Nova Seed

Nova Seed is a great sci-fi adventure film that feels, purposely it seems, like a throwback to the adult sci-fi/fantasy animation craze of the late 70's and early 80's. Mr. DeLiberto's opus drops us into a near apocalyptic landscape that looks as though it leaped on to the screen straight out of a punk artist's sketchbook; vibrant colors, rough edges, and sinister creations litter the screen to create a surreal vision that is both primitive and beautiful. If you enjoyed films such as "Heavy Metal", "Wizards", and "Rock and Rule," this movie is just the thing for you. A special nod to Stephen Verrell for a fantastic synth/rock driven score that adds to the overall retro-cool impression.

One minute into watching this movie my patience was being tested. Ten minutes in, I was hooked.

This is a brilliant film. There's nothing profound about its plot (although I love the way they introduce the protagonist) but Nova Seed's animation, direction, and style (style being the key words here) is like a cross between Mad Max: FR and the best of the 80's thrown into a blender: it's wonderful.

From what I can see, Nova Seed looks like it was developed primarily by two men with the same last name-- I'll hazard that they're brothers. I'm impressed by this labour, it's inspiring.

The animation, design, visual styling and storytelling are all great here. The music is serviceable but rarely matches the highs and lows of the narrative, coming off ineffective and monotonous. But what crushes this obvious labor of love by a talented team of creators is the unforgivablely terrible voice recording and foley work. You can't sell this world without believable audio. Send it back for a rescore and professional audio, and you have something. Don't ask an audience to buy or believe in a film with what amounts to a rough temp track. It's not charming. It's just half a film.

'Nova Seed.' Er, where do I begin? It's a film? Or is it? Perhaps it's more like an 'experience.' Who would like it? Who knows? I'm not even sure if I did! The closest I can liken it to is either an experimental music video from the seventies, the cult BBC adult cartoon 'Monkey Dust,' or a bad acid trip. I've watched a few David Lynch films in my time and people often say that his work is 80% feeling and 20% story. I think that's a fair statement for 'Nova Seed,' too.

It's a cartoon set in a weird, slightly futuristic version of Earth and the plot revolves – loosely – around a giant lion-man who's our only hope against an insane super-villain known only as 'Mind Skull.' I guess that's all I can really say as the story sort of bounces from one action-packed animated scene after the next. There's very little dialogue apart from various reporters and newscasters doing their best to inform you a little more about what's happening. However, a lot of what you see is kind of up to you to interpret.

So there's not really that much story to speak of. Does that make it bad? No. Although I may not watch it again for quite some time I'm glad I invested an hour of my time into it (yes, it's slightly shorter than your average film). Simply put, it has one hell of an interesting look and feel. And that's pretty much its major selling point.

It's one of those films where, if that's enough for you then you'll love it. It's hard to say what sort of audience it's trying to reach. It's part sci-fi, part animation, part music video, little story. I suppose if you're a certain age from a certain generation where there was no such thing as computer animation and everything was hand-drawn (which I am!) then you'll always have a nostalgic appreciation from cartoons which took their animators hours to slave over (as opposed to create in a Pixar studio!).

It's not the greatest film ever made, but that's simply because it's not really a film as you'd imagine. It doesn't conform to the 'classic Hollywood narrative' model that we're so used to. It's just great to watch as it's colourful and very different (unless of course you've seen that episode of 'South Park' where they hallucinate a weird, cartoon sci-fi world – then you've seen something similar!).

I just watched this movie and... I'm not even sure what to say. This is a triumph of artistry. Magnificent, from the first frame to the final. There is more creativity in this movie than the last 50 I've watched. This is a love letter to 80's era cartoons, but so much more. The music is incredible, the animation is incredible, the story is incredible.

One guy made this, more or less. The same guy animated the entire movie, did many of the voices, came up with the story, wrote the story... What an achievement. What a mind blowing achievement.

I highly recommend this film