Vampiros em Havana

This is my favorite animation movie. Better than Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Shrek or Chicken Run. Juan Padrón is simply a genius: the story is really great, and the script is terribly funny; but I'm afraid you'll need to know some Spanish to enjoy it 110% :-)

A vampire family from Cuba is preparing for a showdown between the American vampires and the Eastern European vampires. But with the aid of a scientist, they need a type of vaccination where they can live in daylight.

I thought the only film about vampires and organized crime was "Innocent Blood" (1992). Turns out that the Spaniards beat the Americans to the punch by a few years. Of course, beyond that, the films have absolutely nothing in common.

Although my Spanish is very spotty, I still enjoyed this film. It was clever, a bit funny, and not at all as cheesy as I might have expected. The animation is not going to impress anyone, but sometimes that is not important. I am curious about the sequel...

Cuban director Juan Padron was the man who created the 6 first Caribbean animated feature films. He's the father of Caribbean animation.

Vampires in Havana which is considered as on one of his best work tells the story of international vampire gangs feuding over vamp sunblock during the 1930 uprising against Machado. Count Dracula is the president of the vampires, and invents an anti-sun vaccine called Vampisol.

The story gets interesting when rival vampire mafia gangs joins the show to steal the formula to live in the daylight, which will allow vampires to go out in sunlight. It's so Bizarre yet interesting with soundtrack from Cuban jazz legend Arturo Sandoval.

Fans of Ralp Bakshi, Michael Schaak (Felidae), Rene Laloux, Anders Morgenthaler, Lee Hardcastle and 70's euro horror will be entertained and amused as the plot is so fresh.

Juan Padrón was more than a master, now that you are all on a streaming binge, you should seek out his work. RIP Juan Padron.

Trumpet playing revolutionary Pepito (Frank González) learns from his scientist uncle that he is a vampire and that he owes his ability to walk around during daylight hours to a special formula - one that two warring vampire mafia clans would do anything to get their hands on.

The tagline for Vampires in Havana compares the film to Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat (1972) and it's easy to see why: both films feature subversive satire, social commentary and sexual scenarios, and the characters and animation style for Vampires in Havana are very much in the style of Bakshi. And like Fritz, Vampires left me distinctly unimpressed.

There are admittedly some fun ideas in this crazy Cuban cartoon - vampire nightclubs where they drink from unwilling blood donors, guns that fire stakes, vampire dogs - but the humour is so weak and the animation is so bad (crudely drawn and dated), that even at just over an hour long, the film is a chore to sit through.

I watched "¡Vampiros En La Habana!" by Juan Padrón when I was eight years old. This movie was something different from the Disney cartoons I used to watch. There was sex, good music, violence, and plenty of humor. A plot consisting in a mixture of vampires and mafia could be strange, but it worked perfectly well. This is the type of movie that you can hate it or love it! Yesterday Juan Padrón (the director) presented the second part: "¡Más Vampiros En La Habana!" in a theater in Madrid (Spain). I had great expectations with this movie. I couldn't resist comparing both of them, and in my opinion I think that the first part was less dynamic but much more funny. I'm looking forward to watching "Fritz The Cat" and comment it.