Æon Flux

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (January 2008)

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2008)

Æon Flux
Cover of Æon Flux DVD box set (2005)
Format	Animated series Science fiction
Created by	Peter Chung
Starring	Denise Poirier John Rafter Lee Julia Fletcher
Country of origin	United States  South Korea
No. of episodes	16 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Japhet Asher Abby Terkuhle
Running time	Season 1: 2 minutes (6 parts)[1] Season 2: 3-5 minutes (5 episodes) Season 3: 30 minutes with commercials (10 episodes)
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV (Locomotion in Latin America)
Original run	1991 – October 10, 1995
External links
Official website

Æon Flux (pronounced /ˌiːɒn ˈflʌks/) is an avant-garde American science fiction animated television series that aired on MTV. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television experimental animation show as a six-part serial of short films, followed in 1992 by five individual short episodes. In 1995 a season of ten half-hour episodes aired as a stand-alone series, Rated TV-MA.

Æon Flux was created by Korean American animator Peter Chung (also the man behind Phantom 2040, which used the same animation style as Æon Flux). A live action motion picture loosely based upon the series and starring Charlize Theron was released in late 2005.

To avoid the "Æ" ligature, the title is often spelled Aeon Flux.

Contents 1 Background 2 The world of Æon Flux 2.1 Television series 2.2 Live action film adaptation 2.3 Video game 3 Home video and DVD 4 Music 5 Cast 6 Episodes 7 Broadcast history 8 In other media 8.1 Film 8.2 Books 8.3 Pepsi commercial 8.4 Video games 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Background

Æon Flux is set in a bizarre, dystopian future world. The title character is a tall, latex-clad secret agent from the nation of Monica, skilled in assassination and acrobatics. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sometimes-nemesis and sometimes-lover Trevor Goodchild. Monica apparently represents a dynamic anarchist society, while Bregna embodies a centralized, scientifically planned state — referred to on one occasion as a republic by Goodchild.^[2] The names of their respective characters reflect this: Flux as the self-directed agent from Monica and Goodchild as the technocratic leader of Bregna. Although Bregna is shown to be repressive, in the first full-length episode: "Utopia or Deuteronopia?", Clavius, the president deposed by Goodchild, is described by a questioning journalist as having been democratically elected. In the same episode, an upper house of parliament is also mentioned by the character Gildemere.

The visual style of Æon Flux was deeply influenced by the figurative paintings and drawings of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele. Other key influences on Æon Flux can be found in Japanese anime (especially grittier fare like Akira), and European comic works such as the work of Moebius (particularly in lineforms, color palettes, and figure characterizations). Æon Flux is often erroneously classified as an anime series. Graphic violence and sexuality, including fetishism and domination, are frequently depicted. In the featurette Investigation: The History of Æon Flux (included on the 2005 DVD release), Peter Chung says the visual style also was influenced by the limitations of the animated series Rugrats, which he worked on prior to Æon Flux and found highly frustrating in the limitations of what the characters could do.

With the exceptions of the exclamation "no!" in the pilot and the single spoken word "plop" in the episode "Leisure", all of the short episodes are completely devoid of (intelligible) dialogue. Instead, the sound track employs a variety of sound effects including sounds such as laughter, grunts and sighs. Unintelligible dialogue was voiced by the series music composer Drew Neumann.

One peculiarity of the early shorts is the violent death of Æon Flux, which occurs in each of the installments (by contrast, she only "dies" once in the half-hour series). Often her death is caused by fate, while other times she dies due to her own incompetence. One of the half-hour episodes, "A Last Time for Everything", ends with the original Æon being killed and replaced by an identical clone. (In the episode "Chronophasia", Æon is apparently killed repeatedly by a monstrous baby, but the reality of these events is ambiguous. In "Ether Drift Theory", Æon is suspended indefinitely in an inanimate state, but remains technically alive.)

