Ace Lightning - Episodes 1-7

Recently relocated from merry old England to North America (Canada to be exact), snot-nosed toff Mark Hollander (Tom Wansley) finds to his horror that not only is he to be attending a state-run school, but his life has been invaded by pixelated killing machines. For one dark night, deep into his video game Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom, a freak electrical storm brings the characters from his game to life. And now it seems that the Earth, as newly made level 7, is in danger of falling under the yoke of the evil Lord Fear and his minions Pig Face, Anvil and Lady Illusion. That is, of course, unless Lord Fear’s nemesis – the titular Ace Lightning – can defeat the assembled nasties. To do this Ace, the heroic lightning-knight, must collect all the fragments of the amulet of Zor scattered throughout the level. For those, you rightly guess, are the rules of the game. Lord Fear also seeks the fragments, for a full collection will render the Earth completely under his domain.

For his part, Mark, armed with his trusty cheat book, tries valiantly to help Ace oot. If only Ace could actually remember his name. But Mark, beset by all kinds of hurdles that a protagonist in a poorly written and cliché-ridden children’s television series encounters, has problems of his own. His only friend, Chucky Mugle (Marc Minardi), is the school doormat with a predilection to projectile puke. If that’s not all, the most popular girl in school, his foxy neighbour Samantha Thompson (Shadia Simmons), is besotted with him; kindling the ire of her current beau and school best-boy, Brett (Brandon Carrear).

Episode 1: The Game Begins
With his first day of school to tackle and walking, talking, pixelated aberrations congregating in his front yard, it’s going to be a hard day for Mark. Things start to look up when he meets his neighbour, the foxy Samantha Thompson, but things soon take a turn for the worse when Ace is captured and held at the local carnival…

Episode 2: The Trap is Set
While Ace rots in a highly elaborate trap, Mark and Chucky finally track him down to the newly coined 'Carnival of Doom'. Freeing Ace, the friends deal Fear his first defeat, but Mark isn’t so lucky with perky young Samantha…

Episode 3: The Substitute
With plans to rub Mark out once and for all, Lord Fear and his cronies abduct his obnoxious science teacher Mr Chesboro. Replaced with Mistress Illusion, while Chesboro is made to perform at the Carnival of Doom Mark and Chucky are quickly looking at afternoon detention - in all probability, their last…

Episode 4: Face the Music
Mark might be reticent about going to school today, but chucking a sickie isn’t fooling anyone. Anyway, he’s got soccer tryouts to go to, and a new girlfriend to win. Maybe with Ace’s help he might just escape Lady Illusion’s pathetic trap and come out of this thing alive?

Episode 5: There’s No Place Like Home
With Ace running low on power, Lord Fear and his cronies try their utmost to prevent him from juicing up. Don’t they know bad guys never win? Meanwhile, Mark has his tiny little niece to worry about, and she’s starting to ask some pretty dangerous questions…

Episode 6: Opposite Attraction
Looks like Samantha and Mark might finally go out on a date. Even more amazing, Ace and Lady Illusion might even be getting it on. It all sounds a little too good to be true…

Episode 7: Only Human
When Lord Fear gains another piece of the amulet, another evil underling is summoned from the sixth dimension – The Googler. Part Jester and part psychopath, his puppets of pain might spell doom for Ace Lightning and his young allies…

So how does Ace Lightning stack up? Well, lets just say it ain’t no Degrassy, and it ain’t no Grange Hill. The writing is poor and the CGI animation is even poorer; the lifeless jerky movements of the virtual actors perfectly tuned to the stilted performances of their human counterparts. As usual it’s a case of concentrating on whether it all can be done, rather than the story telling. OK, given it’s a kid’s TV production, and that Ace and his friends are supposed to be sprites from a computer game, the poor animation I can forgive. But the lifeless, utterly-predictable writing and these completely talentless kids is another thing.

I guess if your pre-teens are undiscerning enough, they may well enjoy Ace Lightning, but every single second grated until my teeth were on edge.

It’s a Roadshow title, so we can expect quality. And certainly the anamorphic (1.78:1) transfer delivers it. Sharp, detailed, and taken from crystal clean source material, the image is filled with vibrant colours and deep solid blacks. Possibly a little too sharp, the image does display a distractingly high degree of aliasing and moire; appearing in abundance on brickwork, Venetians and even striped shirts. Compression artefacts are limited to a little posterisation and macro-blocking in lowly-lit backgrounds - not a big concern given the number of episodes crammed on the disc, and never reaching a distracting level. All in all, an utterly luxurious transfer given the quality of the series.

Despite being produced for kids television, Ace Lightning’s Dolby Digital surround mix is quite reasonable indeed. Whilst the dialogue remains clear and distinct from the centre, a small amount of ambient sound is delivered almost continuously from the front and rear channels. Things improve markedly when the score bursts to life; be it the dramatic tones of its more traditional elements, or the thumping, no-name rock of the series’ theme. At these times the front and rear channels deliver a nicely balanced mix that envelopes the viewer. The subwoofer, used only sparingly, adds subtle low-end to the odd swoosh and thump.

Accessed through a set of nicely animated menus, a number of extra features are included that may be of mild interest to your kiddies. First off there’s the annoyingly difficult Zap Lord Fear Game in which the remote control is used to move a cross-hairs and shoot Fear and his underlings. There’s also a number of outtakes (2:58) with the ‘actors’ displaying a few fluffed lines and giggles – the usual stuff. Character profiles are also provided, be they the live action characters (provided for Mark, Chuck and Samantha) or the animated characters (Ace, Lord Fear and his cronies), but there’s nothing more here that you get from the series itself.

Overall, I was fairly unimpressed with Ace Lightning. The writing and performances are poor, and CGI is exceedingly average. OK, so the genre expects little more, but hopefully your kids do. Pint-sized fans of the series’ television run will be happy with Roadshow’s audio and video presentation, but for those new to the series I certainly suggest tracking down a rental copy.