“I’ve been betrayed by my own brother,” the Revenging Manta said with incredulaty. “I must face them. It is a point of honor.”

The traitorous Albert Simmons faded back into the hoard of gang members while the enforcer, Elle, reached behind his back and produced a mace that he swung to and fro. The Revenging Manta straightened himself, but before he turned to leave, a dark figure hopped toward the enforcer.

It was Edwige, my kangaroo companion from my midadventures in North America.

— To be continued. 

This week’s movie is 2004’s Dark Fury from director Peter Chung. Back in the aughts, studios would sometimes release animated features on home video to tie into their big screen spectacles. With The Chonicles of Riddick looming large, Universal Studios saw fit to craft a short animated adventure bridging the gap between Pitch Black and its high profile sequel. What we got was well crafted story that could have been a feature film in its own right. And who better to take on animation duties than the creator of MTV’s Aeon Flux.

Our movie begins shortly after the events of Pitch Black. Our three survivors include  violent outlaw Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel), Imam Abu al-Walid (Keith David), and an orphan named Jack (Rhiana Griffith). A merc ship named The Kublai Khan, a gigantic vessel of gleaming gold and white, intercepts them. The captain of this ship is a gaunt man named Junner (Roger L. Jackson) and through some kind of voice recognition software, he spots the profile of Richard B. Riddick. Junner brings Riddick’s ship on board and prepares for violence due to Riddick’s sordid reputation. And Riddick doesn’t disappoint, slaughtering merc after merc until Junner threatens to kill Jack.

We’re then introduced to Antonia Chillingsworth (Tress MacNeille), Junner’s boss and warden of this vessel. Yes, in addition to employing hundreds of mercenaries to catch notorious criminals throughout the galaxy, The Kublai Khan is also a prison housing the very worst of humanity. However, Chillingsworth doesn’t see it as a prison, but as an art gallery. She has cryo frozen every prisoner as a testament to the depths humanity sink to, giving each prisoner a sort of living death. And Chillingsworth wants to add Riddick to her collection, but first she wants to see him in action.

She throws Riddick into a pit to face off against two monstrous alien entities that look like neon jellyfish. As someone who’s been stung by jellyfish twice in his life, I can say that this would be the ultimate nightmare scenario for me. One of the mercs falls into the pit with him and gets liquidated by these creatures. Riddick manages to kill the monsters and escapes with Jack and Imam. Chillingsworth demands Junner unleash every merc on the ship after them. Riddick and company are faced with another fight for survival, but we know Riddick will come out on top.

I miss when studios would do these animated tie-ins. Dark Fury helps flesh out this awful science fiction universe Riddick belongs to, but there are worse things out in this universe than mercs and monsters which we’ll see in the next movie.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643, episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.