When I think of Aeon Flux, I think of two tongues Frenching each other, then one of them opens up a false tooth and retrieves a microchip from inside, and then we see it's Aeon and Trevor snogging while leaning out from windows of two trains going a hundred miles an hour, all to the tune of some weird, funky electronica.
hand drawn too! its incredible what we were accomplishing in animation from the 80's to mid 90's. just an unreal level of dedication to an artform that was entirely beyond what anyone thought was possible. sure there are amazing animations done today, but there is something about these hand drawn animations on cells that speaks volumes on human ingenuity.
I love the irony of Peter Chung's creation. He was trying to say something very artistic about futility of violence and it backfired tremendously. The show is great both ways.
I didn’t know how many years of actual music they played, I’d dropped off long before then, but I remember the first day it started. Fortunately it was a weekend, and I sat glued in front of my television that entire day.
Visible forms are not inherent in the world, but granted by the act of seeing. Through the world and events do exist independent of mind, they obtain of no meaning in themselves, none that the mind is not guilty of imposing on them. I bid my people follow and, like all good equations, they follow. For full endowment of purpose, they do submit. In turn they resign me to a role inhuman, impossible, and unaccountable. But I can no longer stand sleepless night. I think I am learning to love the Demiurge.
Yeah. I'm sure it would be different if I revisit with adult eyes, but at the time... for me, what I got out of it was a feeling of a setting and characters too deep with their history, context, and tech for understanding and much hope of anticipating. Like a neolithic person dropped into a modern city during protests over representations of history. Complete explanations pop a bubble of some kind, and the show seemed more about inflating that bubble and playing inside it.
@@noonebesides You penned my thoughts perfectly on how I felt about the show then and reflecting on the memory of it now. It really did feel like being immersed in a trippy bubble of another world. Sent there with no context and then set free inside of it to figure it out each time. It was brilliant and quite fun!
@ozzymandius666You believe wrong. It's a twist on the Nietzsche quote. The quote you are thinking of is "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
@@RarebitFiends As an addendum, I discovered a few years ago that John Rafter Lee (Trevor's VA) has recorded several of Nietzsche's works for audiobook editions. Few things are as truly immersive as listening to Thus Spoke Zarathustra narrated by Trevor Goodchild.
was a huge fan, and lost my VHS copies from Liquid Televison too. I am a huge fan of Bill Plymton and Aeon Flux. when Blockbuster went under, i visited my local blockbuster liquidation sales, and got the entire Aeon Flux DVD Boxset with the art cards, art book, and all the Aeon Flux goodies for 3 dollars. still have it to this day. fingers crossed she makes a come back in all her glory or have the originals remastered to HD or 4K. the DVD is unfortunately standard definition.
After hearing he designed Rugrats and went back to rewatch the opening to that show, you can TOTALLY see his influence. It looks just like the shorts on Liquid TV.
I remember catching Liquid Television and Aeon Flux completely by accident. I was probably around 11 or 12 at the time, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before - it was the first cartoon I'd ever seen where people not only died, but the main character died at the end of the short. I thought it was fantastic, and this resulted in me drawing Aeon Flux incessantly while in school; with my math and biology teacher both confiscating my drawings repeatedly, and my biology teacher calling my mom because they were "concerned about my mental disposition"...a direct quote from the yellow slip that the office sent home with me, lol.
I enjoyed liquid television and MTVs Oddities, especially THE MAXX. Aeon Flux was strange but i love the animation style, same as the Bill Plympton weird bits on MTV back in the day. Great Video, thanks.
Man… I was obsessed with Aeon Flux growing up. I was from 11-14 when it was on the air and always looked forward to watching it late on Friday nights on MTV. I remember being super excited to get the book but I was so young and I didn’t have much access to merchandise pertaining to my hobbies. I did get the dvd box set a few years back and I recently rewatched the film and it isn’t nearly as bad as what I remembered folks saying back when it was released. I think I even played the movie’s video game. Hopefully a new film version will be made by people that truly understand and appreciate Aeon’s lore.
I own both the boxset of the animated series and the DVD movie. They both have their appeal for me. The animated series was great at subverting the hero expectations of the audience and the lightning fast zooming of the virtual camera. The stories were refreshingly weird, sexy and philosophical at the same time. The movie was more of a traditional dystopia fought by a heroine. Still, the art direction was stunning and the acting wasn't half bad either. The studio did not dare step out of it's comfort zones and still produced a financial flop. Had they boldly embraced Chung's vision, they might even have had a worse return on investment in the short run, but the movie might have become a cult classic later.
My sister and I used to joke that the plot of Aeon Flux was: "Trevor Goodchild _____ and Aeon is PISSED!!" for example: "Trevor Goodchild has decided to adopt a puppy and Aeon is PISSED" or "Trevor Goodchild has gone for a light walk after dinner and Aeon is PISSED!"
OMG. I LOVE AEON FLUX. Been a fan of it since I was a kid watching it on MTV back in the day. I still do a complete watch-thru of the series at least once a year. Chung's designs have been a big influence on my own art throughout my professional career. Thank you, Peter Chung.
