Phil Hubbs Just like the animated spin offs from 'The Matrix' and 'Van Helsing' we were also given a small animated feature showing us the events leading up to The Riddick sequel. This short was a sequel to the original 'Pitch Black' but was it really required?.We see Riddick and the other two survivors leaving the dark planet of the original film. In transit to 'New Mecca' they get captured by some mercs lead by the evil villainess 'Antonia Chillingsworth' (Chillingsworth...chilling, scary huh...get it?) who likes to capture famous criminals and put them on display in her ship. She does this by freezing them basically, freezing them into statues, a bit 'Batman and Robin-ish', a bit cheesy but hey.Now this isn't too old really, its only 2004, but I was amazed at how poor the CGI sequences were. There aren't too many, mainly a few ships, some internal corridors and one or two creatures. But it must be said that they look pretty awful to be honest, really obvious and very plastic looking, quite shocked. The sequences with Riddick's ship look like an amateur did them very quickly, so plain and lifeless!.Other than that the animation is nice n quirky, not overly fantastic but it does the job. Hard to criticise art and animation styles because everything is more so a matter of opinion and of course some styles can be deliberately hokey/simple/rough looking. This style is typical anime style with a slightly surreal edge, the characters are drawn in exaggeration at times, overly defined or amplified if you will.What is nice is the fact all the main characters are voiced by the real film cast to give that extra layer of cannon, coolness and fanboyism. I mean lets face it no one can really replace Vin Diesel as Riddick right. The story ticks along fine, a bit simple but its OK, we see the intro of 'Toombs' which is a minor highlight really, not particularly important but hey its there...a small token mainly for the sequel of course.Overall I found this pretty average really, nothing too special, by the numbers in terms of both animation and excitement. It didn't really need to made in all honesty, it serves no real purpose other than to keep fans happy until the second was released, and does it do that? well maybe I guess. A bit short also I might add but at least it served up plenty of blood n gore which always looks good in these anime adventures. This animation does the odd things a film can't because the bigwigs want a film for the mass audiences, we've all heard that before right, this has more free rein.6/10

TheHande I have never had more conflicted feelings about any animator. Peter Chung, creator of Aeon Flux brings us an interquel, Dark Fury to the films Pitch Black (a low budget sci-fi suspense story) and The Chronicles of Riddick (an action-packed sci-fi adventure). Dark Fury adds its own unique flavour, while retaining the greatness of the series. Chung has a very interesting style and I thought it translated well on screen.The only one who didn't deliver as well however, surprisingly, was Riddick himself who delivered an unbelievable amount of redundant one-liners during the film and I did not have as much respect for him, like when I watched Chronicles.Regardless, this is an excellent follow-up to Pitch Black.

athena24 Like the creators of the Matrix that gave us the Animatrix as part of the matrix evolution story, the creators of Riddick gave us The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. This short animated movie comes somewhere between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick in the overall plot about Riddick. There are no evolving characters here or, even an evolving idea. Everything ends before it began.I really liked Pitch Black, and even more The Chronicles of Riddick, so naturally I wanted to watch this one, which was dull. It's like the crew was tired, and didn't want to work hard on it. They just didn't show their enthusiasm on this one.The animation is OK, but nothing special. It really can't be compared to eastern animated movies ( Like Jin Roh, Wonderful Days or Ghost In The Shell) which are much more detailed, and the stances and the proportions of the characters seem to be more natural than in Dark Fury.The good thing that it's not so long. If you liked the movies, watch this one as a complementary for your Riddick education.

taomonster I just saw Dark Fury on a rented DVD and had very satisfying experience. Dark Fury is well drawn, fast paced and with a little CGI to spice it up.The animated short story takes place where we last left Riddick, the preacher and the wannabe tough girl in Pitch Black. They are picked up by a fairly big spaceship of hightech bounty hunters. From here on Riddick starts to kick ass and continues to do so for about 30 min. Vin Diesel's voice is one of the coolest in Hollywood only topped(maybe) by Sean Connery. The only problem in this animated adventure is that it is to damn short(33 min). It's a colorful and interesting universe with a great villain and some fantastic and imaginative actionscenes. In short terms Riddick kicks butt yet again. I went straight in on my Pc, went online and bought this little baby. Hail to the king baby. I give it a 7,5 out of 10.