There are several adult oriented western animation anthologies or do you mean Netflix specifically?
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Love, Death + Robots Trailer - Netflix embraces the WTF
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There are several adult oriented western animation anthologies or do you mean Netflix specifically?
Based on Wikipedia: zero (out of twenty directors.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Death_&_Robots
Heavy Metal is probably the most well known to casual folks. MTV also had shows like Liquid TV that aired all kinds of animated fair outside of the usual kids stuff. The SciFi channel also used to have a show that aired tons of short films including a lot of animated stuff.
I know there are a few for theatrical release and direct to video, but there hasn't been one that has focused towards TV/Streaming that I can think of.
So far The Witness, Good Hunting and Rift are my top 3. Rewatching all of them. The Witness artwork is just so damn good that it helps me overlook how bad the story is.
Watching this made me realize Netflix is the best chance we'll get at that feature length Blur movie for adults that we've all been dreaming of forever.
I think I watched all of them except alternate histories and secret war.
Absolute winner is Aquila Rift. Anything that fucks with you long after it's over means it won. Didn't like Zima Blue though. Not sure I understand where the praise is coming from.
Absolute winner is Aquila Rift. Anything that fucks with you long after it's over means it won. Didn't like Zima Blue though. Not sure I understand where the praise is coming from.
To me, it's interesting you picked the two that are written by Alastair Reynolds.
Zima Blue is the only Short that elicited an emotional response from me, it and The Witness where the only two that I rewatched. The witness more so for its style than much else
I loved Rift, as well.
And I don't get why Zima Blue is liked here, either.
I was more weirded out by how the reporter sounded like she was about to cum any moment.
On the other hand, Aquila Rift left absolute zero impression on me.
Sonnie, Good Hunting, Helping Hand, Lucky 13 and Zima Blue have been my favorites but I still have four left.
All the more reason to fund a second anthology. Gotta rectify this somehow!
Apparently, there are four different orders. They still don't say how the orders are chosen. Most people I know are getting the one with Sonnie's edge being first.
Possibly the assignation of the orders are just random, but they will obtain stats of which order was more liked and successful, so they will gather info of what people prefers.
Watched so far:
- Sonnie (cool designs, good action, gore was kinda gross)
- Bots (juvenile humor, cats exposed as the devils they are)
- Witness (great art style, kinda sexy, neat concept, bad script)
- Suits (really liked the shading style, mechs are cool, story was whatever)
- Sucker (a bit too simple and pointless, but it being 2D was a nice variation)
- Yogurt (pretty funny fluff)
- Aquila (seen this same idea done way better before multiple times, but really good CG)
- Hunting (best one yet, great story, great setting, great animation, makes Sucker seem totally irrelevant)
- Sonnie (cool designs, good action, gore was kinda gross)
- Bots (juvenile humor, cats exposed as the devils they are)
- Witness (great art style, kinda sexy, neat concept, bad script)
- Suits (really liked the shading style, mechs are cool, story was whatever)
- Sucker (a bit too simple and pointless, but it being 2D was a nice variation)
- Yogurt (pretty funny fluff)
- Aquila (seen this same idea done way better before multiple times, but really good CG)
- Hunting (best one yet, great story, great setting, great animation, makes Sucker seem totally irrelevant)
In addition to Heavy Metal and Liquid TV, which were mentioned, there's also Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival, and Frederator's Cartoon Hangover/Too Cool! Cartoons, and to a lesser extent, Go! Cartoons.
Ok, I finished watching the series yesterday, time to comment! Only a few lines per episode, I don't have time for more:
"Sonnie's Edge" : Good. Well paced, nice revelation at the end, good art, characters reminded me a bit of the style used in Dishonored, btw. I guessed
although it was perfectly guessable, looking back in hindsight.
"Three Robots" : Eh. It was pleasant enough, I guess, but ultimately forgettable. Too on the nose with the jokes. It seems placed to server as a breather between the first and third episode, which were more 'edgy'.
"The Witness": Amazing photorealism in several scenes, combined with the more cartoon-like faces, made for a very interesting art style. It was unnecessarily edgy in parts (it really didn't affect anything to the story), but that's almost par the course with shorts like this, when they give no restrictions of subject to creators accustomed to more limits and restrictions. Cool end, there was no explanation for
but it kind of doesn't matter, right?
