Babylon Park: Frightspace ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I wonder how large Christopher Russo (the film's creator) thought his audience really would be. What we have here is an uncomfortable fusion of South Park and Babylon 5, with a generous helping of Lovecraft thrown in. Now two of these elements combine quite naturally; Babylon 5 is inherently and unabashedly Lovecraftian. In fact, the TV movie this cartoon is spoofing (titled Babylon 5: Thirdspace) is worthy of it's own entry in any list of Lovecraft inspired movies. But South Park? Are there a lot of sci-fi/Lovecraft fans watching South Park? In fact, the answer is 'it doesn't matter'. If you've seen one episode of South Park you will have seen enough to get the references in Frightspace. Except for a few obvious gags from that show and some broad characterizations, Frightspace really doesn't borrow from South Park. Frightspace begins with a spoof of The Fifth Element. The Vorlons (from B5) imprison Nyarlathotep (from HPL) and leave him drifting in space. Thousands of years later he is found by the space station Babylon Park. Upon his release he attempts to summon Cthulhu, who makes his second cartoon appearance after the 1980's Real Ghostbusters episode "The Collect Call of Cathulhu". We are treated to a cameo by some Migo with brain canisters at one point, and a race of Cthulhu-esque aliens direct from B5 end up being an appetizer for the Great Old One. The animation is just a step below South Park standards, but is fun. A number of actors from Babylon 5 lent their voices to the project as well which is a treat for fans of that show. Overall I still can't believe it was made, but it is certainly entertaining. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - Christian Matzke An Imperfect Solution http://www.reanimator.8m.com/ Crawling Chaos Pictures H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep Propping Up the Mythos |
review © Christian Matzke 2003
contents page