UNBELIEVABLE: REACTING TO MAJOR BOOBAGE IN HEAVY METAL (1981) 

"Do not try to escape. You are in my control. Look at me: I am the sum of all evils. Look carefully. My power infests all times, all galaxies, all dimensions. But many still seek me out; a green jewel they must possess. But see how I destroy their lives." Fun Fact: Elmer Bernstein's first score for an animated film. Casting Notes Fact: The late Harold Ramis, the voice of Zeke in the "So Beautiful & So Dangerous" segment, went on to direct both John Candy and Eugene Levy in the road comedy National Lampoon's Vacation (1983). Music Enthusiast Fact: Elmer Bernstein's theme for Taarna (No Voice Actress) was actually written for the character in Saturn 3 (1980). The theme was never heard in that movie, so Bernstein used the theme for this movie. The home video was removed from circulation for several years because of problems with music licensing - with so many bands and artists on the soundtrack, securing rights to the music proved difficult. Lost In Adaptation Fact: As in the magazine, the evil emanation Den (John Candy) battles is called Uhluhtc. That is Cthulhu spelled backwards, a reference to the God of Chaos in the mythology of H.P. Lovecraft. According to his creator Richard Corben, Den's name is an acronym for David Ellis Norman. In the original Den storyline, Katherine Wells (Jackie Burroughs) is an 80-year-old woman on Earth. Regardless, Corben considered the film adaptation of his story satisfactory. In particular, he was especially pleased with John Candy's performance as the main character's voice. In the original Captain Sternn (Eugene Levy) story that appeared in Heavy Metal magazine, Hanover Fiste (Rodger Bumpass) lives at the story's ending. The story as seen in this movie, has Fiste finding the Loc-Nar (Percy Rodriguez) and dying at the story's ending. Those two changes were made for the movie to facilitate the connecting thread of the Loc-Nar in this movie and the final scene of Fiste's hand burning up in the atmosphere while holding the Loc-Nar was the scene that connected Captain Sternn with the excised "Neverwhere Land" sequence.

Heavy Metal is an adaptation of a monthly graphic novel that had separate stories every issue, this is supposed to be like the magazine come to life

I was 14 years old when this movie came out, let’s just say to heterosexual boys my age, this movie was very popular😂

Heavy Metal was ahead of its time, this was before MTV animation and a lot of the stuff it clearly influenced later.

The film should have been nominated for a Oscar for the original soundtrack...

John Candy's voice and his understated line delivery keep me smiling during his featured segments.

This movie showed at a lot of "midnight movie" specials. Lot of college kids getting stoned and going to watch it.

The Fifth Element and Aeon Flux Took all of their inspiration from the anthology media that was the Heavy Metal magazine. All kinds of different art styles.All kinds of different stories continuing sagas and one shots.

Heavy Metal was an anthology comic magazine. Comics in Asia and Europe aren't often published like American ones (22 page comic, 1 title, maybe collect a big story that runs across a 6-12 issues as a graphic novel afterwards) Instead sometimes there's a magazine that carries 5-10 titles within it but only publishes 5-15 pages at a time, whatever the artists can manage or feel like producing. And these often run only a few short years to tell a few stories instead of 50 year endless franchises like x-men or Batman. All the Japanese "Jump" manga work like this. Heavy Metal was one such magazine, and was chiefly a translation of European sci-fi/fantasy comics magazine Metal Hurlant (Howling Metal). The movie is an animation of a handful of those comics with the Loc-Nar as a loose framing device.

*sees "Major Boobage" in the video title* "Ahh, aah, she said it!"

3:20 It's Blue Oyster Cult, madam. 🤨 Edit: the song is Veteran of the Psychic Wars. It's criminally underrated where BOC songs are concerned.

"I didn't get the deeper meaning" don't worry, there was no deeper meaning 🤣

_Heavy Metal_ - the movie and magazine both - pretty much inspired an entire generation of artists, musicians, writers, toy makers, and directors. You can see its influence everywhere. We just don't happen to talk about it, 'cause DAMN, it was a thing of its time XD

This was the Movie version of a Heavy Metal Magazine... And, YES, the Fifth Element was based on the First Vignette.

There is a real-world connection between Heavy Metal magazine and "The Fifth Element". Luc Besson, who directed "The Fifth Element" was friends with Moebius, the French artist who contributed a great deal to the original French magazine, Métal Hurlant.

Cult classic. And there's a sequel. "Heavy Metal 2000".

As others noted - Heavy Metal magazine was a monthly comic anthology of scifi, fantasy, and horror stories from different artists with very different art styles. The themes and artwork were often adult in nature. This flick does a pretty good job at capturing the vibe of flipping through a Heavy Metal issue. It should be noted that there wasn't a lot of adult animation in the US at the time. So even if one ignores the style - it was a rather unique work. Little wonder it gained a cult following. There's some storyboard type art out there talking about development of the film. At one point, the unifying sequence between stories was going to feature a horror merry-go-round.

This was an absolute landmark in animation. All those things you were saying it looks like? This was 1981. They all look like Heavy Metal. A lot of more modern animation takes a huge influence from one or more parts of this movie. And yes, there's a big link between the Harry Canyon sequence and The Fifth Element. It's called Heavy Metal because it's based on the adult fantasy/sf magazine of the same name. So yes, the animation styles kept changing to match either the style of the artist who did the original story in the magazine, or for those new stories to give them their own feel. The soundtrack remains one of the best ever put together for a movie. When I saw this in the theater back when it came out, I could have sworn there was a bit in there that I haven't seen since. When Taarna is about to fly into the giant Loc-Nar in the volcano, I could swear that she is faltering a bit (blood loss, etc.), and that the kid from the linking sequence communicates to her mentally to urge her on and give her strength, and that's the power that the Loc-Nar was talking about that could destroy it. But I haven't seen that in any home video version of it.

Yea, each sub-story was done by a different animation team. So, yeah, this is a story collection, being presented as a movie.

Wasn’t officially available on home video for about fifteen years or so because of the music rights, glad it’s out there for todays generation to watch

Musk recreated the spacesuit driving a sports car in space.

"She's no Kim Basinger in Cool World..." I was gonna suggest Cool World, but now you need to see Fire & Ice - a collaboration between Ralph Bakshi (Cool World animator) and Frank Frazetta (Conan book covers, the most manliest of manly paintings). It's similar to the Den segment, but played straight.

This is such a fun movie, the Bomber scene is my favorite scene from the movie! It was an Anthology movie! The Locnar is what tied them together!

@Tara way to step outside your comfort zone. This started me on loving animation and remains one of my top 25 animated flicks. Hope things with you and your family are getting better and hope you had a killer birthday. I look forward to you seeing all the films you never saw (need a video one day on how you missed so many films one day). Thanks for the channel and the community here

The SCTV crew made this worth watching.

You also need to keep in mind that this came out around the same time as The Wall. Most of the theater viewers were either high or tripping.

I saw this several times at the midnight movie in high school in the early 80s. None of us were stoned, and we followed along with no trouble. Some of the animation, like the space shuttle and car at the beginning was all filmed in real life, then colored over. That's why it looked the way it did. The soundtrack was poppin! I especially loved the Royal Philharmonic score during the Tarna saga, but it was never released on the soundtrack. I had to wait decades for the internet to arrive so I could download it.

‘Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride)’ is by Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder. :-)

Back in the day... Give me enough Wild Turkey and you'd get the entire "Stern" trial. "AAAWWW!!! GIVE me a BREAK!!!"

You guys had me ROLLING with the HeMan crack. Usually my familys the only ones quick with it like that. A+

The person off-camera might have seen it on TBS. It used to come on in the middle of the night and was HEAVILY edited, of course. I think it was usually 75 minutes, WITH COMMERCIALS. The first time I saw the uncut theatrical version, I was literally shocked how much had been removed.

