The Zeta Project – 24eyestorm

Zee and Ro hitch a ride through tornado country with Dex and Carl, a pair of tornado-fighting brothers. But when Dex (the hotshot pilot of the pair) steals all the credit from Carl (the brains of the outfit),
Carl tries to prove himself by flying their twister-busting pod into a too-huge tornado. Carl’s only hope, Zeta has to reveal his identity and travel into the tornado to save the young man.

Media by Borg4of3
Review by Matt Zimmer

Voices:
Diedrich Bader as Zeta / Zee
Julie Nathanson as Ro
Joey Lawrence as Dex
Andrew Lawrence as Carl
Robert David Hall as Thad
Laurie O’Brien as Paula
Aron Kincaid as Dad
 

Despite dazzling animation this storm isn’t very thrilling.

Zeta and Ro arrive in Kansas during a tornado and are surprised to see a craft in the air battling it. After it gets rid of the tornado Zee and
Ro learn that it is operated by two brothers, Dex and Carl. Dex is somewhat of a glory hog and takes credit for getting rid of the storm single-handedly by expertly piloting the Tornado Twister. Carl is resentful of this because he is in fact the one who designed and built the craft.

After Dex’s bragging gets to be too much (although Ro sees right through him) Carl takes off in the Twister when another tornado is coming. After realizing what Carl has done Zee and Ro help Dex track his brother in a different vehicle. Zeta reveals himself and says that he is going into the heart of the storm to save Carl who has radioed that he is hurt and unable to pilot the Twister. Zee jumps out and lands in the twister and with Carl’s help stops the storm and lands the Twister safely.

Afterwards Dex shares credit for the storm busting with his brother for the first time, thankful that he is all right.

I have to say I probably would have enjoyed this episode more if The
Zeta Project has lasted 52 episodes. As it is, it’s just average filler.
I had nothing invested in the brothers and I only enjoyed the episode when Zee and Ro were on-screen. I have a feeling if the show had lasted longer we would have seen additional episodes like this with no villains or government agents. Sort of like The Fugitive in the sixties; but since it was cancelled prematurely the few episodes done in this style come across as a waste of story time rather than character studies.

The best thing about the episode was the excellent animation for the storm. It was pretty dazzling for having NO Return of the Joker explosions. I normally am not a very good judge of animation quality but even I could appreciate how fluid and well done this was. The explosions and destruction was beautiful and I wished more episodes of the show had animation like this.

This was an episode with a mediocre story that is saved by brilliant animation.

Story: **
Animation: *****
Average: ***