Category Archives: DVD

Little Orbit title card

Little Orbit the Astrodog and the Screechers from Outer Space or Pluk, naufragé de l’espace or Arago X

‘Little Orbit the Astrodog and the Screechers from Outer Space’ also known as ‘Pluk, naufragé de l’espace’ and ‘Arago X-001‘ is an animated feature from French director Jean Image.

The feature was originally created as a 22 episode television series titled ‘Arago X’, with each episode lasting around 5 minutes starting in 1972. It tells the story of ‘Terry’ a billionaire, and his girlfriend, talking-dog and an alien robot who bounce around the cosmos together on a series of adventures.

Screenshot from the feature DVD.

Screenshot from the feature DVD.

The series was originally shown on French television in October 1973, it was re-shown several times during the 1970s. The film was first aired in 1976. In 1979 it was dubbed into English and released on videotape. It was this version that I saw, as a child a fell in love with.

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The Black Hole

The Black Hole iTunes HD Review

The Black Hole is a gothic science-fiction film made by Disney and released in 1979. Arguably a creative triumph for all involved. The film was a mixed-success commercially, grossing 35 million dollars on a budget of 26, in a post Star Wars world (260 million dollar gross on a budget of 11) that didn’t look like much of a success.

I’ll take a look at the Black Hole on iTunes HD, since it isn’t available on Blu-ray yet.

The Cygnus lit up.

The Cygnus lit up, as the Palomino comes in to land.

The film tells a ‘Heart of Darkness’ story. Staring into the abyss of a Blackhole from the comfort of the huge cathedral like USS Cygnus, has driven Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) quite, quite mad. Into his private kingdom, wander the crew of the USS Palomino. Reinhardt sees a chance to gain recognition of his genius, but the crew quickly stumble upon the dark secret at the heart of the Cygnus, and begin a life or death struggle to escape before the black hole swallows them all.

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