Yami no Toei kyuketsuki Dracula (1980)

Country of Origin: Japan
Year of Production: 1980
Running Times:
Format: colour
Ratio:
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Harmony Gold / Toei Animation

SCRIPT
Script: Jean Colan (real name: Gene Colan), Tom Palmer, Mary Wolfman (real name: Marv Wolfman)
Based on the Marvel Comic Tomb of Dracula

DIRECTION
Director: Minoru Okazaki

MUSIC
Music: Seiji Yokoyama
Dracula Theme: Michael Bradley, Stephen Wittmack

In contemporary Boston, Dracula gatecrashes a Satanic ritual and makes off with the intended sacrifice, Delores. Overcome with love for her, he's unable to drink her blood and instead settles down with her and fathers a child, Janus. But Dracula's enemies are massing against him - a team of vampire hunters, including the wheelchair-bound Hans Harker, crossbow wielding Frank Drake and new recruit Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula, are closing in. And Dracula has been stripped of his vampire powers by Satan and he desperately needs another vampire to restore his powers so that he can both see off his pursuers and avenge the death of Janus at the hands of vengeful Satanists.

When you try to cram the contents of a two year run of an already well established comic book into a single movie compromises are inevitable made - and Dracula is a seriously compromised movie. The attempts to do something radically different with Dracula are commendable but the hurried plot is so full of incident and bizarre situations that it all seems rather rushed and contrived. The limited animation finally scuppers the project completely and fans of Marvel's excellent Tomb of Dracula will be sorely disappointed. (Full Review)

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Tomb of Dracula - UK / US title

SEE ALSO
Blade (1998)
Blade 2 (2002)

animation; anime; vampires; dracula; satan; satanists; revenge; vampire slayers; disability