
Its production was expedited by having several animation houses working simultaneously on different segments. Like the magazine, the film features a great deal of graphic violence, sexuality, and nudity. It was adapted from Heavy Metal magazine and original stories in the same spirit. The film is an anthology of various science fiction and fantasy stories tied together by a single theme of an evil force that is "the sum of all evils".

The screenplay was written by Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum.


It starred the voices of Rodger Bumpass, Jackie Burroughs, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, Martin Lavut, Marilyn Lightstone, Eugene Levy, Alice Playten, Harold Ramis, Percy Rodriguez, Susan Roman, Richard Romanus, August Schellenberg, John Vernon, and Zal Yanovsky. Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian-American adult animated science fantasy anthology film directed by Gerald Potterton, produced by Ivan Reitman and Leonard Mogel, who also was the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, which was the basis for the film.
