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'Skyland' brings sci-fi to Nick
By David Kronke, Television Critic
Article Last Updated:11/17/2006 05:26:35 PM PST

Nickelodeon's ambitious new series, "Skyland," is essentially "Battlestar Galactica" for kids. There are a lot worse things to be.
Set in the year 2551, when the Earth is reduced to giant chunks of free-floating rubble, "Skyland" pits a hearty band of resistance fighters against the evil Sphere, a group bent on global domination — were there still a globe, that is.

When their mother, a telekinetic Seijin, is abducted by Sphere overlord Oslo, young Lena, another Seijin, and teen Mahad, a cocky fighter pilot with a turbo-charged boomerang, join the rebels, hoping to free her.

Though the dialogue and vocal performances can be clunky, what elevates "Skyland" is its impressive and inventive visual sensibility. Designs are invariably

cool, and the computer animation gives the sense of camera work with lushly oversaturated lighting, symbolic of the sunlight that gives the Seijin their powers.
"Skyland" borrows from sci-fi iconography everywhere — it begins tonight cribbing from the "Star Wars" pod race — but seems to know what's worth using and what isn't. Youngsters weaned on this could well end up being sci-fi fans for life, so be warned.


SKYLAND
Our rating:
What: Computer-animated series, set in the year 2551, about two children's quest in the year 2551 to rescue their mother from an evil group called the Sphere.
Where: Nickelodeon.
When: 9 tonight.
In a nutshell: "Battlestar Galactica" for kids, not a bad thing to be.
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David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.

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