The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004 Video) User Reviews

The Chronicles of Riddick Dark Fury: Meh, passable enough

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 17 October 2018]

I thought Pitch Black was enjoyable enough but was left entirely unimpressed by Chronicles of Riddick so what chance did an animated short have? Not bad actually.

It tells the rather short story of what happened to Riddick, Imam and Jack after they escaped the original movie. Picked up by mercenaries it appears they have gotten out of one mess and straight into another.

Made by Peter Chung I have to say the films biggest weakness is the animation style, it really is quite dreadful. It's half way between a cheaply made Saturday morning cartoon and the excellent Monkey Dust (2003). I just couldn't get past how crappy it looks, in some places more than others.

The story is rushed (As it needed to be considering its length) and rather uninspired but it's construction and competent voice cast save it.

Diesel and David return to add credibility to the whole affair which feels more like a cashgrab than anything else.

Though not blown away with the Riddick franchise, it hasn't entirely been without it's notable moments. Off the top of my head that's three down two to go.

The Good:

Voice cast

The Bad:

Highly average stuff as a whole

Not keen on the animation style

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Mentioning Monkey Dust has got me all nostalgic, damn that was a good show

Nice bridging, cool anime

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 7/10 · 27 November 2004]

I was a big fan of the bizarro Aeon Flux back in the 90's and director Peter Chung brings that wonderful style to the universe of Riddick (much like he did in The Animatrix).

Dark Fury is a small story set between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick (which I haven't seen) in which Riddick, Jack and Abu dock their scout vessel with an ominous and evil ship filled with frozen Mercs and run by a vicious female overlord with a perverted idea of imprisonment.

The whole thing is basically an excuse for some quick violence but it's entertaining and expands upon the Riddick universe in interesting ways. I can see why Vin Diesel chose this franchise over TFATF and xXx.

The DVD is in non-anamorphic (!) 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and a bunch of whogivesadamn extras.

An interesting enough animated sequel to "Pitch Black"

[DVD_Connoisseur · 7/10 · 9 September 2007]

Bridging the gap from "Pitch Black" to "The Chronicles of Riddick", "Dark Fury" is an interesting enough exercise in animated story-telling. Vin Diesel, Rhiana Griffith and Keith David return as the survivors of the first installment, this time coming up against baddies of a more human nature, not counting multi-tentacled waving aliens.

This is a good looking animated movie, short but containing some reasonably memorable action set pieces and some unexpectedly bloody violence.

7 out of 10. Riddick fans will find this a treat but this may leave some viewers cold.

Aeon Flux got balls

[kingtall · 26 July 2004]

Way to short but some of the sweetest animation WITH a plot for some time. Great use of the voices to keep the link to the franchise moving with big Vin battling all sorts including what i thought looked like a 'Giant Mecha Penis - with teeth'. Now I'm not one to crimp creative style, IT looked bizarre but it worked! Funny, bloody and slick - not since animatrix has something caught my attention so nicely. Like others before me this should be compulsory viewing before the new feature (i haven't seen it yet) just to get into the Riddick groove of things. This definitely could spawn a few more anime 'chronicles' and i hope it does. Animation like this needs an audience. More please....

Unessential filler

[Fluke_Skywalker · 6/10 · 26 April 2017]

Plot; Richard B. Riddick and the survivors of Pitch Black are captured by a group of mercenaries who have rather unusual plans for them.

Acting as a sort of bridgepoint between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, this animated short doesn't do any heavy lifting by trying to set up or explain the rather intricate galactic political situation we find in the latter. It instead sets up the circumstances we find Riddick in when that film begins. The bare bones of this story are pretty simple, but it's flavored with some unique spices that help to swallow it all down. Directed by Peter Chung, creator of AEon Flux, it often looks and feels like that 90s MTV series, yet with voices provided by their live-action counterparts, it does very much synch up with the movies.

I was hoping there'd be a bit more here. Something that would feel essential to understanding this universe. What I got instead was a reasonably well made, passable short that ultimately only rewards the hard-core Riddick fan.

Dark Fury bit too murky...

[AirBourne_Bds · 7/10 · 2 October 2006]

This was a good story shortened a bit too much.

Not enough background on Junner nor Toombs yet Chillingsworth was a contradiction...

She appreciated psychopaths only so long as she had the upper hand?

