Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6338 in VHS
• Released on: 1996-04-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Animated, Color, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
Simon Kieth's popular comic book was adapted for television in this multipart animated series first broadcast on MTV. A little confusing, the series--which concerns a kind of hulking superhero and his attachment to a female therapist and her teenage client--is actually mesmerizing and surprisingly touching. The writing is unusually sophisticated, and Kieth's ability to create complex female characters and provide their incisive dialogue should be the envy of any male scribe. Parallel action set in a so-called outback--an escape from reality--is wild and evocative of childhood fantasies. This is a strangely beautiful show all around. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Please, let's have a DVD release
I'm here to officially announce my heartfelt sentiment that "The Maxx" should get a DVD release. "The Maxx" was part of the MTV's Oddities program that ran in the mid-90's before it went BETV and TEENBEAT on us. Back then, MTV still had a shred of respectability by at least offering shows such as these to people who weren't popular, who weren't listening to the Top 40, and who didn't buy into mass-marketing-mainstream-lifestyle-bullcrap that floods our TVs, radios, and internet today.

I can remember another "Oddities" program in particular called "The Head" that was just as fun to watch as "The Maxx" only not as intelligent or curious. Anyone who was a fan of this stuff will remember "Liquid Television" that gave birth to "Beavis and Butthead" and also featured (I believe) "Aeon Flux" which is South Parkesque in that one of the leads dies in every episode. What does this have to do with a DVD release? Well, obviously MTV doesn't feel that these programs stand up on their own to merit an individual release, so why not just lump all these things together and set them out there? Call it whatever you like--Liquid Television DVD, Oddities DVD, Mid-90's Culty Animated DVD, whatever. My point is "The Maxx."

To summarize, this is a two-hour long feature adapted from the Sam Kieth comic "The Maxx" which follows a purple-and-yellow hero with a roided-out build called Maxx. He is befriended by Julie Winters who is the victim of a serial rapist known as Mr. Gone. Mr. Gone is also Maxx's arch-nemesis, or so Maxx thinks. Then there's Sarah, the girl trying to be a writer, who sees Julie as, I suppose, a quasi-therapist. Oh, and there's also a mirror-world called "The Outback," also called "Pangea" filled with Crabbits, Mountain People, Leaping Slugs, Air-Whales, and gobs and gobs of chattering Isz's. Once in this world; Julie Winters make the shift to the Leopard Queen, ruler of that world, and Maxx becomes her protector. Have it figured out yet?

I must have watched this 1,000 times over the years and I'm still not sure if I've got it all put together. After two degrees in Literature and years of analysis experience I'm flustered. As far as I've got is this; "The Maxx" is about potential realities intruding into perception of actual reality, so much so that the degree in which reality is grasped becomes blurred between what is and what probably is (accounting, by extension, for the name of the "Isz"). Grasping and cognating reality is about shuffling through different dimensions, different existences and conflicting outcomes. For example, when Maxx chases an Isz back from "The Outback" into Julie's apartment, he is made small while the Isz remains big. He still maintains his personae as protector, while the Isz remains white (rather than black) and is prey rather than hunter, even though it would seem because of their size their roles would be reversed.

I won't go on, but I know I could. There's so much to work through and so many different possibilities that this stuff makes David Lynch seem like a board game, even though I don't care for Lynch.

And even if you're not in "intellect" mode, you can still turn the lights off, put this on with a beverage and some chips-n-salsa and just enjoy the writing, because it's very good.

Stupendous! A triumph of modern animation!
When I first stumbled upon this series a few years ago, while flipping past MTV, I was unsure of what to expect. I mean, MTV is not exactly a bastion of intellectual brilliance, nor a standard-setter in terms of quality television programming. This is, after all, the same cable station that tortures us with tripe like "The Real World".

Alas, The Maxx intruiged. My wife and I were so interested, in fact, we promptly purchased the video cassette not long after catching a snippet of The Maxx on television. Once exposed to the full-length drama that is The Maxx, my wife and I could only turn to each other and say: W-O-W!

To call this movie both deep and complex is the understatement of the year. I had to watch it a few times to really get my hands around the characters and the plot. It simultaneously takes you on a tour of a Rogues Gallery of the human soul, while giving us characters that are very flawed and altogether heart-wrenching. Julie, The Maxx, Sarah, Mr. Gone, each one of them is a richly-drawn portrait. They amuse, annoy, invite, provoke, and otherwise engage the viewer.

It's not often that American animation reaches heights like this. For the most part, American animation is cutesy, watered-down, moralistic,and sickeningly huggable. Either that, or it's moronically violent and so utterly devoid of plot that you wonder what shreds of so-called script the animators had to go on in the first place.

Then comes The Maxx, a film that makes you love animation all over again. A diamond in the rough, The Maxx is a priceless gem! I highly, highly recommend this film for anyone who wants to reawaken their otherwise dulled taste in American animated film, or just films in general.

You can see it unedited
This is not a review per se (the series is great) but I wanted to let those interested know that all the episodes- unedited- can be seen at youtube.com. Until the series is released unabridged on DVD , which seems unlikely, that's the only way I know of to see it in its original form.