Papá, soy una zombi

I enjoy all things zombie, and it was with some curiosity that I purchased "Daddy, I'm a Zombie", as I had never heard about it and as it was an animated movie.

The good thing about the movie is the Tim Burton-esque feel there is to the animation style. It is lacking the final dark touch to be up to Tim Burton's work, but aside from that, then the animation style here is actually quite good. However, there is just something about the animation itself that falters and sort of seem like it is missing a couple of frames here and there.

The characters in the movie were nice and likable, after all this is a PG rated movie, so the characters are just conveniently enough dark, twisted and morbid to be enjoyable even by an adult audience. However, bear in mind that this is not a regular zombie story or regular zombie movie.

The storyline is simple and straight forward, very easy to follow and understand, even for the younger audience. And the characters are portrayed in ways that it is very clear to see who is good and who is evil. Stereotypical? Yes, but for a PG rated movie it works out just well enough.

That being said, then "Daddy, I'm a Zombie" tends to be superficial and not really delving much into the various characters or story plot line. As such, then the movie is enjoyable a single time or so, and I doubt that I will be putting it on a second time. For an animated movie, then "Daddy, I'm a Zombie" is fun for the younger audience without being scary. However, it is no "Hotel Transylvania", though.

I was quite surprised to find out that this animated movie was produced and made in Spain. Which was actually a nice surprise.

It may be a cartoon but - IT'S ABOUT ZOMBIES! A little parental review would tell you that it's not really for kids.

If you like zombie movies, this is a cute step to the side, in a childish vein. Zombie movies are seldom rated high, so to expect a Hollywood block buster is unrealistic.

Folks, it's a fun romp. I give it at least a 5.0

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Another line for IMDb

Another line for IMDb

Another line for IMDb

Being such a huge fan of animation, it does honestly pain me whenever any criticisms are made to a film or television series that are mediocre or less when talking about them. It gives me no pleasure at all, despite how my previous negative reviews for animation sound, in saying anything bad but one has to if the product in question disappoints.

There are certainly far worse animated films out there than 'Daddy, I'm a Zombie', while it is very muddled and lacking in many areas 'Daddy, I'm a Zombie' at least looks like some effort was put into it. On the other hand, there's much better too, animation that is much better made, has better written characters, are funnier, more touching, more charming and execute a darker tone far better. 'Daddy, I'm a Zombie' is not awful, but it rarely rises above mediocre.

'Daddy, I'm a Zombie's' best asset is some of the animation. There are some lovely atmospheric colours that give off a strong Gothic vibe and the backgrounds clearly look like a lot of care and detail went into them. The music is similarly bang on, it's both haunting and energetic with a nice oddball touch when needed.

Always appreciate animated or family films that integrate family and friendship lessons, messages and values, even when they are not new or have been done much better. This is the case with those of 'Daddy, I'm a Zombie', these gave the film some heart and didn't feel like one is listening to a sermon, which is to me not how teaching lessons, messages and values should be like, while still making its point. Funny moments are occasional, but are only mildly amusing.

However, the writing is too reminiscent of a failed high-school script-writing project, filled with tired clichés and stereotypes, childish comedy, mawkish emotional moments, unevenly executed horror and shallow and less than innocent romantic elements. In short, a cliché ridden muddle. Even more of a let down is the story, some of it is easy to follow, veering on the too simplistic for older audiences, while having lapses in logic that may confuse younger ones. It tries to execute many elements (too many perhaps) and executes them continually superficially.

Comedy is occasionally mildly amusing but tends to be childish, predictable and overdone. The horror elements are done very unevenly, some of the more violent moments may frighten the primary target audience and tonally feel very jarring and others are disappointingly tame for a film that tries to give off a Gothic vibe a la Tim Burton. As said, there is a Tim Burton influence, it seems, to how the Gothic element is handled. 'Daddy, I'm a Zombie' may have intended to treat it as a homage but it just ended up being very derivative but with nowhere near the amount of oddball charm, spark and pathos of Burton's early work that are especially successful in the Gothic touch. Oh and the plot twist is one of the most predictable in the whole of animation.

Sadly didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters, they are little more than archetypes that are flimsily developed and generally lack personality. The family elements could have been heartfelt but went the cloyingly over-sentimental and over-familiar route. The voice acting ranges from uninspired to annoying. Before one forgets, while the colours and backgrounds can't be faulted, the character designs are often stiff and robotic.

Overall, mediocre but not a complete waste. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Not all of want our kids growing up on the candy floss that is Disney, or with their heads in the Puritanical sands. That being said, this is a pretty mindless movie and really just good for idle background noise.

Is this a movie for incredibly young children? No, aim more for 11+ with this one, in terms of content. As far as intellectual level goes, even small children would get bored.

The animation style is somewhere between Tim Burton, Jimmy Neutron, and Double Fine's video game "Psychonauts". There are some nods to Mr. Burton throughout the film, which is nice, just as it's nice to see more than one person putting out movies geared for the more Goth among us.

But, and I can not stress this enough, don't expect mental stimulation from this feel-good gothy film. Expect some pretty color combinations, darker themes, and a lot of useless dialog.

This is possibly the worst movie I've ever actually sat all the way through. I would have abandoned it long before the end if I wasn't trapped under a sleeping sick child on the couch.

There is literally no redeeming feature to Daddy, I'm a Zombie. The least excruciating aspect is maybe the art direction - it's totally plagiarized from Tim Burton but a poor, poor imitation. The quality of the CGI is laughable in 2012 - it's only marginally better than an XBox game, and entirely unimpressive on the big screen. Zero texture, amateurish lighting, simplistic movement. It's as though the whole thing was rendered on a laptop. This animation was made a full 18 years after Toy Story, and it's so far behind it's not even funny.

The script is appalling, it's roughly akin to a high school drama class homework assignment but the worst part is undeniably the acting. Yes, it probably suffers because there are no 'big names' but there must be some non 'big names' out there that can act? Every character is voiced by an annoying high pitched 'adult pretending to be a child' squeak like Bart Simpson, only nowhere near as good, and it's totally at odds with the attempted Burtonesque cod-Gothic look and feel.

To summarise, I would expect a movie of this quality to be given away free on the cover of a magazine, or with a zombie doll - I can't believe I actually paid $2.50 from the video store. The only positive to come out of the whole sorry affair is that my 6yr old daughter, normally a very forgiving and generous movie critic, now realises that there are low-quality offerings out there which only serve to highlight how great Frankenweenie, Hotel Transylvania, Coraline etc really are.