Mattel Movie Reviews

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Family movie reviews for "Mattel" sorted by average review score:
Maetel Legend/Harlock Saga
Released in DVD by Central Park Media C (12 March, 2002)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Director: Nobuo Takeuchi
Average review score:

Two Matsumoto gems
This is a 2-pack collection includes Maetel Legend and Harlock Saga. Both DVDs are available individually. It is an odd choice to bundle these two DVDs together because, other than being the creations of Matsumoto Leiji, they are not the parts of the same story.

Maetel Legend tells of the origin of Maetel and the pirate queen Emereldas. It is a nice offering by Matsumoto, and serves as a prequel to his masterpiece Galaxy Express 999. Maetel does appear very briefly in Harlock Saga, and Emereldas has a slightly larger role.

Harlock Saga is a feature piece for Matsumoto's famous Captain Harlock. Matsumoto took the story and music of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and recast the parts with his own characters. Captain Harlock, Tochiro and Emereldas face off against Wodan and the Norse gods. It is grand space opera.

The individual DVDs are great, and worth getting. This is a nice way to get them together, although Harlock Saga has been available for some time. Just don't expect the stories to be related.

Enjoy!

Maetel Legend
Released in DVD by Central Park Media C (12 March, 2002)
MPAA Rating:
Director: Kazuyoshi Yokota
This OAV series brings together two of Leiji Matsumoto's most popular creations: Emeraldas, the pirate queen from Harlock Saga, and Maetel, the mysterious woman who aids Tetsuro in Galaxy Express 999. Torn from its eccentric orbit around the sun by the dark star Ra, the planet Metalle is dying. The daughters of Queen La Andromeda Prometheum defy the evil Hardgear, who has tricked their mother and many of her subjects into becoming "mechanoids" he can use in a war against humanity. Maetel and Emeraldas escape from Metalle on the Galaxy Express, knowing that destiny will eventually lead them back to destroy the cyber-hell their world has become. The rather dark Legend lacks much of the panache of Harlock Saga and the propulsive energy of Galaxy Express, but Matsumoto's many fans will want to follow his characters on their long journey. Rated 13 Up: Violence, grotesque imagery. --Charles Solomon
Average review score:

Dry..... (though good for someone new to Matsumoto)
Though it is really nice to finally see Emereldas and Maetel's past as siblings and the downfall of their mother Queen Promethia, I think this anime sadly fell flat on it's face.

The only thing of interest was the fact that you got to see how Galaxy Express 999 came to happen, though most of us had a pretty good idea of what happened to begin with, and even then some of this still went unanswered even with the prequel. Which sat as a bitter pill in my book.

The animation was okay enough. One of my biggest gripes was the portrayl of Maetel and Em as teenagers. I don't believe they were quite so "school girlish" in their youths. This film's biggest flaw was the blatant reuse of footage, it really ruined what interest I had in this film. It recycled it's self over and over and was over used so poorly that I just felt like this could have easily been a single 60 minute OAV. By the end of the film, I could care less about the transformation of the Queen, because they had reshowed her transformation over several times, using the SAME footage.

While I really didn't care for it, if you have the patience to sit through the repitition I think this would make a lovely starting point for someone that has never seen Galaxy Express 999 before, my best suggestion is to rent it if possible!

Origin to Galaxy Express 999, 1000 Year Queen, & Emeraldas
This 2-episode OVA is actually the beginning chapter to 3 of Leji Matsumoto's creations: GALAXY EXPRESS 999, QUEEN EMERALDAS, and 1000 YEAR QUEEN(which some old anime TV watchers might remember as CAPTAIN HARLOCK AND THE QUEEN OF 1000 YEARS from 1985). We see a younger Maetel and her sister Emeraldas who live on a planet residing on the other part of the sun, slightly parallel to Earth. They are the princesses of this world called La Matelle. Their mother, the queen, has undegone the mechanization process which all the people on their planet are going over as La Matelle is slowing dying out due to inexposure from the sub causing it to become a icy wasteland. Maetel and Emeraldas fight to stop this, but their mother ultimately succumbs to her machine half, and now sets forth to turn all humanioids into machines as part of the Mechanical Empire. Emeraldas and Maetel escape on the Galaxy Express 999 which is a spacebound train that goes to all planets in the universe. This leads into several of the other "Lejiverse" titles like CAPTAIN HARLOCK and HARLOCK SAGA. As far as comparing MAETEL LEGEND to some of the other Lejiverse titles that have come out in the last few years like DNA SIGHTS 999.9, the animation is very tame, and the story drags on at least 30 minutes longer than it needed to. The whole thing could have been wrapped up in one single 60 minute episode as their are alot of flashbacks and scenes with reused footage. But if your a big fan of Harlock, Emeraldas, and the other Matsumoto anime titles, you should see this one in order to know the beginning of it all.

great ! ..... well,almost
this movie is basically an introduction to the anime hit galaxy express 999,its too bad that theyve made this movie many years after galaxy express which might make it pointless to watch.However,combining the story of both of them make a enjoyable anime.But if you plan to watch this movie alone then youll feel just like the rest reviewers

Related Subjects: Activism