Although continuity is virtually non-existent in the series — and Chung made some adjustments for the DVD release to improve this — the primary unchanging elements in the episodes are the two main characters of Trevor and Æon. There is intentionally no continuity between the second season shorts. Peter Chung has said that this plot ambiguity and disregard for continuity are meant as a satire of mainstream action films, and his stories often emphasize the futility of violence and the ambiguity of personal morality.

A fourth season of half-hour episodes was considered, but never materialized. In late 2005, around the time of the DVD release, Chung announced plans to work on another Æon Flux project. In an online interview conducted after the release of the film, Chung indicated that it is to be a made-for-DVD animated feature.^[3] However, by the summer of 2008, Chung reported that Paramount had decided to pass on the new production and that he had lost interest in pursuing the project.^[4]

[edit] The world of Æon Flux

The worlds of Æon Flux vary between the original MTV series and the film adaptation.

[edit] Television series

Television versions of Æon Flux depict the two separate countries of Bregna and Monica, adjacent to each other and separated by a wall (although very small). Citizens of Bregna are not permitted to cross through the wall, which is protected by a range of cruel traps. Trevor Goodchild is not the original ruler of Bregna, instead taking control in "Utopia or Deuteronopia".

A graphic novel tie-in entitled The Herodotus File was released in 1995. According to The Herodotus File, Monica and Bregna were originally one country that was divided before the series took place. The graphic novel, which comprised a selection of false documents written by series writers Marc Mars and Eric Singer, implies that the country was split for social reasons, shutting the have-nots out of Bregna. If the book is taken as canon, one of Trevor Goodchild's first acts as Chairman was to hire Æon Flux to destroy evidence that the countries were ever one.^[5]

[edit] Live action film adaptation

[edit] Video game

[edit] Home video and DVD

The entire series was issued as three VHS tapes between 1996 and 1998 entitled Æon Flux, Mission Infinite and Operative Terminus. These were later collected in a box set. A few of the shorts also appeared on a Best of Liquid Television compilation around the same time. The first VHS volume (which contained four of the half hour shows, and all of the shorts sans "Night") was later released in 1997 on a now out-of-print DVD.

With the 2005 release of the live-action movie, the complete series including the shorts and the episodic series was collected in DVD box set which was released on November 22, 2005. The set features director's cut versions of several episodes, with improved special effects, and in a few cases, new scenes written by Peter Chung and recorded by the original voice actors in order to improve character continuity between episodes (this according to a note by Chung included with the DVD set). Among the many changes to the dialogue in the DVD release the voice of the character Clavius in the episode "Utopia or Deuteronopia", originally recorded by voice actor Joseph Drelich, was re-recorded by series executive producer Japhet Asher for the 2005 release.

The first disc of the DVD set opens with a CGI short created to promote the movie's tie-in video game, with Flux taking on the likeness of the Charlize Theron version. The short, which ran about the same length as one of the Liquid Television shorts, sees Flux conducting an unclear mission, killing many Breen soldiers while pursuing some small, insect-like robots. In a throwback to the ongoing theme of the original shorts, the character is ultimately killed due to human error.

The Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld system received a 2-Universal Media Disc set release of the complete animated series in January 2008. This set included all ten digitally remastered episodes and the original MTV pilot and shorts.

[edit] Music

The music and sound design for the original television series was created by Drew Neumann. Peter Stone (of Xorcist) served as assistant sound editor for the original MTV series. The music was later compiled on an album titled Eye Spy, Ears Only Confidential. The initials "AF" were used on song titles and in the credits to replace the words "Æon Flux" due to the lack of licensing permissions from MTV. The album includes two discs worth of material from the series and also from the defunct original (1995) PC and PlayStation videogame project. A CD entitled Æon Flux: Music from the Animated Series was included as a bonus in certain editions of the 2005 series compilation DVD that included 11 songs from the show with dialogue snippets featuring Æon and Trevor in-between the songs as standalone tracks. A soundtrack is also available for the 2005 live-action film, composed by Graeme Revell.

[edit] Cast

• Denise Poirier: Æon Flux (voice)
• John Rafter Lee: Trevor Goodchild (voice)

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Broadcast history

MTV was the exclusive broadcaster of the series in the United States. In Canada, the shorts aired on MuchMusic and the third season aired a year or so later on the youth-oriented network YTV in a late-night timeslot during a period when the network was trying to appeal to an older audience.

