‘Heavy Metal’—animated, musical fantasy:

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 18

‘Heavy Metal’—animated, musical fantasy:

“Heavy Metal,” which will begin tomorrow at the Midcity, brings together a unique entertainment experience that combines the talents of film, music and art. It takes you a step beyond science fiction into a universe of magic, passionate fantasies, awesome good and terrifying evil — into worlds that have the logic of a dream, and a nightmare. Inspired by the fantastic stories and exceptional graphics that brought “Heavy Metal” magazine an international readership, the film weaves its eye-popping adventures from deep space to futuristic New York, and beyond. Each world and story is dominated by the presence of the Loch-nar — sum of all evils manifest as a glowing green sphere whose power infects all times, all galaxies, all dimensions. To some, it appears as treasure, a green jewel they must possess. Others worship it as a god. Few escape it. Even in death and through death, its powers continue. From war to war and world to world, it seems invincible. It alone knows and can find its true adversary — this is the story of “Heavy Metal.” The film features an innovative musical score by the Academy Award-winning composer, Elmer Bernstein, complemented by new rock songs, composed especially by an all-star lineup of contemporary artists providing background to the on-screen action and emotion. Gerald Potterton has directed “Heavy Metal,” coordinating the efforts of more than 1000 artists, animators and technicians from 17 countries working in five separate cities: Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, London and Ottawa. The team assembled to create “Heavy Metal” has, as a group, an extraordinary compilation of film credits including such varied and diverse films as “Star Wars,” “Alien,” “Animal Farm,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Planet of the Apes,” and “The Wizard of Oz.” The film’s roster of contemporary rock groups also is impressive: Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Devo, Donald Fagin, Don Felder, Grand Funk Railroad, Sammy Hagar, Journey, Nazareth, Stevie Nicks, Riggs and Trust.

At first glance, Ivan Reitman is an unlikely producer for an animated film. In fact, his background as an enormously successful liveaction film maker enabled him to avoid the pitfalls of standard animation. Reitman has had an impress|ye string of hit movies: he produced “National Lampoon’s Ani-

at the cinema

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mal House,” directed and produced “Meatballs” and ’‘Stripes,” starring Bill Murray. As the box office figures have proven, Reitman is in touch with today’s audience. With “Heavy Metal,” Reitman applied his live-action standards to animation. As he puts it: “I had been bored by almost every animation movie I had seen since I was 10. The early Disney films are great — they still are, but there was nothing contemporary for the filmgoer. “I thought about it and realised that one of the reasons I was bored, was that most of the animated films since Disney were made by animators and not filmmakers. They were good at making drawings move but they were not particularly good as a producer or director. “What I started to do after I got involved in ‘Heavy Metal’ was to try and give the film a firstclass screenplay. That’s really the heart of it. Animators get lost in the movement and in the backgrounds and design and forget about the story and characters.” With the blessing of Len Mogel, the publisher of “Heavy Metal” magazine and executive producer of the film, Reitman contacted Dan Goldberg and Len Blum. This screenwriting duo had helped create “Meatballs” and “Stripes.” Goldberg had also collaborated with Reitman in various capacities since their college days. While Goldberg and Blum developed strong, coherent story line, Reitman established with director Gerald Potterton a consistent overall vision. They enlisted today’s foremost sci-fi illustrators to design visual concepts for particular episodes, noted talents such as Richard Corben, Berni Wrightson, Angus McKie, Chril Achilleos, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Mike Ploog and Charles White 111. Michael Gross, a skilled graphic designer and a man familiar with the sci-fi-fantasy genre, was hired to supervise the various creative teams to assure a continuity of style. To enhance the effect of full animation, Reitman resurrected the multi-plane camera, a technique not used since Disney’s “p/mochio.”