Cryptozoo - SPOILER-FREE Review | Sundance 2021
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Directed by: Dash Shaw
Written by: Dash Shaw
Starring: Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Angeliki Papoulia, Zoe Kazan, Peter Stormare, Grace Zabriskie, Louisa Krause, Thomas Jay Ryan
Runtime: 95 min
Synopsis: Cryptozoo is a hand-drawn, gritty and fantastical parable about society versus the individual. A zoo that rescues mythological creatures in psychedelic 1960’s San Francisco races the U.S. Military to find and save a Baku, a Japanese dream-eating cryptid, to prevent the military from using the Baku to eat the dreams of the counterculture and suppress the anti-Vietnam War movement.
When I think of 2D animation, I imagine beautiful tales told through a unique drawing style that allows for more expressiveness and clear emotions. I remember the recent Wolfwalkers, which was one of my favorite films of 2020. I expected Cryptozoo to follow a similar formula, boasting bright messages regarding the world's treatment of nature, animal cruelty/exploration, excessive hunting, and of course, discrimination based on someone's appearance. With all of this said, I never anticipated such a shocking, violent, *bloody* depiction of what looked like a fun adventure that parents could show their children.
Unless your kids are all grown-up by now, I do NOT recommend showing this movie to them. I don't write this with a negative tone. Please, don't misinterpret my words. Dash Shaw develops his original concept in an unconventional yet captivating manner in an attempt to educate the viewers through visually brutal sequences, which I must leave a disclaimer for sensitive people. The social commentary is evident and meaningful, but it's preached in such an unnecessarily explicit way that it negatively impacts me.
Although the ending partially compensates for this next issue, I don't really agree with most of the main character's motivations. Lake Bell offers wonderful voice work as the protagonist, Lauren Grey, as does everyone else in the cast. Nevertheless, it genuinely bothers me that Lauren couldn't understand what she's doing wrong until everything explodes in front of her face. I found it nearly impossible to truly root for any character, excluding all the cute animals, which actually leads me to end this review on a positive note.
Even though the style of animation is confusing during certain action scenes, it's still incredibly engaging and one of the main reasons why I felt captivated until the very end. As an animal lover and firm believer of their rights myself, I must show appreciation and gratitude towards the film's ending, which undoubtedly transmits the best possible message concerning the animal kingdom's freedom. The last few minutes are even more elevated by the fact that it carries so many other critical taboo subjects developed throughout the runtime, which ends up educating audiences in the most simple of ways. Beautiful score by John Carroll Kirby.
Final Thoughts
Cryptozoo is undoubtedly one of the most shockingly violent 2D animated movies I’ve ever seen… and I write this both as a compliment and a disclaimer to sensitive viewers. Dash Shaw delivers what might be one of Sundance’s most divisive films both due to its visual content and its narrative/character choices. The voice work from the entire cast deserves praise, namely Lake Bell, but the characters everyone portrays are extremely hard to root for or even agree with their motivations. Despite the ending fixing this major problem, the entire movie revolves around a mission and a purpose that not only I believe it’s wrong, but the main character should have also realized her dream was not going to work as soon as she explains it out loud. The hand-drawn animation is slightly confusing at times, but it elevates an overall tricky film to analyze. I’ll take the essential messages concerning nature, animals, and even discrimination with me, and I hope everyone else does too.
