Almost word-for-word animated remake of 1993's DEMOLITION MAN. That film had cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) brought into the future from cryo-sleep because he was the best man to catch his arch enemy Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) who had broken out of cryo-sleep to wreck havoc on the future. Future cop Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) helps John Spartan to adjust and help catch the bad guy. Replace Stallone with Sherlock Holmes, Snipes with long-time Holmes enemy Moriarty, and Bullock with Inspector Lestrade (relative of Holmes' old acquaintance from Scotland Yard) and we now have a series that if nothing else is better than having Demolition Man the Animated Series. In fact, to be fair, the idea of having a female side-kick bringing back Sherlock Holmes from the ice box had already been introduced way back in 1987's THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES where Detective Jane Watson, relative of Dr. Watson and played by Margaret Colin inherits a frozen Holmes, thaws him, and greatly improves her detective business. In the unrelated 1993 film SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNS we find Holmes once again awakening in the 20th century from a suspended animation device of his own creation. The 1999 animated series tries to capture the look of the recently animated Batman series and current comic book illustrations...in other words a little dark, a little anime (or Japanation if you prefer). The stories are not very interesting, the robots are silly (the robot Watson looks a lot like a relative of Rosie from The Jetsons), and much of the animation is just too ugly. In the very first episode, after just being reanimated three hundred years into the future, Holmes has a keen knowledge of the abilities of computers, flying cars and robots without an ounce of curiosity or wonder of the future city before him. Instead I recommend 1979's TIME AFTER TIME where H.G. Wells played by Malcolm McDowell chases Jack the Ripper played by David Warner into the 20th century via a Time Machine. In that film Wells is always in awe of what he sees in the future without losing his keen intellect. Perhaps the maker of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century didn't see it (obviously more of a Stallone fan). Sherlock Holmes will survive. He always does.
Review of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
