20th Century Fox | 2008 | 94 mins. | Rated PG
I was curious about Delgo when I saw it included voice work by the legendary Anne Bancroft who passed away back in 2005. Upon doing some research about the movie, I found out that the independently produced animated film took over eight years to reach movie screens. Fathom Studios began development on Delgo in 1999; animation work began in 2001. In 2004, there was a spate of articles claiming the film was due out in the spring of 2005. Obviously, that didn’t happen. I wish I could say that all those years of work resulted in a fabulous film but Delgo is just a CGI fantasy squarely stuck in mediocrity.
Set on the alien planet Jhamora, Delgo is a place with a shaky truce between two races. The Lockni are reptilian looking and fairly quiet. They use the Force to move rocks telekinetically, while the Nohrin are winged who look down on the unassuming Lockni. After being forced to leave their own world because of a loss of natural resources the Nohrin where given permission by the Lockni to settle on Jhamora; however, some of the Nohrin, Sedessa (Bancroft) exiled sister of the Nohrin King Zahn (Louis Gossett, Jr.) believe their race is superior. As such, they plan to take over, by starting a war between the two groups.
In the meantime, the Nohrin princess, Kyla (Jennifer Love Hewitt), meets Delgo (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a lockni teenager whose parents were killed in the Lockni-Nohrin wars several years before. Predictably, the two fall in love and we have what’s supposed to seem like another Romeo & Juliet.
Eventually, Delgo and his friend Filo (Chris Kattan, obviously brought in for comic relief), are jailed. They eventually escape with an individual named General Bogardus (Val Kilmer) but they’re too late to prevent an all out war. Malcolm McDowell is a traitor; Michael Clarke Duncan plays Delgo’s surrogate father. Despite the amazing voice talent, which includes Burt Reynolds in a part that gets about a minutes worth of screen time, the story is so overwhelming dull you’ll be lucky if you even care what happens to young Delgo by the end of it all.
While first time filmmakers Mark F. Adler and Jason Maurer deserve kudos for creating this entire project on their own, with private money and their own creativity, the animation looks like stuff that wasn’t even cutting edge in 1999, the year they began developing this project.
The best thing about Delgo is the voice work of the late, great Anne Bancroft, who makes for a sultry villainess.
I was sent a DVD-R screener copy of the film, so I can’t honestly evaluate the video quality. I can tell you that commercial copies will be available in widescreen color presented at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs.
The audio is available in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, Spanish Dolby Digital Surround sound, or French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English and French as well.
There are a few fairly meaningless special features:
• Audio Commentary with directors Marc F. Adler and Jason Mauer, along with visual effects supervisor, Warren Grubb. Surprisingly dry and uninteresting.
• “Behind the Scenes” featurette (4 minutes) Standard EPK stuff; cast and crew chat up the film.
• “Sounds of Delgo” featurette (5 minutes) Just what the titles, says, nothing much here.
• “Meet the Characters Profile” A series of brief biographies on each of the characters.
• “See the Creatures” See above.
• Deleted Scenes (13 minutes) There are six in all.
• Animated Short: Chroma Chamelon (5 minutes) It’s about dancing geckos!
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