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Whoa! Wow! That’s what is in store for the home
entertainment market place on Mar. 19 when Wolfe Video unleashes writer/director/producer
GB Hajim’s Strange Frame on DVD.
Not since René Laloux’s 1973 film, Fantastic Planet, has
there been anything as surreal in this genre neighborhood … and we use the word
“neighborhood” is the loosest possible sense imaginable. Strange Frame goes beyond the
futuristic animated sci-fi milieu as Hajim’s other worldly adventure (the Jupiter
moon of Ganymede 500 years in the future) includes sex (lesbian relationship),
drugs (beyond “mood altering”) and rock ‘n’ roll (with a jazz riff) as the
complimentary ingredients.
Add in the power of love, exploitation (drug-induced
slavery), poverty and violence, plus a totally unique approach to the animation
and you indeed have a one-of-a-kind film experience waiting in the home
entertainment pipeline.
With the days of repertory cinema long past (sadly), that
leaves the film festival circuit and arthouse venues — which are pretty much
limited to major metro areas and university communities — as the only viewing
options for a film of this nature. Wolfe
Video’s DVD release therefore becomes the only viable viewing opportunity for
most … they’ve given themselves two full months to work retail and the allied
media outlets who have an interest in such things to raise both buyer interest
and consumer awareness.
The backstory on the making of the film, which features the
voice talents of Tara Strong (a voice-talent resume that is unmatched … when
does this woman find time to sleep?) as Naia and sci-fi veteran Claudia Black (Pitch
Black, plus Farscape as Aeryn Sun and Stargate SG-1 as Vala) as sax player
Parker (an homage there), is as
fascinating as the film itself.
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| Claudia Black and Tara Strong as the voices of Parker and Naia |
GB Hajim is an unlikely filmmaker. His background is that of a volcanologist
working for the U.S. Geological Survey on the Big Island in Hawaii. With his writing partner, Shelley Doty, Hajim
not only co-wrote, produced and directed the film, but recruited local high
school and college art students to act as his animation department.
Hajim trained his two-dozen “interns” in the various
animation techniques he sought to employ in the film … the result is a stunning
“studio-like” visual accomplishment.
This is a film where you come for the show, but can appreciate it all
the more when you understand the creative process.
He also must have been quite persuasive in his pitch about
the project since along the way he was able to recruit the likes of Tim Curry,
the vampish Juliet Landau, Cree Summer and Star Trek veterans Michael Dorn and
George Takei to lend their voices to various characters in this futuristic
animated adventure.
Like we said at the top, “WOW” … this one is not to be
missed when it arrives on DVD on Mar. 19.
Elsewhere on the Kino Lorber release schedule in March (in
chronological order) are: Mar. 5, DVD
and Blu-ray editions of the 1927 Buster Keaton comedy classic, College:
Ultimate Edition. 
Also heading home on Mar. 19 is a Blu-ray presentation of director
Michael Cort’s 1969 Brit “sci-fi” sexploitation film, Zeta One: Remastered Edition
(aka: The Love Factor). The
plotline: Topless Amazonians from another planet and dimension (Angvia — try moving
the letters around on that one) have arrived to kidnap strippers to repopulate
their planet. Un-huh, right … the film
didn’t surface theatrically in the United States until 1975. It worked in 1969. It worked in 1975 … and it works today. Some stories are just timeless!
