released 01 aug 09 / last mod 01 aug 09 / greg goebel / public domain
* At the beginning of PROJECT BLUE EARTH SOS (PBE-SOS) -- an anime video series in six 45-minute episodes on two DVDs -- it is the mid-1990s, and a test of a new aircraft with a "G-Reaction Engine" goes seriously wrong, with the aircraft disappearing along with its pilot. Five years later, alien spacecraft start performing attacks on Earth, and it's up to boy geniuses Billy Kimura and Penny Carter (a guy, by the way) to work with the secret super-science Labyrinth Alliance to defeat the invaders.
Sounds corny? It is. PBE-SOS was designed as a takeoff on cheesy 1950s sci-fi movies, complete with boy heroes who save the day, scientists in lab coats leading the resistance, handsome hotshot flyboys, and a good deal of nice artwork envisioning the early 21st century as seen from the 1950s.
Now if a viewer can accept the series on that basis, it can be fun -- but otherwise it's not. The problem with PBE-SOS is that it is basically a copy, in a Cuisinart fashion, of its source material, and as a copy of hokum it just ends up being hokum itself. To actually make something of a sendup like this, it either has to be honestly funny, or it has to use the original materials as the basis for a good story, THE INCREDIBLES being an ace example of somebody pulling that trick off. Unfortunately, PBE-SOS is deadpan serious -- big mistake -- while its story is just plain dumb, approaching incoherent towards the end, and populated with cardboard characters.
OK, I won't kick on PBE-SOS too hard. The production values are good, and as I said, a viewer who likes the premise should enjoy it. However, anyone who expects anything more out of it (like say, cleverness) is going to be disappointed.
