Or the entire genre of cyberpunk, an aesthetic we find so seductive we try to replicate it as much IRL as we do on Hollywood sets. Just look at the Mad Max franchise, with its high-octane opulence stolen from street racing culture and glam rock. THE ARTĪeon Flux should be used as proof to Hollywood executives that we prefer our future in drag. 25 years after its debut, Aeon Flux has held up remarkably well - remaining relevant in 2016 through its progressive depiction of sex and gender, dystopian satire, and mesmerizing art. Of course, it would never be that simple, with episodes turning into thought experiments that involved recreational amnesia, artificial consciences, a Gnostic deity, and lots of surreal, futuristic sex. Every episode revolved, more or less, around Aeon trying to screw with the efforts of her lover-nemesis Trevor Goodchild to govern his city-state of Bregna. The first thing anyone saw her do was catch a fly with her eyelashes, an opening so iconic it would be immortalized many more times - on the show’s DVD cover, in the awful Hollywood adaptation starring Charlize Theron, and on the skins of many devoted fans. The result: an erotic avant-garde sci-fi cartoon about the titular sultry anarchist spy with a penchant for dominatrix outfits and dying repeatedly locked in an eternal game of wits and will with her dictator lover.Īeon Flux made her appearance on MTV’s experimental animation showcase Liquid Television. He wanted an animation that could have the same “formal complexity” as works by Borges and Nabokov. In 1991, after an epiphany about the artistic restrictions that come with working on a kids’ show about uncanny babies, animator Peter Chung created Aeon Flux. In all likelihood the series’ unfathomable nature formed a large part of its charm, for it ended with little more conclusive background information than when it began.One of the trippiest, most philosophical, and kinkiest adult cartoons ever was made by a guy who co-designed Rugrats. Ten episodes made up the third and final season. They might be battling one moment and locking lips the next, so long as their carnal desires didn’t put the mission at stake. As much as their ideological viewpoints were opposed, they had at one time been romantically involved, and some remnant of those feelings remained. Aeon Flux put a good deal of effort into preventing Trevor’s designs from reaching fruition.Īeon and Trevor clearly had a past in which they were familiar with one another. Thus, he expended a good deal of effort in finding scientific means for evolving or changing humanity to conform to his vision of a perfect society. Although marked as the villain of the series, Trevor deemed himself a visionary who ultimately had mankind’s best interests at heart. On the other side lay the nation of Bregna an authoritarian state headed by Trevor Goodchild, who considered denial of personal freedom a fair exchange for the orderly life of the Breens under his rule. On one side lay the nation of Monica a free nation with no heads of state, for which Aeon Flux was an agent. This barrier made crossing from one side to the other a deadly undertaking. Furthermore, there was no indication whether the stories were tied together as part of a continuous whole, or if they were largely independent and simply involved the same characters.Ī few story elements revealed themselves and remained consistent throughout: A series of continuous walls and defensive zones equipped with automated weapons divided a large metropolis in two. Back story revealed itself in small doses, but the series maintained its ambiguous tone. Episodes expanded to a half-hour in length, the characters finally spoke, and Aeon didn’t die in every episode - although her fate was, at times, far from envious. The series continued for a third season in 1995, but with several significant changes. Aeon’s uncommonly honed skills in shooting, acrobatics, infiltration and espionage made themselves readily apparent as she carried out her covert duties, but a lapse in judgment or some fluke mishap led to her demise by the end of every story in the series’ first and second seasons. Viewers had to glean story details from the actions of the characters in conjunction with the episode title, because the characters never spoke. Set in a dystopian future, the series focused on the exploits of female secret agent Aeon Flux as she carried out missions against a largely unexplained adversarial organization. Five, 3–5 minute individual stories formed the show’s second season, which also aired on Liquid TV. Named after its central character, Aeon Flux (or, Æon Flux), this bizarre series began as six, 2–3 minute segments that aired as part of MTV’s 1991 series Liquid Television.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |