{"id":35868,"date":"2021-10-04T00:02:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T04:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=35868"},"modified":"2021-10-03T23:29:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T03:29:57","slug":"night-of-the-animated-dead-2021-blu-ray-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/04\/night-of-the-animated-dead-2021-blu-ray-digital\/","title":{"rendered":"Night of the Animated Dead (2021) [Blu-Ray\/Digital]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The last time \u201cNight of the Living Dead<\/a>\u201d was animated was in 2009’s “Re-Animated<\/a>” where director Mike Schneider enlisted a slew of animators to offer their own interpretations of various scenes from George A. Romero\u2019s masterpiece. That wasn\u2019t so much a remake, as it felt more like an art installation, or a cinematic experiment that allowed us to view the classic film through various lenses and scopes, giving us unique peek in to the terrifying narrative. \u201cNight of the Animated Dead\u201d has a chance to feel like a unique re-imagining. Instead it picks off the corpse of George A. Romero\u2019s \u201cNight of the Living Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johhny (Jimmi Simpson) and his sister Barbara (Katharine Isabelle) travel to a cemetery in Pittsburgh to put a memorial reef on their uncle\u2019s grave. While there, the pair are attacked by an undead ghoul, prompting Barbara to flee and seek shelter at a local farm house. There she\u2019s saved by a local man named Ben (Dule Hill), and they\u2019re joined by a small group of previous survivors (Josh Duhamel, James Roday Rodriguez, Katee Sackoff, Nancy Travis) hiding in the basement. With tensions running high, the group tries to make sense of the chaos while fending off hordes of flesh eating monsters lurking outside their doors.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve seen \u201cNight of the Living Dead,\u201d I\u2019ve seen \u201cNight of the Living Dead\u201d more than I could count, and with Jason Axinn\u2019s animated treatment, I\u2019ve seen it once again. Truly, there\u2019s nothing remotely new or unique about his treatment of Romero\u2019s horror film. It still runs well within seventy minutes, it\u2019s still very much set in the sixties, and it ends on the same note that the film did. The only arguable differences are that Axinn opts for color animation, and injects a lot of gore in moments that didn\u2019t exactly have them. Sometimes it\u2019s clever, and other times it effectively destroys all sense of subtly from the original. Axinn opts to show Johnny not only busting his head on the tombstone but gurgling as the blood oozes from his gaping wound.<\/p>\n

Another scene shows Tom and Judy being mangled by exploding glass just before exploding in their truck. There\u2019s also the goofy re-invention of the final twist as Ben isn\u2019t just shot in the head, but his brains tinkle piano keys behind him before he drops to the floor. It\u2019s goofy little flourishes like that that only help to emphasize the inherent pointlessness of this endeavor. Jason Axinn is a solid filmmaker; I very much enjoyed \u201cTo Your Last Death<\/a>.\u201d Here he\u2019s restricted to giving us the exact same film all over again, except with a little more grue and nothing else. The animation is rigid, the color design is pale and anemic, and the performances leave so much to be desired.<\/p>\n

Considering the nifty ensemble here, the only person that seems to be mentally invested in their role is Dule Hill as Ben. Beyond that, everyone else gives exactly the performance we\u2019d expect for these characters. How do you get Katharine Isabelle and not implement her epic screams? There\u2019s no new insight provided, no bold twists, or even bigger emphases on the back stories. It\u2019s yet another retread of \u201cNight of the Living Dead\u201d but with a glossy new wrapper.<\/p>\n

And now we wait for the next remake.<\/p>\n

Included in the physical release is a Digital Code for consumers. The only feature is Making of the Animated Dead<\/strong> with director Jason Axinn & Producer Michael Luisi as they discuss with fans the careful process of honoring the iconic classic with their vision for an animated remake, including scene breakdowns and booth recordings with the entire cast.<\/p>\n