"Suits" : Entertaining and well realized short, although obviously it isn't very deep or anything. The drama, while basic and limited as they are with time, was well done.
"Sucker of Souls" : This surprised me as obviously it's the first without science fiction elements. With the title I thought all of them were scifi. Deep as a puddle, of course, and it has some very trite dialog lines, but I liked it because I thought the action direction on the first scenes (and in general) was superb. Really good camera movement, enhancing the tension, while still giving a very easy to follow action for the audience. And the animation was smooth as hell of course.
"When The Yogurt Took Over" : Nice one. Good, cute style, simple, but with a nice core idea of
"Beyond the Aquila Rift" : Another of the good ones. Amazing photo realism in a good amount of scenes, and the end really surprised me. The obvious thing was that the woman was obsessed with him since their last fling and had manipulated everything, but it wasn't that. Surprisingly, I read some people where their take on it
"Good Hunting" : Man I loved this one, right up to before the end. Love the style, love the idea of having a Chinese Witcher :P, loved the development of the story being about the son not really following his dad steps and coming to the city, loved the steampunk twist, but I didn't like how in the end the entire purpose of all that was just
"The Dump" : Ehh. I thought the twist was uninteresting, and it really didn't do anything special with the plot or the characters. The first I give a thumbs down.
"Shape-Shifters" : Photorealistic style, but a bit less good than other shorts, this one falls several times on the uncanny valley, so I'm not sure of giving it up the thumbs up. At first I thought
. Average tale of military duty, honor, and loss. Not awful, but not really one of the good shorts.
"Helping Hand" : I liked it. It's about a very specific situation, the entire short is a pair of long scenes, almost. But it's well done, the important thing is that you get empathy with the protagonist about her terrible situation, her pain and her determination to suffer terrible things to survive. You really feel what she has to do, auuuch.
"Fish Night" : Nice visually, with all the glowing animals in the night, but that's it. It's magical realism that goes nowhere.
"Lucky 13" : Great character visuals, I thought at times they were actors, but strangely the ship/environments seemed more like a videogame CGI, it made it feel the visual a bit uneven. The story is... well, forgettable. i get what they were going for, but I didn't care.
"Zima Blue" : Pleasing 2d art after so much 3d, and it's combined with a slower, more meditative pace for a good effect. And the end is really surprising. Now that I think back,
"Blindspot" : An action oriented one. The action itself was all correct, decently thrilling, but I didn't like it. I didn't like the art style it was going for, nor the 'attitude'.
"Ice Age" : Meh? I didn't disliked actively or anything, but not one to remember.
"Alternate Histories" : This is too short, and it doesn't tell anything interesting. It's a short 'short film', which at the same time it divides itself in several micro-tales, so as you can imagine, there isn't a lot of time for each one. The humor was off, a bit too puerile, and that was the main feature here.
"Secret War" : WW2 soldiers fighting monsters. It doesn't go very much deeper than that, but it was actually good. The pace, the feeling of the squad being pressured by the higher ups and being too thinned out, the air of rigidity of the army mixed with people getting by as they can, the unfairness of discovering the truth but not being any worth and it would even come back to them, the hopeless of the situation, it was all very well expressed.
"Sonnie's Edge" : Good. Well paced, nice revelation at the end, good art, characters reminded me a bit of the style used in Dishonored, btw. I guessed
the blond girl was bad news, but I didn't guess the true nature of the MC,
"Three Robots" : Eh. It was pleasant enough, I guess, but ultimately forgettable. Too on the nose with the jokes. It seems placed to server as a breather between the first and third episode, which were more 'edgy'.
"The Witness": Amazing photorealism in several scenes, combined with the more cartoon-like faces, made for a very interesting art style. It was unnecessarily edgy in parts (it really didn't affect anything to the story), but that's almost par the course with shorts like this, when they give no restrictions of subject to creators accustomed to more limits and restrictions. Cool end, there was no explanation for
the time loop, if there was a time loop,
"Suits" : Entertaining and well realized short, although obviously it isn't very deep or anything. The drama, while basic and limited as they are with time, was well done.
"Sucker of Souls" : This surprised me as obviously it's the first without science fiction elements. With the title I thought all of them were scifi. Deep as a puddle, of course, and it has some very trite dialog lines, but I liked it because I thought the action direction on the first scenes (and in general) was superb. Really good camera movement, enhancing the tension, while still giving a very easy to follow action for the audience. And the animation was smooth as hell of course.
