View source for Starchaser: The Legend of Orin

{{Short description|1985 American animated feature film directed by Steven Hahn}}
{{Infobox film
|name        = Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
|image       = Starchaser movie poster.jpg
|caption     = Theatrical poster
|writer      = Jeffrey Scott
|music       = Andrew Belling
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* Joe Colligan
* [[Carmen Argenziano]]
* Noelle North
* [[Anthony De Longis]]
* Tyke Caravelli
* [[Les Tremayne]]}}
|director    = Steven Hahn
|producer    = Steven Hahn
|editing     = [[Donald W. Ernst]]
|studio      = [[Hanho Heung-Up|Young Sung Production Co. Ltd.]]
|distributor = [[Atlantic Entertainment Group|Atlantic Releasing]]
|released    = {{Film date|1985|11|22|U.S.|<ref name=mojo/>}}
|runtime     = 107 minutes
|country     = United States<br>South Korea
|language    = English
|budget     = $14 million<ref name="StarchaserInterview">{{cite news|url= https://www.toplessrobot.com/2015/07/starchaser_legend_of_orin_3d_animation.php?fbclid=IwAR2jXQDIIJH6Eish7UOC1CSqNVUXNM7BiMBXzbDD50lpEBlY-97P9s4VsB0|title=  12 Revelations From the Makers of Starchaser: The Legend of Orin in 3D   |publisher=Topless Robot|access-date=March 17, 2023}}</ref>
|gross       = $3,360,800<ref name=mojo/>
}}
'''''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin''''' is a 1985 American [[Adult animation|adult animated]] [[space opera]] film directed and produced by Steven Hahn, and written by Jeffrey Scott.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |access-date=6 June 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312/page/207/mode/2up |page=207}}</ref> It was originally released in [[3D film|3D]] by [[Atlantic Entertainment Group|Atlantic Releasing]]. ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'' was one of the first animated movies to mix traditional and computer animation, as well as one of the first to be released in 3D.
==Plot==
In the future on a planet named Trinia, human slaves have lived underground for millennia mining [[crystal]]s for a "[[god]]" named Zygon and his [[robot]] minions. Orin, a young miner, finds a jeweled [[sword]] embedded in the rocks. Hopps, grandfather of Orin's girlfriend Elan, recognizes the sword and gives his life to save Orin and keep the sword a secret. When Orin later takes the sword into his hands, it ascends into the air and buries itself in the cavern's floor. A projection of an old man appears from the blade, telling those present that above the caverns is a "magnificent [[universe]]" that the people may find. The blade then disappears, leaving only the hilt.
Forced to leave Orin's young, blind brother Calli behind, Orin and Elan set out to discover this universe and find the blade to the sword. Chased by Zygon's robots, they emerge in an industrial complex where they meet Zygon, who reveals the face of a human man beneath his mask. Zygon strangles Elan to death, but Orin escapes this fate when Zygon is distracted by the sword hilt. When Zygon's robots accidentally fire on a crystal deposit, Zygon presumes Orin dead in the resultant [[explosion]] and cave-in.
Orin digs a tunnel to the surface of Trinia, where he is later captured by Man-Droids, a group of decaying half-organic, half-robotic beings who intend to tear him apart and use his body parts to replace their own. Unexpectedly, his sword's hilt produces what is apparently an invisible blade, killing two of the Man-Droids and helping Orin escape. Orin subsequently runs into a human smuggler named Dagg Dibrimi, who takes Orin (whom he dubs "Water Snake" for his outrageous tale about human slaves in the mines) along on his journey to smuggle crystals. Eventually, Dagg seizes a load of crystals from a hovering freighter, but is driven away by Zygon and his robotic guards. During the fight, Dagg seizes a Fembot named Silica and uses it as a shield from laser blasts. Subsequently, re-programmed by Dagg, Silica becomes attached to him. At the same time a mysterious "Starfly" appears and attaches itself to Orin.
Dagg flies his spaceship, the ''Starchaser'', to a city called Toga-Togo on the planet Bordogon, where he abandons Orin and gives Silica to a slave auctioneer. Orin wanders through the city, trying to find a clue that will lead him to the location of the hilt's blade. After meeting a fortune-teller who tells him to visit a place called Novaluna, Orin sees Silica offered for sale, whereupon he offers high prices to buy her. When the auctioneer finds that Orin has no knowledge of local currency, he takes Orin's freedom in addition to Silica's; but Dagg, moved by his own [[conscience]], frees them. Later, Dagg and Orin visit the home of two desert-dwelling merchants, to whom Dagg sells the stolen crystals. Because Zygon has placed a price on Orin's head, the merchants offer to buy Orin as well, but Dagg refuses. In response, the merchants place a time bomb in Dagg's payment. Orin is forewarned by the Starfly, whereupon Dagg and Arthur, the ''Starchaser's'' artificial intelligence, throw the bomb into their enemies' camp. Thereafter Dagg agrees to take Orin to Novaluna, but they are shot down by Zygon's robotic soldiers. Dagg is captured and the ship is rendered inactive; Orin is thrown clear out of the ship but is rescued by Aviana, the daughter of Bordogon's Governor.