Yeah, basically this movie is the Loc-nar (the green orb) monologuing about how evil he is to a twelve year old he plans on killing in typical James Bond villain fashion.

Heavy metal was a French magazine with artwork like this the national lampoon guys wanted to make a movie about the magazine in the style of wizard if you ain't seen that check it out, but it was night mare to make this 4 different animated studeos didn't know what the others were drawing so no one knew what the final product would be

I love the soundtrack in this movie.

There are a few deleted parts which you can find on the rough cut on the DVD & there's a deleted story that takes place between Captain Sternn & the WWII plane story called Nowhere Land & it's about how Loc-Nar was responsible for all the evil in our world through history. The music for the story was gonna be Pink Floyd's Time. They used rotoscope animation in the beginning & on the Taarna story. Taarna's theme music was originally made for Farrah Fawcett's character in the movie Saturn 3, but it wasn't used so they used it in this movie instead. And RIP Joe Flaherty, who voiced the lawyer & the military general in this movie. He recently passed away.

If you want an acid trip animated movie, check out Wizards😊

You've been so brainwashed by plot driven Hollywood dramas that you're programmed to constantly search for a consistent plot all perfectly laid out so it makes sense to you. It's just comfort food. ... Some film is not to be figured out.... just enjoyed visually.

How could you be confused? I was only 12 years old when me and my older brother snuck in the theater to watch this. I wasn’t confused but very entertained lol…

This movie was rarely shown on regular tv or cable unedited. VCR and HBO were the primary methods to view back in the day.

I remember reading heavy metal magazines back in the 80s. Anything went in those old illustrations.

Yep, the original magazine was an anthology. It had several stories in comic format in each issue. The big bald guy voiced by John Candy was one of the recurring characters called "Den". His strip would show up every now and then.

I have only seen this twice. The Fifth Element took a lot from this. The grufffy cab driver. The sexy lady. The evil orb. The cab driver having a collection of weapons from people attempting to rob him.

25:38 Robot breaking the 4th wall "Funny...she doesn't LOOK Jewish "

I was 20 when I watched in the theater, I enjoyed, and actually understood, and followed the movie, unlike some others that were completely baffled by it.🤣🤣 I guess because there was no actual timeline beginning, middle, and end people couldn't connect the dots.

So this movie was born out of the adult oriented comic book Heavy Metal. Yes, the animation changes with each different story because it was different animators. Yes, it's got a wicked soundtrack and no it was Sammy in his solo days between Montrose and Van Halen. This movie was released and then disappeared for many years because of disagreements over residuals. Incidentally, the here is a second one (Heavy Metal 2000) And no, being in an "altered state" makes no difference 😂

When it comes to animated tail, Betty Rubble and Judy Jetson always got my goo bazooka primed and ready for launch!!! Puberty was hell...

This is such a great movie! My brother gave me the VHS to me when I was 12. My mother wasn’t too pleased when she found out.

Rest in gloriously large power, John Candy!

The late Dan O'Bannon was one one of the writers. He also did "Return Of The Living Dead" and "Alien" (and several of the sequels) The INCREDIBLE soundtrack kept the DVD release in copyright limbo for years. And yes, each segment was independent of the others (except for the common Loc Nar arc), so the animation styles and art were all different.

I feel like this film starts strong, wavers in the middle and ends with one hell of a finale. Tara, if you are ever looking to dip your toe into animation, you should watch the spider-verse movies in prep for the third. They are the answer to the question, "How has technology been used to improve animations." It is so visually stunning, and the story is also incredible. First one won animated film of the year, and the second was nominated, but Studio Ghibli put out a film that year and Hayao Miyazaki collects "Best Animated Film" wins like freaking pokemon cards hahahaha

Both John Candy and Eugene Levy did several voices, IIRC.

