Ulysses 31 is a French-Japanese animated television series that updates the Greek mythology of Odysseus to the 31st century. The show comprised 26 half-hour episodes and was produced by DIC Audiovisuel in conjunction with anime studio TMS Entertainment. The rights to this show, like most of DIC's other programs, are presently owned by WildBrain, through Cookie Jar Entertainment. Prior to 2006 the international distribution rights were owned by Saban International and Jetix Europe. The plot line of the series describes the struggles of Ulysses and his crew against the divine entities that rule the universe, the ancient gods from Greek mythology. The Gods of Olympus are angered when Ulysses, commander of the giant spaceshipOdyssey, kills the giant Cyclops to save a group of enslaved children, including his son. Zeus sentences Ulysses to travel the universe with his crew frozen until he finds the Kingdom of Hades, at which point his crew will be revived and he will be able to return to Earth. Along the way they encounter numerous other famous figures from Greek mythology who have been given a futuristic twist. In the United States, the show was broadcast as a half-hour segment in the 1986 anthology series Kideo TV. The entire series is available in English in a complete DVD box set in the UK released by Contender Entertainment, and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. In the United States, one DVD entitled Ulysses 31: The Mysteries of Time was released, containing only four selected episodes. The first four episodes were available on Jaroo, a defunct online video site operated by Cookie Jar Entertainment, with whom DiC has since merged, now DHX Media on 22 October 2012. There are currently no plans to add more episodes.
In 1980, Telecom Animation, TMS Entertainment, and DiC Audiovisuel produced a pilot for the series, simply titled "Ulysses 31". Although there was a Japanese VHS release of the series by King Records in 1986, the pilot never saw an official home release and was used for internal use only. It would, however, eventually leak and be uploaded onto the DivX Stage6 website, along with several other TMS pilots. The pilot appears to have only been recorded in Japanese. The story is virtually identical to episode one of the finished series; however, the story was the only thing that was kept. Although all the characters were kept, some underwent major redesigns from a typical anime design to the one seen in the finished series, which is a mix of Japanese anime style and European art based on the appearance of classical Greek sculpture. Renowned Japanese illustrators and animators Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, who have worked in anime adaptations of famous manga were responsible for the finished series' character designs, animation routines, and visual style. Out of all the characters, Telemachus received the largest redesign. Nono was kept identical to the anime design of the pilot, without changes. In the series, Numinor and Yumi are identical to their design in the pilot, only the color of their clothes was changed from purple and dark blue to lilac and yellow, and their hair became slightly longer. Also, their boot length was shortened from knee-high to normal-length boots in the final series. The Odyssey ship also received some redesign work, as in the pilot episode it simply resembled an enormous ring. The design inspired by an FR3 logo shape found in the finished series is reminiscent of the ring design in the pilot episode. Although many scenes would be scrapped and redone for the finished episode 1, a couple of shots were re-used, notably some of the backgrounds originally produced for the pilot.
Soundtrack
Most of the original soundtrack was composed by Denny Crockett and Ike Egan. Six additional themes were composed by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban: Potpourri, Final Glory, Space Traffic, Ulysse Meets Ulysse, Mermaids, and Change of Time . The Japanese version has a different soundtrack. The music was composed by Wakakusa Kei, who was responsible for the soundtrack in both the series and pilot that was produced in 1980. An official soundtrack was released in 1986 on vinyl and on CD in 1988 by King Records.
Japanese theme songs
Opening
Ending
Allegations of copyright infringement
During the mid-1980s, there was a court ruling against the international producers of Ulysses 31 due to copyright infringement via Lucasfilm Ltd. The cue "Battle Theme"/"Ulysse Terrasse le Cyclope" was the case as the piece blatantly used the John Williams' cue from George Lucas's Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. Under the hearing, it was deemed that existing prints of the show could use this piece of music after damages were paid. Subsequent soundtrack releases would later omit that theme as royalties would have to go to their respective owners of that music. The actual version used in the series is a disco remix of 'the battle in the snow' cue taken from the 10-inch vinyl album Meco Plays Music from the Empire Strikes Back released in 1980.
