Psychonauts, the Forgotten Children (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

I think audiences will enjoy the incessantly dreary and bleak tone of “Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children,” but for me it felt a step too heavy and morose and undercut a lot of the attempts at whimsy and absurd humor. “Psychonauts” is adapted from Alberto Vázquez’s independent Spanish language graphic novel “Psiconautas,” which featured the character Bird Boy, who starred in his own award winning short film from Vazquez. Bird Boy returns in the film as a side character who is relentlessly pursued by local officers, both of whom want him dead and will do whatever it takes to kill him, despite his seemingly innocent habit with “Happy pills” he’s dependent on to keep demons at bay.

Meanwhile mouse Dinky is desperate to run away from her adoptive family that pressures her to become an engineer, oblivious to the landfills outside of their town that involve rats. These rats look for copper to survive, and the tensions rise as the space for survival grows smaller. I had a love hate relationship with “Psychonauts.” Originally I was so excited to see it since the animation is absolutely beautiful, but it’s such a heavy handed and dire metaphor for poverty and conformity I was actually not entertained all that much. Granted, when I savored the brilliant animation style, I loved what Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero had to offer audiences alike.

But once I dug in to the story, it was a pretty miserable experience with tales about scavenging rats, drug addicted bird boys, and young teenage mice with dark voices tempting them to murder their friends and family. Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero’s “Psychonauts” is a haunting, very heavy animated film with stark political and social overtones. Those themes hobble it in some instances, sadly, muddying up the excellent animation, and richer more complex tale about madness, and looking for a purpose in a land where opportunity involves murder and or conformity.

Novaseed (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Director Nick DiLiberto’s animated science fiction epic could be considered a part of a new “Heavy Metal” anthology if we ever get a remake any time soon. DiLiberto’s animated epic owes a lot to Ralph Bakshi and the sensibilities of the original animated movie, except without any of the exploitative and misogynist overtones. “Novaseed” is a classic hero journey tale of a mastermind rising to power in a post apocalyptic wasteland and one hero stepping up to stop him and save someone very special. When the world is threatened by the maniacal Dr. Mindskull, the government begins looking for champions to step up and challenge him.

DiLiberto pulls a switcheroo on us and a clever turning of the cliché, as he features a gladiator match with a lion-man who automatically becomes the film’s hero once he manages to step forward and prove his courage against his sword wielding foe. From there, hero Nac claims the enigmatic prize that everyone in the world is searching for, and is confronted with Mindskull who challenges Nac’s opposition. DiLiberto’s animation is very low budget and apparently seemed to be based around rotoscoping much in the way Ralph Bakshi exercised for his epics. While the apparent style is hard to discern at first glance, it becomes apparent and tends to elevate the material well.

Due to the low budget our hero Nac is, for the most part, mute for his time on film. Through this drawback, his character presents an action speaking louder than words movement with his character exposition until the very end. “Novaseed” is a strong and unique science fiction animated adventure that relies a lot on simplicity and recognizing its own limitations during the narrative. It has a very “Mad Max” and Bill Plympton sensibility to it with massive desert wastelands and futuristic warriors roaming the land and plundering while Nac seeks to escape the clutches of the government and battle Mindskull. All in all, it’s very much a tribute to the eighties underground animated films and one that I enjoyed, simply for its understanding of why Bakshi’s films stand out among the other animation in the medium.

If you love briskly paced, action packed, violent post apocalyptic sagas and with a rough around the edges sincerity, “Novaseed” will win you over as it did me.

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

The best way to describe “The Secret Life of Pets” is “Toy Story” meets “Looney Tunes.” In fact the “Toy Story” comparisons are never far off, as the film’s formula is most derived from Pixar’s film where we view the secret lives of everyday household elements when their owners aren’t looking. This time we set down on a random apartment complex in the middle of Manhattan where a slew of household pets commune and indulge in their own hobbies when their owners are out for the day. Louis CK does a wonderful job voicing Max, the hero of the film who is a terrier and loyal friend to his owner Katie. While Katie is gone for the day, Max gets together with the pets of the building to talk over the day and discuss what they think happens when their masters are gone.

Eliie Kemper as Katie is a single working woman with a heart for dogs who bonds with Max, and then suddenly brings home a new dog one day. Max is horrified and angry when Katie brings home big fluffy dog Duke, a well meaning adopted pet who tries to make friends with Max and then forms a rivalry when he realizes Max is trying to get him kicked out of the house. While being walked one day, Duke tricks Max in to going on to a construction site, prompting the pair to get lost in the city. With dog hunters and vicious cat on their tail, the two have to work together with the help of anti-owner revolutionary leader, the bunny Snowball. Meanwhile puffy dog and neighbor Gidget goes looking for Max and Duke, hell bent on bringing them back home.

