I first encountered this movie in 1989. I was 10 years old. It was probably on TBS; I'm not sure because I didn't have cable. But I was at a sleepover at my best friend's house, where I got to experience the magic of cable occasionally. Everybody else was asleep, and I was flipping channels at 3 AM. I came in right at the beginning of the "Taarna" segment, with the evil mutant army sinking into the mire and the general rising. ?! I watched all the way til the end and I was freakin' ENTHRALLED.

For the next 5+ years, I recalled seeing that short, but I had no idea what it was. I never had any idea who Harry Canyon was, for sure. Some time after I got into high school and started going to the mall by myself, I saw a Heavy Metal tape for sale in Sam Goody. I don't think I knew what it was at the time, but like the Pinface post, I was always a fan of animation. And this. looked. AWESOME. So I bought the tape. Some short time after that, I watched it. Throughout the movie, I had no idea that towards the end, I would be finally reunited with the Taarna segment, which, to this day remains to me a masterpiece of fantasy storytelling with a plot driven by events and visuals and very little dialogue.

When I saw this film (at a young age) I think it disturbed me a bit. Seeing all the violence and... ahem... OTHER stuff was not a normal thing for me. I was used to my cartoons being, well, cartoons. You know, Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry type of cartoons. This... this left me puzzled and distressed.

So Vaporman you think animation is all for kids? not all animation is especially in Europe and Japanese animation as there is adult animation you know and Heavy Metal is adult animation.

This was long before South Park or Seth Mcfarlane's stuff you know and there was 1972's Fritz The Cat then Fantastic Planet, Lightyears aka Gandahar, Fire and Ice, Starchaser Legend of Orin, Watership Down, American Pop, Pink Floyd The Wall, Wizards, Akira, Ghost in The Shell, Hey Good Looking, Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, Spawn the animated series, Aeon Flux, Vampire Hunter D, The Simpsons and so on.

Hey Shakin did Fifth Element and Sucker Punch reminded you of this movie?

And if you thought this was wild, sleazy and violent, you both should check out Urotsukidoji Legend of the Overfiend. Now there's an animated movie that goes beyond tastes and is a cult classic too that mixes horror and fantasy with eroticism, brutal gore, sleaze galore (mainly from demon tentacle rape) and imagination that earned it's NC-17 rating in 1993 as it's like Lovecraft/Clive Barker/Rob Zombie put together and it even deserved on the video "Warning: Absolutely not for children". It'll blow your mind.

HarryCanyon wrote :
So Vaporman you think animation is all for kids?

No. As I said, this was at a time in my youth. Of course now I understand that there is a wealth of more mature cartoons.

Watership Down is a favorite of mine. It's a wonderfully done film with a great story.

"Biiiig vaterrrr!!!"

HarryCanyon wrote :



Hey Shakin did Fifth Element and Sucker Punch reminded you of this movie?

The Fifth Element is great, but it's a very derivative movie. It uses a lot of common tropes that can be seen in other, older works. (This is also true of The Matrix and District 9)

So while it feels like a lot of other movies, no, I never thought of Heavy Metal while watching it.

I have not gotten around to seeing Sucker Punch yet. Does that movie also begin with a flying taxi driven by a smart-aleck, middle-aged dude with a bad shave? Or is it because it has a pretty girl kicking ass?

As for Legend of the Overfiend. That same friend whose house I was at when I first saw Heavy Metal, was very into anime. I remember him talking about that movie. I never liked anime all that much. It just doesn't really appeal to me. I'm not sure if I ended up watching that movie with him or not. But if you've seen one tentacle rape, you've seen them all imo.

Hey Shakin, what do you think of other adult animation like Fire and Ice, Akira, Ghost in The Shell, Ninja Scroll, American Pop, Wicked City etc.?

I like the western ones. Ralph Bakshi and so forth. The anime, I like Akira but not many others. I know people talk about GitS obsessively but I've never felt compelled to watch it.

Fifth Element did borrowed elements from HM magazine and HM movie with the cab driver thing and all.

Say Shakin, what about european adult animation like Fantastic Planet, Lightyears aka Gandahar and Felidae and Watership Down?

HarryCanyon wrote :





Say Shakin, what about european adult animation like

Fantastic Planet - love it

, Lightyears aka Gandahar and Felidae - not familiar

Watership Down? - want to see someday

shakin steak wrote :
Watership Down? - want to see someday

It's great movie. Just great. A bit violent at times, but so well done and very moving. It is an all time favorite of mine.

"The whole world will be your enemy... prince with a thousand enemies. And if they catch you... they will kill you. But first... they must catch you."