Silence! You die now! Moo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
If you liked that, you're gonna love Lady Death.
Lady Death's choppy animation, lame plot and dismal voice acting doom this comic book adaptation early on. It reminded me of the old Thundercats cartoons with the sex factor dialed up to eleven. But even with the busty albino heroine, by the end I was so bored I would have killed for a few good "Snarfs" and a lesson about fire safety.
The story centers on Hope, a young girl who's evidently unaware that her cruel father, Matthias, is actually Lucifer. Matthias not only angers the townspeople, but also enslaves Hope's love interest. The "Lord of Lies" is eventually found out, retreats to Hell and leaves his daughter to suffer the locals' wrath. (Talk about your deadbeat dads!)
In a Salem-like trial, Hope is tricked by the ever-present, and ever-annoying, Pagan into begging for deliverance. She is granted a place in Hell where, like any angry teen, she dons a leather thong bikini and amasses an army of the undead to get her bloody revenge.
Along the way we're treated to such wonderful dialogue as:
"Now you die!"
"Get out!"
"Join me!"
"Never!"
"Hear me!"
"Kill me now!"
and the ever-popular "Silence!"
As if that weren't bad enough, the actors often sound like dim high-schoolers reading aloud from textbooks, which I have to assume is the target audience.
The DVD extras are uninspiring as well. Most of it is Ken Burns style panning over background paintings and pencil sketches, and I turned off the behind-the-scenes featurette after discovering the director was responsible for Disney's Gargoyles.
Lady Death is a film where characters sport pointy beards, swords have names and clawed fists are constantly clenched. And in an era where graphics novels and superhero movies are gaining respect, this feels like a big step backwards.
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here" indeed.
Article comments
1 - jadester
it's a shame they did such a crap job of it, cos despite the obvious appeal to over-hormoned nerds, the comics had some good storylines (and never lacked action, natch).
Methinks a live-action version with *good* SFX may have been a better idea. But not done by the same people, obviously
2 - Andertoons
Yeah, although I wonder who might fill the bikini? Jolie? Some supermodel turned actress?
3 - visualsimplicity
Hey, what was wrong with Disney's Gargoyles? I liked all the odes to Shakespeare with a twist. All that magical hub-bub was pretty interesting. Of course I was a kid then, and things may be different now. I do remember being a fan of ThunderCats as a child, but now that I see them on reruns on Cartoon Network every now and then, I realized the absurdity of the cartoon. Boy, what was I thinking. I haven't seen any reruns of Gargoyles though, so I'm still fond of that.
4 - Mark Anderson
I dunno, I think Gargoyles was lame with a capital L. I think I was older when it was on and I remember thinking it was stupid...
5 - visualsimplicity
Fair enough, but when it comes to Disney on-screen things, Gargoyles, by far, is one of their most mature productions. If anything though, I'd think a younger audience would have found the cartoon to be rather lame and boring. I was in my early-teens when I was obsessed with this show I think, then again, I've always enjoyed Camelot-like fantasies or the fantasy genre in general.
6 - Andertoons
Wasn't one of them the fat comic relief? I hate that kind of stuff. I suppose it's been long enough that I'll have to revisit it, but I can't say I'm chomping at the bit.
7 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Gargoyles was a wee bit lame but an amusing cartoon all the same. It always struck me as an at sanitised anime. A most enjoyable half-hour right before one goes to bed past-midnight.
8 - Michael
I loved Gargoyles when I was a kid here in the u.k, but they only showed half the episodes here, and spent a long time looking for the other ones I never got to see.
Now, like, 10 years on and a lot older, I've found them, but they don't have the same impact they did back then, you notice the annoying things about gargoyles, like using same voice actors for all sub characters, the over the top scrips, and most of all, the annoying as hell repeating music and screen playing to that music!
But there certainly were some very good episodes and strong themes in the series, even if a lot of it seemed bogus.
9 - brian k dushaney
i have this movie and i thought that it would be a great one except for the fact,it,s good vs evil.hope an innocent girl paying for her father,s sin inwhich he decidesto become lueciferthe father of all lies.