Review of Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie (2017) by Ryan V — 05 Sep 2015

A pure-hearted (if naive) samurai (Phil LaMarr) travels the world in order to attain the necessary skills to defeat an evil wizard (Mako Iwamatsu) who conquered his home village. This wizard flings the samurai into a distant future where he must find a way to survive among a society corrupted by the wizard's centuries of dominance.

This "movie" packages the first three episodes of the Samurai Jack narrative and it's a handy primer to a very unique series. The deceptively simple animation elegantly merges the atmosphere of Akira Kurosawa with the deliberate pacing of Sergio Leone and the explosive thrills of cyberpunk anime.

Samurai Jack is often cited as the highlight of Genndy Tartakovsky's career as an animation director and it's very difficult to disagree.