Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

RealLiveClaude Thus this is at first a 70s Saturday Morning Cartoon, just by seeing it with most of the original cast that did it in the Original Series puts this one at level with the rest of the franchise, despite the fact that the late Gene Roddenberry denied the canon and stories were treated in "average" TV animation for this era.The stories are well told, though short and targeted for a younger audience than the average Trekkie. Even some stories which were about to be told whether the Original Series would have continued found their way here, with cool results. Even story arcs from "TOS" involved the Tribbles with notorious merchant Cyrano Jones, the infamous Harry Mudd and Spock's father Sarek (all voiced by their original actors who appeared in the previous series). Sad to see that Walter Koenig did not participate, however, he did provide a story for this series.Luckily, all the original actors (Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Takei) reprise their iconic roles, and Nichelle Nicholls, Majel Barrett and especially James Doohan made excellent voice characterizations beside their original roles in Star Trek.Thus we can claim the average "still" animation of that era which is criticized, it opened the door to more flexibility, including original aliens (which today can be CGI-animated) and the add-on to the crew of Lieutenants M'Ress and Arex (who replaced Chekov) which proves the Federation can rely on other than humans and a Vulcan.If you can't stand the animation, good to close your eyes and imagine if they were real, as the dialogue exchange resembles the Original Series.Finally, if this is not considered "canon", however, the re-discovery of the animated series for the creators of the farther series (The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise) found a way to "connect" it and make it part of the franchise...And of course, it won an Emmy ! Enjoy Trekkies, worth the watch !

rgcustomer I'd like to see ST:TAS remade or rebooted.I think some of the first-season episodes (by no means all of them) were written pretty well, and you could attribute any problems with the story or dialog to the ~20-minute length of the episodes. If they were given ~30 minutes that a pay-TV network could provide, problems like that would be solvable. I think Star Trek fans deserve a look at these stories, done right, and I think there would be a lot of interest, if it was treated with respect rather than as disposable children's TV series.In ST:TAS, the voice acting was awful, even though much of the original cast was involved. Doohan's aliens were laughably weak, and Nichols was unable to disguise her voice for her multiple characters. But worst, the idea of all the actors in a scene not being together in the same place at the same time is just toxic to a series like Star Trek, where familiar characters are supposed to have personalities, interactions, and reactions.The music was also awful. A lot of times it was off to the races, trying to stimulate an excitement that the story and animation just weren't delivering. And it wasn't even Star Trek music, really. It sounded very generic to me. If it wasn't generic at the beginning, it certainly seemed that way by the end of season 2. I was glad there wasn't any more to endure. Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duuuuuuh makes me want to stab my ears.The animation? Awful. I'm just not going to say any more than that. Awful.What I HAVE liked, even though the look is very similar to TAS, are the two animated fan shorts Starship Farragut: The Animated Episodes. Because there are only two, I don't call it a series. But their execution based on TAS, is actually better than TAS, and it's just a fan project. Any remake or reboot of TAS would have to be superior to these.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) I'd go to bat and say that STAR TREK: TAS is perhaps the greatest single animated Saturday morning TV show ever conceived. The Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and Superfriends phenomena were series that spanned several seasons and changes to format. STAR TREK: TAS was only a season and a half, and while popular never really resonated on a cultural level, though I am willing to bet that most everyone who recalls seeing it during the initial run was an instant fan. I grew up in a household where television viewing was very strictly regulated until our teen years and Saturday morning TV was one of the few areas where as kids we had carte blanche to choose what we watched, so for whatever its worth I probably saw more of this series at the time than the original series episodes, and it left an impression.I re-discovered the show as an adult on home video and was fascinated to find that, as another contributor points out, it's a very mixed bag. Some of it is in it's own way at least as good as the original series ("Beyond the Farthest Star", "Yesteryear"), some of it tries new things out that sort of fell flat due to the limited scope of a 24 minute cartoon show ("Magicks of Megus Two", "The Infinite Vulcan") where some triumphed wonderfully using that cartoon element to advantage ("The Pirates of Orion", "Jihad"), some of it is downright silly or even beneath the franchise's standards ("Mudd's Passion", "Albatross"), some of it feels like warmed up leftovers ("More Tribbles, More Troubles", "Once Upon A Planet"), some of it anticipated events yet to come in the Star Trek universe ("One of Our Planets Is Missing", "The Practical Joker") and some of it is just plain weird enough to transcend the whole concept of Star Trek itself and almost exist as a "new" show ("The Slaver Weapon", "The Ambergris Element") that had it's own unique identity.Leave it as safe in saying that fans of the original adventures with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty will be delighted, not just because the original actors reprise their roles for the cartoon characters, but because unlike some of the behind the scenes antics from the live action series the whole cast gets a fair shake this time ... Legends about Bill Shatner's line cutting and scene stealing are notorious amongst those in the know about how the original show was made, and the animated series does a good job of cutting everyone down to size -- though Shatner still overacts shamelessly as a cartoon character, which is not an easy feat. Somehow, he managed to, and the animated series is a great extension of the Captain Kirk mystique of applied heavy-handedness.Some of it is really impressive for a 1970s cartoon effort: The likenesses of the beloved bridge crew is captured without a flaw, and in spite of some stiffness in delivery (the cast was often reciting their lines from different studio locations, in one instance Shatner even memorably recording his lines in the restroom of a studio while on a tour with an off-Broadway play) there is still the same feeling of unit cohesion & family like closeness amongst the cast. Some of it is still very very good Star Trek, and while there were a few dead ends as far as innovations for the franchise -- why were the life support belts dropped? they made perfect sense -- some of it stuck, most notably "The Practical Joker"'s rec room, which became the venerated Holodeck. And it was nice to see some genuinely alien Federation personnel, specifically the 3 armed orange Lt. Arex, sitting in for Chekov (who got to write an episode as compensation).But it should also nearly go without saying that non-converts of the original series and perhaps skeptics of all walks of life may find the presentation awkward, hackneyed and even tedious. Some of the animation techniques have not aged well when considering the young skulls filled with mush who have been spoiled by decades of Japanese anime, computer graphics, and endless toy commercials masquerading as entertainments for children. There is a decidedly low-tech approach to how the show was constructed that will appeal to the hand drawn animation geek as much as it turns off those who prefer a glossier edge. It's certainly not a show for everyone, but once it gets under your skin it can be at least as enjoyable as the original live action series, and indeed a bit more esoteric. This is advanced Star Trek viewing nowadays, a specialized function of the franchise that had a very limited run, wasn't seen by as many people, and remains somewhat elusive for most mainstream fans of the show to key into.I absolutely adore the series, not only was it an important part of my youth but as an extension of the original series that deserves to be brought back into the canon of the franchise. To paraphrase writer David Gerrold, if Gene Roddenberry decided to make it and got paid for the work then it should be an official part of the universe, even if certain aspects of it didn't work out. It's amusing to see how Star Trek was translated to a lower common denominator and expanded at the same time, with downright bizarre alien settings, some ingenious alien races that could only exist as animations, the hyper funky & just different enough to avoid a lawsuit musical score, and the animated Enterprise which seems to be perpetually sliding sideways through space as a rotoscoped cartoon ship.Available on a magnificent DVD box set now featuring the entire 22 episode run with some fascinating commentary options and a making of special, I encourage anyone with an appreciation for Star Trek or weird 1970s Saturday morning programming to check it out, it's a very special show that deserves to be seen again.8/10

