"Something feels familiar," the short, stumpy Roundhead says. He and his taller, more straight-laced brother, Boxhead, have traveled to a filthy city to get their home back, and they can't shake the feeling that they've been here before. And though the world of "The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead" ignores logic, though, in their world, jungles appear out of nowhere, cities are held together by their muck, and giant purple wolves lurk in the tall grass, you might watch the film with more than a little sickening familiarity.
The simple existential quest at the core of the narrative unwinds as Boxhead and Roundhead travel from their humble prairie over mountains and seas to reach the city, snowballing into a clever denouement but failing to stick the landing. Scrappy animation projects such as this are at once inspiring and patchy. In "Boxhead & Roundhead," Elliot Cowan's voice as an artist shines through, but so do the missteps.
As carefully composed and delightful as some of the film's best sequences are, the film is not consistently worthy of praise. The chase scenes so excessively recycle assets that the film feels at times like a "Scooby-Doo" parody. The character designs feel trite, especially in the city, and maybe that's the point, but the sound work accompanying them is slipshod and poorly mixed. Many scenes take on a minimalist feel, more out of necessity, it seems, than art.
Fortunately, the film is bound together by its kooky, Kafkaesque plot, and animation junkies might appreciate the unpolished production more than other, more casual viewers.
But the real heroes here are The Gadflys, a beautiful, folksy-sounding alternative band whose music is a constant presence in "Boxhead & Roundhead." The Gadflys try to do for Cowan's film what Cat Stevens did for "Harold and Maude" -- use cutting, resonant music to elevate an odd story to art. And sometimes, The Gadflys succeed, but the more the film gets bogged down in the capitalistic malaise of its dirty city -- itself able to be a metaphor for Los Angeles or New York City, any filthy place where dreams go to die -- the less The Gadflys are able to pierce through the muck.
So something indeed feels familiar here. A dirty city, corrupt officials, and perpetual hopelessness. I only wish the film were strong enough to live up to the themes it's trying to explore.