In Australia, during the early-to-mid–1990s the Liquid TV shorts and the first series were shown on the program Eat Carpet on SBS television.

In South East Asia the third season was broadcast in 1996 via the MTV South East Asia channel, which at the time was free to anyone with a satellite dish.

In the UK, MTV first showed the shorts and the 30-minute episodes from 1992 but, in the mid-1990s, the BBC showed the Liquid Television shorts which included all of the Æon Flux shorts.

In the lead-up to the 2006 international release of Æon Flux on DVD and the live-action movie, MTV UK replayed the third season of Æon Flux from October to November in 2005. The episodes were played at 2am on weeknights.

MTV Australia followed with replays of the third season beginning in December 2005, scheduled at 1am on weeknights. The episodes were titled Æon Flux Animation and were not played in the original order from 1995.

Locomotion played the third season repeatedly, between 1998–99 and 2002–03, in Spanish and Portuguese for Latin America.

The series was also aired on Norwegian channel NRK2, a sister channel to state channel NRK, alongside The Maxx, Phantom 2040 and The Head in the late nineties.

As of 2009, MTV2 shows Aeon Flux shorts as a part of the block MTV2 Legit.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Film

An Æon Flux Hollywood adaptation, which was released in the United States on December 2, 2005, provoked controversy among Æon Flux fans over initial reports that the film adaptation seemed to bear little resemblance to the original full-length animated series or the Liquid TV shorts, as no one involved with the original television series had a role in the making of the film. While it does take a number of major liberties with the character and concept of the series, the film nonetheless incorporates numerous characters, themes, and even gadgets featured in the TV version. By and large, the movie was considered both a critical and box office disappointment.

The creator of Æon Flux, Peter Chung, gave an interview to the "Monican Spies" community on LiveJournal in 2006.^[3] He was asked many questions about Æon Flux and her universe, including how he really felt about the movie: "[seeing it] made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad," Peter Chung said.

[edit] Books

A "graphic novel" called Æon Flux: the Herodotus File - actually consisting of an assortment of false documents from the world of Æon Flux and a short story-board style sequence described as "security camera footage" rather than a comicstrip story - was published in 1995, which vaguely explained some of the show's setting and backstory, including how Trevor and Æon met. One hint suggested in the series and confirmed in the graphic novel is the character's foot fetish modeling; it is suggested she augments her income posing barefoot for magazines devoted to the fetish. The graphic novel fell out of print in the years following the show's conclusion, but was re-issued in 2005 to tie-in with the movie.

Also released in 2005 to tie-in with the movie was a Dark Horse Comics-published four-issue miniseries based upon the film versions of the characters. Although the characters and situations were based on the newer movie versions, the penciling technique deliberately emulated Peter Chung's unique style from the TV series.

[edit] Pepsi commercial

Though not directly connected to the series, a live-action/animated Diet Pepsi commercial titled "Something Wrong?" was directed by Peter Chung and starred Malcolm McDowell as a Trevor Goodchild-like character and Cindy Crawford as an Æon Flux-like character. It was made for Super Bowl XXX in 1996, but was pulled and later aired for broadcast exclusive to MTV.

[edit] Video games

A PlayStation game by Cryo Interactive based upon the series was advertised in the mid-1990s, but never released, pictures of which can be found on various sites. It was later adapted into the title Pax Corpus after being stripped of all copyrighted association with Æon Flux.^[6]

Finally, to coincide with the release of the 2005 movie, Majesco Games and developer Terminal Reality released a videogame adaptation on Xbox and PlayStation 2 including elements from both the movie and the television series.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Æon Flux

• Æon Flux at MTV
• Official movie website
• Æon Flux at the Internet Movie Database
• Æon Flux at TV.com
• Interview with Peter Chung, Creator of Æon Flux
• Information on the cancelled PlayStation game
• Æon Flux (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia