My review was written in August 1982 after a Greenwich Village screening.
"Galaxy Express 999" is an attractive Japanese animated sci-fi feature dating from 1979. One of the many hits in the genre in its domestic market, film was picked up for U. S. distribution by Roger Corman's New World Pictures in 1980 but shelved after test bookings. Sporting an effective English-language soundtrack, pic deserves a second look, with tv usage a strong possibility.
Though the visual inspiration for "Galaxy Express" is from hit films such as "Star Wars", this episodic picture more closely resembles the format of Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles". Premise is to represent future concepts in familiar nostalgic forms. Thus the title refers to a vast space ship which looks to its passengers like a steam locomotive. Throughout the film, the visual mixture of the old-fashioned an high-tech creates comic juxtapositions.
Story concerns an orphan named Joey, who encounters a beautiful blonde (Matel) who looks like his mother, killed years before per flashback) in a "people hunt" by the evil Count Mecca. The young boy, styled with his dark hair covering one eye (Veronica Lake-style) is bent upon revenge, riding with Matel on the Express to search for Mecca's TIme Castle on some distant planet.
Stopovers en route bring him into contact with villains styled out of Westerns, pirate movies and other varied genres. After visiting the moon Titan circling around Saturn, duo visit the frozen planet Pluto, where humans' bodies are stored under the ice, after they have opted for immortality by taking machine bodies. The conflict between cyborgs (whose humanity is gradually draining away) and remaining human is the central theme, with the visuals making it understandable for younger viewers.
Working in a limited animation format, the chief drawback of which is limited movement (backgrounds are static and key characters move minimally), the film does boast beautifully colored elaborate designs. Once one gets used to the lack of fluid, full animation, the imaginative visuals are impressive. Characters are practically all human or humanoid, with the Japanese animators typically using Caucasian models (all the better to match the American voice dubbing). Oddest touches, besides the use of misspelled English words worked into the animated designs, are an Ed Wynn styled voice for the Express's kindly conductor, and giving John Wayne's voice and gait to a good guy named Capt. Warlock. Violence and semi-nudity account for the basically children's film receiving a PG rating.
