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 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.
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.
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.
@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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!"
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
I loved Aeon Flux when it was on MTV, but MTV aired Liquid Television so erratically that I saw certain segments numerous times and didn't see others until years later on RUclips. Edit: How could you mention C.O.P.S. and not show the opening credits, the best of the 80s for afternoon cartoons?
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
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).
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 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.
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
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 had so much going for it. No wonder it gained societal inertia! So much love for what could have been a cringy cartoon. Also, dang, that commercial went hard for no reason. Keep up the good work 👍🏻👍🏻
Being in my early teens when Aeon Flux aired, it was so bizar to me. I probably didn't watch every episode at the time, but it always stuck with me. Found the DVD box when it was released and very happy with it. I didn't mind the movie. I knew it was very different, but also fascinating.
I had an episode of Liquid Television on VHS with a AF episode that starts with her and Trevor are making out while secretly passing a note. They try to shoot each other but also hook up at the same time an off shore site is imploding. I was definitely too young to own that VHS
That is quite an introduction. And a great one, the thing about Aeon Flux is that anything can happen, then the board is cleared for another game next episode
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.
When it came out, I wondered how they were going to bring Aeon Flux to live action. After watching the movie, I saw that they didn't. I don't think I've seen any of the series except for a few clips here and there, I mainly saw the original Liquid Television segments.
Saw it on Liquid Television when it came out. Your and Peter Chung’s description of the target audience at that time is me exactly at that time. “With sugar coursing through their veins!!”
I used to watch Liquid Television as much as possible and Aeon Flux was always a treat. In the early 2000s I had the dvd boxed set and I loved it, but nowadays I have no idea where that set went.
Thank you for correctly saying "dominatrices" and not "dominatrixes," Dan. 😀 I liked the original shorts where Aeon Flux kept being killed at the end of each one, but I never could get into the actual show. Too intentionally bizarre for me (and I _like_ bizarrity and the weird.) The show just felt too... I don't know, _pretentious?_ A-ha! I always wondered about her name; _Aeon Flux_ basically means "fluid time" and fit with the idea of her being killed at the end of every short, but always alive again and starting over on a new mission at the beginning of the next one. Time was fluid, it didn't matter, she would always be starting a new mission and dying at the end, over and over. That was the reason why the continuing show just never interested me; _"Aeon Flux"_ was a cool idea for a series of shorts about a spy/assassin repeating an endless loop of espionage missions that always ended in her death (learning about the "Spy vs. Spy" theme makes a lot of sense; "Aeon" was the Black Spy.) But I just had no interest in a continuing narrative that followed the character. It felt weird to me when it became _the character's_ name rather than just the name of the series, and now I know that's because it wasn't intended to be _her_ name.
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.
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.
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?
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
A generation raised on commercials broken up by commercials with sugar coursing through our veins.
I felt this so hard. Thank you.
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?
Definitely a show that gets better after multiple rewatches. Peter chung has some bonkers ideas and I love it.
"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
"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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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 😂
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Honestly, this video explains so much. This show was so confusing but really pulled you in
best thing on Liquid Television, and I own the DVD collection.
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...
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.
Aeon Flux is like reading good sci-fi short stories - no handholding, no exposition, no brakes
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.
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
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.
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.
I watched Reign: the Conquerer with the Art Club and Æon Flux was hard suggested to back-backlog. Worth
aeon flux was one of my first introduction series to the concept that animation could be for adults - such a good series
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.
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.
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 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.
Aeon Flux is one of the very, very few things that MTV got right that didn’t pertain to music.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Ah yes, the gownless evening strap in classic black.
Ha! Nice.
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.
The reel of Liquid Television shorts hits me right in the feels. It's like watching a reel of my 20s.
Man, I LOVE Aeon Flux. It was extremely outside the box and made my mind run!
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Yeah some brand aren’t for everyone, and nothing can change that, if only Hollywood would understand 😂
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.
I loved Aeon Flux when it was on MTV, but MTV aired Liquid Television so erratically that I saw certain segments numerous times and didn't see others until years later on RUclips.
Edit: How could you mention C.O.P.S. and not show the opening credits, the best of the 80s for afternoon cartoons?
Watched it as a kid and i had no idea what it was about. Just that it was on late at night so i had to see it because it was forbidden
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
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).
MTV’s Liquid Television was one of my favorite shows from back in the day.
