Movie Review: 'Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem'

             So, as those of you watching me may have noticed, I’ve taken an interest in reading up on various musical acts of the past, some good, some not so much. In fact, I’ve even gone so far as to document the hit songs I would deem as some of the best and worst of certain years. However, something I’ve come to discover about art is that it’s not just an image of what’s popular at the time, but also a reflection of the artist behind it. And what also catches my interest is when a musical artist chooses to expand their horizons for one reason or another and try their hand in a different artistic medium. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to look into various musical acts that, for one reason or another, and in one way or another, have chosen to explore other avenues of artistic expression.

            Now, before we dig into the piece I have my eye on for today, I’ll need to lay some ground rules:

1.     I will not be reviewing a film or other artistic medium that has a musical artist in it unless it has a connection to the artist’s music in some way. If an artist only stars in a film but doesn’t perform any of their songs in it, or if their presence is barely a cameo, I’m not reviewing it. I might review a comic about an artist if said comic relates to that artist’s music or history.

2.     I will not be reviewing any of Madonna’s films. There is already a reviewer, Todd in the Shadows, who is focusing his attention on those films, and if I were to review one I’d feel obligated to review all of them. So those are out.

3.     Since my discussion will involve analysis of the music in how it ties into the story of what I’ll be looking into, there will likely be spoilers. So, if you don’t want me ruining the surprise of the experience for you turn back now.

Right then, with all that squared away, let’s talk about Daft Punk. The electronic duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter originally came to prominence in the late ‘90s house music movement in France with their debut album ‘Homework’. The idea behind this album was that Homem-Christo and Bangalter wanted to maintain as much control over their material as they could, so they handled most of the album’s financing, and it was basically the two of them playing around with different effects without a specific theme or overarching connection between the singles. In fact, the pair’s focus on maintaining as much control over their careers as possible could be seen as the reason why they wear the robot helmets and gloves whenever appearing before the public, televised, live or otherwise. Anyway, the eclectic nature of ‘Homework’ and the general contrast between each of its songs make it kind of hard to sit through all at once. However, I would still recommend people check the album out; it offers a nice introduction to ‘90s house music, particularly from the French progressive house movement. However, in terms of personal preference, I think their 2001 sophomore album ‘Discovery’ is a bit better, if for no other reason than that it’s a bit more cohesive.

And it’s a good thing that ‘Discovery’ is as cohesive as it is, because in 2003, the duo would collaborate with Toei Animation to create a science fantasy anime musical called ‘Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem,’ a visual realization of that album. The project was supervised by anime illustrator Leiji Matsumoto, who most people probably remember best as the guy behind ‘Galaxy Express 999.’ The story of the film is primarily told in conjunction with each track from ‘Discovery’ being played over each scene. In addition, since the film is basically just a visual story meant to go along with the tracks from the album, no dialogue and minimal sound effects are featured in the film, meaning that the story is primarily presented in a ‘show, don’t tell’ manner. And the film was very well received by critics, with MovieMartyr.com even naming it the best animated film made that year and Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 86% rating based on seven reviews; six positive, one negative.

Okay, the critical reception of the film is one thing, but what exactly is the story being told? Well, let’s start from the beginning. The first part of the story shows us an alien planet, where a concert is being held, and we are introduced to our protagonists: a four-member alien band, performing the song ‘One More Time,’ probably the best-remembered song off of Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery’ album. Based on what we see throughout the rest of the story, this is the only song they ever play. What is it with alien bands and only playing one song? They’re like the band in the cantina in ‘Star Wars!’ However, in the midst of the concert, a group of guys in military-esque attire and gas masks arrives, gasses everyone, then abducts the members of the band, to the sound of the next song on the album, ‘Aerodynamic.’ Fortunately, none of the military gas mask guys goes around asking people, “Are you my mommy?”

In the aftermath of the abduction, a distress signal is sent to a nearby ship piloted by another protagonist to this story: another blue alien named Shep. His name isn’t actually disclosed at any point within the story; I kind of had to look that up. Anyway, as the song ‘Digital Love’ plays, we see Shep having dreams about the bassist woman of the blue alien band we were introduced to earlier. This seems to indicate that he is something of a fan boy for her. However, his fantasies are interrupted when he receives the distress signal sent out and he springs into action, piloting his ship after the abductors and barely managing to follow them through what appears to be a wormhole. However, when the two ships leave, we see that the planet the blue alien band is being brought to is, in fact Earth. Shep’s ship crash lands while the abducted band members are taken into a secret warehouse facility.

