Sundance 2021 Review: Cryptozoo – “A fairly weird film”

Cryptozoo (2021) is an animated feature film. It was written and directed by Dash Shaw.

Cryptozoo is a movie that is about exactly what the title implies it is: a zoo for cryptids. For the uninitiated, a cryptid is an animal whose existence is unsubstantiated. Frequently, this term is used to describe animals and creatures that simply don’t exist. Bigfoots, Questing Beasts, Loch Ness Monsters, etc. Occasionally there are animals who were once cryptids, but were then discovered. Okapi, Megamouth Sharks, and Platypuses (Platypus’? Platypi?) are all animals that were once cryptids, but then became boring, regular animals once they were proven to exist.

In the film, Lauren Grey (Lake Bell) runs a zoo that is also a sanctuary for cryptids. Sort of like the San Diego Wild Animal Park is for regular animals. But the cryptids don’t just come to her, she has to go out and find them in the wild.

Image Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival

Lauren isn’t the only one looking for the cryptids however. Her goal is to provide a home for the much-maligned cryptids to flourish and avoid persecution. The U.S. Government on the other hand wants to capture them and weaponize them against enemy nations. There are thousands of hues within the cryptid rainbow. Many of which have build-in offensive capabilities. The unicorn can gore, the Gorgon can turn fools to stone, the Kraken can reach up and drag your ass underwater, never to be seen again.

Lauren and her ragtag fugitive fleet of co-conspirators vehemently oppose the intentions of the military, and try to get their pacifistic hands on these legendary beasts before the feds do. There is one cryptid in particular that both teams are after: the Baku. The Baku is a beast that eats the dreams right out of people’s brains. Look in your Pokédex under “Drowzee.” Lauren knows that if the military gets their hands on the Baku, it’s bad news for a lot of people. However, in order to save this creature from the clutches of nefarity, Lauren is going to have to risk everything, including, but not necessarily limited to her Cryptozoo.

This is the second feature from writer/director/animator Dash Shaw. In what is a bold move by today’s standards, Cryptozoo is hand drawn. Although I get the feeling that computers might have been involved in some fashion during the assembly of the film. I could be wrong, and would actually be happy to find out that I was. Consequently, the film has a look that is completely unique unto itself. It brought to mind other, more artsy animated fare like Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973), and Fantastic Planet (René Laloux, 1973).

Image Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival

The drawback to the visual style of Cryptozoo is that it looks a little messy at times, and often there is so much going on that it becomes a little much. However, if my choice was between the unique, if less perfect, hand-drawn style of Cryptozoo, and the boring homogenic look of every single modern animated feature from every single major studio, I’d take the imperfect originality of Cryptozoo every time.

The story of Cryptozoo is ambitious as well. On the surface it tells a very simple story of good vs. evil. However, under the surface, the film deals with a lot of the issues facing society today. Conservatism vs liberalism, the risks of freedom vs, the safety of captivity, environmentalism vs. anti-environmentalism, etc. So while you can switch off your brain if you like, and simply enjoy the beautiful irreverent imagery, and watching these beasts of lore do battle, you can also leave your brain switched on, and enjoy all of that stuff, plus the ideological subtext. It’s win win!

Unfortunately, the film is also slightly dense. What I mean to say is it demands close attention be paid to it to really understand the full breadth of the story. Sort of like any given film in a foreign language. I’ve found that for me, any time I watch a movie with subtitles, I cant even grab a beer out of the fridge without pausing the damn thing because even one missed subtitle, and I feel like I’ve missed half the film. This likely isn’t the case for a lot of film fans, but my brain is feeble enough that sometimes, I have difficulty hanging on when the train is moving through the station as fast as Cryptozoo does. If that makes any sense.

By the end of the film my feelings were mixed. The film had a lot going for it, and it had a lot going on in it. Sometimes it had a little too much going on for me, and I found myself losing focus. It is also a fairly weird film. This is wonderful if weird films are what you are into. And who doesn’t love weird films from time to time? However, you might not want to sit the kids down in front of this one. Not only might it be a little too weird for their tastes, but it could also sail over their heads a bit.

Oh, and there is a decent amount of profanity, nudity, violence, and sex in the film as well. Unless your kids are particularly mature film connoisseurs, you might want to pop in a copy of Boss Baby (Tom McGrath, 2017) instead. If, however, the notion of a psychedelic, politically charged, hand-drawn, violent bloodbath of an animated romp featuring a veritable who’s who of fabled, fantasy fauna heats your boilers, then you should definitely check out Cryptozoo.

Review

Rating

RN Review of Cryptozoo

The film had a lot going for it, and it had a lot going on in it. Sometimes it had a little too much going on for me, and I found myself losing focus.

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