Halo Legends [Blu-ray] | ![Halo Legends [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hgRWrQ0wL._SL160_.jpg)
| Directors: Daisuke Nishio, Frank O'Connor, Hideki Futamura, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Keiichi Sugiyama
Actors: James Faulkner, Emily Neves, Luci Christian, Deke Anderson, David Wald
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $16.73
as of 3/16/2010 15:39 CDT details
You Save: $18.26 (52%)
New (33) Used (6) from $15.89
Seller: ecmusicvideo
Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 1084
Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Japanese (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Japanese (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: Blu-ray
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 1000115700
UPC: 883929099023
EAN: 0883929099023
ASIN: B002WCLG3O
Theatrical Release Date: 2010
Release Date: February 16, 2010 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/16/2010 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
For Halo Legends, various anime directors made eight short films that explore the universe of the popular video game franchise, just as the shorts in Animatrix expanded on the Matrix features. Although Halo ranks among the top first-person shooter games, the AI narrator of Hideki Futamura's two-part introductory episode complains about humanity's violent tendencies: "Like a virus, war is always with you." "The Duel," which pits two Covenant warriors in a samurai-like battle over honor, has a watercolor look that recalls Gankutsuou: Count of Monte Cristo. Unfortunately, the effect is applied too evenly, and the characters get lost in the backgrounds. Daisuke Nishio's "Odd Man Out" injects a welcome note of comedy, as warrior Spartan 337 copes with three difficult children and their pet tyrannosaur. Other Spartans in single fighters attack the flagship of the Covenant fleet in "The Package," by Shinji Aramaki. The elaborately choreographed space battle is obviously modeled on the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars, but the sequence packs more visual punch than the other films in the anthology. Dr. Catherine Halsey ends this segment with the line, "Something tells me this is just the beginning," so additional films may be in the works. Halo Legends was clearly intended to expand the audience for the already-popular franchise, but the shorts aren't strong enough as films to win many viewers who aren't currently members of the "Halo Nation." The disc comes loaded with extras, including a standard making-of mini-documentary about each segment. Although the cover bears the warning "Parents strongly cautioned: Violent Content Throughout," the action in Halo Legends is surprisingly tame. (Rated PG-13: violence, violence against women) --Charles Solomon
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
 NOT a game, these are stories February 16, 2010
Erik Oleson (Sacramento, CA)
27 out of 33 found this review helpful
I'm going to try to give as spoiler-free of a review as possible.
I've been apprehensive of Halo Legends since it was announced, and was nervous with the crazy Japanese getting a hold of the franchise. When a few stories were put up on Waypoint, however, my concerns were diminished. Seeing that Frankie (Frank O'Connor) had control over what was being done in Legends, it led me to give credence to what I was once doubtful of. And I've read all novels, blogs, BWUs, and played each game so much that there is little I don't know.
Yes, there are quivering eyes, men with jaws too wide open, cheesy mid-action posing shots, and a couple other cliched anime items that slipped in, but if you look past these and accept them as artistic interpretation, you can see what is underneath and really appreciate the stories. Elite's losing a pair of mandibles and seeing a female elite in the context of 'the Duel' chuckling like a school girl was probably the worst moment of this entire DVD. With that said, this has given me MORE food to chew on than sinking feelings of Microsoft milking us all out of $20.
-The entire episode of Origins (Part 1 & 2) are pure gold. We get our first glimpse of Forerunners, and witness the true power of the Flood, not constricted by the hardware of the 360 and polygon counts. And they are scary. This is easily the best offering of the entire DVD, and all of Cortana's monologue was written by Frankie himself. Great stuff.
-Babysitter, Prototype, and Homecoming all feature similar-styled animation and actually decent storylines. There are a few canonical things that I am curious of, but I'm sure have explanations. One thing I am getting tired of is all of the suicide missions that these side stories keep telling. It's getting a little too predictable (same as in Halo Evolutions).
-The Duel is a tough one. I hated the animation style when I first put it on, but as it went along, I saw what the artists were going for and really appreciated it. A very dark tone was needed, and this conveyed it perfectly. Two things to note: elites without their top pair of mandibles in certain scenes is simply artistic interpretation, and the large hunters are entirely possible (as Frankie has said in response to this criticism).