This leads us into the next segment, represented by the song ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,’ the first song on the album I ever heard actually. Anyway, the band members are put through an automated process where their appearances are changed to make them resemble humans while their memories are rewritten and they’re outfitted with glasses that contain mind control devices. Their old memories, meanwhile, are stored on compact discs and taken away. Once the process is complete, they’re brought before the shadowy figure we’ve been briefly seeing up until this point, the Earl of Darkwood. He poses as the band’s manager and cuts a record deal for them, presenting them as the ‘Crescendolls,’ which as it happens, is also the name of the song playing during this scene. They record the song ‘One More Time’ for the record company and it becomes a hit. It’s at this point that the names of the band members are given: Stella (the bassist), Arpegius (the guitarist), Baryl (the drummer), and Octave (the keyboardist and vocalist). I admit, I’m kind of skeptical of those names though; it’s possible that they were fabricated names to make the band seem more human, similar to how it says they were originally born in countries on Earth. However, those were the names they were given, so those are the names I’ll be using to refer to them.

Anyway, the fame the band experiences is taking a noticeable toll on the group, who are worn out by all the luxuries fame has to offer. As you would imagine, this ties into the film’s theme of examining the effects the record industry can have on artists and their music. It certainly gives me a better impression of fame being stressful and unsatisfying to artists than the billions of rap songs trying to explicitly tell me how hard it is to be famous. Also, this scene is presented during the song ‘Nightvision,’ where we also see Shep discover the fate of the band, which fuels his determination to rescue them. The next song, ‘Superheroes,’ shows the band performing live in a massive stadium with a live orchestra, conducted by the Earl of Darkwood. However, during the concert, Shep dives in and uses a device to destroy the mind control devices on the members of the band, save for Stella. Forced to leave her behind, Shep escapes with the other three band members, but is pursued and injured by the Earl’s henchmen in the process, whom we learn at the end of the song are actually robots. I’m not going to question why the other three band members decided to go along with Shep despite still having memories of being human because all things considered, they probably would be more inclined to go with the badass blue alien guy that freed them from their mind control than the creepy old man that’s pretty much kept them as his prisoners and had worked them to death up until this point.

The next song, ‘High Life’ shows the Earl taking Stella, the only member of the band he still has in his captivity, to a Golden Record Award awards ceremony, but not before she picks up a card he drops that reads ‘Darkwood Manor, 05/05, 05:55.’ With Stella used to represent the band as a whole, the Crescendolls are nominated for the award, along with Daft Punk, who make a brief cameo in the film. I know, I just said cameos don’t count, but remember, this film was made specifically as an animated film realization of a Daft Punk album, so I’m still counting it. Anyway, the Crescendolls are nominated the winners of the award. As the Earl receives the award, however, Baryl, disguised in the audience, uses the device Shep used before to free Stella of her mind control device and beckons her to follow him. Personally, I don’t really notice much of a difference between Stella mind controlled and Stella normally because her eyes are drawn so narrow they don’t really convey any emotion, but that’s just Leiji Matsumoto’s style for drawing women and I don’t want people screaming bloody murder at me for nitpicking it, so I’ll just leave it at that. She reunites with the rest of the band and they gather around a dying Shep as the song ‘Something About Us’ plays. Before he passes, however, Shep gives Stella a device that reveals the band’s true identities. As the next song, ‘Voyager’ plays, the band takes Shep’s body to bury it. After he’s buried, however, the band sees his spirit rising into the sky to see them off. As they leave, however, Stella remembers the card she picked up and the band decides to investigate Darkwood Manor. Conveniently, they happen to be passing an exit that leads to Darkwood Manor as they’re driving away from the place they buried Shep! What a wild coincidence!

Anyway, with the next song, ‘Veridis Quo,’ the band arrives at Darkwood Manor and explores the place. Eventually, they find their way to a study with a secret passage leading to a private library containing a large tome called, same as the song, ‘Veridis Quo.’ Upon reading it, they discover that the Earl of Darkwood has been around since at least the Classical or Renaissance era. It’s not really well explained, but in the video, it seems to suggest that a man, possibly the Earl’s father, was killed by a crash landing spaceship or something, and then he grew up to resemble him. I don’t get it, honestly. Anyway, it’s revealed that the Earl has been abducting aliens and disguising them as humans for a long time, using them to collect Golden Record Awards, destroying the alien musicians along the way. In addition, once he collects 5,555 Golden Record Awards, he’ll receive the power to conquer the universe. No seriously, that’s actually written in the book: ‘conquest of universe.’ Imagine if something like the Necronomicon was that specific about its contents! In addition, as it happens, the Crescendolls were awarded the exact 5,555^th such award.