Thanks, for immediately showing that Heavy Metal pinball machine. I was curious about what it looked like.

Tara unlocked a new cosplay tarna

The style keeps changing because it's based on the comic book Heavy Metal. That was a collection of short stories drawn by different artists with different styles.

I think a lot of the sword and fantasy kid cartoons in the 80's and 90's drew inspiration from Heavy Metal

We had this on VHS when I was a kid. I wore that tape out I watched it so often.

The soundtrack is the best part about this movie.

I love the similarities between the first story and Fifth Element. A future New York cabbie, keeping guns that he takes from muggers, having a mysterious girl pass out in his car and get carried home. The only difference is Leeloo doesn’t backstab Corbin and then get brutally vaporized.

One of the BEST soundtracks ever in any movie

This Movie was SO METAL.

Interesting part about it was the mixture of the music with the difference art styles.

There were different directors for each segment, which is why each segment looks different

This was my favorite movie in my teens. I wore a vhs copy completely out.

Some of the animation in this movie (the parts with realistic characters) was done using something called "rotoscope". They film actual actors with minimal sets and then color everything in using artists and CGI. The bird riding character Taarna was played by a model named Carol Desbiens. She didn't really get a screen credit because she didn't speak.

When I hear John Candy's voice I get flashes of scenes from "Who is Harry Crumb" "Armed and Dangerous" (with Eugene Levy) and "Brewster's Millions".

My God someone finally is reacting to this classic. THANK YOU!

Well 4 Studios did the animation thats why its all over the place

This pulled quite a few midnight showings after release. The Rocky Horror Picture Show had a little 'competition'. This was also a great preview for us Black Sabbath fans of the upcoming album - The Mob Rules released 3 months later. I should add this was during the rise of the MTV cultural 'takeover' so it's just a long music video made up of different offerings with music written specifically for this giving it a unique vibe.

*"Come!"* "He was just about to!" 🤣🤣🤣

I can't count the number of times that I've listened to the sound track from this film. I have the two disc vinyl album as well as the CD.

Let's be honest. The overall story is a little "Ed Wood" inspired. "What do you know? Haven't you heard of suspension of disbelief?" - Ed Wood

Heavy Metal was an anthology comic magazine that was for more Mature readers. They followed that format for the movie. The parts all look different because they hired different animation studios to do each segment in the style of the artists of the original stories. Mainly for time reasons, as they were looking at a lot of hand drawn animation. The really funny thing was all your callouts to pop culture characters and movies... which were directly influenced by this film.

Heavy Metal was many comic book fans first introduction to foreign comic writers, artists and concepts. Believe it or not our European friends look down their nose at the American comic book industry for focusing on the juvenile demographic, while in Asia they just find it weird that adults in the US think all illustrated print must be for children. Personally comic books were way out of my price range as a child.

Bem was written by Kevin Eastman, who co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

i was 22 when i first saw this and now im 45 and having heard much much more music since then have much more of a greater appreciation for this movie than previously thats for sure

Really fun movie, and I say that as a stoner that graduated high school in '81

I was introduced to this movie around 20 years ago by an ex. The weird thing is that it came out when I was 14, considering the life I lived for the next couple of decades I'm shocked that it took me that long to discover it :) Anyway first time on your channel, have liked and subscribed :)

I remember this being on late night tv, regular cable networks, and the entire Den section was cut because if you remove scenes with boobs or blur them out, the whole segment is just a mess. All the other segments were left in, though the nudity and drug use were obviously cut or clipped out.

This first movie is a series of stories, mostly from or inspired by the magazine, connected by the Loc-Nar and the young Taarakian. Heavy Metal 2000 might be easier to enjoy, if you found this disjointed or confusing. It is a single story throughout. Trivia: "Love, Death, & Robots" on NetFlix originally began as a Heavy Metal TV series, using stories from the magazine. Robert Rodriguez {IIRC} tried to get it going, but over time it became something else.

