Saber Rider And The Star Sheriffs: The Star She­riff's Betrayal

This is Saturday morning cartoon fare, and as such, breaks no new ground in either story or animation quality. However, the combination of Japanese animators (who provide much more detail than their Amer­ican counterparts), and a truly bizarre setting makes this more palatable than usual. Basically, what we have here is a science-fiction/­western (in itself, an unusual combination) about a group of mechanical stallion riding sheriffs who patrol the new frontier (located somewhat further than Dodge City; straight up.) When Jessie Blue (whose voice is a near perfect Nicholson imitation) betrays the Cavalry Command and joins up with the evil Outriders...well, the cowpie hits the fence post, so to speak. Sabre Rider (picture Robert Redford on a flying robot horse, decked out for the Balkan Wars, and you'll get the idea) and Jessie Blue eventually have their shoot-out in the sky, and justice is served in the end. The writer, Marc Handler, had fun with this, no doubt. How can you beat this: spaceships all over creation, lasers and missiles flying fast and furious; the captain turns to his troop of mechanical roughriders and says: "Fill the sky with your wrangler wrath." Needless to say, this is not a necessary purchase, but it's a lot of fun. (Available from most distributors.)