Help me remember this movie!

December 11, 2007 6:00 AM

I vaguely remember an animated movie I saw in the '80s. I'm pretty sure it was on Beta, so it was the early '80s at that. It was almost, but not quite, Ralph Bakshi-style animation. A lot of the stories, which I think were just brief vignettes, were based on Greek mythology. I distinctly remember really creepy medusae. One story, involving temptation of some kind, had a really sultry female voice seducing the female character on-screen into some kind of unpleasant action.

I grew up in Wisconsin, so the movie would had to have been fairly mainstream. Any suggestions would be fantastic. =op

(And, bonus question... Why the hell do I remember stuff like this!?)

posted by daveqat to media & arts (7 comments total)

Heavy Metal.
posted by bru at 6:12 AM on December 11, 2007

bonus answer: you remember it because the movie has pretty powerful imagery, very daring for the time (1981) and was made "for adults". As a movie, it doesn't stand out because it is not one story but a collection of shorts animated sequences, with different authors. All the stories came from the legendary French comix magazine of the late seventies, Métal Hurlant, which had been translated and distributed in the States as Heavy Metal. The comment at the top of this page by lambipie-2 sums it better than I could.
posted by bru at 6:43 AM on December 11, 2007

My first thought was Heavy Metal as well, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the specific "seduction" scene the OP is talking about.
posted by mkultra at 7:07 AM on December 11, 2007

mkultra: I have the movie somewhere on tape but I have not used VHS for quite a while. I went through the readers' comments on IMDB to refresh my memories, and I think the "seduction scene" is this one:

Den is adapted from Richard Corben's tales. The melon-breasted women that Corben is known for are on fine display here. We also get the humor that also permeates Corben's work.

posted by bru at 8:24 AM on December 11, 2007

I'm recalling a movie with the title Metamorphosis, but I can't Google it or IMDB it. But yeah, animated movie with vignettes from Greek mythology. I saw it.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:49 AM on December 11, 2007

Here it is -- I was spelling it wrong.

Metamorphoses (星のオルフェウス, Hoshi no Orufeusu?, "Orpheus of the Stars") is a Japanese animated film, originally released by Sanrio in the United States on May 3, 1978. The film is a retelling of stories from Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid, set to rock music by Joan Baez, the Rolling Stones and the Pointer Sisters. In all of its five parts, the protagonists are portrayed in the form of a recurring boy and girl.

The movie was Sanrio's second animated release in the States (following their adaptation of The Mouse and His Child the previous year). Over 170 animators, all employed in Hollywood, worked on it for three years.

Metamorphoses tried to be the rock era's answer to Fantasia, but its original run was critically reviled and closed as soon as it opened: according to many of its crew, a lot of problems with the production, music and plotting were to blame.

A year later, it was reissued under a new title, Winds of Change, with seven minutes trimmed away from the first cut of 89 minutes. This time, the music was composed by Alec R. Costandinos, and narration provided by Peter Ustinov was added.

The five parts—"Actaeon", "Orpheus and Eurydice", "The House of Envy", "Perseus" and "Phaëton", in the original order—were re-arranged and slightly renamed for the new version; only the third and last parts remained unmoved. In the Winds cut, the first two were now "Perseus" and "Actaeon", and the fourth "Orpheus".

In addition, the boy was now called Wondermaker, and the girl played different characters in every segment. Greek gods Hades and Apollo were given their Roman names (Pluto and Helios respectively).
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:53 AM on December 11, 2007

Hot damn, CPB! That's exactly it!
posted by daveqat at 11:20 AM on December 11, 2007