“Starchaser: The Legend of Orin” (1985) will be celebrating 40 years next year. Unfortunately it was released very late in the 1980’s 3D cycle. With a 6.4 rating on the IMDB list of Best Silver Age 3D Movies (1966-2004,) it is one of the highest rated Silver Age 3D Features. The animated motion picture was released on November 22, 1985, in an over-under (Techniscope) single-strip 3D process. It had several film festival screenings as early as May 11, 1985 and had anticipated an early summer 1985 release. One modern day source, states that it premiered in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 17, 1985, but this was likely a film festival screening. But Daily Variety had announced on May 9, 1985 that the world premiere was at the Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 1985. The May 16, 1985 Hollywood Reporter reported that the picture had been well-received at Cannes. Cartoonist Dave Woodman remembers an Animation Festival in Los Angeles had shown the picture in the summer of 1985. The animated feature received a PG Rating by the MPAA, which may have excluded much of the pictures target audience. The movie takes place in the year 2985, 1,000 years into the future. Publicized as ‘The first ever animated feature made in 3-D,’ but as early as May 15, 1985, Variety reported that advertising was inaccurate as “Abra Cadabra” (1983,) an Australian animated comedy/fantasy motion picture was released prior to “Starchaser.”
“Starchaser” was produced and directed by Steven Hahn, with an international team of animators and technicians. Released theatrically in the US by Atlantic Releasing Corporation, which was struggling financially during the release and did very little promotion. Primarily produced with conventional line art animation using hand-drawn and hand-painted celluloid sheets (cels,) which would produce a planar look, similar to the art in 3D comic books or View-Master cartoon reels. The feature did not use any rotoscoping, which might have made the work a little less difficult. “Starchaser” featured the use of actual stereo pairs of hand-drawn images and computer-assisted stereography to produce volumetric roundness that appeared as line art on screen, which was very cutting-edge at the time (ten years prior to “Toy Story”.) The story for the feature was titled “Escape to the Stars,” which would serve as the foundation for “Starchaser.” Written by Jeffrey Scott, the real-life grandson of the Three Stooges’ ringleader Moe Howard and the son of Norman Maurer. Maurer was behind the 3D comic book craze of 1953. Hahn hired computer visual effects artist John Sparey to work out a method to produce hand-drawn computer-assisted stereo pairs of art. Sparey worked on the graphics program for about six months and later Bill Kroyer joined the crew. They developed the first computer graphics program that actually had a pen that could draw in 3D. After top, bottom, front and back drawings of objects had been made on graph paper, the drawings were then encoded into a computer so that mathematical structures of the x, y and z coordinates existed in the computer memory. These coordinates could then be used to create and output multiple points of view of the object.
The movie as a space adventure, seems to borrow a great deal from the “Star Wars” movies. Zygon’s robot guards resembles the Cylon Centurions from the television series Battlestar Galactica (1978,) the Cylons are also robots. Much of this movie was animated with a 1.85:1 frame in mind, but the two-perf single-strip 3D projection system required a 2.35:1 ratio. As a result, many shots appear framed unusually tight and in some cases characters’ heads are partially cut off. Released in Japan in the short-lived VHD format in 3D. This disc had been widely copied to make bootleg tapes, DVDs and now YouTube videos. On November 23, 1985, the movie was reviewed by Siskel & Ebert on their ‘At the Movies’ program along with “Fever Pitch,” “One Magic Christmas” and “Santa Claus: The Movie” all four movies received two thumbs down. Roger Ebert, who hated 3D movies, actually thought this feature came closer to working as a 3D movie than any other 3D movie he had seen to that point. This review is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BogZ20XBdlM Another reviewer wrote: “Starchaser will undoubtedly appeal to teenagers who have grown up on Saturday-morning kidvid rather than to adults or animation fans. A final caveat: Viewers with glasses and/or astigmatism may have problems watching 90 minutes (sic) of 3-D animation, the film left me with a shattering headache.”
The production had originally been optimistically budgeted for $2 million. In a November 21, 1985 Los Angeles Times review, it was reported as $9 million, however in January 1986, Boxoffice magazine announced a $10 million budget and modern day Box Office Mojo states it cost $15 million, which may include print and promotional costs. Hahn stated the budget was close to fourteen million dollars, with about five million of his own money. Hahn thought it would take six months to complete, but with all the technical difficulties and size of the production, it took three years. “Starchaser” only played one week in Los Angeles area theaters, but played up to three weeks in US theaters. Opening on 1,020 screens, on the opening week-end it only grossed $1,614,660, placing it in sixth place for that week-end. By the second week-end (Thanksgiving 3 day) it had dropped to 705 screens and twelfth place, grossing only $774,090. For the third week-end it was still on 137 screens, ranking fourteenth and only grossing $120,012. The total US box-office gross was $3,360,800. International numbers are not available, but it is reported as not faring well in South Korea, were much of the animation production took place.
American Cinematographer magazine covered the picture in their December 1985 issue. Discussing the early computer animation required for the animated feature. Primary scenes involving spaceships or the cockpit interior of the Starchaser ship were computer-generated. Also, shots of ore cars moving in perspective throughout the mine tunnels were handled by the LNW 80 computer, to alleviate pressure on the animators. The LNW wasn’t the most sophisticated computer in the world, but it was of sufficient memory to duplicate and match the hand-drawn cartoon elements of the sequences made by animators in Korea. The “Starchaser” budget and animation procedure did not allow for any real-time interaction. The movements had to printed out on animation cels and shot with a video camera, if the animation looked okay, they proceeded to the filming stages. Cels were hand painted on the back to add color and opaque the image. The 3D process employed a 2-perf left eye top, right eye bottom, similar to Spacevision. A half-frame aperture plate was manufactured specially for their Acme camera. The crane operator shot all the multiple passes for the left-eye image first. These included foreground and background artwork, effects animation such as explosion and laser fire and any back-lighted hold-out mattes required. The the film was rewound to the beginning, shifted 2-perfs in the gate and identical passes were made for the right-eye images.
Hahn had been working in television animation and owned a facility in Korea. To create work during the off-season, he decided to make an animated feature. The original script draft was 135 pages. Scott was a successful television animation writer, who had worked for Hahn on many animation series. When they started the storyboard, they realized that the story had to be cut down. Pre-production, post-production and some key scenes done in the US, but most of the animation was done in Korea and the footage had to be shipped back and forth. In a time period prior to the internet, this was quite a daunting feat, not to mention monthly phone bills up to three-thousand dollars. The voice cast was recorded in the US with an outstanding voice cast. Just a few examples are Joe Colligan voicing Orin; Carmen Argenziano was a very busy actor before and after voicing Dagg Dibrimi; Noelle North voicing both Elan and Aviana; actor/fight coordinator/weapons expert Anthony De Longis voicing Lord Zygon and veteran radio, television and screen actor Les Tremayne voicing several characters. Additional featured voices, among others are actor and cartoon voice, Ken Sansom voicing Magreb & Major Tagani and character actor Herb Vigran voicing Hopps/Elan’s grandfather, in one of his final performances.
“Starchaser: The Legend of Orin” has not yet received a proper 3D Blu-ray release. It was released on VHS and Laserdisc on March 25, 1986 by Paramount Home Video and also by KVC Home Video. A DVD was released on June 21, 2005 by MGM Home Entertainment and a 2018 DVD and 2D Blu-ray release. The 2D Blu-ray was available with a 3D lenticular cover. A Japanese 3D VHD had been released and alternate-field videos and DVDs had been bootlegged. There are many YouTube videos, most are not of very good quality, even a very poor 3D version can be viewed on YouTube that suffers from occasional slight-vertical misalignment and a partially annoying one frame out of sync between eyes. There was also a “Starchaser” soundtrack released. The music was composed by Andrew Belling, who had also done the music for Ralph Bakshi’s “Wizards” (1977.) The recording was done in London with a ninety piece orchestra, with Belling also credited as ‘musician: synthesizer.’ No toys or action figures were ever produced. There had been talk of a live-action version of the story, but nothing ever developed. Back around 2015, Hahn stated that he was working with partners in Korea to restore and create a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) and they were in the final phases of that restoration package. Later it was mentioned that they were unable to work out details for a 3D restoration. Hahn and Scott had plans for two more 3D animated features which they were raising the funding to produce.
Dave Woodman
Dave Woodman is an artist, caricaturist and animator. Growing up on a ranch in Southern Colorado, he had the belief that one day he would be an animator for Disney. He not only grew up to be a Disney animator, but he also received an Academy Award Nomination and won a Golden Globe Award for his work. Some of his work for Disney includes; “The Little Mermaid” (1989,) “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) and “Aladdin” (1992.) At age 17, Dave’s longtime idol, Lucille Ball, purchased some of his early caricature portraits of herself for her personal collection. He is a member of the Academy of Television and the Society of Illustrators. When he did a caricature of Phyllis Diller, she said “It looks more like me than I do!” According to IMDB, when asked how many animators worked on “The Little Mermaid,” he answered “I never counted them.” Dave’s first work (but not his first released) was on the 3D motion picture “Starchaser: The Legend of Orin.” Dave has offered to ‘spill all the great dirt.’
Questions and Answers with Dave Woodman:
Stereo World (SW): This was your first job in animation. When you applied, did you have any idea the work would take three years?
Dave Woodman (DW): The generation preceding mine had jobs that generally lasted for many years, so I basically expected it. What a great thing! I really wish jobs would last and last. According to a [Valley Courier] article, I had the job for more than 2 years. It was called “Escape to the Stars,” until [associate director] John Sparey suggested the name of the spaceship should be the title. I got the job because I wore ‘Daisy Dukes’ shorts. Daniel Pia told me he hired me because he liked my legs. I was up against David Silverman (later of “The Simpsons” fame.) He probably doesn’t even remember he was up for this job, he was probably glad I did that, so he could go onto “The Simpsons” and he didn’t have to be chased around the desk. I hated that boss, he was a terrible person. He took me out to dinner and was going to leave me there, because I wasn’t going to sleep with him. I didn’t know where I was in California and he was like mad at me. If the boss is going to ask you out to dinner and you are from a farm, you are going to go. He made it miserable for me, because I didn’t put out for him.
SW: When associate producer Daniel Pia hired you, he said “Probably the first job I’ll give you is to design Arthur.” Arthur is basically a box. What can you tell us about this design and the progression of designing characters for the picture?
DW: I designed the box, that’s all. Louise Zingarelli did most of the designs. Louise Zingarelli came from Bakshi (Zingarelli had been layout artist on the Ralph Bakshi directed “The Lord of the Rings” (1978,) which had included Steven Hahn as production manager (uncredited,) John Sparey as assistant director and Daniel Pia as animation production supervisor. Zingarelli also was a designer and layout artist on the Ralph Bakshi produced and directed “American Pop” (1981,) which included Steven Hahn as production manager (uncredited) and John Sparey as assistant director.) In the corners of Arthur, I put a little extra darkness and they thought that was great. Just a little more darkness in the corners of the rectangle that is his face and they liked that. Something about Arthur, he wouldn’t really fit, if he turned sideways. But there is one part of the show where he turns sideways and goes back into his little hole. So they altered it for that, so he would fit. He was a rectangle, so he wouldn’t fit, if he turned sideways. Suddenly, he’s turning sideways and going back into his little hole there, ducking down there and they just made it work. Louise Zingarelli had an art show and Daniel Pia was backing her show, he was very unhappy. They are both dead now. He was very unhappy with the way her art show went, he wanted to do it his way, you know, drama! Louise was the head artist, she did most of the (character) designs and if you find early designs that are kind of rendered, those are hers. The (reference, key character) cels are later. They took her designs and line drawings, contoured drawings off of her examples.