Heavy metal is a favorite of mine, it's based on a comic book series. The movie was done as a multi segment story, an anthology movie or you can think of it as a 90 minute MTV music video.

Watching you two sputter and stutter your way through a vague attempt to try to put into words what _Heavy Metal_ did to your brains was almost as fun as the film.

Speaking of boobage this was often paired with Wizards at the drive in. Wizards is definitely worth a look.

You can't fool me the narclar is just unicrom

It's an animated adult comic book, with killer music, what else would you want!!?? 😃

This movie was basically made for the fans of the magazine. As one of those fans, I was familiar with the format (ie-completely unrelated stories drawn in different styles by different artists), so I recognized the whole 'glowing green orb' thing as an attempt to connect all of the stories for people who weren't familiar with the magazine. I always just ignore the little parts in between the different segments, and treat each segment as its own little story, like they were in the magazine.

I was 12 when this came out. We used to sneak into the Robert E Lee Theater in New Orleans all the time. This is one of the movies we saw. Then it came on HBO a couple years later and was one of the first movies I saw on Acid. I guess 14 sounds kind of young to be doing acid, but not back then. It somehow had a whole new meaning to me then, other than just the boobs my 12-year-old self originally saw. My favorite story is the WW2 planes. I think the guy that wrote Night of the Living Dead, and a story the first Alien film is based on wrote that one. EDIT: I always thought the cab driver sounded like the dude selling bootleg tickets in Ridgemont High. The one who nails his good friend's crush. Takes him like 15 seconds to get her knocked up, IIRC. He was really young so I could be wrong.

I vaguely remember watching this on basic cable when I was about 7 (circa 1983).

AKA enter the chamber from the other side" omfg" Classic "Tara love it" And I'm here for it

There's a PC game that takes place after. Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2. Takes place on a new planet where the waters extend lives, protected by a satellite broadcasting a "this is a dead planet" message and a planetary shield.

First time watching you and I like your sense of humor. "Was it her titties?" It's so nice to see someone on RU-vid with an actual sense of humor.

How's that for an animated movie from 1981?! More influential than you know. This is one of the funniest reaction videos I've seen! Some good editing going on here and well done on not spoiling the jokes. I've been watching this for over 40 years now. Saw it in the theater when I was 13. I loved it. Just recently picked up the 4k version ( highly recommended ) Very cutting edge at the time with the rotoscoping. It's nice to see stuff that is aimed at an adult audience once and a while. Thanks for posting. Good to know this movie is still being discovered. Just for a bit of context - John Candy was just getting going, Stevie Nicks was already a legend and Open Arms by Journey was released as a single coinciding with this movie.

I saw this as a teen in the 90's. Which is the perfect age to see this film. You're just not going to appreciate this film as much as an adult. There is a sequel movie, but there is also a video game. Not many played it but the character's clothes change as you progress in the game, it came out in 2000.

Tara, I love how you and your husband saw all the similarities in the tropes used in this 1981 film and many animated and live action productions afterwards. It is pretty obvious that this film's style affected a lot of genre work later especially children's fantasy animation. They just had to do it WITHOUT the BOOBS!...😂😅😊

I´m so thankfull that South Park made me discover this movie when I was 15.

This was a hard film to watch back in the day. It had a very brief run in theaters, only ran once or twice on cable, and then never released on VHS. My roommate in college had a recording and I think I saw it 20 times as folks dropped in to see it for their first time.

Weirdest.... movie.... ever.... That bomber skit still scares me

I loved starting puberty in the 80’s😉

Yeah, this first segment was inspired by Mobius a French comic artist that had did work for the comic magazine "Metul Heralt" (Heavy Metal). And "The Fifth Element" was also heavily inspired by Mobius's work.

When I was 15 we dropped acid and watched this all the time 😂

I can't hear 'Open Arms' and not think of this scene....