Vampiros em Havana

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.

Thanks to everybody in behalf of all the artists who worked on the film. We were very amazed with how the public received it. We worked hard with a lot of difficulties against us for more than a year. I remember background artist painted the backgrounds in the back of revolutionary ads welcoming president of Angola in those days, and so. I also remember walking down the streets in Havana hearing people around me repeating phrases of the film like "dame un cigarrito ahi, Rey del mundo". What surprise me most is when I traveled to other countries or meet people from different parts of the world and they remember all that. We all love this film. It's a great one, more of all because of the great talent of Director Juan Padron.

Mario Garcia-Montes, key animator, Vampires in Havana

Vampiros en la Habana is a film directed by Juan Padron. Padron was born on January 29th, 1947 in Matanzas, Cuba. He studied art history in the University of Havana, and started working as a photographer for FAR (Fuerzas Aereas Revolucionarias). He also worked with the worldwide known Argentinean writer Quino. But it wasn't until 1985 that he made his most famous work: Vampires in Havana. This movie entails a story of vampires caught up in the Cuban revolution of the 1930's. Von Dracula, a mad scientist residing in Havana, Cuba, found a cure for vampires and enabled them to be under the sunlight with no worries of diminishing into the atmosphere. This new formula was later called Vampisol. When vampire leaders from Europe, with primary location in Düsseldorf, heard the news, they wanted to get a hold of the formula so they could sell it and make profit out of it, as opposed to Von Dracula, who wanted to announce how to make the drink, free of charge, through radio vampire. Vampires from United States, with Johnny Terrori as leader, had a business of making underground beaches for vampires all over the United States, and wanted to extend their empire to Düsseldorf. The problem laid in the fact that Johnny Terrori could not let vampires from Europe to get a hold of the formula, or else he and his group would go bankrupt. Von Dracula's nephew Joseph, also known as Pepito (the movie's protagonist), was found fighting in the battle between vampires from Europe and United States. He was also complotting against the governmental procedures of General Machado. Pepito's heart belonged to Lola's hands, who helped Pepito and his friends by spying inside the house of the Captain, which worked for General Machado and made sure that everything went with the flow of democracy. This movie reflects, in specific scenes, how Padron felt about the democratic oppression on the Cuban citizens from the government. By watching the movie, it can be deduced that Padron was against the tyranny and for the revolution. He showed his biased preference over political ideas. Throughout the film, cops and, basically anything that has to do with the government, is depicted as negative. The vulgarity of the Captain; he, as a leader, should have portrayed himself as an educated individual who respects everyone. On the other hand, the Captain treated his subordinates like the inside of an empty cup; the detective who was spying for him (the little guy with the mustache), was blamed by the Captain to have been plotting against democracy along with Pepito, when the only thing he did was work diligently on catching revolutionists. When the Captain caught his wife cheating on him with Pepito, his first reaction was to hit her and tell her that he hated her, and one should never lay a finger on a woman no matter what. Another scene in the movie, was at the bar, after Pepito and his friends had stolen the papers from the Captain's house. The Captain' wife smiled at him and he put his arm up as if he was going to hit her. Padron also showed a really strong comment about the way he felt towards the cops back then; he shows a scene where Pepito comes out of the bar and asks a cop on a motorcycle to get up and leave and, without hesitation, the cop runs scared from him saying "arriba la revolucion, abajo con el tirano." I believe that Padron tried to emphasize that even Machado's own military and cops were tired of him and were also scared for their life. Padron's concept of revolution against Machado was also represented with Pepito's friends. Even though their names are not revealed throughout the whole movie, they play a very important part in the movie, literally and symbolically. Literally, they aid Pepito by protecting him from the police and by taking care of Lola; they also are the ones that planned the robbery of the safe. Within the movie, they are just Pepito's friends, but symbolically they represent something far deeper. The three friends come from the three socio-economic levels: lower, middle and high class. I think Padron emphasized the fact that everyone in the country, not just the poor, was against democracy.

Dario Zambrano

This film is a great deal of fun, especially for anyone interested in either vampires or Cuban music. Some of the sight gags involving the vampires still crack me up even though it's been years since I saw this, and the use of music and just plain latin exuberance are both excellent.

(Wracking my brains for flaws) The animation looks a little primative (although one might also consider it "stylized"), and the pacing isn't always as snappy as it might be.

But all in all, it's great and there's really nothing like it. And I believe US viewers will be amused rather than put off by the rather obvious "Capitalists = Vampires" symbolism.

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.