Still Wanting More After Finishing ‘Love, Death, and Robots’ Season 4? Check Out the Cult Classic That Inspired the Creators

The fourth season of Tim Miller (Deadpool) and David Fincher‘s animated sci-fi series, Love, Death & Robots, just launched on Netflix, a series that has already built itself a fanbase over its previous three seasons. One wonders how many of those fans are even aware that the showrunners’ were inspired by the 1981 animated anthology movie, Heavy Metal, which itself was born out of a popular comic anthology magazine of the same name. In fact, Love, Death & Robots began its life as an attempt to create a modern-day Heavy Metal, a story that’s almost as interesting as rewatching the original Heavy Metal nearly 45 years later.

15 years ago, Miller was talking with Fincher about creating a new version of Heavy Metal, and other filmmakers like James Cameron (Avatar) and Zack Snyder (300) were already on board to direct animated segments. Animated movies geared towards adults have not had the greatest track record at the box office, so that plan was canceled when it seemed like making a new Heavy Metal movie for theatrical release would cost too much money. Along comes Netflix in 2019, when the streamer greenlit a series of short animated sci-fi films, which became Love, Death, and Robots. Six years later, the fourth season has just hit the streamer with ten new short films, bringing the total number of shorts in the series up to a whopping 45.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock where music hasn’t existed for the past five decades, you’ll be familiar with or at least aware of the hard music genre dubbed “heavy metal.” It led to so many big bands of the ’70s and ’80s, from Black Sabbath to AC/DC to Judas Priest and even the famed hair metal bands of the ’80s. That music only partially inspired a bunch of French comic book artists to create a comics anthology magazine called Metal Hurlant, which was eventually retitled as Heavy Metal for its American release. That magazine became so popular, especially among teen boys, that it led to a rare animated anthology movie geared towards older viewers. The movie version of Heavy Metal combined stories and characters taken directly from the magazine – popular comics like Richard Corben’s “Den,” Berni Wrightson’s “Captain Sternn,” Angus McKie’s “So Beautiful & So Dangerous,” and Moebius‘ “Arzach” – with new concepts like “B-17″ from Alien co-creator Dan O’Bannon.

For those of a certain age, the animated Heavy Metal allowed filmmakers to pair those science fiction stories with music from some of the hottest rock acts of the late ’70s and early ’80s. An even odder aspect of this Canadian production was how many members of the SCTV sketch comedy series would provide voices, including John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, and Harold Ramis. Those inclusions might not be quite as surprising when you see that the late Ivan Reitman produced the movie, having already established himself with hit comedies like Animal House and Meatballs. Years later, Reitman would direct Ghostbusters, creating a popular comedy genre franchise that would add to his legacy, even as his involvement with Heavy Metal would soon be forgotten.

‘Heavy Metal’ Animated Epic Gets 4K Blu-ray Steelbook Release With New Retrospective Feature

Relieve the awesome ’80s animated film.

Truthfully, the original 1981 Heavy Metal has not aged well with its misogynistic depiction of women as sex objects and its exorbitant amount of female nudity. Even despite that, the last segment focused on one of Heavy Metal‘s most popular characters, Taarna, a fierce female warrior riding a bird-like creature, inspired by comic artist Moebius, went on to become the image most associated with the franchise. Otherwise, the movie very much felt like something geared specifically towards teenage boys, much like the comic magazine was.

The influence Heavy Metal has had on the likes of Love, Death & Robots is palpable, with one particular episode from Season 4, “How Jake Got Religion,” based on a short story by J.T. Petty, seemingly a homage to the Dan O’Bannon segment from Heavy Metal. Even having Fincher directing an animated music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers for Season 4 is very much in line with Heavy Metal’s original meshing of rock with animation. Other segments of the new season offer the type of science fiction storytelling that was very much the M.O. of Heavy Metal, as well as some of its humor.

Although previous attempts at reviving Heavy Metal failed quite miserably, few people will even remember the very bad Heavy Metal 2000, released just a month after Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Still, Miller and Fincher seemed to have found the sweet spot in blending animation with science fiction and music while finding an audience on streaming, rather than trying to make it work theatrically. Clearly, they remember how Heavy Metal inspired their younger selves in order to create something that might appeal to young sci-fi fans in a similar manner.