Review of Shadow Raiders: Season 2

Introduction

It has only been a few weeks since I first delved into the Shadow Raiders universe, and Metrodome quickly bring the second and final season to shop shelves. Shadow Raiders was the show that Mainframe animation in Canada made to follow up their groundbreaking ReBoot series. In the first series, the evil Beast destroyed the planet Tex. Only one person survived, the Princess Tekla, and she escaped to warn the universe of the Beast`s coming. The next target was a system of four worlds, Ice, Bone, Fire and Rock that were warring among themselves. There, she encountered a brave miner named Graveheart, who was instrumental in forming an alliance between the honourable Ice King Cryos, Bone`s duplicitous Emperor Femur, Fire`s impetuous Prince Pyrus and Rock`s hard-hearted Lord Mantel in the face of increasing Beast depredations and attempts to pit their worlds against each other.

It was barely in time, as the Beast soon entered the system in force, with their gargantuan world capable of devouring other planets. As the combined forces desperately fought against this devastating enemy, facing terrible odds and treachery from within, Tekla found a slim straw of hope to grasp when she went exploring into the heart of Planet Ice itself. At the heart of the world were immense World Engines capable of moving the planet out of harms way. As Season 2 commences, the Beast world is heading towards Fire intent on consuming the world and it`s inhabitants. The story continues over 12 episodes, presented on 2 discs.

Disc 1

15. This Is The Way The World Ends
The Beast World has entered the system and is destroying everything in its path, driving relentlessly towards its next target, the Planet Fire! Graveheart organises a last ditch defence, and Pyrus begins to evacuate his people to the Battlemoons. Tekla brings some good news though; there are World Engines in all the planets of the system, including Fire. It`s a race against time to find the engines at the heart of Fire, but the Beast drones get to the control room first. Could Fire be facing certain doom?

16. Period Of Adjustment
After the last destructive battle, it`s a chance for the Alliance to regroup and reflect, but then Cryos learns something troubling, Food is becoming scarce and the Alliance members are verging on starvation. Meanwhile on Bone, Femur is busy trying to hold onto his throne in the face of constant assassination attempts from his adviser Pelvus. Femur comes to realise that it might make for good public relations and extend his lifespan if Bone rejoined the Alliance. If only they will have him.

17. A Blaze Of Glory
Graveheart and Jade try to find a little quiet time, but they are interrupted by a distress call from one of the Battlemoons. Pyrus and Femur are visiting there, and initial suspicions fall on the pesky Femur, but as the inhabitants and refugees on the Battlemoon evacuate, it becomes apparent that something else is going on. Facing the loss of his homeworld is hard for Blaze, Captain of Pyrus` guard to take, and he`s looking for some revenge on the Beast.

18. Sandstorm
As the planets flee from the Beast in a celestial convoy, they encounter another world in the Beast`s path, Unable to communicate, Graveheart takes a ship with an ambassadorial contingent to make contact with the inhabitants of the planet Sand. He delivers his warning to King Ramset of the Sun People, who is sceptical of the newcomers, and reluctant even to believe in the existence of other worlds. The Sun People live like Pharaohs, with the mute shaggy Sand People waiting hand and foot on them. As Jade and Zera search for Sand`s World Engines, a Beast scouting party attack. Graveheart rallies a defence, but there is more to the Sand People than anyone suspects.

19. Girls` Night Out
All work and no play and all that. Jade, Tekla and Zera are getting on each other`s nerves, so Graveheart suggests a little R & R. As luck would have it, Lamprey shows up at Jade`s favourite nightspot to spoil the party.

20. Timebomb
Fighting another inconclusive battle with the Beast drones, Graveheart`s fleet encounters an uninhabited world, albeit one with a World Engine. It`s in the path of the Beast world anyway, and ripe for destruction, but Femur comes up with an idea to use it as a booby trap. The expedition lands on the planet`s surface to find a lush fecund world, but it turns out that the plant life has a mind of its own.


Disc 2

21. Embers Of The Past
With the Beast fleet close on the tails of the Alliance, they take a chance and head for a nebula in the hopes of losing their pursuers. Meanwhile Prince Pyrus is concerned for the morale of his people, deprived as they are of their homeworld. Just as the Alliance is poised to enter the gas cloud, a familiar world appears on the horizon. Planet Fire has returned from the dead.

22. Divided We Stand
A mysterious object appears on the Alliance scanners, and it becomes imperative to investigate as it may have technology that can defeat the Beast. The expedition is attacked by the planetoid, and crashes on the surface, a place that both Cryos and Femur recognise and fear. They find themselves on the Prison Planet, divided and caught between two warring factions, led by Jewelia and Sternum.

