Every once in a while, a movie comes along that does not look like your typical movie and yet evokes artistic styles of days gone, that contains a wealth of meaning for anyone open-minded enough to partake, and that does not shy from sharing deep truths that have consistently defined the state of human society over several centuries.
"Cryptozoo" on Amazon Prime Video is one such movie. Directed and written by Dash Shaw, the film felt like a deep-dream dive filled with societal realisms and truthful explorations of what it means to be 'different'.
The voice cast did great jobs. They managed to convey all the messages their characters stood for without taking attention away from the illustrative animation quality. The dialogues were modern, even contemporary, and contained references to the 'hippie' days.
Lead animator Emily Wolver created something genuinely evocative with this title. Animation director Jane Samborski ensured that viewers would feel like they're part of the story.
In some sequences, Dash Shaw succeeded in creating a 'dual layer storytelling' effect, with two characters appearing as though they were some new-age versions of Adam and Eve and the place they happened to visit was a sealed-off Garden of Eden. One of them became an important player in the plot later on. The rest of the time, Shaw delved right into the crux of the story through Lauren Gray's (voiced by Lake Bell) self-appointed (global) missions to save 'Cryptids' (hybrid animal/animal-human/hybrid-human creatures) from danger. And he (the director/writer) brought it all together neatly near the end.
In truth, all the characters, even the world itself, within the confines of this movie were potently allegorical, symbolic, and oftentimes showcased direct artistic parallels to a society with which we're each, in our own way, familiar.
John Carroll Kirby's musical scoring set a special tone throughout Amazon Prime Video's "Cryptozoo".
Who knew a movie so simple could hold meanings so profound? Plenty of potent themes pervaded nearly every scene of the film. It felt like observing a 'moving painting' that gently encouraged you to learn from, decipher, and/or deduce its contents as and when they showed up, like players on a stage.
"Cryptozoo" from Magnolia Pictures is both evocative and provocative, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Plot summary
Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
January 24, 2022 at 07:04 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Open-Minded, Explorative, Allegorical
Drawing style and story style didn't go well with the acting style
To put it simply, when one uses intentionally naïve style of drawing. Combined with a story that sounds as if it was written during the 60s by an ardent hippie and then has the voice actors performing their roles as seriously as they can without a shred of a smile - it doesn't work well together. The audience I was watching it with reacted with laughter though no joke has been told, I was cringing in my chair with embarrassment. I'm sure the film creators didn't aim for either but that's what they got.
An acquired taste...
Cryptozoo is an oddly-animated feature that rambles along like it was a storybook adventure crafted in the Seventies - when details were blurred in a haze and stories for children were not always safe.
Honestly, Cryptozoo accomplishes the goal of any good fantasy and science fiction story by crafting a timely tale set in a timeless fashion. Unfortunately the chosen medium and distinct art style highly restricts what should be a tale of openness and inclusion.
Animation is, theoretically, budgetless. The artist can sculpt and paint and render imaginative, unseen worlds and bring them to life. Why then does Cryptozoo look like flipbook doodles on the corners of a Dungeons & Dragons module?
The animation is certainly an acquired taste. Fortunately, its rudimentary style does not totally diminish the compelling story of social relevance. Fiction like this is what opens conversation regarding the importance of freedom and the rights of all. Including animators with questionable art styles.