On the issue of the whole pronunciation thing, the best related story I can think of is the tale of Aleister Crowley. Crowley, for those of you unaware, was a black magic occultist (or "magick" if that's your deal) who influenced Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, was on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, and was the inspiration for the villainous gambling addict Le Chiffre in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Casino Royale. (And how Fleming got to know Crowley while working with British intelligence during WWII is a tale worthy of its own movie, but I digress.) In any case, during his entire life, Crowley pronounced his name so it rhymed with holy, ironic considering he was regularly labeled "The Wickedest Man in the World." Irony aside, he wasn't a lone wolf in this regard: his entire family, both before and after him, pronounced it that way, as did all his friends, and in fact everybody in the world he was wicked in during his whole entire life. End of story, right? Not quite. In 1980, Ozzy Osbourne released in the UK his now classic album, The Blizzard of Ozz. One of the most popular tracks on the album was "Mr. Crowley" - a frenemy tribute to the wicked wizard. Throughout the song, Ozzy pronounces Crowley so that the "crow" rhymed with "wow". So the question needs to be asked: is it acceptable to pronounce the "crow" so it rhymes with "wow"? Or, to steal a line from someone: Is it canon? If you speak to anyone who is into the occult, they will sniff and sneer at this, and use it as proof that Ozzy's interest in black magic is shallow and little more than Hammer-film spooky schlock. What is my opinion on this? The ruling: YES, OF COURSE IT IS CANON!!! Many people's greatest frame of reference here is the blistering song with a bitching Randy Rhoads solo, and thus I'm declaring what I refer to as the "Ozzy Exception Clause" on this, which can be cited in future case law. Simply put, if you're as cool as Ozzy and you pronounce something in a way no human has before, it still counts. And yes, the fact that Ozzy didn't know how to pronounce AC's name in a technically correct way is proof he has been playing Halloween-style dress-up all along and is really just a cosplay multi-millionaire, but that's not a strike against him, that's why we love him! And for anyone who disagrees with this ruling, I say this: SHUT UP, YOU WEIRDO! You're acting like a creepy dork here. Quit eyeing the couch like you're J.D. Vance and lighten up. It's only rock 'n roll, but I like it!
I swear watching Liquid Television Sunday nights was a highlight of my week in the early 90's. I always wondered how Aeon was going to die every episode.
In Latin America, the young adult animation channel Locomotion took many of MTV's Liquid Television originated shows like The Head, The Maxx and Aeon Flux to a whole new audience of early teen millenials. It was awesome.
Liquid TV spawned Beavis & Butthead and I think The Maxx as well. It was an amazing show and there were so many weird and fantastic series featured in it. It’s insane to me how MTV used to be so innovative and entertaining when I was a kid. Hell, MTV News was a staple of my daily TV viewing. As a person who hates IP revivals, a new series of Liquid TV is one I would actually welcome.
I remember my parents trying to stop me from watching Liquid TV. They failed. Random bits of Liquid Television live rent-free in my head, and the DVD box set of Aeon Flux lives on my shelf.
We didn't have MTV in Canada, but I was fortunate that my family vacationed in Hawaii every year during my childhood and adolescence. It meant I got to enjoy, however briefly (usually for two weeks a year) things like the USA cartoon express, and Liquid Television. The latter would eventually make its way to Canada on our Music Channel "Much Music", but I got to discover Aeon Flux several years before my peers. It blew my 12 year old mind. I was already set on being an animator (a life dream I only briefly realized before reality intervened) and Aeon Flux only strengthened that goal, opening my eyes to the vast possibilities inherent to the medium.
One obscure bit of Aeon Flux lore not covered in the video (I'm guessing because Dan doesn't usually pontificate on Tabletop Role Playing Game topics) is the fact that while following up their successful World of Darkness line of games, White Wolf Game Studio branched out into a direction outside of the supernatural horror genre with a series of interconnected games covering space opera, superheroes, and pulp adventuring. The initial offering, their space opera game, was originally released under the title "AEon". Two weeks after the game hit shelves, Viacom filed a trademark infringement lawsuit, stating the game infringed on their Aeon Flux trademark. White Wolf quickly rebranded the game as "Trinity" even going so far as to send retailers stickers to affix to copies of the game that had yet to be sold. This ended up breaking the naming pattern that they had planed, as the replacement title now no longer started with "A" as was intended to match up with the subsequent titles Aberrant, and Adventure.
I was in high school when it came out in Liquid Television/MTV. I remember trying to catch new episodes and trying to keep the sequence. It was not easy. I liked it. It was so different.
I was seriously "WTF" watching it on Liquid Television. The amount of violence and weirdness was even a bit much for me as like a 13/14 year old. I still have no idea what the plot even was.
I loved MTV in the 80s and early 90s. Liquid Television was such a fantastic show. Anime had just begun to be more available at that time in the West and inspired me greatly along with several American and European creators to pursue art and writing.
In the mid to late 90’s South Africa got satellite television and MTV was on heavy rotation in my house as a teen. Aeon Flux was on in the wee hours on a Friday or Saturday morning. Usually I used to catch it after coming home from a party. Good times.
Aeon Flux changed my brain as a kid, my dad used to watch it all the time and whether or not I SHOULD'VE been watching it at like 5 years old doesn't really matter anymore. It's forever in my head and I will always love it
College in 1991. Between mushrooms and the best herb I'd ever had at that point (shout out to Kentucky), this was must-see viewing for about 12 of us degenerates in Berea. Loved the show. Taped every episode on VHS and they dead now. Cut-Up Camera and Stick Figure Theatre were favorites with, of course, Beavis and Butthead. The best though? Psychogram or the postcards read in an ominous Brit voice.
God, i remember first seeing Liquid Television, and Aeon Flux on that show. It beyond blew me away. Too bad they couldn't maintain the cool of the 1st two seasons of Liquid television.
I was so little to understand Aeon Flux. I only remembered one episode and then saw a few clips about what’s happening. After than poof it was gone until this video now makes me remember that once again. I’ll definitely watch it when I can check it out again.