Upon waking up and meeting Aviana, Orin tells her his story, whereupon Aviana's computer reveals that the hilt has historically been used by a group of legendary guardians called the Kha-Khan to vanquish threats to humanity. Among these threats was a tyrant called Nexus, after whose defeat the hilt vanished until Orin's discovery of it. Aviana takes Orin to Trinia, where he again faces Zygon. Orin attempts to kill Zygon for Elan's death and thereby exposes him as a robot. Zygon then reveals that he is Nexus, seeking again to rule over humanity with his army of robots. Zygon takes Orin's hilt and begins to co-ordinate the attack, while Orin and Aviana are imprisoned in the cell block wherein Dagg is also captive. Just as Orin and Aviana confess their feelings toward one another, Aviana is taken aboard Zygon's flagship as a hostage. Orin is again approached by the Starfly, who brings him the hilt, which he uses to free himself and Dagg. They enter Zygon's flagship and take control of it, using it (again aided by the Starfly) to destroy the enemy fleet. They are rejoined by Silica, who has restored the ''Starchaser''.
Orin and his friends penetrate Zygon's base, but are attacked by his remaining troops. While Dagg and Silica stay behind to fight off their pursuers, Orin enters his original cavern home and begins to denounce Zygon, but is interrupted by Zygon himself. They fight, resulting in Orin dangling over a [[chasm]] while Zygon gloats over him. As Orin hangs over the chasm, three Starflies appear and merge into one; but instead of giving him the hilt at his request, it states that he has no need of the hilt, adding that "there never was a blade". Orin therefore realizes that the power to create a cutting [[force]] came from himself. At this, he pulls himself up, generates such a force, and uses it to cut Zygon in half, sending him plummeting to his doom in the lava-filled chasm below. Orin's people subsequently rise in revolt and win their [[Political freedom|freedom]].
Above, Silica mistakenly fires a laser blast from the ''Starchaser'' into the accumulated crystals, causing them to explode and triggering a chain reaction which threatens to collapse the mines. Orin uses the hilt to open a fissure by which his people ascend to Trinia's surface, where Orin uses his new-found power to heal Calli of his blindness and Dagg, Silica, and Aviana join them. Moments later, several Starflies reveal themselves to be the spirits of the previous Kha-Khan, including the elder man of the hilt's projection. They invite Orin to join them, but he refuses for the time being in favor of living with his friends and family. The other Kha-Khan respect Orin's choice and leave him as they fly into the starry beyond. The film's credits roll over a constellation of the blade-less sword's hilt.
==Cast==
* Joe Colligan as Orin
* [[Carmen Argenziano]] as Dagg Dibrimi
* [[Anthony De Longis]] as Lord Zygon
* Noelle North as Elan and Aviana
* Tyke Caravelli as Silica
* [[Les Tremayne]] as Arthur, Man-Droid #1, and Smuggler #1
* Daryl Bartley as Kallie
* [[Tina Romanus]] as Aunt Bella and Fortune Teller
* Thomas H. Watkins as Mizzo, Man-Droid #2, and Smuggler #2
* Mickey Morton as Mine-Master, Man-Droid #3, and Tactical Robots
* [[John Moschitta, Jr.]] as Z'Gork and Raymo
* [[Ken Sansom]] as Magreb and Major Tagani
* [[Mona Marshall]] as Star Fly
* [[Herb Vigran]] as Pops/Elan's grandfather
===Incidental and background voices===
* [[Cathy Cavadini]]
* [[Marilyn Schreffler]]
* [[Susan Silo]]
* [[Michael Winslow]]
==Production==
Steven Hahn, a veteran animator in TV animation, decided during the off-season to produce a feature film in order to give his South Korean animation studio something to work on.<ref name= " StarchaserInterview "/> Jeffrey Scott had served as a writer on several of Hahn's TV projects so Hahn contacted him about collaborating on a film with Scott writing ''Escape to the Stars'' which would serve as the foundation for ''Starchaser''.<ref name= " StarchaserInterview "/>
Production on ''Starchaser'' began in 1982 with the intention of being released in 1983, but issues with the 3D process resulted in the film being delayed by two years and ballooning in budget from the initially planned $2 million to $6 million.<ref name="StarchaserProd">{{cite magazine |last=Robley|first=Les Paul|date=July 1985 |title= Starchaser|url=https://archive.org/details/cinefantastique_1970-2002/Cinefantastique%20Vol%2015%20No%203%20%28July%201985%29/page/n15/mode/1up?view=theater|url-status= |magazine=[[Cinefantastique]]|location= |publisher= Fourth Castle Micromedia|access-date=February 20, 2023}}</ref> Director Steven Hahn said of the production:
{{blockquote|Since there hasn't been an animated film of this magnitude before we really had to work from scratch. The 3D aspect doubled the amount of shooting required. There were often mistakes, some requiring retakes that normally wouldn't have been necessary on a flat animated picture.<ref name= "StarchaserProd"/>}}
A [[Plotter#X–Y plotter|digital plotter]] was used to transfer the CGI to paper, which had never been done in animation before.<ref name= " StarchaserInterview "/> ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'' is also identified as the world's first full-length animated project to be made in the [[3D film|3D format]],<ref name=lent>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b0EJmrszhyQC&q=Starchaser&pg=PA48|last=Lent|first=John A.|title=Themes and Issues in Asian Cartooning: Cute, Cheap, Mad, and Sexy|page=48|isbn=0-87972-779-9|year=1999|access-date=2010-08-03|publisher=Popular Press ([[University of Wisconsin Press]])}}</ref> although a prior film, ''[[Abra Cadabra (film)|Abra Cadabra]]'' (1983), was also produced in 3D.