23. Nor Iron Bars A Cage
The Prison Planet has vanished from space, and the remaining leaders of the Alliance are squabbling over who will assume command. Tekla is intent on searching for Graveheart and his friends, but Mantel is contemplating a horrendous betrayal. Meanwhile on the Prison Planet, Femur is about to have a family reunion, and the voluptuous Jewelia is distracting Graveheart.

24. Death Of A King
As Mantel exerts his iron will over the Alliance, Tekla regrets the misplaced trust that led them to this dark hour. Mantel is intent on a suicidal attack on the Beast world. Meanwhile on the Prison Planet, the power hungry Jewelia is plans another attack on Sternum.

25. The Long Road Home
The Beast have taken control of Planet Rock and imprisoned Tekla, Zera and Pyrus. As the three heroes await their doom the battle continues on the Prison Planet. Cryos manages to locate the planetoid`s teleport engines, but things are looking bad for Graveheart and Jade.

26. Ascension
The people of Rock prepare to bury one king as they seek for a new ruler to succeed him. The Alliance leaders still have some raw wounds to heal, but a last vestige of the Beast remains, aiming to wreak havoc on the Alliance as it enters a new era of peace and cooperation.

Video

The advantage of a digital source means that Shadow Raiders gets a nigh on perfect transfer. Everything is clear and sharp, and you don`t have to worry about trivialities like print damage or grain. The character design is vivid and the animation is fluid, and if anything improved on the first season. However signs of age do poke through, especially when we are now used to Pixar level quality in digital animation. The images are hyper-sharp, there is no blurring with distance, there are rare instances of jaggies, the texture maps occasionally slip and once or twice a polygon went walkabout. This is also the era when computers couldn`t really handle complex motion like flame, water or explosions, but in this respect, there is definitely an improvement over the first season. The thing is that the characterisations are strong, and the stories involving enough that you probably won`t notice minutiae about the image quality. That is except for one instance, at 2:53 into the first episode on Disc 1 of my review discs, there was a break up and pixellation, accompanied with a dropout in the sound. Hopefully this won`t be repeated on the retail discs.

Audio

You get an English DD 2.0 Stereo track without subtitles. Prologic works its magic though providing some space for the music and the effects. The dialogue is clear throughout. The music is repetitive and the war drums quickly begin to grate, but I don`t think you`re supposed to watch all 12 episodes in a row. There is also that sound dropout that I mentioned above.

Features

The scripts are provided as PDF files on the disc, useful if you have a PC or Mac with Adobe Acrobat installed.

Conclusion

Having enjoyed the first series of Shadow Raiders, I was looking forward to the second series, expecting more of the same. To my surprise, this two-disc set is actually an improvement, continuing the character development, improving on the already splendid visuals, and tightening up the plot and storylines leaving little wasted time in these 12 episodes. One of my criticisms of the first series was the lull in narrative in the middle of the run. There is none of that here, as the story unfolds with a relentless, almost breakneck pace.

There is a Battlestar Galactica vibe to the story here, as the planets having discovered World Engines at their core, form a ragtag fugitive convoy, fleeing from the menace of the Beast. There`s a little space for exploration, as they come across other worlds threatened by the Beast, and forge new alliances as they go. As action goes, there is plenty of eye candy, with ship battles and fight sequences galore, but there is nothing to match the jaw-dropping fleet action of the last series climax. The climax to this series is much more personal in a one on one fight between hero and villain and in some ways it`s more satisfying emotionally.

Character development is still a strong part of the writing, and there is an undercurrent of loyalty and betrayal that is strongly felt in these episodes. Then there is the character of Jewelia, who displays a casual sadism, sexuality and lust for power that makes for the most psychopathic character I have seen in a children`s animation. Shadow Raider`s certainly doesn`t shy away from dealing out death and destruction, and that may need to be considered before buying it for the younger viewer.

Shadow Raiders continues with its sense of humour and wit, there are a couple of nods to other movies like Psycho and The Matrix (obligatory bullet time shot), and there is a silent movie homage that made me laugh. I had initially thought that the episodes set on a disappearing Prison Planet would be an untimely diversion, but it turns out to be instrumental in the finale of the series. That does mean though that the new race of Sand People get somewhat short shrift in the stories on these discs, they and the character of Zuma are barely touched on. It becomes apparent that they would have featured more in a third series had it been made. Fortunately, Series 2 takes the storylines developed in the first series and continued here, and gives them a nice fulfilling conclusion. You can watch both Series 1 and 2 and be satisfied with the resolution of the story, and the fact that one or two loose ends are left over doesn`t leave you scratching your head or feeling cheated.

Shadow Raiders is one of the best Saturday morning cartoons that I have seen. Great animation, strong characters and exciting stories make for great entertainments. Good for kids, especially kids of my age.