-The Package is a unique one. The visuals are amazing. This is the first time we ever see Master Chief working with his Spartans as a team. Highly disappointed that you witness some Spartans (the GREATEST military minds on the battlefield) die to some pretty stupid reasons. Voice acting choice for the MC? Terrible. Overall very, very fun though.
-Odd One Out is just fun. Watch it and enjoy it. Reminds me of Dragonball Z, in a good way.
If you like Halo, buy it. My fiance is somewhat interested in the Halo Universe, but this gives her a chance to really appreciate what the writers of the Halo Universe have made, and we both could appreciate it.
Masterfully done February 17, 2010
Neel Gandhi (Los Angeles, CA)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
First off the quality of this bluray is amazing. It is masterfully done and deserves credit. I ironically watched this on my PS3 and enjoyed every second of it. Having very little experience with the Halo Franchise outside of a few hours on Halo 3 I was curious to the larger universe that the games were set in. I know Bungie creates massively detailed worlds to set their games in and was curious as to what made Halo tick. I was very pleasantly surprised at the story and the quality of the animation in this release. The voice over work was excellent as well.
Here is my breakdown:
Voice Over:
Very well done, with great narration.
4.5/5
Animation:
Its great to see the various studios and artists create their impression of Halo. The quality control is excellent as expected from a AAA title franchise.
5/5
Blu-Ray Extras:
Could have used more extras, maybe even a Halo Reach beta invitation code or something. If there is one area that always could use improvement its extras!
4/5
Overall:
Well I would have given it a 4.5 out of 5 but that option is not available sadly. I asked myself did I regret pre-ordering the blu-ray and how badly did I miss the extras. To me personally I didnt think the lack of heavy duty extras called for a 80% score so I am giving it a full score. This is something you will enjoy, its feature length and worth the watch.
5/5
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A different view. March 5, 2010
James E. Lindsey
I have played and beaten all of the Halo games except Halo Wars and not yet released Halo Reach. I have also read a few of the books and some of them are pretty good. So I figured I would give the anime a shot too. Man was I glad that I did.
It is actually split into seven episodes, though I would debate eight since Origins has two parts. So it is not one full length movie, but pieces that give you some history and honostly some where done for fun in my honost opinion.
Origins I and II were done by Studio 4 C (Tekkon Kinkreet) which gives you background story into Halo by telling you more about it's history than anything previously. The style of animation overall was good, but it moved very slowly for me and is while it will help people new to Halo understand Halo better, it offers more to strong Halo fans.
The Duel is about medievil time period of the Elites and is done by Production I.G. (Fooly Cooly "FLCL") and with Mamoru Oshii (director of Ghost in the Shell) which has a unique water color style with animation. It feels like Feudal Japan with aliens. I don't know how else to explain it other than that. It does move at a Ghost in the Shell style pace which once again is kind of slow, but really the story is quite interesting.
Homecoming is done by Production I.G. once again, but the style of animation is much more vivid. The story goes into the background of how Spartans were trained and kind of created in a sense. By far my favorite piece in Legends. It has a darker tone and has things to offer both fans of the story and people who just really enjoy anime.
Odd One Out is completely none canon so it doesn't offer much to Halo fans. It is meant to be more of a comedy piece. Done by Toei (Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Hokuto no Ken "Fist of the North Star") with the animation style of Akira Toriyama this is most definitly geared towards anime fans. I really enjoyed the oddness of it, but if you don't like anime and you just want more story for Halo, you won't enjoy this one as much.
Prototype is done by Studio Bones (Fullmetal Alchemist, Xam'd: Lost Memories, Kurau Phantom Memory, Rahxephon) and is my second favorite piece in this collection. For those of you who know the Halo story well it has to do with The Cole Protocol which is the issue ordered to destroy any devices not yet completed and delete any information that could lead the covenant to Earth. A very dramatic story and quite enjoyable. The animation is great as well. Can be enjoyed by Halo fans and anime fans alike.
Babysitter is done by Studio 4 C once again. It has a slightly lighter tone to the artwork than Homecoming, but is very dark story wise. It follows the ODST and they get signed up with a Spartan. For those who are fans of the Halo story you can guess how they feel what sort of direction the story takes. It honostly was very predictable, but my third favorite piece. Really does well at driving the Halo story and also giving something to anime fans who are curious about the Halo universe outside the games.
The Package directed by Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Appleseed Ex Machina, Vexille) is a great piece for fans of Halo and uses computer graphics that make it feel much more like the games. The character artwork is anime style, but you won't really notice that much. Amazing to watch if you are a fan of Halo more than anime. It also says Master Chief's name in it for those of you who don't know his first name. You also see what a group of Spartans are capable of.
Now I tried to avoid spoilers so I just tried to explain more what to expect, so sorry that it's vague. I also was trying to show it from a point of view of someone who enjoys anime and is fairly familiar with the Halo universe.
Finally since I did this on the Blu-Ray version the reason I believe you should go with Blu-Ray. Honostly the art is amazing and the sound might only be 5.1 which is achievable through DVD it is fully uncompressed. To watch this in 1080p was a great experience. The anime groups, companies and directors that worked on this are masters of their field which really helped bring me in and while some of the pieces where slow, they weren't bad. I think it's worth owning even if you just love anime and if you like Halo this adds a lot to the overall story. I listed the names of all the episodes and the studios that worked on them for those who were curious. It is also in the extras which it has plenty of goodies for those who like them and one of the few Movies or rather "OVA" collection that I watched all of them. Honostly I hope you enjoy it as much as I did being a fan of anime and knowing the world of Halo.
Good artwork in HD March 9, 2010
Donald H. Nguyen
There are some corny anime cliches here, but for the most part, it's a worthy addition to the Halo Universe. The best segments are "Origins 1" and "Origins 2", where you get a vision of the Forerunners. In the game they are supposed to be linked to humans, and here, although it's ambiguous what they looked like under their suits, you can still see that they may have been humanoid. Prototype had some corny parts, but the action scenes were incredible.
I agree with another reviewer that an overplayed theme was the "scacrifice mission". Irritated how some Spartans die stupid deaths. While some Spartans are supposed to be 'expendable', for the most part, they're supposed pretty much unbeatable. Like one of them said in the "Halo Reach" trailer, "Spartans never die, they just go MIA" Perhaps they should have more stories where it appears they die, but they're actually still alive, but you have no idea where they are or where they went.
Halo Legends - Bring it on. March 13, 2010
Robert M. Gaul (Ft. Wayne, Indiana United States)
I'm an anime fan, and I also like 1st person shooters, and I have to say this DVD is an excellent entry-level journey into the world of HALO.
The episodes are well rendered, with specific artwork made for the particular storyline.
The episodes PROTOTYPE and THE PACKAGE are (imho) two of the best on the disc.
The all-CGI episode THE PACKAGE is a nonstop rollercoaster ride! It reminds me of that half-hour CGI show: Starship Troopers: Roughnecks...only more "gritty", and with a lot better weaponry!
That's not to say the rest of the episodes are not as good.
ALL the stories portray (somewhat graphically) what warfare is usually all about...
(and not all of it ends happily)
The episode ODD ONE OUT is a bit on the lighter side...more like the "WHY ME?" or MURPHY'S LAW aspect (what CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong) to being a Spartan soldier.
I admit to being a "newbie" when it comes to HALO, and the first TWO episodes (Origins I & II) give any viewer who's least bit curious about this "universe" a great "heads-up" as to what is going on and what everything is all about.
I found the entire 2 part backstory very intriguing.
Heck, I might even have to go get an X-BOX and take some REAL "ops" in this game!
If you like good anime, you'll like this DVD.
If you like HALO, this is right up your alley, and even if you just want to kick back and watch some good episodic story writing, this DVD has that, too.
NOw...when are they coming out with a SECOND set of stories.
Definitely, two (Spartan armor-clad) thumbs UP!
And, it IS "Master-Chief approved"!
B.G.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
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