Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely NOT Saturday Morning kiddie fare!, February 4, 2008
Turok, first published by Dell Comics in December 1954, came out of the anti-comic book hysteria and featured a Native American character having adventures in wild lands populated by dinosaurs. Over the years, the character has gone through various comic books creators' hands and changed with the times, including a series of popular video games, and now an animated film, Turok: Son of Stone. This motion picture attempts to pay tribute to the original comic book concept blended with an edgier, new Millennium sensibility.
The attention to detail is excellent as the lush, primitive jungle is vividly realized, immersing us in this exotic land. Turok: Son of Stone by no means looks like a cheap, direct-to-video rush job. Obviously, great care and thought went into the making of this animated film. While the look of it is in the style of a lot of contemporary Saturday morning cartoons, this film is definitely not for little kids. The opening action sequence quite vividly and viscerally announces its mature credentials with a bloody battle involving severed hands and slow-motion sprays of blood as Turok wipes out his enemies. This scene sets the tone for a series of violent slaughters and vicious skirmishes with dinosaurs. I haven't seen an animated film this unapologetically bloody and violent since Heavy Metal (Collector's Edition)). If you've grown tired of the G rated wholesomeness of Disney, or the bland nature of cartoons on television, then Turok: Son of Stone is a breath of fresh air.
There is an audio commentary by producer Evan Bailey, supervising director Tad Stones, and directors Curt Geda, Dan Riba, and Frank Squillace. Because they were pressed for time during the production, the filmmakers divided the film into three segments with different directors for each one. They spend time discussing the look of the film and why they made the choices that they did in terms of colour, etc. They speak admiringly of the soundtrack and talk about the story and how it developed.
"Total Turok" is an excellent primer to the world of Turok, his start as a comic book in the 1950s and how the filmmakers updated yet stayed faithful to the character in this film.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, the American animation industry is starting to get it right., February 19, 2008
I bought this movie on a blind purchase after I read some reviews, and couldn't find it at Blockbuster. I almost never buy movies without watching them first, but I really wanted to see this one badly. And in the end, I'm glad I did, because this is a movie I'll probably want to share with other people I know, rather than just returning it as a rental and forgetting it.
Being a kid of the video game generation, my introduction to Turok was through the Nintendo 64 game "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter." I didn't remember much of the story, but I remember spending many a late night with my friends playing "Turok 2: Seeds of Evil" on 4-player mode (we would always fight over the Inflater Gun, it was hilarious). I only have a casual interest in comic books, so I was never particularly familiar with the comic incarnations of the character. However, with the snazzy new Turok game out on PS3, my interest in Turok has been rekindled, and after hearing good word of mouth about this DVD, I couldn't resist buying it.
While the new Turok game takes the sci-fi elements of the 80's Turok comics to the next level with a slick re-imagining Turok as a space faring mercenary fighting for his life on a lost world type planet, this movie goes in the opposite direction. This version is more in line with the 50's comics, where Turok is a warrior who is trapped in a lost world with his kin, and it doesn't take long for a villain to show up and recruit some evil Neanderthals to hunt Turok down. The movie has a pretty simple story, but it has some good themes that are clearly tailored towards the adult minds for whom the film was made. It's a respectful revisit to Turok's roots that pays homage to the source, while still maintaining freshness.
The animation is very similar in style to "Batman: The Animated Series" and the recent "Justice League" series. That makes sense, since one of the movie's three directors was responsible for a lot of episodes of Justice League and "Superman: The Animated Series," and another one also directed "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker," which is easily on my short list of favorite animated films. The actual quality of the animation is not quite up there with Return of the Joker, but it's still better quality than the vast majority of kids' cartoons you'll see on TV these days. The character designs are good, and during most of the action scenes they move very fluidly. And the movie has plenty of well animated blood-- I would say it's easily on par with "300" in terms of balletic violence.
Personally, I think it's really neat to see two versions of Turok out at the same time that while radically different, still both manage to pay respect to different aspects of the character. This movie makes a great companion to the new game, if for no other reason than that.
It also has a pretty good featurette that gives some behind-the-scenes looks at it, and it gave me a much better look at the history of the franchise than I'd been previously aware of. If you are a Turok fan, this is a must-have. And if you're like me, and have spent years pining for American animation studios to make more movies for adults, then you'll want to check this out, because it's a big step in the right direction.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Turok, Son of Stone.....Slayer of Men!!, February 5, 2008
Don't let the first minute or two fool you - this may start off looking like a Saturday morning cartoon, but this movie quickly disabuses the viewer of the notion with its opening battle.
Remaining faithful to the Gold Key comics, and tossing in a healthy dose of the modern comics' and video games' brutal violence. I picked this up based on a recommendation, and was not disappointed. This was a very entertaining movie, with some nice twists.
Heartily recommended.....and I'd stick with the salad if I were you.
(Watch the movie).
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