Aeon Flux was a pop culutral high point in the 90's and MTV for that matter. I remember seeing the shorts and being disappointed when the longer episodes had talking in them. Hopefully you will do a video on Peter Chung's later animated series, Alexander.
I was 12 or 13 and I was at walmart with my grandma and she told me i could get a movie, I saw the live action movie on the shelf, I hadn't heard much about it but the look of it had me hooked. She bought it for me and it's still something I go back to all the time.
The box office successes of heavy metal, watership down, fritz the cat and Roger rabbit helped opened the doors for The Simpsons, duckman, spawn, mtv animation etc to be made and imports from Japan to come to the USA
Thanks for covering this. Many many years ago I was a frequent her on the Usenet forum for this show. I was what would be considered an obsessive fan relentlessly pouring over a small number of full episodes and the shorts. It was an endless loop noticing smaller and smaller details, the stories changing as I developed more depth of understanding for the characters and the themes. Today it’s almost impossible to engage that deeply with something because there’s a constant barrage of entertainment. And I feel the very few properties have that kind of depth that can literally allow you to engage for years with a small number of actual episodes. I hate that fucking movie.
Just wanted to share greetings as a fellow Usenet user from way back... what was it, alt.tv.liquid-tv? Anyway, I remember the great conversation from that era, including the shared hatred of Dog Boy. It is true, it's hard to focus on one specific thing in such a way these days (well, for the most part). And, as I mentioned elsewhere, I still haven't seen the movie. :D
Discovered this show on Liquid TV while flipping around the channels while on vacation with my folks back in the day. It was the first time I had seen that level of violence in animation, but I was captivated by the visual style.
I watched it on the original broadcast run, fell in love with it instantly, got it on VHS tape, and then picked up the box set. It was groundbreaking, and the movie was a Greatest Hits compilation without any of the substance that made the animated series so great.
Liquid Television is one of the best things that MTV ever did. Utterly fantastic. I used to watch it while opening the bar on Sunday nights when I was in college.
Liquid Television was the PG-13 mindfuck that was right up my alley in the early nineties. The Head, Dogboy, Beavis and Butthead, a whacked out video for “Hello Dad, I’m in Jail”… great stuff.
I loved the shorts, the full 22 minutes episodes were just ok, but the live action Aeon Flux was one of the very few movies I actually walked out of before it was over. It just did nothing for me.
randomly flipping through channels in 1991, there was a cartoon on in the evening hours (which didnt happen unless it was the simpsons), and so i checked it out. i had no idea what i was watching, but seeing a female dressed the way she was and shooting up all the bad guys was fascinating to 12 year old me. to my surprise, this was on mtv, and at the time they only had music oriented programming. the show was liquid television. i watched it every single time i could with hopes of seeing that chick. i was hooked! also saw the debut of beavis and butthead on liquid television, so that was pretty cool.
Props to Peter Cheung, he really did manage to achieve something different with Aeon Flux. Having said that I think the animation from the shorts really holds up the best today. But the series does have some interesting ideas for sure
I can remember sleeping over at my one friend's house, who's mom didn't care about us staying up late to watch Liquid Television. In fact, his mom honestly didn't care really about anything he watched. Also, Stick Figure Theater is one of my favorites, along with The Maxx, Aeon Flux, and The Head. Fun fact: The Maxx was originally a Image comic book series that was adapted to the "animated" show.
Watched the show Liquid Television, found the animation for Aeon Flux to be what really caught my interest. Never talked to any at secondary school about. As I knew they wouldn't share my interest in the story of animation style. When I saw it, the series was screened on BBC 2 along with Ren & Stimpy. Just after 6 pm and after watching your excellent video. When you stated it was showing late night. I think the Aeon Flux may have been cut. To fit in what could be shown at that time. I would like to find out. So I guess I will add that to the mountain list of pop culture things to find out.
I still have episodes of "Liquid Television" on VHS.... Somewhere. Loved the show, and I remember being in awe with "Aeon Flux" because it was so unique. Thanks for revisiting the series, glad to stumble upon your channel - Subscribed! 😀
I loved watching it as a teen on MTV, so I was jazzed when it came out on DVD, I still watch the series about once a year now. I showed my kids the Liquid TV shorts a couple months ago.
Aeon Flux was indeed a product of its time. I remember watching it back in the 90s and found it interesting. I even took note of the messages they gave sometimes as I was in high school at the time and it pressed a lot on things some of us high school kids would talk or speak up about. I've watched some of it now and while, to me, it still feels interesting, it does make me think that people in the current generation may not be into it as much as we did in the 90s. I even showed a few episodes recently to a few (who like some things from the 90s and 2000s) from around 18-25 and most of them just couldn't get into it. Best quote I could get from one of them was that it "seemed too serious and felt like some show you had to be on a trip to enjoy" (no idea why the person thought that but ok).
Liquid Television was one of the most eye opening shows back then. I feel lucky to have been in their demographic audience because it definitely reached me while in high school.
I loved Aeon Flux. It was my favorite of the Liquid Television cartoons. I watched Liquid Television just to catch it. And watched the full-length episodes as they aired. It was everything I wanted from a more mature animated series at the time. The moment the DVD box set was released, I rushed out to buy it. To most people, Aeon Flux was a movie that bombed, but to me, it was an animated show that pushed the envelope.
