We caught two of the features on the 3rd night of Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2011. Below are some reviews by both Alice and I.
Before the first feature of the night two shorts were screened. The first was a quick but lovely three-tone animation by Canadian artist Jamie Metzger entitled Paso Doble. Though short, the animation showcased some beautiful hand-drawn style and rhythm. You can see a teaser for it here.
The second short was an enchanting fairy tale called Lost for Words. This short is like a storybook come to life, featuring a stunning combination of puppetry, costume design, and digital effects. It’s a really original yet nostalgic short, falling somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and Guillermo del Toro. It was a great opener for the night and I highly recommend tracking it down as it’s something which deserves to be seen by any fan of childlike wonder and fantasy. You can see a trailer for it here.
From their shorts in the Animatrix and Gotham Knight to their work with Satoshi Kon and features like Summer Wars, Madhouse has always been one of my favorite animation studios, putting together some of the most memorable anime films of the last 30 years. At this year’s festival their most recent feature screened and proved that they are only getting better. Redline is fan-fucking-tastic, and without even seeing the rest of the films I can definitively say it’s the best film of the festival.
Much like Father’s Day on the 2nd night, it’s difficult to express in words what the experience was like. Peter Kuplowsky introduced the film by calling it “acid on acid”, which is a pretty good expression of what it’s like to be sitting in a theater with something like this coming at you firing on all cylinders. Redline is more than just intense, and it’s more than just insane. It’s the perfect mix of over-the-top action, cheesy narrative, and ridiculous characters that can only exist in an animated film.
On a very basic level the film centers around “Sweet JP”, a struggling racer trying to beat the odds and win “Redline”, a no holds barred, extremely dangerous race on the comically hostile militaristic planet of Roboworld. The overall experience covers an immense amount, with a love story, criminal pasts, and very specific and unique characters, each with interesting back-stories and hilarious relationships. The film covers several worlds with distinct settings, resulting in an experience which never gets stale. The entire universe of Redline, with all of its complexity and absurdity, is immediately engrossing and fully realized, sucking the audience in more and more at every beat.
The action is mesmerizing. Things will explode, and then there will be a second explosion on top of the first, and then a car or military jet will come hurtling through the first two explosions and explode itself. The film is constantly one-upping itself, and every time you think a moment couldn’t possibly become more intense Redline transforms itself into something new and even more awesome.
It’s also visually stunning. The amount of concurrent fully-animated figures on screen in every scene boggles the mind, with frames which are bursting with detail and nuance. The character design is equally wonderful, featuring a bizarre cast of imaginative creatures, each interesting on their own, and almost too much to handle in total. I haven’t seen animation this crazy, fast paced, or hilarious since 2004′s Dead Leaves, which Redline might replace for being the craziest anime I’ve ever seen.
The soundtrack is on the same level of intensity as everything else, featuring engaging techno beats and cute J-pop songs which will have you pumping your first or crying with laughter. It’s a truly unique experience to be reckoned with and it had the entire audience screaming and cheering during its final climax. I can’t possibly recommend this film enough.
You can catch Redline on its upcoming Blu-Ray release which should be available soon. If you haven’t already, you should check out its trailer here.
Review by Alice
Deadheads is definitely not your average zombie flick; it’s more like your average buddy comedy. The story follows Mike and Brent who have found themselves not only dead but part of the living dead, and as far as they can tell they are the only self-aware zombies. In attempting to remember how they got to their current state, Mike finds the ring he was going to use to propose to his girlfriend, and he & Brent set out on a quest for love. Along with the truly undead Cheese, they hitchhike, steal & sneak their way to Michigan trying to avoid the Laboratory’s hired guns who wish to retrieve them.
My favourite part of the film is their zombie pet/friend Cheese who is like the rest of the undead craving flesh, and oddly the company of the zombie buddies. Cheese is the punchline of every joke, but is also the muscle that saves Mike & Brent’s butts often. The film is carried by a couple of good jokes that rely on detachable arms, getting shot, and how they became dead in the first place. Overall it was enjoyable but I wouldn’t really recommend it. It has that buddy film feel that would go over well in a frat house but the addition of zombies almost feels like a gimmick.
You can see the trailer here.
Deadheads was preceded by Play Dead, a short focusing on dogs in a zombie apocalypse. I don’t feel like this short went anywhere. It began with introducing the dogs as we watch their owners get owned by the zombie onslaught. The frame stops as they name each one & their favorite thing (cue audience laughter) and we watch all the dogs meet up with each other. The only indication of the film going somewhere interesting is when the dogs wander into a human stronghold and one gets eaten. It feels like someone who loves zombies and dogs made this for fun, but is ultimately an empty experience.
You can see a (really misleading) trailer for the short here.
That’s it for the 3rd day of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2011. You can check back later for our review of yesterdays sci-fi epic Love, and some more screenings during the week. If you want some more details on the upcoming films, or for some reason haven’t bought tickets yet, you can check out more information at torontoafterdark.com.