“The Secret Life of Pets” is a subtle celebration of New York City, where our animal characters travel all throughout New York in an attempt to get hack home. The movie doesn’t attempt too much emotional complexity or adult themes, but instead revels in its silliness, ace animation, and often laugh out loud comedy. One particular scene involving an old woman’s reaction to a baby in its carriage is quite hysterical. The animation opts for a very unique and fun style in the vein of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. Despite the movie injecting a lot of heart at the core of its narrative about animals and their devotion to their humans, the animation is decidedly exaggerated with a lot of the characters presented in over the top animated forms.

Even tough heroine Gidget is presented as something of a barking and talking puff ball throughout the film. At a little over seventy minutes, “The Secret Life of Pets” has no room for filler or flab to its story, providing a brisk and hilarious adventure with a genuine sense of emotion to it. It’s a fun, funny, and simple animated film, and one of the better animated entries to come to theaters. While yes it can be accused of taking from “Toy Story,” Max and Duke are genuinely entertaining heroes I hope we can see more of soon.

Geist (2016)

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

From Giant Animation Studios comes “Geist,” a magnificent and eerie animated film that explores the fall out from a tragic event and how one man comes to terms with it. Brought to life with amazing computer animation and marvelous visuals, “Geist” centers on a lone sailor who, after a ship wreck, finds himself lost in a vicious storm. When he finally finds a small cottage on a hill he seeks refuge for the night, hoping to regain his senses and warm up.

But all is not what it seems within the cottage, as someone or something else lurks in the dark crevices of the house, prompting the sailor to go looking for his watcher before it’s too late. Before long, he begins remembering his ill fated ship wreck and what brought him to the island initially. Directors Alex Sherwood, Ben Harper, and Sean Mullen create a vivid and very eerie short film that doesn’t rely on jump scares or shocks. It’s instead very reliant on the mood and blankets of darkness to keep the mystery of the unknown the most terrifying aspect of “Geist.”

The trio of directors relies on the unseen and unknown until the very end where our true view of what’s unfolded is a tragic glimpse at the concepts of fate, and destiny. I can’t say enough about the wonderful animation pulled off by Giant Animation Studios who build a very vivid world and dreamlike landscapes surrounding our character that may or may not be natural at all. Whoever says animation is only for kids and families really has never seen what indie filmmakers can do with bold ideas and complex themes about loss and death.

Sentinel (2015)

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

NOW SEEKING FUNDING ON KICKSTARTER – Jason Turner’s “Sentinel” reminds me a lot of the Harry Canyon segment from “Heavy Metal” except so much more of a neo-noir cyberpunk love letter than the former. Presented as a motion comic, Jason Turner plays Ex-Cop Alex Calibourne, a man with enhanced body augmentations that lives in a crime ridden albeit futuristic city named Iron City. Calibourne lives and breathes by his robotic enhancements, and uses his artificial intelligence J.E.S.S., a sassy female AI, to guide him through his adventures in the underworld.

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What The Fantasia?! 5 WTF Films from Fantasia’s International Film Festival

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Emilie Black

Fantasia International Film Festival is renowned for showcasing some of the best and weirdest of the film world. As someone who started going their second year and started seriously going for multiple screenings per week in 1999, some of the weird films I’ve seen cannot be unseen. So, just to bring some to attention and have a bit of fun, here are five of the most WTF films I’ve seen.

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Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (OAV) (1999)

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Shut up, Tails! Granted, I have always liked the “Sonic” movie from 1999 that finds him battling Metal Sonic, but Tails has to be the most grating animated sidekick of all time. True, he’s still a useful superhero, but in the end I hated this character. “Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie” from 1999, originally made in 1996, is the anime continuation of the original animated series from the mid nineties. I speak of the very good animated adventure, not the crappy Looney Tunes knock off that aired almost at the same time. This time around Sonic is relaxing in his world alongside Tails, and finds out that Robotnik aka Eggman is back.

He’s kidnapped the president and his daughter, insisting Sonic and Tails must go to Eggmanland to stop his evil clone. Dark Robotnik is a robotic beast with massive wings who thinks like Robotnik, and Sonic has to travel to the city to stop the generator before it explodes. But things get tough as Sonic and Tails realize the city has a ton of hazards, and they’re hopelessly outnumbered. Plus, they don’t know that Robotnik has Hyper Metal Sonic, a robotic version of Sonic, waiting for him ready to be activated. Thankfully though, Sonic and Tails aren’t completely alone, as they gain the help of their rogue friend Knuckles.

Knuckles, once an anti-hero, is now an adventurous hero who takes it upon himself to make sure Sonic and Tails pull off their mission safely. “Sonic” is a short and sweet animated adventure with some darn good animation, and an excellent cyberpunk aesthetic that anime buffs and followers of the cyberpunk sub-genre will appreciate. Though, admittedly, the movie is slim on narrative, the director makes up for it with some killer action, and picturing Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles doing what they do best, and looking darn cool performing their signature moves we’ve seen in the classic games. This is a movie that still holds up; it was a lot of fun back in 1999, and it’s a good time today.