ANI-MOVIES, *The Bad Guys

Lupin the 3rd meets BNA are what you get in this funny animal crime comedy. Taking break from ogres and dragons, Dreamworks decided to take Aaron Blabey ongoing graphic novel series The Bad Guys and make it into a major release. Although Universal played it safe by not releasing a metric ton of merchandise tied to its release, it did pay off by making it one of the biggest selling animated films of the year. It's a bizarre blending of Looney Tunes physics and action-comedy.

Set in a version of the human world where regular animals exist as well as anthropomorphic talking animals who wear clothes. You don't see to many of the talking kinds outside of the main cast, which mostly consists of the titular Bad Guys, a gang of thieves that have a panache for grand heists. There's the leader Wolf(supposed to be the genuine "Big Bad" one), vault-buster Snake, hacker spider Webs, flatulent crazy thug Piranha, and the sizeable Shark as the resident master of disguise. The criminal quintet is constantly taunting the police, including their hot-tempered female chief. The Bad Guys' latest caper involves stealing the valuable Golden Dolphin statue which is being presented to resident philanthropist guinea pig, Professor Marmalade, at an awards gala, although they end up getting caught. Our villains are given a temporary pardon by the fox governor and put in the care of Marmalade who vows to turn the Bad Guys into good guys. From here are a series of deceptions, betrayals, redemptions, and crazy car chases making for a fantastic cartoon frenzy.

Pierre Perifel hit the ground running in this as The Bad Guys was his first directorial debut, and Etan Cohen wrote an impressive screenplay, aside from the fact that there is the standard amount of fart jokes in it. If you are tired of cliched heist movies, then you will probably enjoy this which is set up to parody the genre, but as an all-ages feature. The character dynamics, brilliant voice acting, smooth animation, and cartoon action makes for a splendid experience for movie buffs and lovers of animation.

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ANI-MOVIES, *The Spine Of Night

Horror movie writer-turned animator Philip Gellat had worked on Netflix's Love, Death And Robots animated anthology, and developed a full-length feature in the spirit of that TV series. Along with Morgan Galen King, he took the concept of Ralph Bakshi's earlier works like The Lord Of The Rings plus Fire And Ice into a new adult dark fantasy which similar to the Netflix series is a selection of short stories connected to a central theme. Shot entirely in the nearly lost craft of rotoscoping, The Spine Of Night has the feel of a Frank Frazetta painting brought to life.

The swamp witch Tzod was killed centuries ago by a selfish prince, and her necklace of magic flowers called the Bloom was taken away by Ghar-Sul, a scholar who uses the flowers enchanted properties to greatly extend his lifespan. Ghar-Sul eventually took control of his fellow scholars, and their collected knowledge allowed the now unkillable magic user to form his own empire throughout the ages. Tzod is resurrected by a lost fragment of the Bloom to seek out the flower's original source, which she tracks to a large skull at the top of a mountain maintained by a withered guardian who tells her the Bloom is the last fragments of power left over from a race of gods that early mankind killed. A daring team of flying assassins manage to infiltrate Ghar-Sul's empire in an effort to kill him, which instead leads to the last of his Bloom supply. Noticing the last embers of the Bloom's light where he meets once again with Tzod, Ghar-Sul has a final battle with the swamp witch now taking up the task of the fallen guardian.

This movie is what Masters Of The Universe fans pictured their favorite toyline would be before the campy TV series put the barbaric fantasy on training wheels, except this is clearly not meant for younger viewers. Nudity, gore, and questionable drug use make The Spine Of Night a seriously mature feature. It is sure to make old school animation geeks filled with nostalgia with the more realistic animated motions and scenes of sheer bloody violence.

ANI-MOVIES, *Gantz: O

Gantz was a popular manga that got adapted into an anime TV series that didn't complete the original story, plus a 2-part live-action movie franchise along with a TV tie-in special. The appeal of the manga was reimagined into a full-length CGI animated film that takes the basic premise of one of it's story arcs and opens the world up to view it as one long video game. Alot of the manga's backstory is put on hold to set the stage for a more action centered production.

Well meaning teenager Kato gets killed trying try to stop a subway slasher which has him waking up in a room with several people in skintight black outfits. A large black ball in the room referred to as Gantz grabs people moments from their deaths to take part in monster slaying missions as bizarre yokai are attacking Osaka. Given his own power suit and laser guns, Kato is sent with three others from Tokyo to help the Osaka division of Gantz during a demonic invasion. Monsters of all kinds like cyclopses, tengu, giant feiry wheels, and a kaiju that has the Gantz using their own invisible giant robot. The Osaka and Tokyo team have trouble working together, with Kato making peace with the bouncy Yamasaki who quickly takes a liking to him despite the fact she is in her mid-20s with a son. The unnamed big boss demon proves to be especially difficult to kill with several of both teams getting killed off trying to keep it down despite how many times they cut it up, fire lasers at it, and crush it with a kinetic energy hammer gun. Kato gains enough points during this mission to win his freedom from Gantz service, but instead uses his bonus to resurrect Yamasaki who died in the final fight. It's revealed that Kato had previously been a Gantz player that had his memory wiped after an already successful tour as a Gantz soldier.

