Slaves, ignorant of the existence of the rest of the universe, mine crystals for the cruel god Zygon (Anthony De Longis). Orn (Joe Colligan) finds the hilt to a mystical sword, escapes the mines, and meets first smuggler Dagg (voice: Carmen Argenziano), and then Princess Aviana (Noelle North). Together, with various degrees of enthusiasm, they fight to overthrow Zygon.
Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is animated Space Opera. Following in the wake of the most successful of all Space Operas, Star Wars, it freely borrows from its predecessor, which freely borrowed from its predecessors. Don’t expect a lot of originality in the sub-genre. There’s a young hero with an energy sword, an evil warlord with a mask, a smart-ass smuggler, a princess, several prissy robots, and armored guards that die easily. There’s even a scene where the smuggling ship enters a duct system that looks like a hand-drawn version of the Millennium Falcon’s attack on Death Star 2. The fact that it’s all ripped off doesn’t make it any less enjoyable, unless you can’t stand Star Wars because it is just a combination of westerns, samurai films, and ’30s serials. In this case, the swiped material melds together into something reasonably fresh. Few Space Operas have a better storyline (which I know isn’t saying a lot). There are a few twists in Orn’s adventures, and some wonderful villains in the mandroids, who chop body parts off of captives to replace their metal limbs. Plus an early tragedy lends the movie some emotional resonance. There’s also unnecessary schmultz, most noticeable with a blind child (at least there isn’t a puppy).
Orn makes an agreeable hero and Dagg is properly callus. The pleasantly curved fembot is mainly comic relief, but is a better character than you’ll find in that role in a majority of flicks. Generally in film, the line between sufficient character/story/tension development and boredom is hard to find and most movies in recent years have missed it and ended up tedious. Starchaser makes the opposite error. Its excellent pacing is at the expense of the characters. The princess is underdeveloped and the romance is hard to buy given the little time spent on it. For the romance, as well as the battles, a bit of buildup before a climax would have helped.
Unfortunately, the animation isn’t up to the task of giving the story the epic feel it needs. Often, it is reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Backgrounds look flat and characters have a tendency to move only in two dimensions. The organ/synth techno soundtrack is even worse, sounding like a recreation of John Williams’s Star Wars theme on a 1970s home midi keyboard.
Not really a kid’s film, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin could have benefited from an R-rating, to give it some edge and excitement for the young adults that are its audience. It’s clear the filmmakers realized this and occasionally press against the confines of a PG film. This is most noticeable when Dagg kidnaps a snooty fembot, restrains and gags her, and then inserts tools into her anal circuitry. Afterwards, she’s affectionate and sexual. I’m not going to speculate what that might mean, but it suggests where the movie could have gone.