The fight scenes were lacking in choreography and tried to compensate by distorting perspectives - I gave the toon a 7 but really i wanted to deliver a 6.5

The semi and null grav segments although cool were underused to my view and ideally this animation should have been 47 to 1'20" in duration for a proper segue from Pitch Black, Vol. 1 to Chronicles of Riddick, Vol. 2

I have no idea if anyone realises this, but Riddick seems in part based on Conan of Cimmeria! In the Nemedian Chronicles it was said (according to Robert E Howard's Hyborian Age); "Know ye, O Prince, there came Conan- warrior, ravager, thief later king..." or something so?

But Riddick and Conan were mercs, fighters and thieves and ended up unexpected kings - what do the Wheat Bros have to say?? LOL

http://tinyurl.com/3464k/

The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury

[phubbs · 6/10 · 5 October 2013]

Just like the animated spin offs from 'The Matrix' and 'Van Helsing' we were also given a small animated feature showing us the events leading up to The Riddick sequel. This short was a sequel to the original 'Pitch Black' but was it really required?.

We see Riddick and the other two survivors leaving the dark planet of the original film. In transit to 'New Mecca' they get captured by some mercs lead by the evil villainess 'Antonia Chillingsworth' (Chillingsworth...chilling, scary huh...get it?) who likes to capture famous criminals and put them on display in her ship. She does this by freezing them basically, freezing them into statues, a bit 'Batman and Robin-ish', a bit cheesy but hey.

Now this isn't too old really, its only 2004, but I was amazed at how poor the CGI sequences were. There aren't too many, mainly a few ships, some internal corridors and one or two creatures. But it must be said that they look pretty awful to be honest, really obvious and very plastic looking, quite shocked. The sequences with Riddick's ship look like an amateur did them very quickly, so plain and lifeless!.

Other than that the animation is nice n quirky, not overly fantastic but it does the job. Hard to criticise art and animation styles because everything is more so a matter of opinion and of course some styles can be deliberately hokey/simple/rough looking. This style is typical anime style with a slightly surreal edge, the characters are drawn in exaggeration at times, overly defined or amplified if you will.

What is nice is the fact all the main characters are voiced by the real film cast to give that extra layer of cannon, coolness and fanboyism. I mean lets face it no one can really replace Vin Diesel as Riddick right. The story ticks along fine, a bit simple but its OK, we see the intro of 'Toombs' which is a minor highlight really, not particularly important but hey its there...a small token mainly for the sequel of course.

Overall I found this pretty average really, nothing too special, by the numbers in terms of both animation and excitement. It didn't really need to made in all honesty, it serves no real purpose other than to keep fans happy until the second was released, and does it do that? well maybe I guess. A bit short also I might add but at least it served up plenty of blood n gore which always looks good in these anime adventures. This animation does the odd things a film can't because the bigwigs want a film for the mass audiences, we've all heard that before right, this has more free rein.

6/10

Dark Fury

[dk777 · 6/10 · 31 March 2021]

An animated film that takes place between the first film (Pitch Black) and the second (The Chronicles of Riddick). An interesting addition to a series of films about Riddick, an interesting anti-hero portrayed by Vin Diesel. The animation is good, the story is interesting and fills the gap between the two films. In short, a fun and interesting addition to movies worth watching.

Good animated short that offers explanations

[mr_movie_2004 · 8/10 · 15 June 2004]

Dark Fury picks up right where Pitch Black ended, with Riddick, Jack and Imam being captured by mercenaries, the leader of whom has some strange and sadistic intentions in regards to Riddick. In a bit of a baffling business move, Universal decided to release this after The Chronicles of Riddick. If they had released it a week or two earlier, some of the questions posed in Riddick that confused a good number of people would have been clearly answered. This short gives us the answer of some key events that occurred in the five years between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, as well as some insight into why Riddick, Jack and Imam interact the way they do in CoR. It also introduces the character Toombs, who plays a key role in Riddick's plight.

Aside from its value as an answer provider, Dark Fury is also a highly entertaining piece of animation. The graphics are top notch, the storyline is interesting, and the action is very well done. The plot moves along at a quick pace and it is a lot of fun to watch Riddick kick some @$$ in animated form. I highly recommend seeing this before watching The Chronicles of Riddick, not only is it a good movie but it also explains some key elements of the story.