I loved Liquid Television! So many great shorts. And some weird stuff to really excite the imagination. Winter Steele was the muppet biker lady? Did it also have that one cartoon where the guy is cracking the egg, and it turns out he is actually living in an egg being cracked? And Stick Figure Theater was so great! And of course, Beavis and Butthead. But Aeon Flux was such a gem, I loved it so much, I would try to emulate it in my drawings and storytelling back then. Didn't watch much of the 3rd season, don't even recall it to be honest. Thanks for the ol' trip down memory lane. Take care all
I must have gotten in on season 2 because I remember how quickly and often she died. Definitely watched the full length episodes. It certainly did feel like it was challenging a number of tropes. I'm reminded of Keith Giffen lamenting in comics how continuity had gotten in the way of telling stories and how authors and artists should feel free to explore without those constraints. Chung seemed to be for sure with the frequent deaths
This show was very influential for me. That whole Liquid TV show really was essential to my love of art and entertainment. The creativity level was always high.
I loved the weirdness of Liquid Television and Aeon Flux was always my favorite installment of it. Naturally, I never watched the live-action movie as it turned out just as bad as I feared it was gonna be. You simply can't capture the essence of Aeon Flux filtered through the Hollywood standard formula 1A.
Thank you for the wonderful episode!, I watched them on YTV up here in canada back in the 90s late nights on the weekends, i eventually bought the VHS copies, got the DVD set the day it came out!
Aeon Flux is a MASTERPIECE. An old BF and I never missed Liquid Television to catch it! I bought him the Official Dossier and would have given him the DVD Box set if still together...I bet he has it...Have not seen the movie and won't now, thank you!
Hi i first saw Aeon on Liquid TV back in the day, it was something my peers were into and talked about. There were many other great short shows on it as well, most were quite out there, dog boy comes to mind. I still have some episodes on VHS. My family were quite into the show and liked it a lot when the characters talked in later series. I didn’t mind the movie but felt that it did stray somewhat from the source material and it didn’t need to as much as it did.
When I think of Aeon Flux, I think of two tongues Frenching each other, then one of them opens up a false tooth and retrieves a microchip from inside, and then we see it's Aeon and Trevor snogging while leaning out from windows of two trains going a hundred miles an hour, all to the tune of some weird, funky electronica.
The first shot of the first episode, if I remember correctly. Great way to hook an audience
Piece of paper, photo
A train and a plane as I remember it.
This show was definitely a sexual awakening for me… 🫢
Spot on!! 😁
I think we miss this kind of experimental artistry
Still out there, few awesome utube channels doing kick-ass art and such but yeah it's not easily found in modern mainstream sadly.
All animation is the same one Disney-Pixar style of art now. Nothing looks different from anything else now
hand drawn too! its incredible what we were accomplishing in animation from the 80's to mid 90's. just an unreal level of dedication to an artform that was entirely beyond what anyone thought was possible. sure there are amazing animations done today, but there is something about these hand drawn animations on cells that speaks volumes on human ingenuity.
Remember MAXX? That had cool artwork
@@irishgotee remember hell I own it and show it to as many people that will watch it for years and years lol.
I love the irony of Peter Chung's creation. He was trying to say something very artistic about futility of violence and it backfired tremendously. The show is great both ways.
Hi sir
Definitely a show that gets better after multiple rewatches. Peter chung has some bonkers ideas and I love it.
A generation raised on commercials broken up by commercials with sugar coursing through our veins.
I felt this so hard. Thank you.
MTV(Music Television)is 42 years old. I’m so grateful for like roughly 14 years of music tv.
You and me both!
It wasn’t even close to 14 years. Hell it was barely 10 years.
@@kevinwebster7868 Even better!
I didn’t know how many years of actual music they played, I’d dropped off long before then, but I remember the first day it started. Fortunately it was a weekend, and I sat glued in front of my television that entire day.
When MTV came on the scene, it was groundbreaking, now it’s just a joke, what went wrong?
As a nerd in college from 90-95, yeah, I loved Aeon Flux and most of the entirety of Liquid Television.
Was a huge fan of the show. The original series was waaaayyyyy ahead of its time.
This felt like what Heavy Metal 2000 should have been.
Heavy metal 2000 is so bad, the animation is mediocre and the soundtrack is absolutely unlistenable. The first Heavy Metal film though... 🤌🤌🤌
@@youknowme7797 🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌
could recommend something good?
@@bbrother92 the game is good
@@FodrMichalych what? what tittle?
"Light, in the absence of eyes, illuminates nothing." - Trevor Goodchild
Visible forms are not inherent in the world, but granted by the act of seeing.
Through the world and events do exist independent of mind, they obtain of no meaning in themselves, none that the mind is not guilty of imposing on them. I bid my people follow and, like all good equations, they follow. For full endowment of purpose, they do submit. In turn they resign me to a role inhuman, impossible, and unaccountable. But I can no longer stand sleepless night. I think I am learning to love the Demiurge.
there is no object without subject
"Clean gloves hide dirty hands."
“That, which does not kill you…
…makes you stranger…”
-TG-
@@Exile-exe “That which does not kill us, make us stranger.” Trevor Goodchild
Æon Flux altered my brain chemistry, I love that show much.
Same for me.
Yeah. I'm sure it would be different if I revisit with adult eyes, but at the time... for me, what I got out of it was a feeling of a setting and characters too deep with their history, context, and tech for understanding and much hope of anticipating. Like a neolithic person dropped into a modern city during protests over representations of history. Complete explanations pop a bubble of some kind, and the show seemed more about inflating that bubble and playing inside it.
@@noonebesides You penned my thoughts perfectly on how I felt about the show then and reflecting on the memory of it now. It really did feel like being immersed in a trippy bubble of another world. Sent there with no context and then set free inside of it to figure it out each time. It was brilliant and quite fun!