…Well, shit.

Anyway, as the band looks up from reading the tome, they find themselves surrounded by the Earl’s robotic guards and are escorted to a large room lined with Golden Record Awards where a ritual is taking place. Stella is placed inside the pillar in the middle to be used as a sacrifice to complete the ritual. However, the other members of the band fight off the robotic guards, killing them and interrupting the ritual by knocking the record into the pit below. The Earl tries to grab it but ends up falling in himself. Conveniently, the rest of his followers jump in along with him. Those have to be some of the most devoted followers I’ve ever seen. Regardless, Arpegius removes Stella from the pillar and the manor starts to explode.

The next song, ‘Short Circuit,’ reveals that the band escaped from the explosion, but not without taking the Veridis Quo book with them. Reading through it some more, Octave finds the page that has the information about the discs containing the band’s memories and tears it out. The group then stops outside the record company where their memory discs are presumably being kept and Octave sneaks inside and disguises himself as a janitor. Because none of the guards would recognize the janitor that they’ve never seen working there before that’s black and has an afro despite the fact that the janitor working on that floor previously was a short, chubby old guy! Nope! Not at all! Anyway, Octave finds the master recording of ‘One More Time,’ and finds that the box containing it also holds the group’s memory discs. However, the guards soon discover his presence and corner him outside the elevator. When Octave tries to pull out the page from the Veridis Quo tome to explain himself, one of the guards tasers him, thinking he’s about to pull out a weapon. Typical guards: shock first, ask questions later. The guards actually do recognize him after the fact though, and the owner of the record company walks in to discover what has happened…just in time to see Octave return to his blue alien self as a result of being tased. While this is happening, police show up and corner the rest of the band and meanwhile, back at the remains of Darkwood Manor, a strange, dark presence takes off from the debris of the collapsed building.

With the penultimate song of the album, ‘Face To Face,’ we see Octave being rushed to the hospital while the record company owner explains to the rest of the world what he discovered by reading the one page that Octave had on him. I guess you could argue that, upon being seized by the police, the rest of the band handed over the rest of the book and that explained everything, but you never see that happen. Regardless, the company has now started working on a plan to send the band home. People start investigating the ruins of Darkwood Manor, Shep’s spaceship is discovered and reconstruction begins on it, and the Crescendolls have their memories and appearances restored. And, as it happens, people still love them! If only people demonstrated such lack of discrimination towards regular people and not just blue skinned aliens. But moving on, the band is sent in Shep’s restored spaceship off towards the wormhole back to their home planet.

And that leads us into the final song from the album: ‘Too Long.’ And indeed, it is quite long, at ten minutes. Anyway, the ship successfully enters the wormhole, but the band is attacked by the dark presence seen leaving Darkwood Manor earlier, revealed to be the Earl’s spirit, now intent on killing the band before they can return home. Fortunately, the spirit of Shep follows after them and fights off the Earl’s spirit. And so the band returns home safely, and take the opportunity to reflect on the events of the film. Okay, so they inserted a clip show right at the end to pad out the film, but it’s brief enough that it doesn’t really interrupt the flow of the film and actually does tie in with the theme of the song. And then the band skydive back into the stadium they were performing in at the beginning, ready to perform before, not just the people in the stadium, but even having the concert broadcast across their world and even back to the people of Earth. And the song ends with the band unveiling a giant statue erected in Shep’s likeness. But wait; there’s more! The camera zooms out to reveal a record being played in a kid’s room, where he has dolls depicting each of the characters in the film!

Okay, I know I nitpicked the film in places, but honestly, I think I enjoyed getting to see it. Yeah, there are a few plot holes and wild coincidences in places, but they’re not so big that they actively interfere with the plot of the film. And, of course, I love the songs. They did an excellent job capturing the tone of each scene, and even on their own they hold up very well. My personal favorite song off of the album would have to be a toss up between ‘Digital Love,’ ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ and ‘Face To Face.’ ‘Digital Love’ just sounds like a nice, earnest love song that still has enough momentum to continue moving. ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ is just a fun, robotic sounding song that is a lot of fun to dance to. And ‘Face To Face’ has those backing vocals, which are what really make the song. I know I was harsh on pop music from 2001 back when I focused on that year, but I feel like it is a damn shame that this album didn’t spawn any actual hits in America, because the pop charts needed artists like Daft Punk. The film, however, deserves every bit of praise it’s received. Check it out folks; you won’t be disappointed.