Extraordinary Tales

Extraordinary Tales (2013)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This animated anthology film from director Raul Garcia is certainly a mixed bag but it's certainly worth watching if you're a horror fan or a fan of Poe's stories. Basically what we've got here are five different Poe stories being told but what makes this film special is that they're narrated by some rather famous people.

Christopher Lee does "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell- Tale Heart" features Bela Lugosi, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" has Julian Sands, "Guillermo Del Toro does "The Pit and the Pendulum" while the final segment, "The Masque of the Red Death" is told silent.

As is the case with most anthology films, they're always a mixed bag because the story quality is just so different from one to the next. For the most part this film is entertaining just because of how creative it was and because of the fact that it has some very big names in the horror genre lending their voices. An an overall level I'd argue that "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is the best because it does feature the best animation and the overall tone is quite good.

The first film with Lee features the actor doing some great narration but I must admit that I didn't care too much for the CGI style. The Lugosi segment was an interesting one as it features an archival vocal performance with a bunch of static. To add to the feel of the audio this short was done in B&W and the effect is mildly amusing. Del Toro does a nice vocal performance and the final film also features some good animation.

EXTRAORDINARY TALES certainly has its flaws throughout and it's certainly uneven at times but if you're a fan of the actors or of Poe's work then it's worth watching.

You get Poe as animated as ever could be a pun, some might wanna make watching this. Seriously though: Poe interpreted by different artists and therefor different styles is a mixed bag as could be expected. First of all you have to like animation and horror to even think about watching this. If not you may want to stay clear of this, which also has a lot of Horror talent at voicing department.

The different animation styles can also be viewed as a curse (no pun intended) or a blessing. Some might have wanted one style throughout the whole thing, I personally like the change and the different approaches. But it's important you know before deciding to watch this. Especially if it's not your thing.

Depending on your knowledge of Poe, you will have a different degree of information concerning the plots of the stories. Whatever that will do to your viewing pleasure

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.

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.

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.