rooprect Some consider this to be the ho-hum followup to a great show. I couldn't disagree more.Aside from the fact that it's a cartoon and the episodes are rushed in 30 mins, I found this to be a philosophical cut above the Trek of the late 60s. Here in the animated series, we catch a glimpse of some amazingly progressive ideas such as non-violence, compassion and tolerance. Kirk & Spock aren't so quick to set phasers on kill as they were before. Klingon/Federation confrontations in space are resolved without bloodshed. In one episode (my favourite), Kirk defends Lucifer's right to live, because Lucifer--for all his past crimes and flaws--is a living entity. Folks, this is some advanced stuff.Of course that means we don't see as much "action". Not many shootouts. Nothing violent really. The red shirts don't get wasted as bad. You may find yourself screaming at the TV, "Kirk, you WUSS! I woulda KICKED HIS ASS!" But that, I believe, is the whole point of Gene Roddenberry's visionary creation--that humans of the future would be a much more evolved, diplomatic and nonviolent species. This was evident in the original '66-'69 Trek, but we get it full force in the '74-'75 animated series.If it means anything to you, both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were vegetarians for ethical reasons during the production of this show, and they still are today. (Edit 7 years after my original post: I'm pretty sure William Shatner has been poundin down the pepperoni pizzas lately, but Nimoy is still a veggie)So if you're looking for zap-zap, kill the monster, good vs. evil stuff, you'll be disappointed. If instead you're ready for a truly philosophical mind trip, bordering on Buddhist spiritualism, then this will rock your socks.And the music is primo.9/10.