Bionicle: Mask of Light (2003, DVD)

Genre: Cartoon
Video: 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS 5.1 Surround
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Length: 74 min
Rating: PG
Release Date: 09/16/2003
Studio: Miramax

Commentary: Directors' Commentary
Documentaries:
Featurettes: Behind the Scenes: The Making of Bionicle;
Biographies:
Interviews: None
Trailers/TV Spots: Bionicle - The Video Game; Disney's Holes, George of the Jungle2; MXP: Most Xtreme Primate; Pokemon Heroes; Power Rangers Nina Storm
Alternate/Deleted Scenes: Deleted scenes with optional director's commentary
Music Video:
Other: Sneak Peek Into the Next Bionicle; "Mata Nui Explore": Insights About the World and Characters; "Wall of History" Enhanced Viewing Mode; Storyboard-to-Film comparison; Translation Chart

Cast: Jason Michas, Andrew Francis, Scott McNeil, Lee Tockar, Christopher Gaze, Kathleen Barr, Dale Wilson, Michael Dobson, Trevor Devall, Lesley Ewen, Chiara Zanni, Doc Harris
Written by: Tracy Berna, Henry Gilroy, Alastair Swinnerton, Bob Thompson, Greg Weisman
Produced by: Sue Shakespeare
Directed by: David Molina, Terry Shakespeare
Music: Nathan Furst

Review:
Takua (Jason Michas - voice) and Jaller (Andrew Francis) are friends in the Bionicle world. Takua is 'The Chronicler' and Jaller is the Captain of the Guard. As Takua is searching around inside a volcano one day he happens to find The Mask of Light, which awakens Makuta (Lee Tockar - voice), who is Mata Nui's (Mata Nui is the head god of the island) brother and has put him in a deep sleep, forcing evil onto the world of Mata Nui (which is also the name of the island).

Apparently there is a prophecy stating that when the Mask of Light is found, a seventh Toa (Toas are warriors representing different elements of nature: fire, water, earth, wood, snow, etc.), will appear and help the other toas defeat Makuta and re-awaken Mata Nui.

Takua and Jaller are then sent on a journey to find the seventh Toa, during which they meet all of the other toas, which also happens to illustrate how the toa are no longer unified, which is probably why Makuta is so strong.

Eventually Takua finds the seventh toa - it's himself. Putting on the mask, he becomes Toa Takanuva (the seventh toa), and leads the toas to Makuta where they defeat him and re-awaken Mata Nui.

The CGI is pretty cool on this film. There are times when the details on the characters or in the scenery are really amazing. There are a few spots where the animation kind of looks a little choppy, but overall its well-done.

The story, on the other hand, is pretty silly. Of course, I'll probably offend a lot of people by saying so because apparently Bionicle is a big selling toy by Lego and this is supposed to be the backstory for the toys. Nevertheless, I wasn't too impressed by the story. I guessed when Takua found the mask that he was supposed to be the seventh Toa, so when he finally put on the mask I wasn't at all surprised. There is also the problem with Takua deciding at one point that he is going to leave Jallar to find the seventh toa himself. Takua's decision doesn't really make any sense. There is also no explanation of why the other six toas are so upset with one another. There are a lot of story problems, despite an absolute suspension of belief. The story also seems to draw heavily on Pacific Islander type myths, legends, and names. Why? I don't know. But it is an interesting connection that I don't believe has been made before.

Overall, the movie is probably kind of interesting to people that played with the Bionicle toys, but to people that are not interested in the toys nor the backstory behind them, this probably isn't a movie you'll be interested in seeing. The CGI is pretty cool, but the story isn't compelling or engaging.

Image and Sound:
The video transfer is flawless and the picture quality is incredible. Despite not being a great story, this movie is visually stunning. It is a lot of fun to watch and the animation is for the most part very well done.

The sound quality is also very good. The music for the movie is well done, the voices work well, and the sound effects are convincing. As films go, this is a very high quality product.

The Extras:
There are a lot of extras on this DVD. The 'Behind the Scenes: The Making of Bionicle' featurette was actually a bit shorter than I hoped it would be. I love working with computers and even do some of my own film editing. As a result, I like to see how animated films come together, but there is very little of that actually shown in this featurette. The focus is really on how the story came together and how the characters were developed. It's does a good job covering those elements, but leaves out the actual creation process.

The deleted scenes are interesting to watch, but it makes sense why they were taken out. The translation chart is interesting to see, but I didn't actually take the time to go back through the movie and see if any of the writing made sense given the translations. That might be something fun to do for diehard fans.

The '"Wall of History" Enhanced Viewing Mode' and 'Storyboard-to-Film comparison' extras are kind of fun to watch. They offer some additional information on the movie, including additional backstory and explore the development of the film.


The '"Mata Nui Explorer": Insights About the World and Characters' extra is an animation of the island that allows you to click on different points after which it explores the characters that are found there and gives more information about the story.

Overall, the extras do a pretty good job of filling in some of the holes in the story (The Mata Nui Explorer) and offering some pretty good information on the production process. The part that is missing is the actual computer animation, which I would have liked to have seen, but otherwise the extras are pretty good.

Commentary:
The directors' commentary is decent. Because they don't really have many actors to talk about (just the voice actors), David Molina and Terry Shakespeare spend most of their time describing the production process. They talk about how there were a lot of people involved in the making of this film, but not just in the traditional sense of a lot of production staff, but numerous companies and agencies. This film was actually developed in multiple locations, from the U.S. where the directors where based, to the involvement of Lego in Europe, and the CGI work done in Taiwan. It was pretty interesting to get the skinny on everyone that was involved.

A lot of the commentary also focuses on decisions about the movie, including why some scenes were kept and how they were modified for the final picture. Overall, the commentary would be very interesting to someone who really liked the movie or is into Bionicle toys.

Final Words:
Though I didn't find the story very interesting, this is, overall, a very well produced and packaged product. The extra features included with the DVD are quite extensive, generally well-done, and include a lot of additional information. The CGI is stunning, though not always perfect. I'm sure fans of the toys will enjoy the film, but people that don't know much about Bionicle might not be as interested.