters, and as of this writing continue with their flagship animated TV series.

Casualties of war.

Parker and Stone made only one major misstep, and this film isn't it. Their attempt to become live-action stars in their own right failed miserably. In their acting attempts, they look like deer caught in the headlights, self-conscious and awkward. Unfortunately for them, they are not even real-life "Wayne's World" types, however hard they pose as such.


Their presence helped cause the 1998  "BASEketball" to tank at the box office. But they learned from their mistake that animators should stay behind the camera, not in front of it, and this film, "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" (1999), wisely sticks to animation.  Naturally, like pretty much all their animation efforts, it was another huge success.

Kids just causing trouble.

The moral of the story is, stick to your own field. If you are a top animator,, stick to animation. Just because you are good at one thing, does not mean you will naturally succeed at something else, even something related.

Saddam is quite funny in this.

This film is like an extended version of one of their TV episodes, hence the (obvious double entendre) title, but they also make the audacious decision to insert some songs (including the Oscar-nominated "Blame Canada"). When four boys in South Park - Stan, Marsh, Kyle and his stepbrother Ike Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick - sneak into an R-rated movie called "Terrance & Phillip: Asses of Fire", which features Canadians, they are pronounced "corrupted." Kyle's mom Sheila and the rest of the parents are outraged and pressure the United States to declare war against Canada. Stan, Kyle, and Cartman then must save Terrence and Phillip before Satan and his lover Saddam Hussein from Hell take over the world.



As usual, Trey Parker and Matt Stone hog all the main voices themselves, with celebrities like Clooney, Brent Spiner, Dave Foley, Eric Idle and Minnie Driver sprinkled in for name value here and there.  It's all about pop culture, with the biggest consequence of a war with Canada being an air attack on the Baldwin brothers (who are from Long Island, New York, not Canada, but really, who cares?). There's nothing particularly original about the plot, though a teen audience might think so. Alan Alda and John Candy, in fact, did a take on that very idea just a few years before this film in "Canadian Bacon (1995)." The plot, though, is just an opening through which to throw salvos of brickbats at whatever target suits Stone and Parker, whether it be parenting, the media in general, or America's predilection for invading weaker countries. Clearly, given that they are in the gross-out animation business, one of their targets is the idea that kids can be corrupted by gross-out films. Perish the thought!

Blame Canada????

Parker and Stone are experts at poking fun at the audience's insecurities and how "cool" or "uncool" certain figures or concepts are in the popular vernacular. There's the usual "have it both ways" idea of kids being poor little innocent victims of corrupting adults, but at the same time the kids are just as knowing and vulgar and obnoxious themselves, if not actually more so.  You get the typical "hypocrite" line, where obvious inherent contradictions in celebrities' positions are poked at. Some of the humor is topical and won't play as well down the road as it did then. Saddam Hussein is long gone, so having him as the archetype of evil looks almost quaint now, just as Moammar Khaddafy will just be a historical curiosity in fifty years. At the time this film was made, though, Saddam was basically thumbing his nose at the West while coming up with all sorts of unintentionally humorous quotes (hey, he deserves full credit for the "mother of all ___" line). When somebody says idiotic things that get widely publicized, and the person isn't even aware of the banality of their own utterances - instant pop culture target.


But we are not talking about Shakespeare here.  Nobody is going to care about this 400 years from now, or maybe even forty. It is "cutting satire" designed to offend "soccer moms" everywhere.  You will probably find it amusing, but, like all topical humor, it no doubt will tend to fade with age.


2020