Starchaser: The Legend of Orin

Imagine if George Lucas made a cartoon about the original Star Wars film...

Starchaser is how it may have ended up, as the plot is based heavily on Star Wars, right down to the evil ruler, stormtroopers, droids, lightsaber fights and the one blonde hero who saves the day.

From the back of the video cover:

"In a distant galaxy the darkened caverns of a cruel world hold the secret to a fantastic adventure. A quest to free the world from slavery and the universe from tyranny. A quest for truth, dignity and freedom. A Quest for Starchaser, the Legend of Orin.

The greatest adventure of all time is here. The search for truth, the battle for freedom, the immense and exciting struggle against the forces of evil. On an incredible journey to the edge of your imagination and beyond, the legend lives on in a thrilling fight for survival."

The story is about Orin (think Luke Skywalker), a slave crystal mine worker who discovers a mysterious sword which flies out of his hands and a hologram type message appears in the shape of an old man telling them that the mine is not their home and there is a world above, the blade disappears leaving the hilt, which Orin carries with him.

Orin decides to dig up to see if there really is a 'hell' up there, after escaping from the mine and meeting Zygon (think Ming the Merciless version of Darth Vader) who tries to kill him but doesn't succeed, he gets out to the surface and finds an amazing world where he meets a crystal smuggler called Dagg Debrini (think Han Solo with a cigar) who winds up on the adventure with him. Along the way they pick up a fembot called Silica (think female C-3PO) who Dagg reprograms to be a bimbo, Aviana (think Princess Leia) and they eventually free all the slaves after coming up against Zygon at the end in a big heroic battle with red and blue glowing swords.

The film is PG rated but it's not really a film for young children because of some of the aspects of it, a few mine workers at the beginning are killed, there's a fair amount of mild swearing (the fembot calls the ship's computer a SOB at one point) and numerous sexual references, although it's probably only adults who pick up on those points.