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The courage of an eagle, the strength of a panther and the power of a God. The epic adventure is back like never before!
—The Beastmaster tagline
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A fantasy movie from the director of Phantasm, who would later go on to direct Bubba Ho Tep. The movie is loosedly based on the 1959 sci-fu novel of the same name by Andre Norton.
Maax is a twisted cult leader out to steal the throne of King Zed, but when Zed banishes Maax, he sends one of his three witches to steal Zed's unborn son. Ripping him right out of his mother's womb with magic and placing it a cow's womb, she took him to die. But a brave hunter killed the witch and rescued the young boy. Naming him Dar, they find out at a young age that he possess the power to communicate with animals. But Maax sends his thugs called the horde to wipe out his peaceful village, thanks to a brave dog, Dar survived again and makes plans on using his powers to kill Maax to avenge his people and his foster father.
Followed by two sequels, including a television series that qualified as a somewhat vindicated-by-reruns show.
- Animal Eye Spy
- Barbarian Hero: Dar
- Battle Butler: Seth
- The Beast Master: Guess
- Big Bad: Maax
- Big Damn Heroes: The Bat People, when they show up at the end in time to save the city
- B-Movie
- Butter Face: The witches in the original movie have extremely sexy bodies and horrible melted faces.
- Celebrity Paradox: The second movie shows just how silly it is to avert this trope. As Dar is in a car driving down the street, they pass a movie theater that is debuting Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time. Dar is as confused as the audience.
- Covers Always Lie: Noriyoshi Ohrai got a bit carried away. This movie is not as awesome as it looks.
- Cult
- Dark Is Not Evil: The bat people (who get a Big Damn Heroes moment when they show up at the city just in time to make a difference)
- Decapitated Army: Inverted. The evil barbarians Maax allied with come to attack the city after he dies
- Distressed Damsel: Kiri
- Elite Mooks: Death Guards
- Evil Laugh
- Fan Disservice: All over the place, but particularly with the grotesque witches.
- Follow the Leader: The film is clearly imitating the success of Arnie's run as Conan the Barbarian, hence why it disposes of most of the more elaborate and fantastical things about Andre Norton's novel.
- Friend to All Living Things: Dar
- Heroes Want Redheads
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kodo
- The Horde: The tribe who allies with Maax
- In Name Only: The novel that the film is based on is a Sci-Fi novel. The only thing the novel and film have in common is that title and that the lead characters can talk to beasts.
- Jerkass: King Zed towards Dar, until he realized he's the son he lost.
- Kissing Cousins
- Mage in Manhattan: Arklon in the second movie.
- No Animals Were Harmed: Sadly averted. Sultan, the tiger who played Ruh in the first movie, died two years later due to being poisoned by the dye they used to make him appear black. As a result the tiger in the second movie changes color due to being a different tiger.
- Non-Indicative Name: The subtitle of the sequel is Through the Portal of Time despite the fact that Kyranna explicitly states that it's a dimensional portal and no time travel is involved.
- Panthera Awesome: Ruh.
- Power Perversion Potential: Dar commands his ferrets to steal the clothing (if it can be called that) of a nubile bathing beauty, luring her into the woods so he can pretend to scare off his own panther in a not-so-elaborate plan to seduce her.
- The Remnant: The army that attacks at the end
- Ridiculously Cute Critters: The ferrets Kodo and Podo.
- Rightful King Returns: Subverted a bit, Dar hands the job to his younger half brother.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
- Scary Black Man: Seth in a thong
- Secret Legacy: Dar
- Someone to Remember Him By: Kodo and Podo's kids
- Surprise Incest
- Team Pets
- The Time of Myths
- Villains Blend in Better: Played straight in the second movie, but justified; Arklon can Mind Rape locals on present-day Earth to gain knowledge of how society works. Dar is every bit the confused hero, prompting both the police and animal control to come after him.
- Weasel Mascots: Kodo and Podo.
- Wicked Witches: Their faces aren't much to look at but they certainly have nice bodies.