“Heavy Metal” is a parent’s worst nightmare. Made in 1981 by Canadian executive producer Leonard Mogel, the animated film has plenty of nudity, sex, drugs, and violence, and it’s splendid throughout.
Based on the magazine of the same name, “Heavy Metal” is an anthology of short stories that follow a green-lit orb, known as the Loc-Nar, that calls itself “the sum of all evils,” and how it has influenced different civilizations in space and time.
Every short from beginning to end delivers with great animation and great writing, from the first skit that introduces the Loc-Nar, to the final when it is destroyed.
The best of the group is titled “B-17,” and follows a crew of a WWII B-17 crew on a bombing run. Most of the crew is killed during the mission, leaving only the two pilots. The co-pilot checks the plane and sees the Loc-Nar following the plane. He then goes to tell the pilot when the Loc-Nar rams into the plane turning the dead crewmen into zombies. The co-pilot dies leaving on the pilot, who narrowly escapes, only to land in a field with zombies.
The song for the skit is “Heavy Metal (Take a Ride)” by Don Felder, and goes perfect with the scene, as does the rest of the soundtrack for the movie.
With great actors like John Candy and Eugene Levy, and a fantastic soundtrack with hits from Journey, Cheap Trick and Don Felder, just to name a few, it is a great piece of art that everyone, except the children, should experience at least once.
Candy definitely steals the show, and hits every line perfectly. This was certainly one of his great pieces of work, and is just a minute fraction of his magnificent career.
Being an animated film, “Heavy Metal” goes over the top with all of its adult content, including Candy’s character in the skit “So Beautiful So Dangerous,” in which a robot talks an Earth woman into having “Robot Sex” with him. It’s scenes like this, which is just about the entire movie, that show how awesome and over the top “Heavy Metal” was, and it should be recognized as so.
5 out of 5