It isn’t identified whether or not “Ulysses 31” was on Christopher Nolan’s radar in his teenage years, but it surely’s intriguing to assume it might have influenced the director’s resolution to tackle Homer’s “The Odyssey”.
This animated house opera, a French/Japanese co-production, delivered a crash course in Greek mythology to a technology of youngsters who grew up within the ’80s. And, though it appears to be like extra like “Star Wars” than Homer’s authentic story, it had a good stab at transferring the Classics to the thirty first century (the clue actually was within the title), years earlier than the Coen brothers took “The Odyssey” to the Deep South in “O Brother, The place Artwork Thou?”
The cartoon’s core premise can be acquainted to any Greek scholar, regardless that purists would certainly bristle on the hero going beneath his Roman pseudonym, Ulysses, quite than the unique Greek Odysseus.
At coronary heart, it is that previous story of a ship’s captain racing to get residence from Troy (on this case, a starbase) earlier than his spouse, Penelope, marries one other man. That voyage is quickly waylaid, nonetheless, when Ulysses’ son, Telemachus, is kidnapped to turn out to be a sacrifice to an enormous robotic Cyclops.
Ulysses rapidly lives as much as the promise of his well-known theme music — “At all times preventing all of the evil forces, bringing peace and justice to all” — by vanquishing the one-eyed menace and rescuing Telemachus together with Yumi and Numinor (a pair of blue alien Zotrians who, so far as we are able to inform, do not function within the authentic Homer).
Sadly for Ulysses and his crew, he messed with the unsuitable big robotic Cyclops, as a result of this one occurred to belong to the Greek sea god Poseidon, who’s now taken up residence in outer house. The deity is so aggravated on the puny mortal’s impudence that he will get his brother, Zeus (aka the pinnacle honcho in Olympus), to inflict divine retribution.
Ulysses is subsequently sentenced to “journey amongst unknown stars” (his ship, the Odyssey, has its navigational databanks purged) whereas his crewmates — referred to, in what now feels like modern company jargon, as “companions” — are put right into a perpetual slumber. If he will make it residence to Penelope, he’ll want to seek out the Kingdom of Hades earlier than his 26-episode run involves an finish.
It is much less an replace of Homer than a riff on his biggest hits, with a number of different notable classics of the Classical interval thrown in for good measure. Along with slaying the Cyclops, Ulysses follows in OG Odysseus’s footsteps when he meets the Sirens and Lotus Eaters.
However he additionally ventures past the confines of Homer’s narrative when he encounters Sisyphus (fated to dedicate his whole life to a repetitive, pointless activity), Orpheus (en path to Hades to rescue Eurydice, the love of his life), and three-headed canine Cerberus, reinvented as an interceptor satellite tv for pc with, sure, three heads.
Lots of the character names are additionally acquainted. Priam, the commander of the Troy starbase, shares his title with Troy’s final king in antiquity, whereas Nestor, Ulysses’ second in command, is an advisor within the authentic story. Shirka, the pc on Ulysses’ ship, takes her title from Circe, a sorceress.
However the present additionally adopts a reasonably liberal method to the supply materials. Homer’s model of Telemachus spends a lot of the story separated from his dad, whereas “Ulysses 31″‘s is a continuing presence. Whereas Odysseus’s shipmates largely wound up lifeless, right here they’re plunged right into a state of literal suspended animation, lifelessly floating within the ship’s maintain.
And Ulysses is already conscious of the Greek gods earlier than he makes first contact — in a single episode, he even travels again hundreds of years in time to satisfy his well-known namesake.
If this feels like writers sanitising the story for youthful audiences, effectively, it did not really feel that method should you watched the present as a child. At instances, “Ulysses 31” is genuinely freaky, from these levitating lifeless our bodies to some really grotesque monsters. The gods themselves are additionally an unnerving presence, omnipresent beings of colossal energy who see people as their playthings and consider Ulysses’ toils as some twisted spectator sport.
Apart from, in contrast to “Masters of the Universe” and many of the other biggest sci-fi cartoons of the ’80s, the good guys weren’t always guaranteed to win. Being Ulysses — a single dad guiding his son and adopted daughter Yumi through the cosmos — wasn’t easy.
Now 45 years old (though it didn’t find its way onto British and American TV screens until the mid-’80s), “Ulysses 31” is showing its age. The animation is often rudimentary, particularly in outer-space scenes that are effectively a cut-out of a starship being dragged across a stellar background. The dialogue, meanwhile, is played hilariously straight — good luck finding a laugh among these uncharted stars — and often consists of someone shouting another character’s name. “Telemachus!” “Father!” “My son!” “Yumi!” etc. Telemachus’s small red robot pal, Nono, is up there with the most irritating “cute” sidekicks of the era — quite the achievement in an extremely competitive field.
But there’s also plenty to like. As static as they sometimes look, the spaceship designs have the feel of a classic space opera book cover, particularly Ulysses’ eye-shaped craft, the aptly named Odyssey. The series also borrows heavily from a more modern piece of mythology, namely the “Star Wars” saga. Ulysses may not be a Jedi (as far as we know), but his gun/laser sword weapon looks a lot like a lightsaber. Some of the incidental music even apes John Williams’ score from a galaxy far, far away.
Which brings us on to the soundtrack, the main reason this show lives on in the collective consciousness of a generation.
The work of Denny Crockett, Ike Egan, and, on selected tracks, Shuki Levy and Haim Saban (the latter duo also composed for “Masters of the Universe”, “Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors,” and many more cartoon classics), the music is a cut above. “The Curse of the Gods” refrain is loaded with menace, totally living up to its portentous title, and then there’s that theme song.
Severely, to folks of a sure age — even those that keep in mind nothing else concerning the present — listening to the title “Ulysses” is sufficient to get them singing “Ulysee-ee-ee-ee-ees” advert infinitum, an earworm really worthy of the gods of Olympus.
Homer’s tales should still be remembered hundreds of years after he wrote them, however you’ll be able to assure he did not have a tune fairly like that.
“Ulysses 31” is not on any main streaming service, however there are fan uploads on YouTube if you wish to expertise the present for your self.