SW: Many people have accused “Starchaser” of copying “Star Wars.” Was the Princess Leia and Princess Aviana resemblance just a coincidence?
DW: I saved one drawing of her that looks just like Carrie Fisher, I thought this is amazing. I think it kind of happened. I had to do the drawing that fit into the movie, so I wasn’t trying to make it look like Carrie Fisher, but it did happen and maybe they had that in mind. Louise was the character designer, I don’t know why they had me do Arthur. I later did designs for Cruella de Vil (character designer, “101 Dalmatians: The Series,” 1997-1998,) I did designs for all the characters for “Cats Don’t Dance” (1997.) My first design work was a box.
SW: Did you interact with director/producer Steven Hahn at all?
DW: When I did a drawing of the crew for some card, he asked “How come don’t I have any eyes?” He was nice enough, but he was a big boss. I dealt with Daniel, he chased me around the desk.
SW: Starchaser’s writer was Jeffrey Scott (grandson of the Three Stooges’ ringleader Moe Howard, he has also been a writer on many animated series.) Since he changed his name, I don’t believe it was well-known that he was related to Moe Howard or his father was Norman Maurer. Did you interact with him much?
DW: I didn’t know him and I didn’t know he was related, I think that should have been common knowledge, if we knew it. I worked with Jong Hee Lee (background artist) and Jong Hee Lee said this guy came in and Jong said something like who are you or something and the guy said “I am the WRITER!” I never met him, that I know of. If I had known he was related to the Three Stooges, I might have liked to have talked about that.
SW: The picture was playing film festivals as early as May 1985, do you know why it wasn’t released until November?
DW: They were saving it to come out with this film festival (in Los Angeles.) That is my take on it.
SW: Starchaser was inaccurately marketed as the “first animated 3D feature,” sources cite the Australian film “Abra Cadabra” (1983) as the first 3D animated feature. Have you heard of that feature or have you seen it?
DW: No, I wish I would have, maybe we will watch that together some day. I guess they really wanted to promote this as the only one, the first animated 3D film.
SW: Dick Sebast is listed in the credits as one of five Storyboard Artists. IMDB has over 36 other credits, plus he shares a 1993 Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program: “Batman: The Animated Series.” I have heard stories that he may have been involved in a missing hard drive being held for ransom? Do you know anything about that and can you talk about that at all?
DW: It was the buzz around the studio. I came into work on the weekend, because we did that a lot. He was at the computer and when I came in, he was surprised and I thought why is he freaking out that I am here? Because I busted him, I was there to work, I didn’t know he was possibly stealing something, which is what I was told later. They called me in and said “David, you were here on the weekend, did you see Dick?” Yes, I saw Dick, he was there. So he did take this and hold it for ransom, from what they told me. I don’t think he worked on the rest of it and I think they had to pay him off to get it back.
SW: IMDB incorrectly lists the filming location as ‘Minneapolis, Minnesota.’ Some reviewers referred to the animation as being live action footage that was rotoscoped, which was not the case. Can you talk about the workflow with the computer?
DW: Every once in a while the computer would kick out something that didn’t make any sense or somewhat sense and I would have to take all the lines and make them up, because it was too much for the computer or something. It would leave out lines and my job was to add the lines and I loved it. So I would have drawings on either side of that one to go by and I would just make certain it was consistent.
I did the in-betweening and I worked on the characters.
SW: While working on “Starchaser,” you learned how to draw and photograph in 3D. One of your jobs was to draw the landing gear on the Starchaser. When you drew the distant art, it was titled “1LR” meaning the drawing was used for both the left and right eye views. The computer held a pen to draw like an etch-a-sketch and the program couldn’t handle drawing the entire ship. So you had to cut and tape the drawings together. What else can you remember about that work?