Fills the Gap

[damianphelps · 7/10 · 17 January 2021]

The is actually a pretty clever way of joining Pitch Black to The Chronicles of Riddick.

You don't NEED to see it to have Chronicles make sense but it does help.

Enjoyable and using the anime style of progressing the story was an interesting (and obviously cheaper) way of continuing on.

Cool film.

So-so

[neil-476 · 5/10 · 28 April 2010]

I was somewhat disappointed by this half-hour animated movie which a) tells its own rather slight story and also b) explains some of what happened between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick.

I suppose it's better than not having it at all - and I like having Vin Diesel et al bringing aural continuity, at least - but I think there was potential for more. In particular, while I can understand the stylistic choice for anime-type presentation, I don't care for it that much and I would have preferred either traditional western-style hand-drawn animation, or CGI.

But that's not what I got.

Worth half an hour of your time, but that's about all.

Well Received Riddick Bridge

[FiendishDramaturgy · 8/10 · 21 March 2007]

This is not live action, but rather an Anime edition of the time in between Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick. If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you, but it makes a fine attempt to detail what happened to "Jack" between the time Riddick leaves to the time of Riddick's re-emergence.

I'm not into Anime, personally, so I had to devote some extra concentration to this in order to glean the story from it, but those around me who do enjoy Anime did comment on how well it was done. I can, however, attest to the quality of the story, which was excellent, though I do hope that this does not portent what's coming in the next installment. I hope it's live action.

It rates a 7.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.

A decent animated tie-in featuring Peter Chung's unique style and sets the stage for The Chronicles of Riddick

[IonicBreezeMachine · 7/10 · 2 July 2023]

After their escape during the events of Pitch Black, Riddick (Vin Diesel), Jack (Rhiana Griffith), and Imam (Keith David) find themselves face to face with a merc ship captained by Chillingsworth (Tres MacNeille) who collects murderers like Riddick as living statues in her collection.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is a 2004 direct-to-video animated short that was released as a promotional tie-in to The Chronicles of Riddick. While not to the same level of impressive as the prequel video game Escape from Butcher Bay, Dark Fury is a fun little diversion that bridges the gap between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick.

Much like his work on Aeon Flux, director Peter Chung's artistic style works well in the world of Riddick as the movie serves as a transition piece from the comparatively more grungy minimalism of Pitch Black to the more science fantasy inspired takes in Chronicles of Riddick. Dark Fury appropriately enough takes place stylistically somewhere between the two and plays like a bit like a Heavy Metal type story only minus the gratuitously sexuality you typically see with that stylistic approach. As expected Diesel, Griffith, and David do well reprising their roles and Tress MacNeille is quite fun as Chillingsworth even if her more outlandish moments almost do feel like she's channeling a bit of Mom from Futurama.

Dark Fury isn't required viewing or anything, but it's a solid showcase for Chung's animation and gives you more of the iconic anti-hero in action even if 30 minutes seems a little scant for a solo home media release purchase.

Pitch Black the morning after

[juliankennedy23 · 5/10 · 20 February 2005]

Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury: 5/10: At 30 minutes this stand alone short resembles a Saturday morning cartoon rather than a plot bridge between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. (And Lord knows if any movie needed a plot bridge it was Chronicles of Riddick.)

The animation is a mixed bag with a lot of the 3d spaceship work leaving a bit to be desired (to shiny for one thing). And while the voice work is authentic, the story is a true one off throwaway. (Hammy and very unlikely villains happen to pop by.) The story may be a throwaway but it does at least give it points for being coherent. (And Lord knows if any movie needed a coherent story it was Chronicles of Riddick) The action scenes are generally well done with a little violence thrown in for good measure.

Certainly one gets the gut feeling that Dark Fury could have been a lot worse. Despite the decent amount of extras the DVD doesn't really work as a stand-alone product. It would however have made a fine second or third disk in the Chronicles of Riddick or even Pitch Black DVD releases.

Great Fun, Riddick's the man

[taomonster · 8/10 · 12 September 2004]

I just saw Dark Fury on a rented DVD and had very satisfying experience. Dark Fury is well drawn, fast paced and with a little CGI to spice it up.The animated short story takes place where we last left Riddick, the preacher and the wannabe tough girl in Pitch Black. They are picked up by a fairly big spaceship of hightech bounty hunters. From here on Riddick starts to kick ass and continues to do so for about 30 min. Vin Diesel's voice is one of the coolest in Hollywood only topped(maybe) by Sean Connery. The only problem in this animated adventure is that it is to damn short(33 min). It's a colorful and interesting universe with a great villain and some fantastic and imaginative actionscenes. In short terms Riddick kicks butt yet again. I went straight in on my Pc, went online and bought this little baby. Hail to the king baby. I give it a 7,5 out of 10.

