Review of Zorro: Return to the Future

Introduction

Without Zorro, there`d be no Batman!

Look carefully enough, and you`ll see that DC`s Dark Knight owes a lot to Zorro, Johnston McCulley`s folkhero swordsman and alter ego of Spanish-California nobleman Don Diego de la Vega; the mask and cape, the nobility, the underground lair, the reliance on athleticism and cunning as opposed to preternatural strength or powers, and of course, the massive gas-guzzling automobile and the teenage sidekick called Robin.

Funnily enough, circle of life and all that, the new updated version of Zorro, set in `the future`, plays out an awful lot like Batman. Gadgets, gizmos and old geezers looking after the manse, although in this case a dotty old lady called Mrs Mc-something. Teenager Diego finds a letter from his grandfather which tells him he`s next in line to be Zorro, which is just as well as the corrupt mayor (looking very Kingpin-esque) has only taken his old man hostage. Armed to the teeth with motorcycles, double-edged lightsabre looking thingies and a totally rad underground pad, Diego, along with the obligatory sidekick with glasses who`s no good in a fight but builds really cool stuff, are going to go and rescue him.

Fly, Tor-nah-do, fly!

Video

The review disc was a DVD-R (tut-tut), so although it`s highly unlikely any changes will be made before the final pressings, the quality may improve on the retail disc. Fullscreen 4:3 (although it actually appears to be 16:9 anamorphic horizontally squashed into the frame/refusing to unpack -- see screenshots), it`s unnaturally bright - almost painfully so at times - but it shows off a rather lush and vibrant palette. However, the animation is rather sterile and awfully square-looking and the transfer is plagued with terrible edge enhancement and aliasing, but then if the target audience know what the latter are, let alone notices them, I`ll eat my caballero.

Audio

Again, as it`s a DVD-R disc, the only audio track available for review was MPEG 2.0; it was fine and clear. Presumably the retail DVD will feature a Dolby Digital 2.0 track, but then it wouldn`t be the first `street` disc with MPEG-encoded audio to pass through these parts.

Features

Extras? Couldn`t tell you.

Conclusion

I`d like to say I`ve seen worse `toons than this new incarnation of Zorro, but modern kid-friendly action animation from the west is all so bland (with a side of bland) that they`re all as bad as one another. That doesn`t mean `Zorro: Return to the Future` is being damned as rubbish, but since the 80s heyday of `Transformers`, `MASK`, `Centurions`, `Thundercats` and the like, there`s only really been `Batman: The Animated Series` that`s risen above mediocre scripting, animation and action to produce a cartoon that doesn`t treat its target audience as indifferent and incapable of enjoying good entertainment. This is nothing as interesting as that, so what we have here is a pretty mundane kids show. It`s passable, although only the notion of goons with laser pistols renders it vaguely futuristic, and it`s faithful to the Zorro `mythology`, so the attempts to update Zorro for the new millennium are something for the grown-ups to laugh at as they hoover under outstretched legs. Although I expect the fact that it`s cheap and lasts for 60-minutes is the best reason to buy if you fancy getting your stocking fillers in early.