"When The Yogurt Took Over" : Nice one. Good, cute style, simple, but with a nice core idea of
the yogurt manipulating the situation from the start while being a 'benign dictator'.
"Beyond the Aquila Rift" : Another of the good ones. Amazing photo realism in a good amount of scenes, and the end really surprised me. The obvious thing was that the woman was obsessed with him since their last fling and had manipulated everything, but it wasn't that. Surprisingly, I read some people where their take on it
was a simple 'bad aliens were laying a trap to catch ships!'. Uh... it seems obvious enough that the real twist here is that the ugly looking alien IS really honest, and they were a peaceful, empathetic species (which contrast with our prejudices of what good aiens and bad aliens look like, like the human prejudices of the crew) and they didn't have anything to do with the accidents, they just are receiving at their nest the starships because there is a glitch in the human gate system a galaxy of distance away; so they are doing whatever they can given the bad situation.
"Good Hunting" : Man I loved this one, right up to before the end. Love the style, love the idea of having a Chinese Witcher :P, loved the development of the story being about the son not really following his dad steps and coming to the city, loved the steampunk twist, but I didn't like how in the end the entire purpose of all that was just
have the protagonist being able of turning the woman into an animal robot of death and destruction, for a bog standard vengeance story against edgy evil colonialists. For example, if they would have developed a love story between them, with the conflict being how their attitudes to the society's development wasn't matching (with her growing weaker and bitter in the steampunk city, and him thriving more and more) until they break up, I would have liked it more.
"The Dump" : Ehh. I thought the twist was uninteresting, and it really didn't do anything special with the plot or the characters. The first I give a thumbs down.
"Shape-Shifters" : Photorealistic style, but a bit less good than other shorts, this one falls several times on the uncanny valley, so I'm not sure of giving it up the thumbs up. At first I thought
they were genetically enhanced humans, but it really went literal with the title, with werewolves everywhere
"Helping Hand" : I liked it. It's about a very specific situation, the entire short is a pair of long scenes, almost. But it's well done, the important thing is that you get empathy with the protagonist about her terrible situation, her pain and her determination to suffer terrible things to survive. You really feel what she has to do, auuuch.
"Fish Night" : Nice visually, with all the glowing animals in the night, but that's it. It's magical realism that goes nowhere.
"Lucky 13" : Great character visuals, I thought at times they were actors, but strangely the ship/environments seemed more like a videogame CGI, it made it feel the visual a bit uneven. The story is... well, forgettable. i get what they were going for, but I didn't care.
"Zima Blue" : Pleasing 2d art after so much 3d, and it's combined with a slower, more meditative pace for a good effect. And the end is really surprising. Now that I think back,
he first did the cybernetic enhancements because subconsciously he was trying to come back to his origins.
"Blindspot" : An action oriented one. The action itself was all correct, decently thrilling, but I didn't like it. I didn't like the art style it was going for, nor the 'attitude'.
"Ice Age" : Meh? I didn't disliked actively or anything, but not one to remember.
"Alternate Histories" : This is too short, and it doesn't tell anything interesting. It's a short 'short film', which at the same time it divides itself in several micro-tales, so as you can imagine, there isn't a lot of time for each one. The humor was off, a bit too puerile, and that was the main feature here.
"Secret War" : WW2 soldiers fighting monsters. It doesn't go very much deeper than that, but it was actually good. The pace, the feeling of the squad being pressured by the higher ups and being too thinned out, the air of rigidity of the army mixed with people getting by as they can, the unfairness of discovering the truth but not being any worth and it would even come back to them, the hopeless of the situation, it was all very well expressed.
Sonnie's Edge was my first as well. And, damn, a great start to it.
I saw it as you did but
I can't fault the idea that the aliens are trapping people when the ship was caught in a giant web and the alien looked like a giant spider. Haha.
And essentially that's what I loved about it, challenging our notions of what we believe is good or bad based on how it looks.
Also there are a few blink and you miss moments:
as Tom and Greta are relaxing on the sofa, there is a small scene where you look at everything through a wine bottle. Look closely and you will see Greta's real form through it. Also when Tom confronts her for the last time in their room, look closely at the shadows. Greta will cast her real life form shadow.
Ever since I finished Bakshi's "Spicy City" years ago I've been waiting for another notable animated anthology series. I love that the intro always opens on peg holes, that's pretty neat; seems like they're proud to be working with the medium of animation.
Good Hunting was my favorite of the whole bunch. It had Gorgeous stylish art direction, beautiful 2D animation, an exotic setting, interesting storytelling/theming, a very cool action sequence, and a nice amount of sex appeal; I really wish that this was the norm for adult oriented animation.
Suits was also pretty dope; loved the concept and the "Into the Spider-verse" lookin' art direction.
The unsettling "Beyond the Aquila Rift" was fantastic and sported some killer CGI.
I liked Sucker of Souls too. It had some pretty badass animation and very cool art direction, but the dialogue got really corny real fast.
IMO, the only real stinkers were Alternate Histories and The Dump.
Overall I really enjoyed this anthology, but I really do wish that it had more frame by frame, 2D animated shorts. :/
Good Hunting was my favorite of the whole bunch. It had Gorgeous stylish art direction, beautiful 2D animation, an exotic setting, interesting storytelling/theming, a very cool action sequence, and a nice amount of sex appeal; I really wish that this was the norm for adult oriented animation.
Suits was also pretty dope; loved the concept and the "Into the Spider-verse" lookin' art direction.
The unsettling "Beyond the Aquila Rift" was fantastic and sported some killer CGI.
I liked Sucker of Souls too. It had some pretty badass animation and very cool art direction, but the dialogue got really corny real fast.
IMO, the only real stinkers were Alternate Histories and The Dump.
Overall I really enjoyed this anthology, but I really do wish that it had more frame by frame, 2D animated shorts. :/
It started its life as a new Heavy Metal movie. That's the reason
Ah, interesting, I guess that makes sense. Which means the theory was basically correct, just the request for nudity came from elsewhere.
Just finished the first episode, I liked it, but more so the spectacle and the animation than anything else, you can really tell it started as a Heavy Metal film . The art style looked a lot like the Dishonored games too, which was really cool.
You didn't think
the woman explaining star charts while topless
was a little odd?
I loved this series. I really hope we see more.
My favorites were:
Zima Blue
Sonnie's Edge
Beyond the Aquila Rift
Fish Night
Blindspot
The comedy focused ones were probably my least favorite but overall I enjoyed them all in different ways. Obviously some were more meaningful than others but that's great. Sometimes it's cool to see some simple blood, tits and robots animated reasonably well. Though if I had a criticism it would be that some of them were kind of begging to be explored more, like Good Hunting or Blindspot. Could have been pilots for shows or movies and felt a little shortchanged by thier lengths.
My favorites were:
Zima Blue
Sonnie's Edge
Beyond the Aquila Rift
Fish Night
Blindspot
The comedy focused ones were probably my least favorite but overall I enjoyed them all in different ways. Obviously some were more meaningful than others but that's great. Sometimes it's cool to see some simple blood, tits and robots animated reasonably well. Though if I had a criticism it would be that some of them were kind of begging to be explored more, like Good Hunting or Blindspot. Could have been pilots for shows or movies and felt a little shortchanged by thier lengths.
It's been a while since I read the story itself but I believe it also eludes to
the aliens being trapped there themselves as well
So saw this purely by chance. The first one that came up for me was Good Hunting. I was not expecting a
The animation was generally very good, but the eyes were all kinds of off in the beginning. And I was expecting it
, but it still made me very uncomfortable. Reminiscent of Aeon Flux stuff. Not sure if I like it. Sonnie's Edge I started but turned off halfway. The CG was pretty great for the monsters, but the writing was so heavy handed, all tell, and basic that it really annoyed me. Might try some of the others tonight.
dong.
The animation was generally very good, but the eyes were all kinds of off in the beginning. And I was expecting it
(the mutilation/surgery)
What's the name of the short? "Episode 4" is different for everyone.
You need to be more specific. There are four different orders the episodes are shown in.
I agree with your interpretation.
On that note, it seems if ships are going missing, even rarely, that should be looked into. Seem like a MAJOR issue.
No it's not a videogame. I'm not even sure what you're referring to. That episode was pretty straight forward
Loved it as a whole. Only a couple less than stellar episodes.
The more original animation on Netflix the better.
The more original animation on Netflix the better.
Must be just you because I didn't get that feeling at all ever and I'm not even sure how you got that feeling other than maybe someone telling you it was like Starcraft?