Heavy Metal stands the test of time, it's still the fantastic SF flcik it was when I was 9 or 10. Simply put, it is one of the best animated films of all time, and of course it boasts an all star soundtrack as well. Enjoy it, no matter your age.

The 1981 Ivan Reitman-/Leonard Mogel-produced, Gerald Potterton-directed "Heavy Metal" is a pure guilty pleasure. Its hard rock/heavy metal soundtrack notwithstanding, it's very much a product of its era, an early '80s adult animated flick that's clearly not for everyone.The film is based on the French fantasy magazine "Metal Hurlant," which then became "Heavy Metal" when it was licensed in the United States, and specialized in science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories and art that was gratuitous in the areas of graphic violence and sexuality. The film "Heavy Metal" was perfect for its time - 1981 - which was right in the middle of the Hollywood craze for epic science fiction and fantasy stories in the wake of the popularity of "Star Wars" (1977)."Heavy Metal" is adapted from stories originally published in "Heavy Metal" magazine, as well as original stories made up specifically for the film. Its screenplay was written by Dan Goldberg and Len Blum, and features eight stories set across time and space that were written by Richard Coben, Angus McKie, Dan O'Bannon (the scribe behind "Alien" in 1979), Thomas Warkentin, and Bernie Wrightson; one story was omitted from the film due to time constraints but has since been included as a special feature on VHS and DVD releases.Events of the film center around Loc-Nar (voice of Percy Rodriguez), an evil green orb that terrorizes a young girl with eight sinister stories of good and evil.Some of my favorite stories in "Heavy Metal" are:"Harry Canyon," where the title character, a cynical New York City cab driver in the year 2031, has a fare to remember when a beautiful young woman gets into his cab one day and she involves him in a lethal intergalactic conspiracy."Den" is pure wish-fulfillment fantasy, where a nerdy 18-year-old is transported to another planet where he becomes a Herculean warrior who must save his dream girl."B-17," a grim horror tale, scared me when I was a kid, and is about a B-17 bomber crew during World War II that is terrorized by zombies."Taarna" is the most ambitious story in "Heavy Metal," and is a sci-fi/fantasy tale that features a beautiful warrior-woman who sets out to avenge her slain civilization. (This story more or less serves to counter the portrayal of women in this film as buxom sex-bombs - though the title character shows ample flesh here, anyway.)"Heavy Metal," despite being animated, is clearly not for children, and gladly presses the limits of its "R" rating with its graphic violence, sexuality, and nudity; this is animation that was MADE to push boundaries, and satiate the fantasies of its adolescent male target audience. (Additionally, some of the animators had previously worked for Disney, but were glad to be free to draw figures - particularly women - the way they wanted. You obviously can't get that kind of creative freedom at a place like Disney.) But there is just so much here to love in a cheesy nostalgic way, and is a wonderful relic of a much darker, much more cynical time in our history.8/10P.S.: The soundtrack features music from Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Devo, Journey, Nazareth, Sammy Hagar, Steve Nicks and others, and is a perfect background noise to the madness and titillation on the screen.P.S. #2: This last piece is a bit personal, but I thought that it was a huge omission on the part of the soundtrack staff for this movie to not include anything by Iron Maiden - my favorite heavy metal band. But this may have worked out for the better, since "Heavy Metal" was made in 1981 when they were still with their original lead singer Paul Di'Anno (and before they began recording their best material), who was replaced by the legendary Bruce Dickinson one year later in 1982. So, it's all good, really, but I felt I had to mention that here.

It's interesting to see Moebius art in a feature film. That said... it's nothing compared to his comic books, the visuals are mostly rough and stuff is flickering a lot. The animation is roto-like, meaning lifeless, no contrasts, the motion of everything is even and slow-ish. But hey, it's animated in 1981. The story... I don't know, it's probably interesting if you're high. Very, very high. This film was probably made by people who understand comics, not film, and it's not a good adaptation of comics to motion pictures. I think the film does have merit though, for being a feature that looks like a comic book, not like the usual 2D animation stuff: the line is more complicated, lots more details in the drawings. Some of the backgrounds are quite interesting, and they use line art, so the whole picture is colored line art.. as opposed to the usual animation look which has painted backgrounds and colored line art for animated elements (and it doesn't look cohesive). Anyway, overall... this film is more or less a creative mess. It has some remarkable bits of eroticism, not normally found in animation. Personally I would love to see more comic-book-like feature animation. But made today, with modern tools and animation and film knowledge, and with better character design and better overall visual style.

A glowing orb called the Loc-nar proves to be the linking device for an anthology of science fiction tales.This film, seeded by the magazine Heavy Metal, is very much an animated movie for adults - there is a moderate amount of nudity and sex in it. Old school comics enthusiasts will recognise some of the names whose pieces live behind the 6 pieces (and linking sequence) here - Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson, to name but two.It's well worth a look if you know your interests lie in that direction, albeit it isn't 100% successful - for one thing, you can have too much of a good thing. Having said that, it's not the sort of film that gets made very often, so we should value the fact that it exists at all.