==Release==
The film was released in the United States and Canada by [[Atlantic Releasing]] on November 22, 1985, grossing $1,614,660 on its opening weekend from 1,020 screens, making it number 6 at the US box office.<ref name=mojo>{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starchaserthelegendoforin.htm|title=Box office information for ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin''|access-date=2010-08-03|publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]]}}</ref> It grossed $3,360,800 overall in the United States and Canada.<ref name=mojo/> The film did not fare well in South Korea, where animation production took place.<ref name=lent/>
''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'' was released on [[VHS]] and [[Laserdisc]] on March 25, 1986 by [[Paramount Home Media Distribution|Paramount Home Video]], and also by KVC Home Video. The [[DVD]] was released on June 21, 2005 by [[MGM Home Entertainment]].
==Reception==
[[Vincent Canby]] described the film in ''[[The New York Times]]'' as "such a brazen rip-off of [[George Lucas]]' ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' that you might think lawyers would have been called in".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F06E7DC1138F931A15752C1A963948260&scp=60&sq=Who%20Wants%20to%20Be%20a%20Princess?&st=Search|last=Canby|first=Vincent|title=Screen: 'Starchaser', An Animated Space Tale|format=Login required|date=1985-11-22|access-date=2007-12-02|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
[[Gene Siskel]] and [[Roger Ebert]] both gave the film a "thumbs down", as they both found the movie uninspired and also felt the film was a rip-off of ''Star Wars''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://siskelebert.org/?p=1102|title=Fever Pitch, One Magic Christmas, Santa Claus the Movie, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, 1985}}</ref>
Alex Stewart reviewed ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'' for ''[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]'' #79, and stated that "if you're stuck with a houseful of brats on a rainy weekend, clamouring for some sanitised mayhem, then ''Starchaser'''s for you. It'll keep them quiet, and you'll probably find it amusing yourself".<ref name="WD79">{{cite journal | last =Stewart | first =Alex | title =2020 Vision | journal =[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]] | issue =79 | pages =18 | publisher =[[Games Workshop]] | date = July 1986}}</ref>
==Adaptations==
In March 2012, Rilean Pictures acquired the rights to develop the 1985 3D animated film ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'' into a live-action motion picture, produced by Rilean Pictures' partners Jonathan Saba and Juan Iglesias.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/rilean-pictures-plans-live-action-remake-starchaser-legend-orin-exclusive-36083 |title=Rilean Pictures Plans Live-Action Remake of 'Starchaser: The Legend of Orin' |date=2012-03-08 |work=[[The Wrap]]}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[List of 3D films]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0090065}}
* [http://www.jeffreyscott.tv/Starchaser.pdf ''Starchaser'' screenplay] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327233316/http://www.jeffreyscott.tv/starchaser.pdf |date=2016-03-27 }}
* [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/starchaser_the_legend_of_orin_1985/ ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin''] on [[Rotten Tomatoes]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151022171906/http://www.hahn-productions.com/Index.htm ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'']
*
* https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/starchaser-legend-of-orin.html
[[Category:1985 films]]
[[Category:1985 animated films]]
[[Category:1985 3D films]]
[[Category:1980s American animated films]]
[[Category:1980s fantasy adventure films]]
[[Category:1985 science fiction films]]
[[Category:American animated science fiction films]]
[[Category:South Korean animated science fiction films]]
[[Category:American animated fantasy films]]
[[Category:South Korean animated fantasy films]]
[[Category:American space adventure films]]
[[Category:Atlantic Entertainment Group films]]
[[Category:Animated films set on fictional planets]]
[[Category:American fantasy adventure films]]
[[Category:3D animated films]]
[[Category:Animated films about robots]]
[[Category:Animated films set in the future]]
[[Category:1980s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction films]]
[[Category:English-language fantasy adventure films]]