"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own life time, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished! He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, and observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And, so, Doctor Beckett finds him self leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping that each time that his next leap, will be the leap home."
... er... wrong show.
History went horribly wrong a very long time ago when the inhabitants of the island of Mipross were viciously slaughtered. And by the luck of several linear events, ‘short-statured' master mage, Lina Inverse and scantily clad Nahga the Serpent find themselves the holders of discount tickets to the hot springs on Mipross Island fighting demons, conjuring spells, and doing nothing less than saving time itself from being turned towards the path it took as the demon Joyrock forced his serpentine hand, sort of. In the literal since, the movie preludes the OVA and TV series because the wizard Rowdy is a member of the clan that spawns Lina's companion Gourry in the Slayers TV series.
Sure the time travel aspect has been used to death in such movies like KOR: Summer's Beginning and Tenchi-Muyo! in Love, but this movie is different. The majority of the movie is played out in the present and in Lina's dreams and then as the movie draws to a climax, then the time travel card is dealt with hilarious results for Nahga. By far, the most annoying aspect of Slayers: TMP is that it starts out with an incredibly over-acted and ear-splitting opening sequence between that does little more than introduce the famous duo. A first time viewer may be scratching their head at why everyone calls Lina Inverse ‘small breasted,' when she obviously seems to be at least a B cup. Heck, when compared to her well endowed associate, Nahga, almost anyone would be small breasted.
Both the English dub and original Japanese language version feature filler voices are shrill at best. But, the great voice acting of the main characters and villains more than make up for this annoyance. In particular the great English performances of the three leads, Cynthia Martinez as Lina, Kelly Manison as Nahga, and Tristan MacAvery as Joyrock are worth hearing. Also the subtitle translation is a literal translation that makes several scenes make more sense when read instead of heard. This is due to the dub script being very different and more heavily pop-culture laiden with hidden references to shows like Dragon Ball, Looney Toons, and near commercial catch phrases like that of Trix cereal. The sound track is topped off by the song Midnight Blue, sung by none-other-than the great Megumi Hayashibara.
The DVD features A.D.Vision's classic ‘highly interactive menus' with special features consisting of informative character bios, three Slayers trailers: Jelly's Revenge Mix, Latin Lingo Mix, Slayers OVA Mix, a slide show of stills, and the DVD credits. Plus the usual assortment of scene, language, and subtitle selection along with ADV previews. But, don't let the DVD-Rom logo fool you. This feature is nothing more than a program that connects the viewer to the ADV Films web site.
Even if you've never seen the other parts of the series, give Slayers: The Motion Picture a try because it is a self-contained story with some of the most side-splitting scenes you'll see in anime. Anyone for seeing Nagah's disperspectived dragon going on a rampage again?