Can you recomment somethin good as this? @MissMayuri
"What doesn't kill you makes you stranger." - Trevor Goodchild
One of my favorite shows ever. Thanks for covering it.
@ozzymandius666You believe wrong. It's a twist on the Nietzsche quote. The quote you are thinking of is "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
@@anthonywheeler2082 "why so serious?" -Confucius
@@RarebitFiends As an addendum, I discovered a few years ago that John Rafter Lee (Trevor's VA) has recorded several of Nietzsche's works for audiobook editions. Few things are as truly immersive as listening to Thus Spoke Zarathustra narrated by Trevor Goodchild.
@@Flint-Dibble-the-Don "Seriously, stop attributing things to me" - Confucius, probably.
was a huge fan, and lost my VHS copies from Liquid Televison too. I am a huge fan of Bill Plymton and Aeon Flux. when Blockbuster went under, i visited my local blockbuster liquidation sales, and got the entire Aeon Flux DVD Boxset with the art cards, art book, and all the Aeon Flux goodies for 3 dollars. still have it to this day. fingers crossed she makes a come back in all her glory or have the originals remastered to HD or 4K. the DVD is unfortunately standard definition.
After hearing he designed Rugrats and went back to rewatch the opening to that show, you can TOTALLY see his influence. It looks just like the shorts on Liquid TV.
After decades of crass cash-ins, it's easy to forget how good Rugrats was in its early years.
This is one of my fave pieces of animation trivia. I tell people to compare the way Tommy's milk splashes with the blood in AF 😂
I remember catching Liquid Television and Aeon Flux completely by accident.
I was probably around 11 or 12 at the time, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before - it was the first cartoon I'd ever seen where people not only died, but the main character died at the end of the short.
I thought it was fantastic, and this resulted in me drawing Aeon Flux incessantly while in school; with my math and biology teacher both confiscating my drawings repeatedly, and my biology teacher calling my mom because they were "concerned about my mental disposition"...a direct quote from the yellow slip that the office sent home with me, lol.
must be where demented distraction was born lol
Good art will do that. 😉
Ha! I can relate. I think I was 13 or 14 and, yeah, drawing Aeon Flux during class time was a whole thing.
My phone must be listening. We had an aeon flux conversation at work at 10am and now…here we are.
That's weird, that's about the time it popped up in my head today too.
I don't think I ever stop talking about Aeon Flux or Daria.
Same story here
Weirdly - same. Though I think it means that DAN is secretly listening to us?
@Ineddiblehulk but only when sitting on the toilet or taking a long shower
I enjoyed liquid television and MTVs Oddities, especially THE MAXX.
Aeon Flux was strange but i love the animation style, same as the Bill Plympton weird bits on MTV back in the day.
Great Video, thanks.
Man… I was obsessed with Aeon Flux growing up. I was from 11-14 when it was on the air and always looked forward to watching it late on Friday nights on MTV. I remember being super excited to get the book but I was so young and I didn’t have much access to merchandise pertaining to my hobbies. I did get the dvd box set a few years back and I recently rewatched the film and it isn’t nearly as bad as what I remembered folks saying back when it was released. I think I even played the movie’s video game. Hopefully a new film version will be made by people that truly understand and appreciate Aeon’s lore.
I love the movie for exactly one reason: it finally got us a DVD box set of the original series.
worth it.
I own both the boxset of the animated series and the DVD movie. They both have their appeal for me. The animated series was great at subverting the hero expectations of the audience and the lightning fast zooming of the virtual camera. The stories were refreshingly weird, sexy and philosophical at the same time.
The movie was more of a traditional dystopia fought by a heroine. Still, the art direction was stunning and the acting wasn't half bad either.
The studio did not dare step out of it's comfort zones and still produced a financial flop. Had they boldly embraced Chung's vision, they might even have had a worse return on investment in the short run, but the movie might have become a cult classic later.
AEON FLUX was one of the segments on Liquid Television that I loved. The animation and stand alone stories were fascinating.
This video is correct, this wasn't for me, I did however like the other bits like The Maxx and The Head. This one just wasn't for me.
Honestly, this video explains so much. This show was so confusing but really pulled you in
My sister and I used to joke that the plot of Aeon Flux was: "Trevor Goodchild _____ and Aeon is PISSED!!" for example: "Trevor Goodchild has decided to adopt a puppy and Aeon is PISSED" or "Trevor Goodchild has gone for a light walk after dinner and Aeon is PISSED!"
This is amazing. A proto meme.😂
I love that a lot of people watched this thing back then as kids as just took it like that lol
OMG. I LOVE AEON FLUX. Been a fan of it since I was a kid watching it on MTV back in the day. I still do a complete watch-thru of the series at least once a year. Chung's designs have been a big influence on my own art throughout my professional career. Thank you, Peter Chung.
On the issue of the whole pronunciation thing, the best related story I can think of is the tale of Aleister Crowley. Crowley, for those of you unaware, was a black magic occultist (or "magick" if that's your deal) who influenced Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, was on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, and was the inspiration for the villainous gambling addict Le Chiffre in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Casino Royale. (And how Fleming got to know Crowley while working with British intelligence during WWII is a tale worthy of its own movie, but I digress.) In any case, during his entire life, Crowley pronounced his name so it rhymed with holy, ironic considering he was regularly labeled "The Wickedest Man in the World." Irony aside, he wasn't a lone wolf in this regard: his entire family, both before and after him, pronounced it that way, as did all his friends, and in fact everybody in the world he was wicked in during his whole entire life.
