eventeen years ago, Cale Oosha (Lamas), the hereditary ruler of the planet Tyrus, visited Earth for the first time. His uncle the Dragit (Jay) had established an Earth base 30 years previously, with the tacit mission of making peaceful contact and establishing trade. Instead, the Dragit built an extensive underground city, a hidden metropolis aimed at supplying an invasion fleet, ready to pound the warlike Earthlings--particularly the weapons-stockpiling Americans--into submission.
Cale attempted to countermand the Dragit's orders and found himself facing a firing squad. He made a narrow escape with the help of his bodyguard and mentor Rafe, and a human woman named Rita. He and Rita had a child, David, who grew into a strong, solitary teenager. David is aware he's somehow "different," but is ignorant of his past. Rafe, now the sheriff of their small Massachusetts town, knows he's eventually going to have to tell David the whole story--but something is holding him back.
So begins the saga that producers Steven Spielberg and Harve Bennett (of Star Trek fame) hope will become a landmark in American television--the first prime time animated drama. A firm release date and timeslot for this WB show hasn't been set yet, and a projected March release date was already moved to April. But with Spielberg's bankroll, Dreamworks' talent base, and voice credits like Leonard Nimoy and Jay (Frollo of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame) involved, advance excitement isn't likely to slacken.
Plenty of shadows, not as much substance
But when the show finally does debut, it may not live up to the hype. The first episode shows definite ambition, but also a number of flaws. The characters--particularly hostile, arrogant David, his too-bubbly mother, and the rather generically evil Dragit--aren't immediately compelling. Many natural questions (for instance, what was Rita doing at an abandoned airforce base in the middle of the night?) are glossed over, hopefully to be answered in later episodes. And many of the images--particularly the Star Wars-evoking space scenes, complete with ersatz John Williams score--seem all too familiar.
Far more importantly, the Korean-produced cel animation isn't particularly stylish or unique. It's nicely rendered and shaded, expressive in a mundane Saturday-morning way most reminiscent of the Cartoon Network's new Johnny Quest or Disney's excellent Gargoyles--(which beat Spielberg to the punch in terms of serious serials). Dreamworks has integrated a significant amount of computer-generated animation (12-13,000 frames in the first episode), which, despite the efforts to mask it, looks a lot like computer animation has looked since Tron. The CGI shapes are still too boxy, smooth and weightless to fully integrate with the 2-D animation.
It's surprising that an entertainment superpower like Dreamworks couldn't come up with a more singular production design. But there's still a lot of room (and time) for development, and for Bennett and his writing team to flesh out this opening gambit into the full-fledged space epic it briefly evokes. Spielberg's animated projects have rarely disappointed; hopefully this won't be an exception.
