La crisis carnívora

Awful is a soft adjective... Really bad. Initial credits were promising, funny, but the following 75 minutes... A complete nightmare.

Some people may say that the film is a bit misunderstood. But what am I supposed to misunderstand when the whole story is constructed without a minimum sense of anything, when the only effort they put is in the continuous and absurd use of disgusting words as a kind of "gag", that really gets you bored.

The use of flash technology is not bad, even some characters are well designed and their animation is quite effective, but sadly it is not enough to maintain what could have been a curious short film in a tedious movie, absent of humor, of script, of character development.

You'll make yourself a favor if you miss this film, believe me.

Being a Cálico Electrónico (A popular flash show here in Spain) fan, I felt that I had to watch this film, but I was a bit afraid. I thought that maybe the film would simply not be good.

It must be said that, when I went out of the cinema, I was not disappointed at all. A lot of scenes were very funny, and actors gave very good dubbing to the characters.I'd add that this is not a film for kids. In Spain it's rated PG-13, but i advise you that it contains loads of gory violence and swearwords, so this may not be alright for kids under fourteen or fifteen (at least, from my point of view).

In a nutshell, this will be a very enjoyable film for all the gore comedies lovers, who will have a great time without doubt.

This was one of the movies presented as a supporting program of biannual Festival of feature animated films in Zagreb. I was waiting to see it with some anticipation, as I've seen some trailers for it. From the trailers it promised to be a dark comedy in the manner of "Happy Tree Friends" and with some profound social message to boot. Plus, it's Spanish, it must be smart, right? Before screening the director himself went out on stage and said a few words - he came off like a person who has something to say. But, I was curious to find out why the film wasn't in the official competition.

Then I've seen it and found out...

This movie must be the worst crap from the world of animated movies that I've seen in a long long while, and being a festival goer I've seen a lot! Actually this is no movie, this is a mess. Story-wise it's as if every political allegory (and it is, according to the director, a political movie) has been ripped off, mashed and blended together and scattered randomly over the hour and a half. The plot made no sense whatsoever. The director may have co-written the story but he directed it as if he himself had no clue or interest in what was going on. He seemed happy to toss a rude language or a crude gag every here and there, again with no rhyme or reason, probably to just keep the viewer interested. And, to my surprise, the audience not only remained interested, but kept laughing to random jokes throughout the screening. They were either very drunk or tired or it was the first cartoon they've ever seen.

Numerous sub-plots ruined any hope of coherence and pace and were ruined themselves by amateur direction, awkward dialogs and bad characterization of protagonists (director has stated that they were all "motherf***ers", yet somehow I sympathize with those cartoon creatures that just had a lousy material to "work with"). Overall it came off as a bad soap opera, being so needlessly complex and slow.

Animation was occasionally good and witty but mostly it was obvious that the animators had inadequate experience to conceal inherent weaknesses of 2D style they used. Of voice talents I can't say much, because I'm not that familiar with Spanish language, but even they didn't sound too convinced in what they worked with.

The best for last - the message. Frankly, I'm not sure if there was any. It was supposed to be an "Orwellian take on today's 'carnivorous society'". But was it really? When one makes a political allegory (or allegory of any kind), the characters have to be at least remotely identifiable with corresponding elements in real life. OK, then it was a lousy allegory, but it must have had an agenda. What was it? I honestly don't know, but I know that the director doesn't either.

I sincerely recommend this to masochists and fans of exceptionally bad movies. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

When the mighty wolf leaves the forest, it also leaves five rules for the self-management of the animals. But not everybody agree...

With this Orwell's Farm, basis, the movie goes on 90 minutes of rude language and explicit animation to describe how cruel is to live in the jungle, where everyone cares for itself trying to get rid of the others; in the meanwhile several characters refers to "working class" to remember this main idea.

So far it could be taken as a serious movie, but style is purely South Park, both language and visual depiction slightly overdoses the Canadian animators, to finish into the epic song "Hijo de Puta" (literally "You son of a fu** bi**" that can remember to the also well known "Kyle's mother song") so better don't bring your mother with you to the show.

This 1st movie ever made 100% in a well known computer animation program for internet browsers is close to perfect, and deserves to be taken as reference for low cost productions of good ideas like this movie has.

But the main interest is on the Perfect character voices gift by certain Spanish humorists like Enrique Sanfrancisco and Pedro Reyes, which can maintain the movie even when the story is getting weak. I had a good laughing with this movie, which is quite unusual nowadays.

For the technical reasons, rude humor, splendid voice work and the Rabbit Niko I give it 7/10. To raise up to 8 I wanted the drug dealer blue cat and his friend Nobita to appear once at least! Thanks Niko! (Note for non Internet Users: Niko is creator of the super-hero "Cálico Electrónico" , a real must in Internet TV Series)