The Spanish community's adult animation industry is thriving as artists look to tell more mature stories with their work. María Trénor's rock and roll musical "Rock Bottom" is a psychedelic trip inspired by the life and music of U. K. artist Robert Wyatt. A story of love and self-destruction, inspired by the music and life of Robert Wyatt and set in the hippie culture of the 1970s, which was nominated for Best Animated Film at the Goya Awards. In it, drugs transform a passionate summer into a true nightmare as the protagonist couple plunges into a spiral of euphoria and anguish in Wyatt's life: his stay in Mallorca and the period after his accident in New York, when he sneaks into a building while hiding from his girlfriend so as not to catch her making love with another girl.
This is a colorful and strange animated film that explores themes such as artistic creation, the fascination with drugs, disenchantment with routine, and physical and mental degradation. Through Robert Wyatt's music, the animated musical 'Rock Bottom' plunges into the passionate self-destructive love story of Bob and Alif, two young artists immersed in the creative whirlwind of the early 70s' hippie culture.
Trénor's "Rock Bottom" is financed by Catalan producer Alba Sotorra, who is recognized for her fearlessness in backing adventurous local productions made by women filmmakers, and often with international partners. In this case, she produces a psychedelic 'rotoscoped' story with an extremely rare plot. Although it has very attractive, colorful and sumptuous drawings, the film fails miserably in the script, since it barely exists, there are no incidents worth mentioning, except for lots of nudism; it is simply the strange music that adapts to the even more bizarre images, joining them together without any rhyme or reason. Like other Spanish animated films such as "Black Butterflies¨, and Sultana's Dream", the film offers wonderful images but the plots are totally unreal, meaningless, and extremaly surrealist.
This disjointed film is made up of a medley of images that, although beautiful, do not make much sense, the story is lost in disquisitions and supposedly interesting ideas, but all of them unconnected and without following a common criterion. The result is a somewhat confusing and frankly tiresome film, although visually it is a captivating gem, full of color and dazzling animation. This is not a film for all audiences, but is aimed at open-minded people, for adults with a certain capacity for thinking and also in a position to be extremely bored.
The film was unevenly directed by María Trénor. The story turns out to be lousy, but the naive drawings are really wonderful. It obtained several nominations and awards, including: Días de Cine Awards 2025 Winner Best Animated Feature Film, María Trénor. L'Etrange Festival Producer 2024 Nominee Audience Award Best Film Alba Sotorra (Producer)María Trénor (Director). Cheltenham International Film Festival 2024 Nominee Best Film, Emerging Director
María Trénor. Gaudí Award, Nominee Gaudí Award Best Animated Feature. Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2024 Nominee Cristal Best Feature, María Trénor. Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain 2025 Nominee CEC Award Best Animated Film. Score 5/10: corresponding to the drawings which are a 7 and the script a 3, so the result is 5, resulting in a mediocre film.
