The Tezuka team's masterful animation, engaging characters and intriguing premise hold great promise, but become bogged down with short cut execution and confusing medical explanations as the film progresses.

A cynical tale about performance enhancing drugs in the Olympic games, the story touches on the villainy of the pharmaceutical industry and the integrity of medical science. But the script's gaping plot holes and predictable twists do little to convey the gravity of the theme or the stakes for Black Jack himself.

Created in Tezuka Osamu's popular comic book series, Doctor Black Jack and Pinoko need no introduction. However, for the uninitiated, "Black Jack: The Movie" leaves a lot to inference. Doctor Black Jack is cursorily described as a nonconformist surgeon, unlicensed only because he wishes to be so. Pinoko appears to be an energetic little girl with super-strength (for comic purposes only). Though their relationship takes shape like father/daughter, their history remains a mystery.

From the opening scene in which Nicholas Doris, dripping with sweat, breathes heavily as he prepares to pole vault into history, the "Black Jack" art team executes detailed and fluid animation. However, the overuse of still frames and therma-vision shots detracts from rather than enhances the action.

This is where the medical integrity of the film falls apart; Moira Syndrome is called both a "fungus" and a "virus," which is not possible.

Distinctive, expressive voices wax wooden occasionally.

Medical gore and violent deaths.

Still frames appear ubiquitously along with split-screens, rampant thermo vision and a handful of other cheesy techniques that work better in comic books.

Considering that everything else in the movie appears so naturalistic, the fact that highly trained medical professionals trust this freakish, unlicensed gothic enigma who couldn't even sew up his own face well boggles the mind.

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