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Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights

Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995) Movie Poster
  •  USA / Romania  •    •  88m  •    •  Directed by: Ernest D. Farino.  •  Starring: Corbin Allred, Jennifer Burns, Derek Webster, Barrie Ingham, John DeMita, Spencer Rochfort, Sandra Guibord, Jonathan C. Kaplan, Time Winters, Robert Louis Kempf, Mary-Pat Green, Michael C. Mahon, Helen Siff.  •  Music by: Richard Band.
In the 25th century mankind has found a device capable of destroying the universe. Irwin 1138 separates the Nullifier into 6 pieces which he scatters throughout time. When the evil Dr. Zoetrope goes after the pieces, Irwin 1138 must try to stop him, with the help of a 20th century teenager, Josh Kirby, and a half-human warrior named Azabeth Siege. The race is on.

Review:

Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
Image from: Josh Kirby... Time Warrior [1]: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
I watched this series as an undergraduate student on the long summer holiday, with my father. It is an American children's programme that seems to have been made on a limited budget in the 90s (although it is rather lurid and 80s-looking). We started watching it for laughs assuming it would be a cheesy, naff, American show, but as it went on we actually began to enjoy it.

The special effects are not very good. There's a character called 'Prism' that's supposed to be an alien creature or something of the sort. It looks like a Troll Doll. Other special effects are people or objects flailing on what I guess is a blue floor with the blue replaced with acid-trip colours. One of the other characters pronounces 'warrior' as 'woyer' and acts sword-fighting most unrealistically. The overall premise and setup is a pretty unremarkable blend of SF and fantasy -- the protagonist teams up with a time-traveller to save the world and discovers he is a 'time warrior' and has nondescript magical powers.

Despite all of these hindrances, the series is inventive and fun, and has an ambition reminiscent of Doctor Who in its golden age, another low-budget series that often showcased poor acting. In order to explain its strongest point, however, I'm going to have to use a total spoiler: towards the end, the protagonist discovers that the time-traveller he met at the start and teamed up with, is in fact the main antagonist, and the assumed villain they have been trying to defeat is really the hero, and the protagonist has been aiding and abetting the villain and obstructing the hero in his efforts to save the world. When the real villain is finally defeated, it's revealed that he did wrong because he believed it would lead to a better world overall. This sort of nuance in children's programmes that are dominated by black-and-white, good-and-evil narratives, is really unusual, and what makes it more enjoyable is that hints are scattered throughout the preceding episodes (the most immediately obvious one being why in the 90s a good- looking black man would cast as a sinister baddie!).

I think it is important for children to understand that there are two (or more) sides to every story, and this series explores this concept particularly well, and I recommend it for that, as well as being a silly and light-hearted bit of entertainment that doesn't take itself seriously, and which adults looking for something non- challenging might enjoy too.


Review by zyrcona from the Internet Movie Database.