Delgo

What’s the Story?

The winged Nohrin are a proud race of flying creatures. When their world becomes a wasteland, King Zahn (voiced by Louis Gossett Jr.) puts his sister Sedessa (the late Anne Bancroft, in her final screen performance) in charge of establishing a new home. The spiritual, terrestrial Lockni, who live in Jhamora, offer the Nohrin the skies above their homeland. But instead of making peace, Sedessa tries to wipe out the Lockni, so Zahn clips her wings and banishes her. Fifteen years later, Sedessa orchestrates a plot to kidnap the king's daughter Princess Kyla (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and blame it on the Lockni, so the king will be forced to declare war. Delgo (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a young Lockni adventurer who's smitten with Kyla, and his comic-relief sidekick Filo (Chris Kattan) team up with imprisoned Nohrin general Bogardus (Val Kilmer) to save the princess and stop the violence.

Is It Any Good?

It's difficult to follow DELGO's convoluted plot. Between the political intrigue, General Bogardus' gambling addiction, Sedessa and Raius' evil plot, and the tension between the occupying Nohrin and the occupied Lockni, the story gets way too bogged down; this is an animated fantasy film, not four seasons of Battlestar Galactica crammed into an hour and a half.

Even kids and their parents who can keep up wtih all of the political machinations may have trouble looking past the creepy, reptilian-like creatures (who would have been better off imagined as human-looking aliens). And the animation, although computer animated, is more 1988 than 2008. The one redeeming thing about this film is that viewers get to hear Bancroft's commanding contralto voice one last time. It's just a shame the project isn't worthy of her (or most of the cast's) considerable talent.