Æon Flux
Encyclopedia
Æon Flux was originally an avant-garde
science fiction
animated television series
that aired on MTV
in various forms throughout the 1990s, with film
, comic book
, and video game adaptations following thereafter. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television
experimental animation show as a six-part serial
of short film
s, followed in 1992 by five individual short episodes. In 1995, a season of ten half-hour episodes aired as a stand-alone series, rated TV-MA. Æon Flux was created by Korean American
animator Peter Chung
(also the man behind Phantom 2040
, which used the same animation style as Æon Flux).
A live action motion picture
loosely based upon the series and starring Charlize Theron
was released in theaters on December 2, 2005, preceded in November of that year by a tie-in video game
based mostly on the movie but containing some elements of the original TV series.
The title is based on the Gnostic notion of an Æon
– emanations of God – specifically the Valentinian notion of a syzygy, a sexually complementary pair of emanations, here the two main characters. The Gnostic influence is also present in the use of a demiurge
in one episode. To avoid the "Æ
" ligature
, the title is often spelled Aeon Flux.
n future
world. The title character is a tall, leather-clad secret agent
from the nation of Monica, skilled in assassination
and acrobatics
. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sometimes-nemesis and sometimes-lover Trevor Goodchild
. Monica apparently represents a dynamic anarchist
society, while Bregna embodies a centralized technocratic state
—referred to on one occasion as a republic
by Goodchild. The names of their respective characters reflect this: Flux as the self-directed agent from Monica and Goodchild as the technocratic
leader of Bregna. Although Bregna is shown to be repressive, in the first full-length episode, "Utopia or Deuteranopia?", Clavius, the president deposed by Goodchild, is described by a questioning journalist as having been democratically elected. In the same episode, an upper house
of parliament is also mentioned by the character Gildemere.
The visual style of Æon Flux was deeply influenced by the figurative paintings and drawings of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele
. Other key influences on Æon Flux can be found in Japan
ese anime
(especially grittier fare like Akira
), and European comic
works such as the work of Moebius
(particularly in lineforms, color palettes, and figure characterizations). Æon Flux is often erroneously classified as an anime series. Graphic violence
and sexuality
, including fetishism
and domination, are frequently depicted. In the featurette Investigation: The History of Æon Flux (included on the 2005 DVD
release), Peter Chung says the visual style also was influenced by the limitations of the animated series Rugrats
, which he worked on prior to Æon Flux and found highly frustrating in the limitations of what the characters could do.
With the exceptions of the exclamation "No!" in the pilot and the single spoken word "plop" in the episode "Leisure", all of the short episodes are completely devoid of (intelligible) dialogue
. Instead, the sound track employs a variety of sound effects including sounds such as laughter, grunts, and sighs. Unintelligible dialogue was voiced by the series music composer Drew Neumann
.
One peculiarity of the early shorts is the violent death of Æon Flux, which occurs in each of the installments (by contrast, she only "dies" once in the half-hour series). Often her death is caused by fate, while other times she dies due to her own incompetence. One of the half-hour episodes, "A Last Time for Everything", ends with the original Æon being killed and replaced by an identical clone
. (In the episode "Chronophasia", Æon is apparently killed repeatedly by a monstrous baby, but the reality of these events is ambiguous. In "Ether Drift Theory", Æon is suspended indefinitely in an inanimate state, but remains technically alive.)
Although continuity is virtually non-existent in the series—and Chung made some adjustments for the 2005 DVD collection to improve this—the primary unchanging elements in the episodes are the two main characters of Trevor and Æon. There is intentionally no continuity between the second season shorts. Peter Chung has said that this plot ambiguity and disregard for continuity are meant as a satire
of mainstream action films, and his stories often emphasize the futility of violence and the ambiguity of personal morality
.
A fourth season of half-hour episodes was considered, but never materialized. In late 2005, around the time the DVD collection was released, Chung announced plans to work on another Æon Flux project. In an online interview conducted after the release of the film, Chung indicated that it was to be a made-for-DVD animated feature. However, by the summer of 2008, Chung reported that Paramount
had decided to pass on the new production and that he had lost interest in pursuing the project.
. Peter Stone (of Xorcist
) served as assistant sound editor for the original MTV series. The music was later compiled on an album titled Eye Spy, Ears Only Confidential. The initials "AF" were used on song titles and in the credits to replace the words "Æon Flux" due to the lack of licensing permissions from MTV. The album includes two discs worth of material from the series and also from the defunct original (1995) PC
and PlayStation
videogame project. A CD entitled Æon Flux: Music from the Animated Series was included as a bonus in certain editions of the 2005 series compilation DVD that included 11 songs from the show with dialogue snippets featuring Æon and Trevor in-between the songs as standalone tracks. The extended fully remastered soundtrack "Eye Spy: Declassified, Freedom Of Information Act" was re-released in 2010 as high resolution MP3s with new artwork by Peter Chung. It is currently available at www.droomusic.com or www.droomusic.org/ÆonFlux
A soundtrack is also available for the 2005 live-action film, composed by Graeme Revell
.
. In Canada
, the shorts aired on MuchMusic
and the third season aired a year or so later on the youth-oriented network YTV in a late-night timeslot during a period when the network was trying to appeal to an older audience. In Australia
, during the early- to mid-1990s, the Liquid Television shorts and the first series were shown on the program Eat Carpet
on SBS
television. In South East Asia the third season was broadcast in 1996 via the MTV South East Asia
channel, which at the time was free to anyone with a satellite dish. In the UK, MTV first showed the shorts and the 30-minute episodes from 1992. In the mid-1990s, the BBC
showed the Liquid Television shorts, which included all of the Æon Flux shorts. Locomotion
played the third season repeatedly, between 1998–1999 and 2002–2003, in Spanish
and Portuguese
for Latin America
. The series was also aired on Norwegian
channel NRK2
, a sister channel to state channel NRK, alongside The Maxx
, Phantom 2040, and The Head
in the late 1990s.
In the lead-up to the 2006 international release of Æon Flux on DVD and the live-action movie, MTV UK replayed the third season of Æon Flux from October to November in 2005. The episodes were played at 2 a.m. on weeknights. MTV Australia
followed with replays of the third season beginning in December 2005, scheduled at 1 a.m. on weeknights. The episodes were titled Æon Flux Animation and were not played in the original order from 1995.
As of 2009, MTV2 shows Aeon Flux shorts as a part of the block MTV2 Legit. During January and February 2011, Aeon Flux was aired once again in El Salvador
on VH1
, in english language with spanish subtitles.
tapes between 1996 and 1998, entitled Æon Flux, Mission Infinite, and Operative Terminus. These were later collected in a box set. A few of the shorts also appeared on a Best of Liquid Television compilation around the same time. The first VHS volume (which contained four of the half hour shows, and all of the shorts, sans "Night") was later released in 1997 on a now out-of-print DVD that was distinct as it did not utilize any menus.
With the 2005 release of the live-action movie, the complete series including the shorts and the episodic series was collected in a DVD box set, which was released on November 22, 2005. The set features director's cut
versions of several episodes, with improved special effects, and in a few cases, new scenes written by Peter Chung and recorded by the original voice actors in order to improve character continuity between episodes (this according to a note by Chung included with the DVD set). Among the many changes to the dialogue in the DVD release, the voice of the character Clavius in the episode "Utopia or Deuteranopia", originally recorded by voice actor Joseph Drelich, was re-recorded by series executive producer Japhet Asher for the 2005 release.
The first disc of the DVD set opens with a CGI
short created to promote the movie's tie-in video game, with Flux taking on the likeness of the Charlize Theron version. The short, which ran about the same length as one of the Liquid Television shorts, sees Flux conducting an unclear mission, killing many Breen soldiers while pursuing some small, insect-like robots. In a throwback to the ongoing theme of the original shorts, the character is ultimately killed due to human error.
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld system received a 2-Universal Media Disc
set release of the complete animated series in January 2008. This set included all ten digitally remastered episodes and the original MTV pilot and shorts.
in the history of the Æon Flux franchise.
The creator of Æon Flux, Peter Chung, gave an interview to the "Monican Spies" community on LiveJournal
in 2006. He was asked many questions about Æon Flux and her universe
, including how he really felt about the movie. He replied, "[seeing it] made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad."
" called Æon Flux: the Herodotus File (actually consisting of an assortment of false documents from the world of Æon Flux and a short story-board style sequence described as "security camera footage" rather than a comic strip story) was published in 1995, which vaguely explained some of the show's setting and backstory, including how Trevor and Æon met. One hint suggested in the series and confirmed in the graphic novel is the character's foot fetish
modeling; it is suggested she augments her income posing barefoot for magazines devoted to the fetish. The graphic novel fell out of print in the years following the show's conclusion, but was temporarily re-issued in 2005 with new cover art to tie-in with the movie.
As another tie-in to the movie, Dark Horse Comics
published a four-issue comic book
mini-series
, collected as a trade paperback
, based upon the film versions of the characters. Although the characters and situations were based on the newer movie versions, the penciling technique deliberately emulated Peter Chung's unique style from the TV series.
commercial titled "Something Wrong?" was directed by Peter Chung and starred Malcolm McDowell
as a Trevor Goodchild-like character and Cindy Crawford
as an Æon Flux-like character. It was made for Super Bowl XXX
in 1996, but was pulled and later aired for broadcast exclusive to MTV. "Something Wrong?" is available online at Acme Filmworks.
game by Cryo Interactive
based upon the series was advertised in the mid-1990s, but never released
, pictures of which can be found on various sites. It was later adapted into the title Pax Corpus after being stripped of all copyright
ed association with Æon Flux.
To coincide with the release of the 2005 movie, Majesco Games and developer Terminal Reality
released a video game adaptation
on Xbox
and PlayStation 2
. While primarily based heavily on the film, elements from both the movie and the television series are included, as the game sets out to be something of a canonical
link between the two - although the Æon character in the game is modeled only after Theron
and is also voiced by her.
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
animated television series
Cartoon series
A cartoon series is a set of regularly presented animated television programs with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same characters and a basic theme...
that aired on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in various forms throughout the 1990s, with film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, and video game adaptations following thereafter. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television
Liquid Television
Liquid Television is an Emmy Award–winning 1990s animation showcase that appeared on MTV. The first season of Liquid Television also aired on BBC Two in co-production with MTV. Ultimately, MTV commissioned three seasons of the show, which was produced by Colossal Pictures...
experimental animation show as a six-part serial
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
of short film
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
s, followed in 1992 by five individual short episodes. In 1995, a season of ten half-hour episodes aired as a stand-alone series, rated TV-MA. Æon Flux was created by Korean American
Korean American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea...
animator Peter Chung
Peter Chung
Peter Kunshik Chung Peter Kunshik Chung Peter Kunshik Chung (born April 19, 1961 in Seoul, South Korea, as 정건식 (Chung Geun-sik, or alternative spelling Jeong Geun-Sik) is a Korean American animator...
(also the man behind Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040 is an American animated science fiction television series loosely based on the comic strip hero The Phantom, created by Lee Falk. The central character of the series is said to be the 24th Phantom...
, which used the same animation style as Æon Flux).
A live action motion picture
Æon Flux (film)
New Zealander Graeme Revell composed the score for Æon Flux; the soundtrack is available via Varèse Sarabande as advertised on the film's official website -Comic book prequel:...
loosely based upon the series and starring Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
was released in theaters on December 2, 2005, preceded in November of that year by a tie-in video game
Æon Flux (video game)
Æon Flux is the video game adaptation of the 2005 science fiction film of the same name, with elements of the Æon Flux cartoon series. The game was released on November 15, 2005 in North America for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox gaming consoles....
based mostly on the movie but containing some elements of the original TV series.
The title is based on the Gnostic notion of an Æon
Aeon (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems, the various emanations of God, who is also known by such names as the One, the Monad, Aion teleos , Bythos , Proarkhe , the Arkhe , are called Aeons...
– emanations of God – specifically the Valentinian notion of a syzygy, a sexually complementary pair of emanations, here the two main characters. The Gnostic influence is also present in the use of a demiurge
Demiurge
The demiurge is a concept from the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy for an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics...
in one episode. To avoid the "Æ
Æ
Æ is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a ligature representing a Latin diphthong, it has been promoted to the full status of a letter in the alphabets of some languages, including Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Icelandic...
" ligature
Ligature (typography)
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
, the title is often spelled Aeon Flux.
Background
Æon Flux is set in a bizarre, dystopiaDystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n future
Future
The future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist is temporary and will come...
world. The title character is a tall, leather-clad secret agent
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
from the nation of Monica, skilled in assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
and acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sometimes-nemesis and sometimes-lover Trevor Goodchild
Trevor Goodchild
Trevor Goodchild is a fictional character featured in the 1990s animated television series, Æon Flux and the 2005 Æon Flux live action film. He is played by voice actor John Rafter Lee in the half-hour series...
. Monica apparently represents a dynamic anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
society, while Bregna embodies a centralized technocratic state
Technocracy (bureaucratic)
Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...
—referred to on one occasion as a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
by Goodchild. The names of their respective characters reflect this: Flux as the self-directed agent from Monica and Goodchild as the technocratic
Technocracy (bureaucratic)
Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...
leader of Bregna. Although Bregna is shown to be repressive, in the first full-length episode, "Utopia or Deuteranopia?", Clavius, the president deposed by Goodchild, is described by a questioning journalist as having been democratically elected. In the same episode, an upper house
Upper house
An upper house, often called a senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house; a legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral.- Possible specific characteristics :...
of parliament is also mentioned by the character Gildemere.
The visual style of Æon Flux was deeply influenced by the figurative paintings and drawings of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced...
. Other key influences on Æon Flux can be found in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
(especially grittier fare like Akira
Akira (film)
is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, and starring the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga Akira....
), and European comic
European comics
European comics is a generalized terms for comics produced in Continental Europe. Though technically European, British comics are for historical and cultural reasons considered separate from European comics due to the existence of a well-established domestic market and traditions which more closely...
works such as the work of Moebius
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
(particularly in lineforms, color palettes, and figure characterizations). Æon Flux is often erroneously classified as an anime series. Graphic violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
and sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
, including fetishism
Sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
and domination, are frequently depicted. In the featurette Investigation: The History of Æon Flux (included on the 2005 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release), Peter Chung says the visual style also was influenced by the limitations of the animated series Rugrats
Rugrats
Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....
, which he worked on prior to Æon Flux and found highly frustrating in the limitations of what the characters could do.
With the exceptions of the exclamation "No!" in the pilot and the single spoken word "plop" in the episode "Leisure", all of the short episodes are completely devoid of (intelligible) dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
. Instead, the sound track employs a variety of sound effects including sounds such as laughter, grunts, and sighs. Unintelligible dialogue was voiced by the series music composer Drew Neumann
Drew Neumann
Drew Neumann is a musician and composer of film and television scores. He created the soundtrack of the science fiction animated series Æon Flux, and has composed music for many other shows includingCrazy Cars,Fanboy & Chum Chum,The Wild Thornberrys, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and...
.
One peculiarity of the early shorts is the violent death of Æon Flux, which occurs in each of the installments (by contrast, she only "dies" once in the half-hour series). Often her death is caused by fate, while other times she dies due to her own incompetence. One of the half-hour episodes, "A Last Time for Everything", ends with the original Æon being killed and replaced by an identical clone
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
. (In the episode "Chronophasia", Æon is apparently killed repeatedly by a monstrous baby, but the reality of these events is ambiguous. In "Ether Drift Theory", Æon is suspended indefinitely in an inanimate state, but remains technically alive.)
Although continuity is virtually non-existent in the series—and Chung made some adjustments for the 2005 DVD collection to improve this—the primary unchanging elements in the episodes are the two main characters of Trevor and Æon. There is intentionally no continuity between the second season shorts. Peter Chung has said that this plot ambiguity and disregard for continuity are meant as a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of mainstream action films, and his stories often emphasize the futility of violence and the ambiguity of personal morality
Moral relativism
Moral relativism may be any of several descriptive, meta-ethical, or normative positions. Each of them is concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures:...
.
A fourth season of half-hour episodes was considered, but never materialized. In late 2005, around the time the DVD collection was released, Chung announced plans to work on another Æon Flux project. In an online interview conducted after the release of the film, Chung indicated that it was to be a made-for-DVD animated feature. However, by the summer of 2008, Chung reported that Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
had decided to pass on the new production and that he had lost interest in pursuing the project.
Music
The music and sound design for the original television series was created by Drew NeumannDrew Neumann
Drew Neumann is a musician and composer of film and television scores. He created the soundtrack of the science fiction animated series Æon Flux, and has composed music for many other shows includingCrazy Cars,Fanboy & Chum Chum,The Wild Thornberrys, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and...
. Peter Stone (of Xorcist
Xorcist
Xorcist is the name of an American musical group whose output has ranged from electro-industrial and ambient.-Background:Bat formed Xorcist in 1990 as a one-man act. By 1997, Xorcist grew to include Evoltwin.8...
) served as assistant sound editor for the original MTV series. The music was later compiled on an album titled Eye Spy, Ears Only Confidential. The initials "AF" were used on song titles and in the credits to replace the words "Æon Flux" due to the lack of licensing permissions from MTV. The album includes two discs worth of material from the series and also from the defunct original (1995) PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
and PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
videogame project. A CD entitled Æon Flux: Music from the Animated Series was included as a bonus in certain editions of the 2005 series compilation DVD that included 11 songs from the show with dialogue snippets featuring Æon and Trevor in-between the songs as standalone tracks. The extended fully remastered soundtrack "Eye Spy: Declassified, Freedom Of Information Act" was re-released in 2010 as high resolution MP3s with new artwork by Peter Chung. It is currently available at www.droomusic.com or www.droomusic.org/ÆonFlux
A soundtrack is also available for the 2005 live-action film, composed by Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell is a New Zealand film score composer.Revell attended Auckland Grammar School, where he finished his final year in 7A...
.
Broadcast history
MTV was the exclusive broadcaster of the series in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the shorts aired on MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
and the third season aired a year or so later on the youth-oriented network YTV in a late-night timeslot during a period when the network was trying to appeal to an older audience. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, during the early- to mid-1990s, the Liquid Television shorts and the first series were shown on the program Eat Carpet
Eat Carpet
Eat Carpet was an Australian television series aired on SBS 1989–2005. It premiered alongside MC Tee Vee and The Noise. Each hour-long episode consisted of up to a dozen short films shot by amateur directors or film students from all over the world....
on SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
television. In South East Asia the third season was broadcast in 1996 via the MTV South East Asia
MTV Southeast Asia
MTV Southeast Asia is a 24-hour music/entertainment television network, owned by MTV Networks Asia Pacific, a division of Viacom. The channel is shown in the Southeast Asia region including Singapore , Malaysia , Hong Kong , Indonesia , Thailand , Vietnam , Philippines MTV Southeast Asia is a...
channel, which at the time was free to anyone with a satellite dish. In the UK, MTV first showed the shorts and the 30-minute episodes from 1992. In the mid-1990s, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
showed the Liquid Television shorts, which included all of the Æon Flux shorts. Locomotion
Locomotion (TV channel)
Sony Spin is a Latin American cable television channel, launched on May 1, 2011, replacing the local version of Animax.-History:Animax, being Sony's first attempt to offer a 24-hour anime channel in Latin America, it was planned to broadcast the series in two formats...
played the third season repeatedly, between 1998–1999 and 2002–2003, in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
for Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. The series was also aired on Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
channel NRK2
NRK2
NRK2 is one of the TV channels of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation . It was launched in 1996. It has traditionally concentrated on more on cultural and in-depth programmes than its mother channel NRK1 and has also shown drama series, comedies, and news. When not broadcasting regular...
, a sister channel to state channel NRK, alongside The Maxx
The Maxx
The Maxx is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth and published originally monthly by Image Comics and now collected in trade paperback collections from DC Comic's Wildstorm imprint. The comic book, which stars a character of the same name, spawned an animated series that aired on the...
, Phantom 2040, and The Head
The Head
The Head began as an ongoing series that originally ran under the title MTV's Oddities, on MTV. It has begun airing on MTV2 in August 2009. It was released on DVD on December 15, 2009.-Plot:...
in the late 1990s.
In the lead-up to the 2006 international release of Æon Flux on DVD and the live-action movie, MTV UK replayed the third season of Æon Flux from October to November in 2005. The episodes were played at 2 a.m. on weeknights. MTV Australia
MTV Australia
MTV Australia is 24 hour general entertainment channel specialising in music and youth culture programming which serves Australia and New Zealand. It is operated by Viacom International Media Networks Australia owned by Viacom and primarily features imported shows as well as locally produced...
followed with replays of the third season beginning in December 2005, scheduled at 1 a.m. on weeknights. The episodes were titled Æon Flux Animation and were not played in the original order from 1995.
As of 2009, MTV2 shows Aeon Flux shorts as a part of the block MTV2 Legit. During January and February 2011, Aeon Flux was aired once again in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
, in english language with spanish subtitles.
Releases
The entire series was issued as three VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
tapes between 1996 and 1998, entitled Æon Flux, Mission Infinite, and Operative Terminus. These were later collected in a box set. A few of the shorts also appeared on a Best of Liquid Television compilation around the same time. The first VHS volume (which contained four of the half hour shows, and all of the shorts, sans "Night") was later released in 1997 on a now out-of-print DVD that was distinct as it did not utilize any menus.
With the 2005 release of the live-action movie, the complete series including the shorts and the episodic series was collected in a DVD box set, which was released on November 22, 2005. The set features director's cut
Director's cut
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
versions of several episodes, with improved special effects, and in a few cases, new scenes written by Peter Chung and recorded by the original voice actors in order to improve character continuity between episodes (this according to a note by Chung included with the DVD set). Among the many changes to the dialogue in the DVD release, the voice of the character Clavius in the episode "Utopia or Deuteranopia", originally recorded by voice actor Joseph Drelich, was re-recorded by series executive producer Japhet Asher for the 2005 release.
The first disc of the DVD set opens with a CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
short created to promote the movie's tie-in video game, with Flux taking on the likeness of the Charlize Theron version. The short, which ran about the same length as one of the Liquid Television shorts, sees Flux conducting an unclear mission, killing many Breen soldiers while pursuing some small, insect-like robots. In a throwback to the ongoing theme of the original shorts, the character is ultimately killed due to human error.
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld system received a 2-Universal Media Disc
Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on their PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform...
set release of the complete animated series in January 2008. This set included all ten digitally remastered episodes and the original MTV pilot and shorts.
Film
An Æon Flux Hollywood adaptation, which was released in the United States on December 2, 2005, provoked controversy among Æon Flux fans over initial reports that the film adaptation seemed to bear little resemblance to the original full-length animated series or the Liquid Television shorts, as no one involved with the original television series had a role in the making of the film. While it does take a number of major liberties with the character and concept of the series (such as making the character of Una into Æon's sister and giving Trevor a previously-unmentioned brother who plays a major role), the film nonetheless incorporates numerous characters, themes, gadgets, and even specific scenes as featured in the TV version, most notably a reenactment of the TV show's most iconic image: Æon trapping a fly in her eyelashes. By and large, however, the movie was deemed both a critical and box office disappointment and is now considered little more than a minor footnoteFootnote
A note is a string of text placed at the bottom of a page in a book or document or at the end of a text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of the text, or both...
in the history of the Æon Flux franchise.
The creator of Æon Flux, Peter Chung, gave an interview to the "Monican Spies" community on LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
in 2006. He was asked many questions about Æon Flux and her universe
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
, including how he really felt about the movie. He replied, "[seeing it] made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad."
Comics
A "graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
" called Æon Flux: the Herodotus File (actually consisting of an assortment of false documents from the world of Æon Flux and a short story-board style sequence described as "security camera footage" rather than a comic strip story) was published in 1995, which vaguely explained some of the show's setting and backstory, including how Trevor and Æon met. One hint suggested in the series and confirmed in the graphic novel is the character's foot fetish
Foot Fetish
Foot Fetish is the first solo studio album by the Jackyl's lead singer, Jesse James Dupree.- Track listing :All songs written by Jesse James Dupree except where noted.# "Mainline" – 3:25 # "First Taste of Freedom" – 3:53...
modeling; it is suggested she augments her income posing barefoot for magazines devoted to the fetish. The graphic novel fell out of print in the years following the show's conclusion, but was temporarily re-issued in 2005 with new cover art to tie-in with the movie.
As another tie-in to the movie, Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
published a four-issue comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
mini-series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
, collected as a trade paperback
Trade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
, based upon the film versions of the characters. Although the characters and situations were based on the newer movie versions, the penciling technique deliberately emulated Peter Chung's unique style from the TV series.
Pepsi commercial
Though not directly connected to the series, a live-action/animated Diet PepsiDiet Pepsi
Diet Pepsi is a no-calorie carbonated cola soft drink produced by PepsiCo, introduced in 1964 as a variant of Pepsi-Cola with no sugar. First test marketed in 1963 under the name Patio Diet Cola, it was re-branded as Diet Pepsi the following year, becoming the first diet cola to be distributed on a...
commercial titled "Something Wrong?" was directed by Peter Chung and starred Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
as a Trevor Goodchild-like character and Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
as an Æon Flux-like character. It was made for Super Bowl XXX
Super Bowl XXX
Super Bowl XXX was an American football game played on January 28, 1996 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona to decide the National Football League champion following the 1995 regular season...
in 1996, but was pulled and later aired for broadcast exclusive to MTV. "Something Wrong?" is available online at Acme Filmworks.
Video games
A PlayStationPlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
game by Cryo Interactive
Cryo Interactive
Cryo Interactive Entertainment is a French video game development and publishing company founded in 1992, but existing unofficially since 1989 as a developer group under the name Cryo...
based upon the series was advertised in the mid-1990s, but never released
Vaporware
Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially canceled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are announced or predicted,...
, pictures of which can be found on various sites. It was later adapted into the title Pax Corpus after being stripped of all copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ed association with Æon Flux.
To coincide with the release of the 2005 movie, Majesco Games and developer Terminal Reality
Terminal Reality
Terminal Reality is a video game development and production company based in Lewisville, Texas. Founded in 1994 by ex-Microsoft employee Mark Randel and former Mallard Software general manager Brett Combs, Terminal Reality develops a variety of games including racing games , 3D action games , and...
released a video game adaptation
Æon Flux (video game)
Æon Flux is the video game adaptation of the 2005 science fiction film of the same name, with elements of the Æon Flux cartoon series. The game was released on November 15, 2005 in North America for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox gaming consoles....
on Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
. While primarily based heavily on the film, elements from both the movie and the television series are included, as the game sets out to be something of a canonical
Canonical
Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. Canon comes from the greek word κανών kanon, "rule" or "measuring stick" , and is used in various meanings....
link between the two - although the Æon character in the game is modeled only after Theron
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
and is also voiced by her.