The Chosen One: Legend Of The Raven

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Animation & Audio Menu Audio Featurette - Aroma Du Troma Featurette - Lloyd Kaufman's Autobiography Featurette - Radiation March Featurette - Global Warming PSA Featurette - Masturbation PSA Studio Tour - Tromatic Interactivity VHS Introduction Photo Gallery Trailer - The Toxic Avenger Trailer - Rowdy Girls
Rating
Year Released	1997
Running Time	84:31 Minutes (Not 91 Minutes as per packaging)
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director	Lawrence Lanoff
Studio Distributor	Lloyd Kaufman Productions  Tribe Distribution	Starring	Conrad Bachmann Tim Bagley Carmen Electra Billy A. Fox Shauna Sand Lamas
Case	Soft Brackley
RPI	$39.95	Music	Keith Arem

    The plot in this particular Troma film is basically an excuse to display as much female flesh as the censors will let them get away with, and this is reflected in a 3.4 out of ten rating from 83 IMDB users. The film begins with a detailed description of how the world has been a battleground between Good and Evil since the dawn of time, and that Good has not always triumphed. One weapon that is destined to sway the balance of the final battle is the Sacred Crescent, a talisman with origins extending beyond recorded time. Emma (Shauna Sand Lamas), the current guardian of the Sacred Crescent, is pursued and murdered by a group of hicks who have aligned themselves with the forces of Evil. McKenna Ray (Carmen Electra), her elder sister, has come back to town in order to attend her funeral. Little is she aware that she has now been chosen to fight in the battle between Good and Evil, or that her life is in danger from the same agents of Evil who killed her sister.

    There is no more plot to really speak of in this film, and I can just imagine the screenplay consisting of such instructions as "expose breasts for 72 frames here", or something to that effect. The use of poorly translated Native American religious elements only serves to further weaken the plot, such as it is. In the end, it is going to come down to a very simple choice: do you want to see a film with a good story, riveting dialogue, and cheesy production values, or do you want to see a film with hilarious dialogue where Carmen Electra takes her clothes off and provides enough cleavage shots to fill two films? If you're in the mood for the latter kind of film, then The Chosen One: Legend Of The Raven is right up your alley. Just don't expect the best film you'll ever sit through, or even the best film that Troma Entertainment have ever churned out, and you should be okay.

Video

    The transfer is presented Full Frame, and it is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. Definitive information as to whether this film was intended to be shown in a widescreen ratio is nearly impossible to find, but the production values otherwise apparent in the film lead me to believe that it was shot with this aspect ratio in mind. The transfer is sharp enough to justify the use of the DVD-Video format, but that's really about it, although I suspect the lack of detail in the backgrounds is more the result of the methods used in the photography than anything else. The shadow detail is somewhat on the below average side, and there is no low-level noise. Film grain, on the other hand, is often apparent.

    The colour saturation of this transfer is muted, but this also appears to be inherent in the way the film was shot, much like the lack of background resolution. There are no composite artefacts, colour bleeding, or misregistration, so the colours are as well-presented as one can expect.

    MPEG artefacts were not apparent in this transfer, despite the condition of the source material and tightness of the compression. Film-to-video artefacts included some wobble that appears to have been introduced by the camera with which the film was shot rather than the telecine process. Film artefacts consisted of some black and white marks on the picture, none of which were particularly intrusive.

Audio

    There is only one soundtrack on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, with a bitrate of 224 kilobits per second. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at almost all times, with the biggest limit set by the viewer's propensity to burst into hysterical laughter at the stupidity of numerous lines. This problem is more apparent in the early portions of the film, where numerous lines fail to make any sense whatsoever in the context of those that they follow. There are no apparent problems with audio sync.

    The score music in this film is credited to one Keith Arem, and it is surprising because it is effective at creating the illusion of a credible story. Cheesy, hilarious, and often cheap in nature, this score music is perfectly suited to the onscreen action at all times, especially the porn-film style music during the scenes when Carmen Electra takes her clothes off. I suspect that these scenes will be seen and heard at least ten times as much as the rest of the film.

    Being that this is a straight stereo soundtrack, there is no surround channel activity to speak of. The subwoofer, on the other hand, was frequently present to support the music and action sequences, in spite of not being specifically called upon by the soundtrack to do so.

Menu

Studio Tour - Tromatic Interactivity

Featurette - Aroma Du Troma

Featurette - Lloyd Kaufman's Autobiography

Featurette - Radiation March

Featurette - Global Warming PSA

Featurette - Masturbation PSA

Trailer - The Toxic Avenger

Trailer - The Rowdy Girls

VHS Introduction

Photo Gallery

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Audio Commentary - Lawrence Lanoff (Director)
• Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround-Encoded Soundtrack
• Troma Intelligence Test
• Various featurettes

• VHS Introduction
• Photo Gallery

    The video quality is good, but not great.

    The audio quality is good, but not great.

    The extras are as cheesy as the film itself, but they are also quite numerous.
 

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall