Slugterra: Ghoul From Beyond

I don’t have The Disney Channel or DisneyXD, so I’ve never seen nor heard of Slugterra before. My first impression reminds me of a lose interpretation of Pokemon in which the slingers, as their known, obtain slugs that each have their own kind of powers. The slingers duel off using the slugs as bullets in their guns and the slugs transform into larger versions of themselves wielding their individual powers. 

 

Having never seen the show before I was given a quick run through in the first few minutes of this first full length adventure. Eli Shane is the leader of the Shane Gang, a group of would be heroes who battled the villain, Dr. Blakk who found a way to turn slugs into ghoulish creatures and used them to try to take over the land, the 99 Caverns. At the start of this adventure Dr. Blakk has been defeated and Shane and the Shane Gang are hoping to cool off in a more peaceful time. Of course that doesn’t happen. First they run into some second rate villains who have taken the opportunity with Dr. Blakk’s vacancy to take over the mall and treat it as their own little world. That’s the first sign that things aren’t going to be as easy going as Eli though, but even this minor quibble is quickly outdone when marauders show up and try to steal slugs from a neighboring kingdom.

 

Ghoul From Beyond really picks up when Shane and his gang of heroes show up to battle the marauders and find a new super villain emerging from a portal from somewhere unknown. Shane and the gang try to take on this new villain in the fashion they’ve grown accustomed to but they soon discover there is a new slug in town and it’s nothing like anyone has ever seen before. Shane soon finds himself a prisoner of sorts, forced to battle out this new foe from within. Can he win and figure out what this new villain is after?

 

I think using the word movie within the description of this release is a bit of a loose term. The release starts off well enough but the finale leaves off feeling like just an overextended episode from the show, and really, the release only runs a meager 44 minutes. In the end you’re basically left looking forward to the next season of the show or a sequel to the “movie”. 

 

I wasn’t exactly amazed by Slugterra. Yes, the show does have that wild west meets Pokemon feel to it, but the characters are pretty dumbed down and the story isn’t exactly original. To make matters worse the animation is pretty lax. I think we’ve seen this kind of animation as far back as the late 90’s. Nothing to go to crazy over. More so are the bonus features. A laughable 1+ minute short featuring the slugs and that’s it. That’s a bit miniscule for a release that runs near fifteen dollars. I’d say that the code found inside to unlock something in the game would be cool, but really it doesn’t translate well with me as far as dollars and cents go. In the end I can’t say I was too wowed by the release. Great for a rental or if you have the channel wait for it to broadcast.