Extras:
Making Dark Fury, Dark Fury Animatic, Peter Chung - Into the Mind of an Animator,
A View Into The Light, Van Helsing Animated Trailers,
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game trailer
Director:
Peter Chung
Producers:
Jae Y. Moh and John Kafka
Screenplay/Story:
Brett Matthews and David Twohy
Music:
Machine Head
Cast:
Richard Riddick: Vin Diesel
Imam: Keith David
Jack: Rhiana Griffith
Junner: Roger L Jackson
Chillingsworth: Tress MacNeille
Toombs: Nick Chinlund
Skiff AI: Dwight Schultz
Short and sweet, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
is set straight after
(Pitch Black
and tells us what happened next as Riddick, Imam and Jack (all voiced by their respective actors)
head off, in animated form, into even more trouble. Yes, it's a violent cartoon. Not what could
be classed as anime, but at times can behave in similar show-off style.
All three of them are eventually captured by bizarre uber-MILF Chillingsworth (Tress MacNeille)
who has a nice sideline in storing up human bodies until she works out what to do with them. When the
three of them escape and need to be tracked down, we discover her plans are to create a massive army
by thawing them out when the time comes, including Toombs (Nick Chinlund), who is introduced
here in preparation for his role as a baddie in 2004's summer blockbuster The Chronicles of Riddick.
Upon watching this short film, while I quite enjoyed it, I felt it was too brief for a standalone DVD.
Universal should've made the Special Edition DVD a £20 title and included this as a worthy extra
since it tacks on nicely.
Picture-wise, we have a print that is crystal clear, yet non-anamorphic 1.85:1, which is a shame as to
put out a DVD these days that isn't enhanced for widescreen TVs isn't just an error, but a gross mistake
that should be made punishable.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound has some nice directional effects in the battle sequences, although due to the
length you know there won't be that many of them.
The extras on this DVD are as follows:
Making Dark Fury: Bridging the Gap from Pitch Black to The Chronicles of Riddick (8½ mins):
Vin Diesel, David Twohy, writer Brett Matthews and director Peter Chung chat to camera, inbetween
clips of Pitch Black and Dark Fury about how necessary it is to tell what happens
between the first film and the 2004 movie, The Chronicles of Riddick, and so why we need
this 30-minute vignette inbetween.
Also shown are a number of work-in-progress shots for this animated short.
Dark Fury animatic (33 mins):
The same animated film you've just seen, but in very rough form to show how it was planned out. Ideal
for the perfectionist.
Peter Chung: Into the mind of the animator (5 mins):
More chat and illustrations from the director.
A View into the Light (5 mins):
Chat and clips to do with The Chronicles of Riddick, although I prefer to watch whole films
before seeing the 'making of'-type shorts as they often spoil surprises.
Van Helsing animated trailer (45 secs):
No-one had a good word to say about the cinema film, so that must mean everyone wants the animated
prequel, surely(?)
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game trailer (2 mins):
Does exactly what it says on the tin.
There are no chapters to Dark Fury which is unforgivable, since even my DVD recorder drops
in automatic chapters every 5 or 6 minutes. Subtitles are in English only, but given that the image is
non-anamorphic and the subtitles are partly in the black bar beneath the picture, this can't be
watched at the correct ratio on a widescreen TV without windowboxing it. The main menu has some
subtle animation and sound.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
