Mutant Aliens: Standard Edition – Deaf Crocodile (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 2001
Director: Bill Plympton
Writer: Bill Plympton
Cast: Dan McComas, Francine Lobis, George Casden, Matthew Brown, Jay Cavanaugh, Amy Allison, Christopher Schukai, Kevin Kolack, Vera Beren, Bill Plympton

Release Date: November 11th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 81 Minutes 22 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD Stereo English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

"An American astronaut named Earl Jensen (voiced by Dan McComas) who's intentionally stranded in space by his evil boss, Dr. Frubar (voiced by George Casden). Twenty years later, his now-grown daughter Josie (voiced by Francine Lobis) is an astronomer with some serious lust for her hunky boyfriend (their hanky panky is both R-rated and hilarious, with his phallus in turn transforming into a charging rhino, steam train, and exploding volcano). Their lovemaking and Dr. Frubar's evil plans are both interrupted by the unexpected return of her missing father, astronaut Earl, who reveals he apparently survived in space for the past two decades on a planet peopled (if that's the right word) by aliens who resemble human body parts (tongues, fingers, eyeballs, and unidentified pink blobs)." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Mutant Aliens comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 29.9 GB

Feature: 21.8 GB

Fidelity In Motion delivers a solid encode; the source looks excellent.

Audio: 5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD stereo mix in English with removable English SDH. The audio sounds clear, balanced, and robust when it should.

Extras:

Extras for this release include two short films directed by Bill Plympton: Hot Dog (5 minutes 44 seconds, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, LPCM stereo, no dialogue) and The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger (6 minutes 5 seconds, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, LPCM stereo, no dialogue); an interview with director Bill Plympton, moderated by Dennis Bartok of Deaf Crocodile (32 minutes 16 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival making-of documentary titled The Plympton Diaries (9 minutes 9 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival audio commentary with Bill Plympton, an audio commentary with animation producer and podcaster Adam Rackoff, podcaster and film critic James Hancock and longtime Plympton collaborator John Holderried of Plymptoons Studio, and an insert with a URL that has PDF's for Bill Plympton interview and audio commentary, and Adam Rackoff, James Hancock, and John Holderried’s audio commentary.

Hot Dog: A canine looking for affection and wanting to save the world joins the fire department.

The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger: After seeing a billboard, a cow dreams of being a hamburger one day.

Summary:

Bill Plympton directed Mutant Aliens. He’s known for The Tune, I Married A Strange Person!, and Idiots and Angels.

Stranded in space for 20 years, an astronaut returns to Earth. While drifting through space, he found himself on an alien planet populated by humanoids with animal body parts. These beings became his army of mutants, which he intends to use to seek revenge against the man who abandoned him in space.

Mutant Aliens' clear inspiration is B monster movies, and it is an exemplary spoof of these films. His approach to animation enhances his films and sets them apart from others. While most animation has shifted to computerized methods and the use of colored pencils, he utilizes hand-drawn animation, reserving painted elements solely for the backgrounds.

Like his other films, Mutant Aliens is not suitable for children. His films are known for their gratuitous violence, nudity, and subversive humor, and Mutant Aliens delivers heaping amounts of all of these. Another thing that his films are known for is their absurd scenarios and exaggeration of character expressions.

The opening setup effectively captivates your attention, and from that point on, the narrative engages you with an overwhelming sensory experience. When it comes to pacing, there is an immediacy that keeps things moving at a brisk momentum that never lets you catch your breath. The voice acting is pitch-perfect; you can feel the actors' enthusiasm. That said, the films of Bill Plympton seem to divide their prospective audience into two categories: those who fully embrace his type of cinema and those who quickly tune out because it's too outside their comfort zone. Ultimately, Mutant Aliens is an extraordinary animation film that is bursting with imagination and subversive humor.

Mutant Aliens gets an excellent release from Deaf Crocodile that comes with a solid audio/video presentation, two bonus short films, and insightful extras; highly recommended.

Note: There is a deluxe release of Mutant Aliens that comes in a slipcase and a 60-page book with an introduction by Weird Al Yankovic, an essay by film critic Walter Chaw (Film Freak Central), and an essay by screenwriter, playwright, and film journalist Steven Peros.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer