Babylon 5 is back with Babylon 5: The Road Home animated film from Warner Bros. Entertainment
Just a couple of months ago, we learned that a new Babylon 5 animated movie had been in the works for a couple of years without any fanfare. Today, Babylon 5: The Road Home is now available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and digitally.
Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was approached by Warner Bros. Animation about bringing his world and characters back in animation. A script was written and went into production with no formal announcement and was already complete by the time it was announced. Babylon 5: The Road Home’s plot summary is: “John Sheridan unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities. Along the way, he reunites with some familiar faces and discovers cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose and meaning of the universe.”
Reprising their roles from Babylon 5 are Bruce Boxleitner, Patricia Tallman, Claudia Christian, Bill Mumy, Peter Jurasik and Tracy Scoggins. Other familiar characters also appear with voice actors filling in for the actors who are no longer with us, including Paul Guyet, Anthony Hansen, Phil LaMarr, Piotr Michael, Andrew Morgado and Rebecca Riedy.
The movie is directed by Mike Peters, who has directed a number of animated movies and shows for Warner Bros. The animation is in a style similar to recent animated DC comics releases. Included is a featurette, Babylon 5 Forever, about the making of the film as well as a commentary track with Straczynski, Boxleitner and supervising producer Rick Morales.
The film opens when President John Sheridan and Delenn are leaving Babylon 5 to go to Minbar to head up the Interstellar Alliance. Once they have arrived and settled in, Sheridan is asked to preside over the opening of a new power station on Minbar and, when it is powered up, the tachyons that is uses cause Sheridan to become unstuck in time as also happened to him during the “War Without End” two-parter from the TV series. Through a series of jumps, Sheridan experiences various events, some from his past, some from the future, and some from alternate timelines, sending him further away from his home timeline. Along this journey, we encounter many of the characters we know from the entire run of the Babylon 5 series.
Fans of the series will enjoy revisiting Babylon 5 and recognize established events referenced in the new film, and will be surprised by new situations that arise. The movie has a lot of humor and good character moments. Bruce Boxleitner especially is impressive with his voice acting as he is in almost every scene.
The detail on the spaceships is close to how things looked in the TV series, with a few minor updates. The character design is good, although I felt some of the characters looked more like their live-action counterparts than others.
Straczynski has indicated that if this film does well, there could be more animated features produced. Initial indications from the creator is that sales have been good and that fans should let Warner Bros. Entertainment (@wbhomeEnt on social media) know that they want to see more.
Babylon 5: The Road Home
Babylon 5: The Complete Series
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