Extraordinary Tales

Before I begin my review, I just have to make a statement. You wouldn't ask a vegetarian to review a steak house, or a film maker to tell you how to fix your car. So, when you see reviews from philistines complaining about the 'quality of the audio recording of Bela Lugosi', or complaining about the animation style, just picture the reviewer as a fully snow-suited Eskimo in a sauna, and ignore their complaints. Moving on...

I saw this when it was first released to streaming services, and wrote down my thoughts in an Edgar Allan Poe Facebook group. Now that it's on Netflix, I've revisited, and re-experienced a lot of the same feelings. Here are my thoughts:

1) There is a great atmosphere of dread, or "October, the season of death" as Ray Bradbury may call it, over the entire anthology. I love this. Very "sparse" feeling, if that makes sense.

2) I really like the original wraparound story. In fact, once the two main characters were positively identified, I found that the wraparound was probably the most creepy and thoughtful of all presentations in the film. However, I don't believe that the voice actor was well chosen to portray the character that he was supposed to be. They needed a more fitting voice for the foreboding style, instead of one that sounds like a generic television family dad. Also, the character's dialogue should've been more poetic. It was too plain for the character portrayed.

3) The Tell-Tale Heart segment is simply awesome. They take Bela Lugosi's original audio recording of his reading of the story (from the 1930s, I believe), complete with scratches and audio artifacts, layered over a modern musical score, and very noir-ish / Frank Miller-ish animation. It would've harmed the piece if they removed the scratches and audio artifacts from Lugosi's reading. I'm glad they didn't.

4) All stories in the film had narration and/or voice-overs, except for the final story, The Masque Of The Red Death. The only voice in the entire piece is Prince Prospero (Roger Corman) when he spots The Red Death. I believe it was a huge mistake to not narrate the story. It would've been much better to hear Poe's words while seeing the visual. Without the narration, it's almost more of a background piece than an actual story. Although the visual is still beautiful.

5) The fade-to-black, fade-to-zero decibel bumpers/dividers between stories and wraparound pieces created too much of a division between sections. They should've run together better. It was almost as if it was 5 separate episodes, instead of a continuous anthology, as was intended.

I would definitely recommend it for any fan of Poe. Or even as an introduction to Poe for anybody who hasn't yet become a fan of his.

Not sure why the average ratings ... I found this quite beautiful.

Its only flaw is how short it is, however its gorgeous visuals, voice acting and symphonic music more than atone.

The final short did not need narrating because its clear what the message is. I loved how different they all were, intententinaly so, and believe it or not voice matters.

The first short was Gothic perfection! The second not my favorite, but it was good. The Third and Fourth had some suspense and horror in it and the final one had an excellent theme.

There is not much to say about an animated tribute to EAP work summed up in 117 minutes or so, but this came close enough to say plenty.

Final Grade -A

An interesting anthology of Edgar Poe short stories.

The best part is that they use different forms of animation for each story. They all add a special feeling to each story. The one from Tell tale Heart is pretty hard to watch, but it very artistic and is fine for such a short animation, it is also extra creepy because of it and it fits well with the old recording of Bela Lugosi.

I liked the comic books style animation of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, it gave it a very vintage feeling.

All in all a great collection. Doesn't really feel like horror animation though. I think it is even suitable for children from a certain age to introduce them to literature.

This animated anthology based on 5 of Edgar Allen Poe's stories is well done, complete with choice actors for narration such as Christopher Lee, Julian Sands and a surprising (but obviously dated) monologue from Bela Lugosi who does a fine job reading through one of Poe's most well-known tales, "The Tell-Tale Heart". Animation is slick in 5 different computer-enhanced styles including a linking story between Poe in the guise of a Raven and a mysterious entity desperately trying to conceal her identity when it's obvious from the start that it is Death. This anthology focuses solely on Poe's more famous dismal stories ("The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "The Pit and the Pandulum", "The Masque of the Red Death" as well as the aforementioned "Tell-Tale Heart") and only hint at the less gruesome works and love poems Poe produced during his lifetime. Designed primarily of kids, the interaction between Raven and Death touch on some historical facts of Poe that are quite adult and sad if you know anything about the writer. It's interesting to note how they seem to talk about Poe in both present and past tense. The problem with this anthology is not in the end result but on the material; Poe's works can be very cryptic, hard to read, filled with lavish but difficult to comprehend wording, and host periods of history that sometimes does not translate well with younger generations albeit adults. This anthology may truly only be for Poe fans, as those who do not know his works, or only lightly, may find themselves lost in the imagery and symbolism that he's most famous for.

The idea of an animated anthology of macabre Edgar Allan Poe tales, presented in different visual aesthetics, seems great on paper. But the promising concept suffers somewhat in the execution. Despite the diverse "looks" of the animated segments, the animation is all of a similarly limited CGI variety. The film's biggest weakness is the framing device, which involves the spirit of Poe in the body of a raven having an introspective conversation with the spirit of Death in a cemetery full of statuary. The animation in the cemetery scenes is particularly lackluster (almost like flattened objects in a three-dimensional space), the voice work is uninspired, and the whole thing is set in the bright daylight, which is a curious choice for an anthology of such dark tales. Luckily, the Poe stories themselves are appropriately atmospheric, once they get going.

The movie tells five classic Edgar Allan Poe tales. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is narrated brilliantly by British horror icon Christopher Lee. The animation is fluid and designed with a stylized, quasi-geometric, "carved-out-of-wood" quality. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is accompanied by a seemingly ancient audio recording of the great Bela Lugosi ("Dracula"), and presented in a stark black and white style inspired by the work of comic artist Alberto Breccia. Incorporating long-dead horror icon Lugosi is a cool touch, but the muffled audio seems too quiet and detached from the animation. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (with the voice of Julian Sands) has a comic book aesthetic. "The Pit and the Pendulum", set during the Spanish Inquisition, is narrated by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, and the animation approximates a photo-realistic video game. The medieval tale, "The Masque of the Red Death", is told solely through its imagery (no narration), and has a watercolor aesthetic. The stories are dark and eerie, and occasionally gruesome. Some use Poe's original words, some paraphrase within Poe's narrative, and one uses no words at all.

Edgar Allan Poe's short stories are well-served in the anthology format, and stylized animation captures Poe's eerie atmosphere better than live-action ever could. This movie seems like a match made in heaven, but the animation is not entirely satisfying and the cemetery framework is a drag. Still, you can't go wrong with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and "Extraordinary Tales" (2013) would be a nice introduction to Poe's classic stories for modern audiences.