DW: I would cut it from the back and tape it from the back, I had to angle the X-Acto knife, you could cut on glass. You cut it on the glass, it didn’t scratch the glass, it cut very well with a sharp X-Acto knife and then I would just drop the other pieces in and flatten them out and scotch tape them and it worked very well. If you look closely, you can see the side engines and top of the ship were cut and taped in, from separate sheets of paper. One of my jobs was to draw the landing gear on the Starchaser.
SW: You had taken photos with Lucille Ball and animation checker, Bob Revell noted that two of them would work as a stereo pair. Have you done any more of that?
DW: I was just so excited that I had those two pictures. I did it with my passport picture.
SW: There is a character in the feature that resembles associate producer Daniel Pia, how did that happen?
DW: Yes, they just like to kiss up to the boss. You know he was the boss and they wanted to make him happy and they just stuck him in there and he was amused. He wore this brace on his neck for a long time, I don’t know what happened to him. Maybe, from being on the phone. They had a birthday party for him and everyone wore braces on their neck. This guy had a long beard and his beard came through the brace and out the bottom and Daniel thought that was hilarious! I have a drawing of Daniel, it has his brace on.
SW: You did sketches of the US crew, was this in your free time or are you always sketching?
DW: Always sketching, I did sketches of everybody, at Disney and every where else. It was just part of what I do. I love doing that. It was fun for me and they enjoyed it too.
SW: There were many voice actors who worked on “Starchaser,” including veteran actor Herb Vigran. Did you have any interaction with any of the voice actors? Do you have any stories about that?
DW: Thomas Watkins, he was one of the runners there, he was so excited to be one of the voices. We’re friends to this day. (Thomas H. Watkins is credited as production assistant and voiced Man-Droid #2, Mizzo and Smuggler #2 in “Starchaser,” he went on to do voices and associate produced several “Alvin” and “The Chipmunks” projects.)
SW: In 2015, “Starchaser” director/producer Steven Hahn and writer Jeffrey Scott joined up again as Hahn-Scott Productions to promote two CG animated features, one was to be a charming Christmas story that blends the traditional elements of Santa Claus with adorable new characters to launch a perennial global Christmas brand for the 21st century and the other was to be a romantic-teen-comedy-action romp with a unique new take on the superhero comic book genre. Do you know anything about those?
DW: No, it’s amazing they did anything else together after this. It is news to me.
SW: The animated “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) was converted to 3D. You had worked on the original 2D release as a breakdown artist: Objects, Townspeople and others. It first played in 3D in Australia opening September 2010 and rolled out into other countries. It played in theaters in the US starting January 2012 and then came out November 2014 on 3D blu-ray. Other Disney features that you worked on, “The Little Mermaid” (1989,) (the US 3D release of “The Little Mermaid” was in 2013) and “Aladdin” (1992,) also converted to 3D, but with a more limited availability. Have you seen them in 3D and do you have any thoughts or memories about it?
DW: I took a friend to “Beauty and the Beast,” I think that followed right after “Lion King” (the 1994 original “The Lion King” was re-released in 3D in the US on September 16, 2011.) and I loved it, I think it was new that they added some sketches in the ending credits. It was marvelous. I loved it. I went to “Little Mermaid 3D” on Hollywood Blvd. with my friend, J.B. Ghuman, because he loved the movie. He made a movie with me in it, related to “The Little Mermaid” (Ghuman’s movie “The (Art) of Be(i)ng” (2019) had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival,) so we went to that together. I remember when I saw “The Little Mermaid: in 3D, I thought there was really no need to have it in 3D. I wish I had seen “Aladdin,” with that magic carpet stuff, it may have been wonderful. I didn’t see “Aladdin” in 3D, I would love to. I saw the new “Aladdin” (2019) in 3D and it was terrible. I don’t remember a thing about that magic carpet, I thought a magic carpet ride on 3D that must be wonderful, I went to it and I thought, this really sucks! It was terrible. Will Smith as the genie, are you kidding me?
