Roy from Space: Standard Edition – Deaf Crocodile (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Mexico, 1983
Directors: Héctor López Carmona, Rafael Ángel Gil, Ulises Pérez Aguirre
Writers: Héctor López Carmona, Rafael Ángel Gil, Ulises Pérez Aguirre
Cast: José Chorena, Guillermo Coria, Juan Domingo Méndez, Arturo Férnandez, Patricia Martínez, Rommy Mendoza, Rubén Moya, Salvador Nájar, Esteban Siller, Álvaro Tarcicio, Braulio Zertuche

Release Date: December 15th, 2026
Approximate Running Time: 64 Minutes 54 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Spanish
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

"Completely lost for over 40 years and only the 3rd animated feature ever produced in Mexico, ROY FROM SPACE has finally returned! The only feature made by noted titles and commercials animator Héctor López Carmona, ROY is a wildly entertaining work of Outsider / Sci-Fi Animation, loosely inspired (ahem) by the classic 1930s Flash Gordon serials. "I'm Roy from Space. I come from Earth," our helmet-wearing hero announces with a straight face (note: he never takes off his helmet, indoors or outdoors), and we follow as he fights a nonstop stream of synthesizer-voiced robots and flying saucers in the service of wicked Ming-the-Merciless clone "King Alom" while fending off the king's hot-blooded daughter." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Roy from Space comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 43.8 GB

Feature: 18.6 GB

The source looks excellent; colors look correct, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid.

Audio: 4/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Spanish with removable English subtitles. The track sounds clean, clear, and balanced. That said, things sound limited range-wise.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a featurette on the creation of replacement animation for the film by animators Isabelle Aspin and Brian Smee, edited by Ryan Verrill of Someone’s Favorite Production (7 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a video essay by film historian Celeste de la Cabra titled Mexico’s First Explotation Feature (13 minutes 45, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with director Héctor López Carmona’s grandson, Héctor Ricardo López Reyes, moderated by Dennis Bartok with translation by Alejandro Vidal (55 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Spanish translated into English), an interview with Andrea Pérez Mata (an animator on the film) and Ulises Pérez Mata, both children of Roy from Space producer Ulises Pérez Aguirre, and their cousin, Alejandro Mata, Dennis Bartok, and Alejandro Vidal (74 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Spanish translated into English), an audio commentary with Armando Hernández & Joey Diaz of the Trash-Mex podcast, and a 48-page booklet with an essay titled Roy from Space: An Overview of “A Daring Experiment" written by Alejandro Vidal, an essay titled Roy from Space written by Walter Chaw, and Restoration Notes.

Summary:

The leaders of Earth send an astronaut named Roy, a doctor named Faz, and a psychologist named Elena on a mission to investigate cosmic radiation that is eminating from the red planet. Once there, they encounter an evil emperor, his alluring daughter, and his army of robots. Their mission becomes complicated when the emperor becomes infatuated with Elena and orders his minions to kill Roy.

If the above scenario sounds familiar, it is because Roy from Space liberally borrows elements from Flash Gordon. Roy from Space not only fashions its characters and takes story elements from Flash Gordon, but it also rotoscopes scenes from a 1936 Flash Gordon serial. Another film that influences Roy from Space is Message from Space, from which the creators used footage without permission. For this Blu-ray release, the Message from Space footage has been removed and replaced with a new 4 ½ animation sequence that perfectly blends with the rest of the film.

Roy from Space employs a 2-D animation style that appears primitive and, by today’s standards, seems outdated even for its time. From a technical standpoint, everything about Roy from Space is amateurish. The narrative does not provide an origins story for the hero, Roy, and although it is heavy on dialogue, it lacks substantial backstory. Roy from Space has one advantage: its brevity. At just 65 minutes long, it manages to avoid overstaying its welcome. Ultimately, despite Roy from Space’s shortcomings, the result is a film that is always entertaining.

Roy from Space gets a solid release from Deaf Crocodile that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and informative extras. Recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer