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Dom Robinson reviews
Universal
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 8225163
- Running time: 33 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2004
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: None
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99
- Extras: Making Dark Fury, Dark Fury Animatic, Peter Chung – Into the Mind of an Animator,A View Into The Light, Van Helsing Animated Trailers,Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game trailer
Director:
- Peter Chung
Producers:
- Jae Y. Moh and John Kafka
Screenplay/Story:
- Brett Matthews and David Twohy
Music:
- Machine Head
Cast:
- Richard Riddick: Vin Diesel
Imam: Keith David
Jack: Rhiana Griffith
Junner: Roger L Jackson
Chillingsworth: Tress MacNeille
Toombs: Nick Chinlund
Skiff AI: Dwight Schultz
Short and sweet, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Furyis set straight after (Pitch Blackand tells us what happened next as Riddick, Imam and Jack (all voiced by their respective actors)head off, in animated form, into even more trouble. Yes, it’s a violent cartoon. Not what couldbe classed as anime, but at times can behave in similar show-off style.
All three of them are eventually captured by bizarre uber-MILF Chillingsworth (Tress MacNeille)who has a nice sideline in storing up human bodies until she works out what to do with them. When thethree of them escape and need to be tracked down, we discover her plans are to create a massive armyby thawing them out when the time comes, including Toombs (Nick Chinlund), who is introducedhere in preparation for his role as a baddie in 2004’s summer blockbuster The Chronicles of Riddick.
Upon watching this short film, while I quite enjoyed it, I felt it was too brief for a standalone DVD.Universal should’ve made the Special Edition DVD a £20 title and included this as a worthy extrasince it tacks on nicely.
Picture-wise, we have a print that is crystal clear, yet non-anamorphic 1.85:1, which is a shame as toput out a DVD these days that isn’t enhanced for widescreen TVs isn’t just an error, but a gross mistakethat should be made punishable.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound has some nice directional effects in the battle sequences, although due to thelength you know there won’t be that many of them.
The extras on this DVD are as follows:
- Making Dark Fury: Bridging the Gap from Pitch Black to The Chronicles of Riddick (8½ mins):Vin Diesel, David Twohy, writer Brett Matthews and director Peter Chung chat to camera, inbetweenclips of Pitch Black and Dark Fury about how necessary it is to tell what happensbetween the first film and the 2004 movie, The Chronicles of Riddick, and so why we needthis 30-minute vignette inbetween.
Also shown are a number of work-in-progress shots for this animated short.
- Dark Fury animatic (33 mins):The same animated film you’ve just seen, but in very rough form to show how it was planned out. Idealfor the perfectionist.
- Peter Chung: Into the mind of the animator (5 mins):More chat and illustrations from the director.
- A View into the Light (5 mins):Chat and clips to do with The Chronicles of Riddick, although I prefer to watch whole filmsbefore seeing the ‘making of’-type shorts as they often spoil surprises.
- Van Helsing animated trailer (45 secs):No-one had a good word to say about the cinema film, so that must mean everyone wants the animatedprequel, surely(?)
- Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game trailer (2 mins):Does exactly what it says on the tin.
There are no chapters to Dark Fury which is unforgivable, since even my DVD recorder dropsin automatic chapters every 5 or 6 minutes. Subtitles are in English only, but given that the image isnon-anamorphic and the subtitles are partly in the black bar beneath the picture, this can’t bewatched at the correct ratio on a widescreen TV without windowboxing it. The main menu has somesubtle animation and sound.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.