SW: Do you have any other interesting Disney, 3D, topics to discuss or future plans?
DW: Tons! I love that I can do a 3D drawing, I can do that on my own. I can do two drawings and you can cross your eyes and they look 3D. I love that I can do this. This is a skill and since “Starchaser” has come and gone, I haven’t had an opportunity to use the skill. I would love to make lenticulars or something. It is something that I would love to use someday. Disney, that’s four years of my life and then I went to Disney TV for two years after that, that’s six years. I loved, loved, loved working on these things that are as popular today as they ever were, that is nice, that’s wonderful! People think “Oh Dave, you worked on that – you’re rich.” They think that, but there are no royalties. On Instagram and Facebook, people know me and follow me, because of these films. They’re not going to know me otherwise, why would they care? The movies I worked on that last forever. “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” (1989,) I did that for Disney. I animated sperm for EPCOT. (“The Making of Me” (1989) was an educational piece, narrated by Martin Short, made for the ‘Wonders of Life’ pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort’s Epcot center,) with the Kroyers. They closed it out, it’s gone now. I took my mother to Disney World especially to see that, we got there and it was closed. I worked with the Kroyers after that, in addition to “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and “The Making of Me,” I worked with them on “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989.) This was my introduction to the Kroyers and some of the finest projects I ever got to be part of after that. I welcome people to follow me on Instagram and Facebook.
SW: You did at least one job on the side for key animator Bill Kroyer during “Starchaser.” But when the project finished and no new work was planned, there must have been a tremendous unease when the day came for the crew to be laid off. What can you tell us about the end of this?
DW: “Starchaser” being my first job, there was tremendous unease the day we were all laid off. Sue (Kroyer) came in to the room and said, “Everything has always turned out all right and it always will.” Words I’ve lived by since, and I’ll love it, if that can continue to do good, by being the last line in your article. “Everything has always turned out all right and it always will.”
Sidebar -
100 min. Over-under Techniscope 3-D
Some of the main credits:
Directed and Produced by Steven Hahn (production manager many animated TV series)
Written by Jeffrey Scott (Moe Howard’s (Three Stooges) grandson, writer many animated series)
Associate Producer – Christine Danzo (Producer Ren & Stimpy, King of the Hill, etc)
Associate Producer – Daniel Pia (1953 – 2019, one other project animation Lord of the Rings)
Executive Producer – Thomas Coleman (Ex Producer 20+ movies 1977 – 1999)
Executive Producer – Michael Rosenblatt (many movie producer credits 1977 – 2012)
Associate Director – John Sparey (also receives credit as a Scene Planner and Computer Animation Planning)
Music by – Andrew Belling (composed the soundtrack of animated – “Wizards” (1977)
Plus these credits:
Visual Effects by 19 names including: Dave Woodman – computer assistant
Animation Department by 79, including: Dave Woodman – inbetween artist (as David Woodman)
Production facilities: Seoul – Hanho Heung-Up Company
Production facilities: Los Angeles – Westar Productions
Special Effects – Available Light Productions
Voices Actors:
Joe Colligan as Orin (Ally McBeal, Days of Our Lives, Trapper John, M.D.)
Carman Argenziano as Dagg Dibrimi (1943 – 2019)(Lou Grant, The Young and the Restless, CSI: NY)
Noelle North as Elan/Aviana (The Smurfs, Adventures of the Gummi Bears)
Anthony Delongis as Zygon (Star Trek: Voyager, Santa Barbara, Days of Our Lives)
Tyke Caravelli as Silica (Vice Academy 5)
Les Tremayne as Arthur (1913 – 2003) (War of the Worlds, North by Northwest, +135 credits)
Herb Vigran as Hopps (1910- 1986) (389 credits, I Love Lucy, Superman, Ozzie and Harrriet)
Thomas H. Watkins as Mizzo, Man-Droid #2 and Smuggler #2 (Alvin & the Chipmunks)