Synopsis
Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown.
Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown.
怪奇獸樂園
The direction to go hand-drawn with this particular animation was definitely Off-putting to say the least but after the first 20 minutes your eyes become well aware of what’s going on. This is explicitly mature, something Adult Swim would make. I love the distinctive style, editing, transitions, and beauty of this hypnotizing work of art. If only this is what dreams were made of, enlightenment, mythical and simply breathtaking
i dont doxx myself much on here but u can tell from how i rate psychedelic indie comix bullshit i spent 1/2 my teen years in athens GA & this feels like a zine i wouldve picked up at bizarro wuxtry in 2002 after meeting the artist washing dishes at taco mac & liked, not loved. honestly the trippy mumblecore-y real-life intro was more interesting before the shift into epic fursonas & anxious medusas with deadpan netflix voice-acting like how i assume the sad horse cartoon is (better art tho - ben marra!) taking kinda-serious the weird young-millennial/zoomer trend of ironic/superficial cryptid-meme fetishism (bigfoot ate my ass! etc) which i dont really "get" even after djing a rap mix as ysl mothmane. basically idk why anybody makes stuff like this when SUPERJAIL exists but its cool the jersey devil eventually showed up; as loren coleman always notes, mythological beings are NOT cryptids
Sundance 2021 - Film #12
Holy sh*t... CRYPTOZOO is perhaps the WILDEST film I have EVER seen (and no, that is not an exaggeration). A thousand mile-per-hour acid trip that never lets up, it’s a Spelibergian adventure on LSD that is absolutely BONKERS and is destined to become a cult-classic
An unbelievable triumph for the world of US based adult animation. Hand drawn animation never gets old but Crytpozoo’s artists found a way to bring it to life in a new way that feels truly revolutionary.
The style was, at first, a bit confronting, but as you settle in to the mysticism of the story, the animation works better and better. The score pairs wonderfully, making it both a visual and auditory joy to experience.
Wasn’t completely in love with the story as a whole. In some ways, it feels really familiar. Familiarity is fine, but for a story rooted in cryptoids, a fascinating, mysterious subject, familiarity sticks out like a sore thumb. Luckily, as I mentioned above, the style is so captivating that any issues with story can be set aside enough to enjoy the watch.
Sundance #5
**Lauren is a woman who seeks to protect cryptids from exploitation. As a little girl, she had nightmares that were taken away by a cryptid known as a Baku. She seeks to capture it to save it from the US government.**
Barely related to anything, this movie has a reference to storming the Capital within the first two minutes.
The animation style is super unique. The first sequence reminds me of those black scratchboards you'd see in art school, where the under layer is rainbow and the top coat is black. A majority of the film is in a cool sketch and watercolor style with bright colors and jittery animation.
Above all, this movie is fucking…
More insufferable indie-bullshit courtesy of the Sundance film festival. I wanted to like this one, because I was vibing with the cool, and at times quite beautiful and evocative, hand drawn animation style at the beginning--looked sort of like the notebook of the quiet, but cool kid who sat in the back of the class and plays DnD--but as the film wore on it just got more and more tiresome. Could have been a pretty cool short film.
I didn’t ask for acid during Sundance...but CRYPTOZOO decided to give it to me anyway in the cinematic form of this colorful & trippy animated experience. An otherworldly vision unlike anything I’ve seen before. Despite its strangeness I still found it stimulating & meaningful.
Sundance #18