End of story, right? Not quite. In 1980, Ozzy Osbourne released in the UK his now classic album, The Blizzard of Ozz. One of the most popular tracks on the album was "Mr. Crowley" - a frenemy tribute to the wicked wizard. Throughout the song, Ozzy pronounces Crowley so that the "crow" rhymed with "wow".
So the question needs to be asked: is it acceptable to pronounce the "crow" so it rhymes with "wow"? Or, to steal a line from someone: Is it canon? If you speak to anyone who is into the occult, they will sniff and sneer at this, and use it as proof that Ozzy's interest in black magic is shallow and little more than Hammer-film spooky schlock.
What is my opinion on this? The ruling: YES, OF COURSE IT IS CANON!!! Many people's greatest frame of reference here is the blistering song with a bitching Randy Rhoads solo, and thus I'm declaring what I refer to as the "Ozzy Exception Clause" on this, which can be cited in future case law. Simply put, if you're as cool as Ozzy and you pronounce something in a way no human has before, it still counts. And yes, the fact that Ozzy didn't know how to pronounce AC's name in a technically correct way is proof he has been playing Halloween-style dress-up all along and is really just a cosplay multi-millionaire, but that's not a strike against him, that's why we love him! And for anyone who disagrees with this ruling, I say this: SHUT UP, YOU WEIRDO! You're acting like a creepy dork here. Quit eyeing the couch like you're J.D. Vance and lighten up. It's only rock 'n roll, but I like it!
PS: Tying this back to the original issue, is it acceptable to pronounce Magneto as "Magnet-Oh"? Dan Larson is as cool as Ozzy. It counts.
best thing on Liquid Television, and I own the DVD collection.
I swear watching Liquid Television Sunday nights was a highlight of my week in the early 90's. I always wondered how Aeon was going to die every episode.
In Latin America, the young adult animation channel Locomotion took many of MTV's Liquid Television originated shows like The Head, The Maxx and Aeon Flux to a whole new audience of early teen millenials.
It was awesome.
Locomotion was GREAT
aeon flux was one of my first introduction series to the concept that animation could be for adults - such a good series
Liquid TV spawned Beavis & Butthead and I think The Maxx as well. It was an amazing show and there were so many weird and fantastic series featured in it. It’s insane to me how MTV used to be so innovative and entertaining when I was a kid. Hell, MTV News was a staple of my daily TV viewing. As a person who hates IP revivals, a new series of Liquid TV is one I would actually welcome.
I remember my parents trying to stop me from watching Liquid TV. They failed. Random bits of Liquid Television live rent-free in my head, and the DVD box set of Aeon Flux lives on my shelf.
Aeon Flux is one of the very, very few things that MTV got right that didn’t pertain to music.
Really didn't think the Aeon Flux video would be where we learned Dan was on the wrong side of the Magneto Wars. A sad day.
You mean the right side...
We didn't have MTV in Canada, but I was fortunate that my family vacationed in Hawaii every year during my childhood and adolescence. It meant I got to enjoy, however briefly (usually for two weeks a year) things like the USA cartoon express, and Liquid Television. The latter would eventually make its way to Canada on our Music Channel "Much Music", but I got to discover Aeon Flux several years before my peers. It blew my 12 year old mind. I was already set on being an animator (a life dream I only briefly realized before reality intervened) and Aeon Flux only strengthened that goal, opening my eyes to the vast possibilities inherent to the medium.
The reel of Liquid Television shorts hits me right in the feels. It's like watching a reel of my 20s.
Does this mean we're going to get a The Head video? The Brothers Grunt?
The Maxx?
THE MAXX!
Hell, do all of _Liquid Television._
Not Dog Boy, please.
@@freddogrosso9835 It always brought every episode to a screaming halt.
Man, I LOVE Aeon Flux. It was extremely outside the box and made my mind run!
One obscure bit of Aeon Flux lore not covered in the video (I'm guessing because Dan doesn't usually pontificate on Tabletop Role Playing Game topics) is the fact that while following up their successful World of Darkness line of games, White Wolf Game Studio branched out into a direction outside of the supernatural horror genre with a series of interconnected games covering space opera, superheroes, and pulp adventuring. The initial offering, their space opera game, was originally released under the title "AEon". Two weeks after the game hit shelves, Viacom filed a trademark infringement lawsuit, stating the game infringed on their Aeon Flux trademark. White Wolf quickly rebranded the game as "Trinity" even going so far as to send retailers stickers to affix to copies of the game that had yet to be sold. This ended up breaking the naming pattern that they had planed, as the replacement title now no longer started with "A" as was intended to match up with the subsequent titles Aberrant, and Adventure.
Heh, I was actually a play-tester on that game back in the day.
🌈✨
MAN, I haven't thought about that whole debacle in over 20 years. Nice one.
Aeon Flux is like reading good sci-fi short stories - no handholding, no exposition, no brakes
I was in high school when it came out in Liquid Television/MTV. I remember trying to catch new episodes and trying to keep the sequence. It was not easy. I liked it. It was so different.
I was seriously "WTF" watching it on Liquid Television. The amount of violence and weirdness was even a bit much for me as like a 13/14 year old.
I still have no idea what the plot even was.
And THAT is exactly why the original was such a huge success!
Hehe. I watched those episodes over and over trying to understand WTF was going on. Time well spent.
I loved MTV in the 80s and early 90s. Liquid Television was such a fantastic show. Anime had just begun to be more available at that time in the West and inspired me greatly along with several American and European creators to pursue art and writing.
In the mid to late 90’s South Africa got satellite television and MTV was on heavy rotation in my house as a teen. Aeon Flux was on in the wee hours on a Friday or Saturday morning. Usually I used to catch it after coming home from a party. Good times.
