I have to confess a certain affection for this film.
This was one of a wave of CG animated science fiction and fantasy films that came out around the turn of the Millennium. Toy Story had come out in 1995 and as far back as 1985, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin had used computer animation to create its spaceships and Sci Fi hardware — as did Tron in 1982. So it seems an inevitable use of the medium, even if only the Japanese have made any substantial number of CGI anime.
And most of those were made by Shinji Aramaki.
This French film was made on a much smaller budget than films like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within or the hand drawn/CGI hybrid, Titan A.E., and, yes, it shows. The characters aren’t as expressive or well designed, the motion isn’t as fluid and they aren’t as good at giving their characters convincing weight (but then, that was still a serious problem seven years later in Ultramarines).
You can see, in fact, that some of their earlier footage isn’t as good as their later work. Add to this a color scheme somewhat heavy on the monotonous browns and a lot of black out cuts. I suppose it was too hard to render superimposed images (although they could have physically cut the film instead!), but at times it almost feels like you are watching a movie that was made for television.
I should note that this is a film that gives Orson Scott Card’s simple but elegant disambiguation of science fiction and fantasy a serious workout: after all, not only do we have an alien spacecraft, alien power suits and an alien computer which must have plenty of rivets between them, but we also have a monstrous tree in which all our characters live.
Yes, even the sap monsters.
More than anything else, Kaena reminds me of the great European fantasy and SF artists who appeared in Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal in the U.S.), with a great, weird sense of design, awesome hardware, and the usual, impractical looking barbarian garments which seems mostly designed to show off as much cartoon flesh as possible. It looks incredible for the most part — although it is very, very brown — and there is a lot going on. The sap monsters — or Selenites, in some sources — are just incredible: they would be almost impossible to realize as a practical effect, with lots of flowing sap over translucent skeletons which appear to be hardened sap. We also get a giant monster and cyborg worms.
Yes, cyborg worms. What’s so strange about that?
Okay, the story is familiar, and when we finally learn the secret of the planet and of the world tree, Axis, it tramples thoroughly on the laws of physics.
Even if it is a weird and cool sort of notion.
But let’s face it, if this were a comic by Moebius, Philippe Druillet or Daniel Torres that would probably be just as true.
One of the best parts, at least of the American version, is the presence of Richard Harris in one of his final roles, who creates a character who is persuasively wise, weary, old and suffering, even though the part doesn’t give him a lot to work with.
As I said, I am quite fond of this film, even though I am aware of its flaws. I love the wild imagination behind it all, its stunning French Les Humanoïdes-style graphics, the lush settings, and the incredible creatures. Perhaps the best part of the film is the spaceship crash that starts the film, shown from the viewpoint of the meteor that causes the disaster.
If you can’t see beyond a film’s flaws — or recognize just how remarkable this film would have looked when it was made, before our eyes got used to CGI and before all the huge advances we’ve made in computer animation since then — then I doubt if you’ll appreciate this one.
Which would be a shame as it truly is a remarkable film.
Even if it could have used a lot less brown.
Watch or Buy on Amazon:
rivets on the poster 