Fast paced and exciting

[Gordon-11 · 23 August 2008]

This animation is about Riddick and the gang boarding a spacecraft to fight a lady with a hobby to collect the most wanted criminals around the universe.

It's amazing how much plot and action they have packed in in just 30 minutes. The pace is fast, and there is always something to keep the adrenaline pumping.The action sequences are cool and very realistic. If it was to be transformed into a real film with actors, making a carbon copy would not look out of place. Usually for animation spin-offs they don't get the start to voice it, but in here I am impressed and glad that they got Vin Diesel to voice Riddick.

Even though I forgot the plots of the two Riddick films, I still enjoyed "The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury" as a stand-along animation.

Only for those die-hard fans of Riddick's adventures.

[rainking_es · 5/10 · 4 December 2005]

Dark Fury it is supposed to be lost link between Pitch Black and Chronicles Of Riddick, but It's been a while since I watched Pitch Black, so I don't remember how did it end. Anyway, it's a 30 minutes animation movie that mixes old school drawing' and digital techniques. The fans of this kind of stuff will be satisfied. As for me, I didn't get it. This time Riddick will have to beat a so powerful women and her servants (or something like that).

So, I only recommend Dark Fury to those followers of PB series, and manga/animation lovers (in general).

*My rate: 5/10

Peter Chung does good

[TheHande · 8/10 · 14 July 2006]

I have never had more conflicted feelings about any animator. Peter Chung, creator of Aeon Flux brings us an interquel, Dark Fury to the films Pitch Black (a low budget sci-fi suspense story) and The Chronicles of Riddick (an action-packed sci-fi adventure). Dark Fury adds its own unique flavour, while retaining the greatness of the series. Chung has a very interesting style and I thought it translated well on screen.

The only one who didn't deliver as well however, surprisingly, was Riddick himself who delivered an unbelievable amount of redundant one-liners during the film and I did not have as much respect for him, like when I watched Chronicles.

Regardless, this is an excellent follow-up to Pitch Black.

Riddick vs. Chillingsworth

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 20 May 2015]

In this 35-minute short film, which is a part of the Wheat universe featuring Riddick, our hero goes against a large-breasted evil female character with her very own perception of what is art and how to form it. While he is at it, he also needs to protect Jack again who is voiced by the same actress like in the movie. Riddick, of course, is also voiced by Vin Diesel and he also looks exactly like him. Huge muscle, muscle shirt and the bald head. No doubt, it's Diesel. This piece of filmmaking is now over 10 years old already. I can't give more references to the live action movies as I have not seen them, but I saw that Chillingsworth does not appear in one of them yet and she (plus her scary henchman) would certainly be an interesting addition as main antagonist to Diesel's character. Anyway, this good half hour has everything you'd expect: lots of shooting and fighting, blood and the good side winning in the end with a revenge threat from the bad guys. All in all a mildly entertaining animated short film, but I would only recommend it to big fans of the franchise.

An animated picture that pieces together The Chronicles of Riddick

[relious · 9/10 · 27 July 2007]

You have just got to love how it is animated, and in doing so still has the cool action scenes people want to find in the second installment of The Chronicles of Riddick trilogy. I like this movie not only for it's action scenes but the great effects. Another cool part is how short it is compared to the other Riddick movies. Again, Vin Diesel is back and this time he's animated, how cool is that? I have always liked Vin in other movies like The Pacifier and xxx. You would think that it's animated and there is no blood, but no there is a lot of violence which makes it really cool. I recommend this title to anyone who loves action because The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is an excellent movie.

Short animated continuation of "Pitch Black."

[TxMike · 25 March 2014]

I have on loan from my public library a 2-disk DVD set of the early Riddick movies. The first one is "Pitch Black", and on the same disk is this animated short, "Dark Fury."

As "Pitch Black" ended we saw three characters escaping from the alien planet in a small escape ship. As this animated short opens, we see the same three approaching a larger mother ship, then essentially getting captured by it. Inside they encounter characters attempting to kill them. Part of the tactic is defrosting frozen dangerous criminals to fight Riddick and the other two.

