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.
"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.