Starchaser: The Legend of Orin

1985

Action / Adventure / Animation / Family / Fantasy / Sci-Fi

15
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 64% · 2 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 64% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.5/10 10 2824 2.8K

Plot summary

Set on the subterranean Mine-World, a band of human worker are treated like slaves under the power of the evil overlord Zygon until one, Orin, unearths the hilt of a mythical sword that only he can master. Escaping the planet, he runs into the rogue smuggler Dagg and a pair of helpful droids and the princess, who all team up to return to the Mine-World with a plan to defeat Zygon and free Orin's enslaved people.

Director

Steven Hahn Photo
Steven Hahn

Top cast

Les Tremayne Photo
Les Tremayne as Arthur
Rosanna Huffman Photo
Rosanna Huffman as (voice)
Greg Finley Photo
Greg Finley as (voice)
Anthony De Longis Photo
Anthony De Longis as Zygon
720p.BluRay 720p.WEB 1080p.BluRay 1080p.WEB
916.34 MB
1280*542
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 1
919.75 MB
1280*534
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 7
1.66 GB
1920*814
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 7
1.67 GB
1920*800
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by IonicBreezeMachine 7 / 10

One of the more brazen takeoffs on Star Wars while also being one of the best made.

In the caverns of Mineworld a slave named Orin (Joe Colligan) toils mining crystals for their God Zygon (Anthony De Longis) to feed the Furnace of Life in exchange for food. While mining Orin comes across a mysterious sword which contains the image of an old man who tells that there is world above them and to find the blade after it disappears leaving only the hilt. With the exception of Orin's girlfriend Elan (Noelle North) the others dismiss the message as heresy as the one commandment is "never dig up, up is Hell". Orin and Elan escape the mines which reveals a technologically advanced processing facility and Zygon is in fact not a god before killing Elan. Orin Narrowly escapes to the surface and meets a crystal smuggler Dagg (Carmen Argenziano) and with his help he goes to look for the blade and free his people from Zygon.Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is a 1985 South Korean animated space opera inspired by both the success of Star Wars as well as the early 80s revived interest in 3D. TV animator Steven Hahn owned a animation studio in Korea which had a hand in animated several U. S. produced films and TV shows and during the off season wanted to give his crew something to work on deciding a movie would be the best way to go. Contacting Jeffrey Scott who had written for many of Hahn's TV productions, Scott produced the screenplay Escape to the Stars which would eventually become Starchaser. Initially started in 1982 with its eye on a 1983 release date, the film ended up being delayed by two years from its intended 6 month production cycle due to issues involving the 3D process which took even longer due to the lengthy amount of time needed to coordinate between Hahn's American offices and the Korean animation studio. The film was eventually ready for release in 1985 where it was screened for many executives including Roy Disney of Walt Disney Animation who voiced his admiration for the project, but due to problems with distributor Atlantic Releasing who was going through financial struggles as well as the decreased interest in 3D to the point many theaters didn't have proper conditions for the format, Starchaser failed to gain much of a foothold and underperformed making $3 million against a $14 million budget. What critical reception the film did garner wasn't positive including from Siskel and Ebert who made negative comparisons to Star Wars and lamented the violence in the film (but you know, it was okay when Star Wars did it). Starchaser: The Legend of Orin certainly falls in line with many Star Wars clones of the time, but at the same time it's much better made than many of them still has enough to justify its existence.From a purely visual standpoint Starchaser looks great, the fact that certain critics of the time said it barely looks above the level of a Saturday morning cartoon is one of the most brazen falsehoods I've ever heard because no Saturday morning cartoon ever looked this good. The movie was one of the first to mix 2D animation with 3D models with Bill Kroyer of Tron and eventual director of Ferngully responsible for handling the model work on many of the 3D assets such as Dagg's ship. The initial setup of Mineworld and its rule by theocratic dictatorship is one of the interesting points that helps differentiate it from Star Wars and while as it goes on we do see it drift closer and closer to Star Wars inspired tropes it's still well done enough that it's never boring and the beautiful animation and effective voice direction makes this a stronger example than many I've seen.Starchaser: The Legend of Orin owes much of its existence to Star Wars in that it wouldn't exist if not for George Lucas' groundbreaking film but while it borrows generously from Star Wars it's not without ideas or passion of its own. From an artistic and technical standpoint Starchaser not only looks great for its time but still holds up decades later. The plot does fall into pretty standard hero's journey/fantasy tropes but they're at least entertainingly done.
Reviewed by hitman 10 / 10

Bloody Marvelous Bit of Animation

Outstanding film, originally meant for 3D that hasn't suffered in the slightest from being banished to VHS rental tapes. A heady mix of Star Wars, manga influence and even a little Moebius take this Ten Commandments style film in fine style for a braethtaking ride, matched by beautiful set and character design, superb music and outstanding voices. Lobby for this one on DVD!
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