Gantz: O is a decent enough intro to the original manga's premise, making it more appealing to casual movie watchers without being bogged down with alot of the negative aspects that made the anime TV series appealing to gritty teenage audiences. The fan service and levels of violence of the source material are diminished to show the movie as a positive action-adventure epic. The CGI is effective, notably in the outstanding fight sequences. You might get the same feel out of playing a standard combat game, but the movie is a compelling enough thrill ride for a single sit.

ANI-MOVIES, *Green Lantern: Beware My Power

 

Meant to be the 5th chapter of the "Tomorrowverse"(4th if you count The Long Halloween as a single feature), Beware My Power is in fact a direct continuation of the DC Showcase: Adam Strange short from two years prior. The second human Green Lantern takes the spotlight in this newly expanded world which includes the already formed Justice League and an established interstellar history. This acts as a serious cosmic odyssey to the DC animated library.

Former marine John Stewart is suffering from PTSD after his last Middle East tour and gets a visit by the last known Guardian of the Universe who gives him missing Green Lantern Hal Jordan's power ring before he passes away. John has the ring take him to the Justice League's Watchtower satellite where he's introduced to members of the current roster, including Green Arrow. The Emerald Archer goes with the new Green Lantern in the Guardian's ship to the Lantern homeworld of Oa which is loaded with corpses of probably the entire Lantern Corps and the Guardians. Once there, the green team is attacked by Shayera Hol, a Hawkgirl from the planet of Thanagar that believes their warring neighbor world of Rann were behind the slaughter on Oa. The three heroes combine their efforts and travel to a war-torn planet where a rogue teleporting zeta beam drops Adam Strange straight from his Showcase adventure of busting giant alien bugs. The new fantastic four realize that some outside factor is manipulating the Rann and Thanagar empires into a war, which is revealed to be ex-Green Lantern Sinestro now using a yellow power ring and leading a team of space terrorists. John has to now use his newfound powers and responsibilities to help repair the damage caused by Sinestro's forces and his hidden benefactor.

Beware My Power opens up a new area of the Tomorrowverse only slightly hinted to in Superman: Man Of Tomorrow helping bring about the space opera this franchise needed. The animation is refined, most notably in the star battles and the power ring constructs. It leaves you wondering if there is a lingering connection between this timeline and the previous DCAU and hoping to see the full new Justice League in an upcoming adventure. The feature's only downside is that it sidelines the title character for other people on the DC Comics roster.

ANI-MOVIES, *A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman

Even though there are some live-action clips shown throughout the production, A Liar's Autobiography is a love letter to deceased Monty Python member, Graham Chapman. The comic actor passed away in 1989 in his late forties, but prior to his death he wrote a sensationalized version of his life up until that point, which he also performed the audiobook of. This movie takes the original audio tracks and mixes in portions of Graham's life with animation from 14 different studios bringing a new dimension to the story. Written by Chapman's life-partner David Sherlock, the feature has input from most of the surviving Pythoners, including a bizarre voice over by Cameron Diaz as Sigmund Freud. This could be viewed as an animated anthology, even though all the segments fit together in a single narrative.

The movie begins with Graham Chapman trying to remember a line from a Oscar Wilde sketch Monty Python did live. He then spends the rest of the of the film going over parts of his life from going on boring vacations with his parents, attending college, and joining his school's drama club. This leads to him meeting up with John Cleese, where the two of them went on to do material for British entertainer David Frost, and eventually their hooking up with the rest of Monty Python which became one of the world's hugest comedy troupe. A good portion of the movie then reflects on how Graham handled the success Python brought him, as well as him coming to terms with his sexuality and alcoholism. The movie does a great job handling how Graham's life as being openly gay was in fact a positive thing in his life. The film goes back and forth between reality and fictional accounts like how reading the Biggles adventure books as a child helped him navigate his own personal outlook on the world.

A Liar's Autobiography is a delightful insight into the tragically short life of one of the greatest comic minds of all time. The entire feature has more dark tones to it than you might realize but done in a comedic manner. The voice overs by the remaining Python team make for a fine extended cast, but what really sells it is Graham's narration with the eclectic animation. If you were ever a member of the Dead Parrots Society, then you can't miss this necessary look in one of its founding members.

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