‘Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix’ Reviewed
by Tito W. James
Summary
Captain Laserhawk is one of the craziest and most creative video game adaptations to date.
The show does the impossible and creates a shared-universe, characters we care about, and a queer Pop-Culture icon all in six episodes.
Netflix please give us a season 2.
Overall
9/10Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is a mixed media series animated by studio Bobbypills (Crisis Jung) and created by Adi Shankar (The Guardians of Justice). The series takes place in an alternate universe filled with remixed versions of characters from Ubisoft Games. The show follows Dolph Laserhawk, a cybernetic super-soldier, who rebels against the army to pull off a final big heist and live a free life with his boyfriend.
Captain Laserhawk manages to take characters from Watchdogs, Assassins Creed, Beyond Good and Evil, and many other Ubisoft games and have them coexist in a shared universe. Even as someone who hasn’t played all the games the series pulls from, I was fully invested, and got excited when iconic characters showed up with a twist. Adi Shankar playing the Red member of the Niji 6 is hilarious, the Assassins Creed Bullfrog is adorable, and Rayman acting as an Orwellian news anchor steals the show!
The use of mixed-media is well integrated with scenes organically shifting into retro video game aesthetics. The only bit I found jarring was a shift into live-action that goes on for a little too long. Overall, Bobbypills delivers a unique animation style that builds upon anime, and then goes on to new heights.
When watching Captain Laserhawk, I was reminded of this quote by Christopher Nolan:
“Films are subjective – what you like, what you don’t like. But the thing for me that is absolutely unifying is the idea that every time I go to the cinema and pay my money and sit down and watch a film go up on-screen, I want to feel that the people who made that film think it’s the best movie in the world, that they poured everything into it and they really love it. Whether or not I agree with what they’ve done, I want that effort there – I want that sincerity. And when you don’t feel it, that’s the only time I feel like I’m wasting my time at the movies.”
Nolan perfectly summarizes what I enjoyed about Captain Laserhawk. I never felt like the show was an Ubisoft advertisement. Adi Shankar and the team at BobbyPills were clearly pouring their heart and soul into the series. Captain Laserhawk is a love letter to Pop-culture old and new, a cautionary tale about human hubris, and an escapist fantasy that the next generation deserves.
Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is now streaming on Netflix.
