THE PLOT THUS FAR
An action drama centered on a deadly racing tournament held every five years and the reckless dare-devil driver who wants to win it.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“Redline” opens with a race that is merely impossible, and introduces J.P., who almost wins it until a Mafia bomb takes out his front wheel. The crown goes to Sonoshee, his childhood crush and next best racer. They are just two of the weird characters who qualify for the ultimate landscape-altering contest. This year, the Redline race committee feels that equipping the cars with rockets and grenades doesn’t make for nearly enough mayhem, and decides to hold the race on Roboworld – a planet run by Nazi cyborg generals who are willing to do absolutely anything to avoid the honor. Roboworld appears completely barren except for some of the most destructive weaponry in the known universe, and by golly, is the government ever determined to use it all.
The movie would be hilarious without even trying for humor, simply because it’s so preposterous; however, it does try in its odd way, and pulls it off. The base camp for the final race lies on a refugee world. The place is just as anarchic and badly-managed as one would expect; upon arrival, JP is accosted by a gang of knee-tall aliens who look like Tweety’s sketchy, mutated fugee cousins. He runs into inconceivably bad service at the money-changing window, and gets ripped off in an ungodly way while buying cigarettes
Redline takes you on an exciting ride that is visually stunning filled with hilarious animated characters. In the whole movie there is just one scene with some brief nudity but nothing that is shown in a sexual or perverted context. Personally, I would have liked them to have followed Trava’s quest and competition in the Fist Planet Competition and maybe once again have a run in with Princess Mikuru, or even just have seen more of them in Redline which you do not see a whole lot of. Still Redline in itself is a cool anime movie and stands out by itself.
The DVD comes with two introductions to Redline for various attention spans. The featurettes from the Blu-Ray are also available on this release. However, the A/V Quality is not so hot with a lot of edge enhancement on the transfer. The Dolby 5.1 track is strong, but it still pales in comparison to the Dolby TrueHD on the Blu-Ray release. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase. Hell, I’d go so far as to call it my new favorite anime film of all time.
RELEASE DATE: 01/17/2012