The same actors voice the three. Vin Diesel is Richard B. Riddick, Rhiana Griffith is the young girl Jack, and Keith is the Imam, Abu al- Walid.

It was pleasantly entertaining, in a "bridging" sense, for those of us who watched "Pitch Black."

SPOILERS: The three manage to escape at the end, but one of the bad guys had also managed to save himself from Riddick's killing spree, so we imagine that he will chase Riddick next in the follow-up movie, which I haven't seen yet. That is next!

Nothing special.

[athena24 · 5/10 · 10 December 2005]

Like the creators of the Matrix that gave us the Animatrix as part of the matrix evolution story, the creators of Riddick gave us The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. This short animated movie comes somewhere between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick in the overall plot about Riddick. There are no evolving characters here or, even an evolving idea. Everything ends before it began.

I really liked Pitch Black, and even more The Chronicles of Riddick, so naturally I wanted to watch this one, which was dull. It's like the crew was tired, and didn't want to work hard on it. They just didn't show their enthusiasm on this one.

The animation is OK, but nothing special. It really can't be compared to eastern animated movies ( Like Jin Roh, Wonderful Days or Ghost In The Shell) which are much more detailed, and the stances and the proportions of the characters seem to be more natural than in Dark Fury.

The good thing that it's not so long. If you liked the movies, watch this one as a complementary for your Riddick education.

"Come to papa, you beautiful bald bastard."

[Al_The_Strange · 8/10 · 7 September 2013]

As part of the hype for 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick, this short animation was developed to bridge the gap between the aforementioned film and its predecessor, Pitch Black. It's not a huge gap, per se, but it's enough to warrant some explanation; if you're really wondering how all the characters got separated and where this guy Toombs came from, then this feature will satisfy your curiosity.

This cartoon is pretty short and has plenty of cool action. Riddick takes on a few monstrous villains, with his usual serial-killer machismo. The fights are well-rendered and pretty badass. The overall animation quality is funky and wild, in a matter not much different than Peter Chung's other works (such as Aeon Flux).

The story for this feature is pretty cool. It does its job of connecting the dots between Pitch Black and TCoR, but still has room to develop its own ideas and concepts. The plot is not terribly substantial, and little is added to the characters, but the premise is fascinating.

This flick has pretty cool animation quality: the character designs are really blocky and funky, but highly distinctive. Backgrounds are pretty well-rendered. Some of the movements and computer-animated work can be a little cheap, and the overall detailing is not really mind-blowing, but it all gets the job done. Voice-acting is not bad, writing is okay, and the designs for all the settings, props, and costumes look great.

4/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Pretty Good | Film: Pretty Good)

Diesel cartoon, man...

[dr_foreman · 5/10 · 24 May 2007]

"Dark Fury" is the middle installment of the so-called "Riddick Trilogy," which I have recently suffered through. This animated adventure is probably the highlight of the trilogy, believe it or not, simply because it knows when to end (unlike its live action neighbors).

The wafer-thin plot involves Riddick (Vin Diesel, of course) taking on a creepy harpy woman with a fetish for serial killers. Much bloodletting ensues; oddly enough, this is more violent to me than the live-action Riddick films, and therefore more disturbing as well.

Sadly, the supporting characters of Jack and the Imam are basically wasted, since Riddick and the villains dominate the action. One has a sense that these characters - and their Universe - could be interesting, but some key ingredients are missing. So, viewers have to make due with a somewhat half-baked and bizarre product that focus more on butchery and less on humanity. But I've seen worse.

Great mini-movie, much better than the sequel

[pipanni · 9/10 · 3 October 2008]

To anyone who has seen the excellent "The Matrix" and its horrible sequels, this animated movie "Dark Fury" is exactly the same as the "Last Flight Of The Osiris" (short animation) for "The Matrix".

So, we have a great movie ("Pitch Black"), and a very weak sequel (The Chronicles Of Riddick). But this little animated gem brings back our anti-hero in familiar territory: a great story (even though it's short) and some great sci-fi ideas (the frozen "collection" and the cyborg monster, for example).

If you liked Pitch Black it's guaranteed you will like this one. It can also stand on its own (no need to see anything else, although you would get curious), which is always a good indication of brilliance.