Vlarion 1: The Elemental War (Remake)

Out of every 3DMM movie I've ever seen, out of all of the different makes and models of stories involving our favorite 10+ year old program, out of all of the memorable characters that have been presented my top three most memorable experiences are as followed: motorcycle chase in Toliet Humor 2, watching Presumed Guilty (my first downloaded 3DMM movie) for the first time, and Hirolix battle in Vlarion 1. The last one in particular was the first to really open me up to the world of hand made characters and how fluid animation had gotten. But before I get too much into detail, let's put ourselves in my shoes: If you're like me, which may or may not be the case, you probably have dreams of visiting Greg Strnad's Dragon Films one day day in early 2000 and seeing an excited update annoucing the arrival of a four part series entitled, 'Vlarion'. Not being a huge fantasy buff but enjoying the screenshots and promises of amazing new animated characters, fluid movement, and whatnot, I decided to give it a shot. At first I fell under the curse of the text boxes and got bored but as soon as the action hit, it hit hard. The first time Hirolix popped on the screen my jaw hit the floor. I just could not believe something like that could be done in 3DMM. Over the next 5 or so years I've come to expect so much but everything seemed so...doable. Until the Vlarion 1 remake.

Now I have to give back some credit to Aaron here. I've been keeping track of this movie for awhile and while being fed little niplets here and there, there were times where I could've sworn the movie was real. One of the first things I noticed was this realism. Take, for, instance the scene where Dask wakes up in Terrania and is just sitting on the bed in his underwear. The angles, the setup, the colors, the overall atmosphere was eerily similar to something you'd expect from a real movie. To some this might not be a big deal but for someone to take a crudely made 3D figure and place it in an environment where the cartooniness melts away and reveals just the character in his true human is something truly amazing, at least from the perspective that this was in fact made using 3DMM. Much of the life generated from the scenes like these in particular help mold the foundation of the characterization Aaron has capitalized on oh so well as one of the major enhancements from the original.

With all realism comes the art of fantasy. Captured in beautiful, almost delicate landscapes, buildings, and effects, the otherworldly atmosphere flourishes in not only the animation but the way the cinematography is formatted. The way the camera flys in, out, and around with such grace in even the most tense of action makes the use of v3DMM quite extraordinary. Noticable early on in the Hirolix battle, the city model comes quite in handy and while not quite a detailed as some of the other scenes the way Aaron impliments it as well as the impressive animation is nothing short of remarkable. No longer are we staring at still frame battles for 500 or even 1000 frames but we're getting down and dirty into the real meat of what's going on. We can finally see Dask cast an ice spell and follow it to its target or even grimace as the loss of Hirolix's limbs, as graphic as they come, paint a bloody portrait of the true power of what has been accomplished.

Of all the vast improvements Aaron has made, the most significant is the inclusion of more articulate and most importantly (never mind the redundancy) important dialogue. From the second the movie starts off you can tell the difference, as Dask explains to his friend his reasons for leaving. It just seems so crucial to know and doesn't drag listening to 1000 frame scenes about a planet with vocabulary that is beyond our comprehension. It almost flows back into the whole realism bit because the viewer is much more connected than usual. Granted I started to understand the whole concept of Vlarion and Aaron's time theorem (that's another story) but from a more mainstream viewpoint the dialogue is more what we'll call 'Ching friendly'. Yes, even people who listen to Simple Plan can understand what is going on. Much of the character interactions are also vastly improved upon. Stacey and Adarack step up and play more prominent roles, as well. In the original these characters felt like more sideline characters, Adarack in particular since he basically just explained the Vlarion thing and bounced out. The drastic change to the story also felt set up properly due to the use of the dialogue as a tool to care about the characters more.

To compliment the new life added to the script was a team of very well done actors. Aaron debuted himself much better than his mic problems had lead me to believe. Dask finally seems to fall into place as the risky but lovable hero. Jaymond also delivered quite nicely as Adarack, giving the usually A list performance. There were a few times where it almost sounded robotic but pulled back and flowed as it should. My only real problem, and this is my only real set back from the whole movie, was Goro's voice acting for Jack. Towards the end of the movie he really got into his groove but I don't know if it was the dialogue during the shop scene or the delivery but it was all so mechanical sounding. So much so that it snapped me out of the movie for a moment or two before I could come back in and really get into it. Aaron seems to think it was the way it was supposed to be but it just sounded fairly fake during that short time.

If there was one thing to take back from this film I would have to say that it truly is an experience. As a remake, hell a work of art, it redefines where we are with the program and what lies ahead. I only pray that Aaron is able to keep up with the writing, as well as the groundbreaking work on animation and cinematography to fully capture the world he has created, as well as all the characters in it we've grown to care about.

9.3/10

[Aaron Haynes]

Thanks man I'll put in some more detailed comments soon.

Jack was voiced by Eric Russoniello, not Goro. And yeah, some of his early dialogue sounded a little flat to me, too. He gave me like six takes of every line, and I always picked the inflection that I was looking for rather than going for pure acting quality. A well-delivered line that doesn't sound like part of a conversation doesn't really work. His second batch of lines was a better performance, as well.