I still have the VHS of the Aeon Flux collection. Love it
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.
“That which does not kill us, make us stranger.”
Trevor Goodchild
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.
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.
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
Liquid television was awesome. I am still surprised they made this into a live action movie though
I hope this means we can get future episodes on The Maxx and The Head!!!
Wow! I was not aware of the Cindy Crawford commercial. Fascination. Thank you.
I wasn't allowed to watch MTV, but i still snuck this show
My 8 year old brain did not comprehend this show
From drawing dumb babies to skinny bikini assassins in the future, that’s true art.
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!
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.
The soundtrack is so unique in this series.
Aeon Flux had so much going for it. No wonder it gained societal inertia! So much love for what could have been a cringy cartoon.
Also, dang, that commercial went hard for no reason.
Keep up the good work 👍🏻👍🏻
Being in my early teens when Aeon Flux aired, it was so bizar to me. I probably didn't watch every episode at the time, but it always stuck with me.
Found the DVD box when it was released and very happy with it.
I didn't mind the movie. I knew it was very different, but also fascinating.
I had an episode of Liquid Television on VHS with a AF episode that starts with her and Trevor are making out while secretly passing a note. They try to shoot each other but also hook up at the same time an off shore site is imploding.
I was definitely too young to own that VHS
Nothing that's good is for everyone. Hopefully Disney and modern video game devs are learning this lesson.
Longtime 80s kids' Father Figure became a longtime 80s kids' Fodder Figure.
Aeon was the coolest weirdest thing to watch on Liquid Television late Sundy nights on TV.
I saw one episode when it was airing, and was shocked! I was around 14 then, and had never seen anything like that.
For cool people only. Much like this channel.
Liquid Television was amazing, as was MTV animation in the 90s. I loved this and The Maxx.
That is quite an introduction. And a great one, the thing about Aeon Flux is that anything can happen, then the board is cleared for another game next episode
Was hoping for a mention of Xorcist as the sound editor. Thank you Peter Stone!
this was a great episode. I love that you’re moving into more stuff like this
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.
When it came out, I wondered how they were going to bring Aeon Flux to live action. After watching the movie, I saw that they didn't.
I don't think I've seen any of the series except for a few clips here and there, I mainly saw the original Liquid Television segments.
My online handle has the FLUX part all because of this.... I LOVED it!
I remember watching the series kind of. And I have a copy of it on DVD...
Saw it on Liquid Television when it came out. Your and Peter Chung’s description of the target audience at that time is me exactly at that time. “With sugar coursing through their veins!!”
Groovy video as always, and the camera image looks especially good!
I used to watch Liquid Television as much as possible and Aeon Flux was always a treat. In the early 2000s I had the dvd boxed set and I loved it, but nowadays I have no idea where that set went.
It was beyond cool at the time seeing those shorts on SBS here in Australia. Completely unique and emblematic of the spirit of the 90s
Always been a huge fan of Aeon Flux. Had no idea it's creator had worked on so many classic toons. Great content Secret Galaxy
Thank you for correctly saying "dominatrices" and not "dominatrixes," Dan. 😀
I liked the original shorts where Aeon Flux kept being killed at the end of each one, but I never could get into the actual show. Too intentionally bizarre for me (and I _like_ bizarrity and the weird.) The show just felt too... I don't know, _pretentious?_
A-ha! I always wondered about her name; _Aeon Flux_ basically means "fluid time" and fit with the idea of her being killed at the end of every short, but always alive again and starting over on a new mission at the beginning of the next one. Time was fluid, it didn't matter, she would always be starting a new mission and dying at the end, over and over. That was the reason why the continuing show just never interested me; _"Aeon Flux"_ was a cool idea for a series of shorts about a spy/assassin repeating an endless loop of espionage missions that always ended in her death (learning about the "Spy vs. Spy" theme makes a lot of sense; "Aeon" was the Black Spy.) But I just had no interest in a continuing narrative that followed the character. It felt weird to me when it became _the character's_ name rather than just the name of the series, and now I know that's because it wasn't intended to be _her_ name.
When the creator is trying to satirize something with a product that is too cool to be satire, it is fair to call it pretentious.
Think I saw that on DVD at Walmart but never picked it up cuz I was not familiar with it 😅😅😅
I thought MP Greg was gonna doll u up as Aeon Flux for this episode lolz
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.
I used to watch this as a teenager I had no idea what it was about but couldn’t stop watching.