Aeon Flux changed my brain as a kid, my dad used to watch it all the time and whether or not I SHOULD'VE been watching it at like 5 years old doesn't really matter anymore. It's forever in my head and I will always love it
College in 1991. Between mushrooms and the best herb I'd ever had at that point (shout out to Kentucky), this was must-see viewing for about 12 of us degenerates in Berea. Loved the show. Taped every episode on VHS and they dead now. Cut-Up Camera and Stick Figure Theatre were favorites with, of course, Beavis and Butthead. The best though? Psychogram or the postcards read in an ominous Brit voice.
I watched Reign: the Conquerer with the Art Club and Æon Flux was hard suggested to back-backlog. Worth
God, i remember first seeing Liquid Television, and Aeon Flux on that show. It beyond blew me away. Too bad they couldn't maintain the cool of the 1st two seasons of Liquid television.
I was so little to understand Aeon Flux. I only remembered one episode and then saw a few clips about what’s happening. After than poof it was gone until this video now makes me remember that once again. I’ll definitely watch it when I can check it out again.
Aeon Flux was a pop culutral high point in the 90's and MTV for that matter. I remember seeing the shorts and being disappointed when the longer episodes had talking in them. Hopefully you will do a video on Peter Chung's later animated series, Alexander.
My brother and I used to watch this all the time on MTV back in the day. One of the shows that got me into anime.
I was 12 or 13 and I was at walmart with my grandma and she told me i could get a movie, I saw the live action movie on the shelf, I hadn't heard much about it but the look of it had me hooked. She bought it for me and it's still something I go back to all the time.
Wow! never seen that Pepsi commercial. Love some Cindy Cravwfrord. I might still have my tapes of LIquid Television.
I can't believe they made that and didn't put Cindy Crawford in the PVC outfit from the animated portion.
Also brings me back to the mtv commercial where the cab driver is driving around talking about the sabotage video.
Ah yes, the gownless evening strap in classic black.
Ha! Nice.
"I have no idea what I'm doing." -Trevor Goodchild, attempting to weild an unidentifiable weapon he picked up off of a table in a laboratory.
so happy for this episode! the history of this show is very important for the popularization of adult animation in north america
The box office successes of heavy metal, watership down, fritz the cat and Roger rabbit helped opened the doors for The Simpsons, duckman, spawn, mtv animation etc to be made and imports from Japan to come to the USA
MTV’s Liquid Television was one of my favorite shows from back in the day.
Thanks for covering this. Many many years ago I was a frequent her on the Usenet forum for this show. I was what would be considered an obsessive fan relentlessly pouring over a small number of full episodes and the shorts. It was an endless loop noticing smaller and smaller details, the stories changing as I developed more depth of understanding for the characters and the themes. Today it’s almost impossible to engage that deeply with something because there’s a constant barrage of entertainment. And I feel the very few properties have that kind of depth that can literally allow you to engage for years with a small number of actual episodes. I hate that fucking movie.
Just wanted to share greetings as a fellow Usenet user from way back... what was it, alt.tv.liquid-tv? Anyway, I remember the great conversation from that era, including the shared hatred of Dog Boy. It is true, it's hard to focus on one specific thing in such a way these days (well, for the most part). And, as I mentioned elsewhere, I still haven't seen the movie. :D
Discovered this show on Liquid TV while flipping around the channels while on vacation with my folks back in the day. It was the first time I had seen that level of violence in animation, but I was captivated by the visual style.
I watched it on the original broadcast run, fell in love with it instantly, got it on VHS tape, and then picked up the box set. It was groundbreaking, and the movie was a Greatest Hits compilation without any of the substance that made the animated series so great.
Liquid Television is one of the best things that MTV ever did. Utterly fantastic. I used to watch it while opening the bar on Sunday nights when I was in college.
Liquid Television was the PG-13 mindfuck that was right up my alley in the early nineties. The Head, Dogboy, Beavis and Butthead, a whacked out video for “Hello Dad, I’m in Jail”…
great stuff.
I loved the shorts, the full 22 minutes episodes were just ok, but the live action Aeon Flux was one of the very few movies I actually walked out of before it was over. It just did nothing for me.
I refuse so watching that shlopy movie.
I was embarrassed for the movie makers.
I was naive enough then that i didn't yet understand that Hollywood shits on adaptations.
I still have the VHS of the Aeon Flux collection. Love it
randomly flipping through channels in 1991, there was a cartoon on in the evening hours (which didnt happen unless it was the simpsons), and so i checked it out.
i had no idea what i was watching, but seeing a female dressed the way she was and shooting up all the bad guys was fascinating to 12 year old me.
to my surprise, this was on mtv, and at the time they only had music oriented programming. the show was liquid television.
i watched it every single time i could with hopes of seeing that chick. i was hooked!
also saw the debut of beavis and butthead on liquid television, so that was pretty cool.
Liquid Television was peak inspiration. I miss those afternoons. The Aeon Flux DVD box set is worth every penny.
Yeah some brand aren’t for everyone, and nothing can change that, if only Hollywood would understand 😂
Props to Peter Cheung, he really did manage to achieve something different with Aeon Flux. Having said that I think the animation from the shorts really holds up the best today. But the series does have some interesting ideas for sure
I loved Aeon Flux on Liquid Television when I was a high school freshman. Thanks for this.
I can remember sleeping over at my one friend's house, who's mom didn't care about us staying up late to watch Liquid Television. In fact, his mom honestly didn't care really about anything he watched.
Also, Stick Figure Theater is one of my favorites, along with The Maxx, Aeon Flux, and The Head. Fun fact: The Maxx was originally a Image comic book series that was adapted to the "animated" show.
Watched the show Liquid Television, found the animation for Aeon Flux to be what really caught my interest. Never talked to any at secondary school about. As I knew they wouldn't share my interest in the story of animation style.
When I saw it, the series was screened on BBC 2 along with Ren & Stimpy. Just after 6 pm and after watching your excellent video. When you stated it was showing late night. I think the Aeon Flux may have been cut. To fit in what could be shown at that time. I would like to find out.
So I guess I will add that to the mountain list of pop culture things to find out.
I still have episodes of "Liquid Television" on VHS.... Somewhere. Loved the show, and I remember being in awe with "Aeon Flux" because it was so unique. Thanks for revisiting the series, glad to stumble upon your channel - Subscribed! 😀
Loved LiquidTelevision, always anticipated The Maxx and Aeon Flux episodes. Totally mesmerizing at the time.
I loved watching it as a teen on MTV, so I was jazzed when it came out on DVD, I still watch the series about once a year now. I showed my kids the Liquid TV shorts a couple months ago.
Groovy video as always, and the camera image looks especially good!
I saw one episode when it was airing, and was shocked! I was around 14 then, and had never seen anything like that.
I always looked forward to seeing Liquid Television. Aeon Flux was certainly a memorable part of the experience.
this was a great episode. I love that you’re moving into more stuff like this
I hope this means we can get future episodes on The Maxx and The Head!!!
Aeon Flux was indeed a product of its time. I remember watching it back in the 90s and found it interesting. I even took note of the messages they gave sometimes as I was in high school at the time and it pressed a lot on things some of us high school kids would talk or speak up about. I've watched some of it now and while, to me, it still feels interesting, it does make me think that people in the current generation may not be into it as much as we did in the 90s. I even showed a few episodes recently to a few (who like some things from the 90s and 2000s) from around 18-25 and most of them just couldn't get into it. Best quote I could get from one of them was that it "seemed too serious and felt like some show you had to be on a trip to enjoy" (no idea why the person thought that but ok).
“That which does not kill us, make us stranger.”
Trevor Goodchild
Liquid Television was one of the most eye opening shows back then. I feel lucky to have been in their demographic audience because it definitely reached me while in high school.
I loved Aeon Flux. It was my favorite of the Liquid Television cartoons. I watched Liquid Television just to catch it. And watched the full-length episodes as they aired. It was everything I wanted from a more mature animated series at the time. The moment the DVD box set was released, I rushed out to buy it. To most people, Aeon Flux was a movie that bombed, but to me, it was an animated show that pushed the envelope.
Loved the 5 min episodes with no dialogue and no plot. The animation and art were amazing.
Gotta love that editor’s note ;)
I loved Liquid Television! So many great shorts. And some weird stuff to really excite the imagination. Winter Steele was the muppet biker lady? Did it also have that one cartoon where the guy is cracking the egg, and it turns out he is actually living in an egg being cracked? And Stick Figure Theater was so great! And of course, Beavis and Butthead.
But Aeon Flux was such a gem, I loved it so much, I would try to emulate it in my drawings and storytelling back then. Didn't watch much of the 3rd season, don't even recall it to be honest. Thanks for the ol' trip down memory lane. Take care all
Liquid Television was literally my “THING” as a 12-16 year old kid ..a great time to be alive and impressionable lol
Liquid television was great in the day. Showcasing animation styles that you wouldn't normally see before the days of the internet.
Liquid Television was amazing, as was MTV animation in the 90s. I loved this and The Maxx.
Huge fan and also record on VHS. I hope you do a show on Liquid Television soon and the cartoon and artist that also came from that.
I must have gotten in on season 2 because I remember how quickly and often she died. Definitely watched the full length episodes. It certainly did feel like it was challenging a number of tropes. I'm reminded of Keith Giffen lamenting in comics how continuity had gotten in the way of telling stories and how authors and artists should feel free to explore without those constraints. Chung seemed to be for sure with the frequent deaths
Aeon Flux was very impactful to me. Such bizarre style. I still love it.
This show was very influential for me. That whole Liquid TV show really was essential to my love of art and entertainment. The creativity level was always high.
I loved the weirdness of Liquid Television and Aeon Flux was always my favorite installment of it. Naturally, I never watched the live-action movie as it turned out just as bad as I feared it was gonna be. You simply can't capture the essence of Aeon Flux filtered through the Hollywood standard formula 1A.
Liquid television was awesome. I am still surprised they made this into a live action movie though
Thank you for the wonderful episode!, I watched them on YTV up here in canada back in the 90s late nights on the weekends, i eventually bought the VHS copies, got the DVD set the day it came out!
Aeon Flux + The Maxx = GOATED television
From drawing dumb babies to skinny bikini assassins in the future, that’s true art.
Aeon Flux is a MASTERPIECE. An old BF and I never missed Liquid Television to catch it! I bought him the Official Dossier and would have given him the DVD Box set if still together...I bet he has it...Have not seen the movie and won't now, thank you!
Hi i first saw Aeon on Liquid TV back in the day, it was something my peers were into and talked about. There were many other great short shows on it as well, most were quite out there, dog boy comes to mind. I still have some episodes on VHS.
My family were quite into the show and liked it a lot when the characters talked in later series.
I didn’t mind the movie but felt that it did stray somewhat from the source material and it didn’t need to as much as it did.
Wow! I was not aware of the Cindy Crawford commercial. Fascination. Thank you.