After his groundbreaking work on MTV’s anime series, Aeon Flux, and his contributions to The Animatrix, anything new from director Peter Chung is cool. The fact that his latest work is a followup to the fantastic sci-fi/action flick Pitch Black is just icing on the cake. With The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, the acclaimed anime director exercises his skill for making violent fight sequences look like ballet performances.
Landing on retail shelves today, the half-hour, direct-to-DVD featurette Dark Fury serves to bridge the gap between 2000’s Pitch Black and the new theatrical release, The Chronicles of Riddick. Based on a story by Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick director David Twohy, the toon starts off with Riddick (Vin Diesel), Jack (Rhiana Griffith) and Imam (Kieth David) stranded in outer space, having escaped from a planet of carnivorous nocturnal creatures. Their small craft then gets taken in by a large mercenary ship captained by a sadistic bounty hunter who wants to add Riddick to her living museum of the galaxy’s most wanted criminals. As you can guess, our bald, muscle-bound hero puts up one hell of a fight.
Inventive action sequences, engrossing art direction and Chung’s unique visual style keep things interesting. Though predominantly hand-drawn, the film incorporates 3D elements, mostly for backgrounds, vehicles and creatures. The effect is at times jarring and was better handled in Universal’s animated prequel Van Helsing: The London Assignment. Minor gripes aside, Dark Fury is sure to please fans of both Aeon Flux and the Riddick mythos.
One thing Dark Fury does have over London Assignment is a fuller offering of bonus features that go behind the scenes. Interviews with Chung, Twohy and Diesel provide some insight into the process of making an animated offshoot of a big-screen property. Further conversations with Chung reveal aspects of his creative process and how he collaborated with the team of artists and animators at Sunwoo in Korea. In addition to cool glimpses of rough animation, there’s a storyboard version of the entire film for those of us who enjoy watching animatics.
Released by Universal Home Video, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is not rated and contains some violent scenes that may not be appropriate for young viewers. It lists for $14.95. Read more about the making of the film in the August issue of Animation Magazine.
