Ulysses 31-Complete Collection (1981)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Menu Audio Trailer-Retro Collection Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1981
Running Time	625:40 (Case: 650)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bernard Deyriès Kyosuke Mikuriya Tadao Nagahama Kazuo Terada
Studio Distributor	Madman Madman Entertainment	Starring	Matt Berman Adrian Knight Anick Faris Howard Ryshpan Kelly Ricard
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$59.95	Music	Haim Saban Shuki Levy Lionel Leroy

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

“Disgrace is upon us! The great Cyclops is dead! The revenge of the gods will be terrible!”

The 1981-1982 anime series Ulysses 31 was a co-production between the international film and television company of French origin DiC Entertainment (Diffusion, Information et Communication) and the Japanese anime studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS Entertainment Ltd). The 26 half-hour episodes are inspired by the Greek and Roman mythologies of Ulysses and relocate the legend to the 31^st century.

The television show was created by French producer and writer Jean Chalopin who also established the company DIC Audiovisuel in 1971 as a subsidiary of Radio-Television Luxembourg (RTL). The company was later renamed DiC Entertainment and based in the USA in 1982 after Andy Heyward performed a management buyout of Chalpoin’s French production company. Chalopin has been credited with creating Inspector Gadget (1983-1986), Heathcliff (1973), Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (1985), Pole Position (1984-1985), Rainbow Brite (1984-1985), M.A.S.K (1985-1986) and Popples (1986). Nina Wolmark and Yohshitaka Suzuki are also credited with creating the original concept for Ulysses 31.

In the 31^st century Ulysses, the commander of the Odyssey, his son Telemachus and crew leave the base at Troy for a routine journey to Earth. However Telemachus is abducted and held prisoner by the disciples of the Cyclops who need a human child to sacrifice for their God. In battle Ulysses kills the Cyclops, saving his son, Yumi a blue skin humaniod and Numinor the older brother of Yumi who remains in suspened animation. Both Yumi and Numinor were also held as prisoners. As consequence for defeating the Cyclops, Ulysses incurs the wrath of the Gods and Zeus sentences Ulysses to find his way to the Kingdom of Hades with his crew cursed to remain lifeless and the route to Earth removed from Shirka, the Odyssey’s navigation system. In the pilot episode the character of No-No, Telemachus's robot, is also introduced, who despite being a machine also shares many human emotional qualities. Each episode further develops the characters and illustrates well-known figures of Greek mythology with a unique science fiction fantasy angle.

The memorable opening theme of the English version of the television show was performed by Lionel Leroy with additional music by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.

    Disc 1:

• 1. Vengeance of the Gods

• 2. The Lost Planet

• 3. The Black Sphere

• 4. Guardian of the Cosmic Winds

• 5. The Eternal Punishment

• 6. Flowers of Fear

    Disc 2:

• 7. Mutiny on Board

• 8. Secret of the Sphinx

• 9. Cronus, Father of Time

• 10. Temple of the Lestrigones

• 11. The Seat of Forgetfulness

• 12. Trapped Between Fire and Ice

    Disc 3:

• 13. Phantoms from the Swamp

• 14. Song of Danger

• 15. Before the Flood

• 16. The Magic Spells of Circe

• 17. Lost in the Labyrinth

• 18. At the Heart of the Universe

• 19. The Hidden Truth

    Disc 4:

• 20. The Magician in Black

• 21. Rebellion on Lemnos

• 22. City of Cortex

• 23. Calypso

• 24. Strange Meeting

• 25. The Lotus Eaters

• 26. The Kingdom of Hades

Video

Unfortunately the transfer for the television series has not been remastered and has been sourced from tape. The transfer of Ulysses 31 is presented in Full Frame 1.33:1 and incurs in minor incidents of analogue tape tracking errors but this issue is barely visible. There is also mild grain on the transfer but since the episodes have been encoded at a consistent bitrate of 5.10 Mb/s, the transfer remains smooth with average color definition. Finally the transfer appears to be affected by telecine wobble. Nevertheless these negative issues are only a minor nuisance and are more to do with the source material rather then the DVD encoding which is commendable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The only audio soundtrack available on this DVD is English 2.0 Dolby Digital mono. Ulysses 31was originally produced as a French language television program and was later dubbed in German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Japanese. This dubbed mono soundtrack has also been well-encoded which clear and audible dialogue. There were some minor incidents of hissing. The vigorous and energetic music of the television show is somewhat in the background of the action which is a shame but I believe this is the result of how Ulysses 31 was originally dubbed. Overall the soundtrack is suitable in respect to the television show and the age of the source material.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu Audio

The practical main menu features a different character for each DVD disc which is similarly replicated on the DVD disc artwork. The menu includes a play all option and a select episode option which is accompanied by the opening theme of Ulysses 31

Retro Collection Trailers

Disc one features a selection of opening sequences of animated televisions series recently released as ‘The Retro Collection’ by Madman Entertainment: M.A.S.K Collection 1, The Best of She-Ra Princess of Power, He-man and the Masters of the Universe Season 2 Collection 2, The Best of The Transformers. An anti-piracy warning precedes the collection of 'trailers'.

The DVD packaging features reversible artwork.

The television series has been released in France (R2) with the original French soundtrack only. In the UK (R2), Ulysses 31 has been released over three volumes either sold as a box set or individual releases; and as single layer DVD’s with English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio. It seems the local Madman Complete Collection is the best release in terms of affordability and presentation. It should also be noted that the opening credit sequence is cut on both the R2 UK DVD releases and R4 DVD release.

Ulysses 31 is an anime based on Greek and Roman mythologies with a unique science fiction fantasy angle.

Audio and video are satisfactory, considering the source materials' age and technical limitations.

Extras consist of trailers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall