Cryptozoo

A veterinarian and her friend decide to save cryptids from the depredations of the world. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a cryptid is a beast which science hasn't proven exists, but which is believed to exist by many people: the yeti is one; the chupacabra is another. For the purposes of this movie, cryptids include a variety of fabulous creatures like fauns, dragons, medusas and will-o-the-wisps. The plans of these women is to start an exhibition park, where people will pay to see these creatures; once familiar with them, acceptance will be the next step.

You can't have a story without a villain -- actually you can -- and here the villain is a fellow who wants to weaponize these creatures for the military, and who has plenty of soldiers with guns, tanks, and poorly drawn helicopters to enforce his scheme. In the end, both plans fail, and the best course of action, it turns out, is to leave these beings alone; they've been doing fine for a long time without these geniuses. Or, as I heard the Einstein quote beautifully mangled, "If there weren't so many people trying to solve problems, we wouldn't have so many problems to solve."

This movie, despite its good intentions, annoyed me on many levels. The first was the easy choice of making the military the villain. The second was the general idiocy, the going 'round Robin Hood's barn to conclude that the best thing to have done at the end would have been nothing in the first place. Finally, I did not enjoy the unpolished nature of the images, the quarter animation. I understand that this was an independent production, and that the producers wrought miracles to raise enough money to make this unfortunately crude cartoon, the most expensive type of movie making. Given my dissatisfaction with the story, however, this just added to my general impression.

When it comes to animation, far too many people have been lulled into the high budget, near perfect beauty of computer animated film. While it is certainly a spectacle of hard work and computer know-how, it tends to overpower all other forms of animation. Several great films with far more complex narratives have been overshadowed by films about talking toys and sentient cars. If anything, a lot of people miss out on what animation can provide.

Cryptozoo isn't necessarily an award worthy film, but it is one that is worth a watch. The narrative is pretty interesting. During the onset of the 1970s California, people are seeking to save unusual, mythical animals that they have labeled "cryptids." Due to the rare and unusual nature of these creatures, plenty of bad actors are seeking these creatures for nefarious means. From a political standpoint, the thought of the military as a stand-in bad guy is okay, but the usual reasoning is pretty basic. They want these creatures for military applications, even though many of the creatures would be hard to utilize in this manner. I get the fact the military is a great defacto bad guy, but I think something else would have worked better. Either way, our two main characters Lauren and Phoebe are racing to find a rare and unusual cryptid known as a Baku, which feasts off dreams regardless if they are good or bad. The military application would be a little far fetched, as in the Baku's power could be harnessed to steal the dreams of rabble rousers and counter culture extremists.

Personally, this is the only aspect of the story I kind of roll my eyes at. It sounds reasonable, but let's face it. Societal change and declarations are massive concepts, and it would take a lot of kidnapping to even make this an effective tool. It's also a bit suspect they would even be able to develop a way to turn this ability into a weapon before the societal movement shifts. Nixon pretty much proved that all you need is racism and well timed pandering to crush a political upheaval.

Since we are on the subject of politics, the film accidentally (or intentionally?) takes a collective pimp slap against the subject of feminism, or more directly white feminism. Essentially, this means the white perspective believes they have some form of moral authority over all other spectrums of the feminist movement. It's fully on display in the film when the protagonists believe a "zoo" and giving disenfranchised populations "jobs" would ease the acceptance of the said group. This has been pretty much debunked, especially when it comes to creating a subservient class of people to the dominant class. Anyway, it was interesting to see their rose colored perspective blow up in their faces, though the initial challenges to that perspective were a bit non-existent in the story.

Anyway, aside from the weird political takes, the ending was honestly the weakest part of the film. Amidst the conflict and build-up, it just ends. Of course, you can't really push this story too much further but it feels like it was cut short, and maybe that is the crux of the story. Lauren takes on a less self righteous position in society, but it is clear she is haunted by the failure. Either way, the story is interesting and the animation is pretty artistic. Its not the worst thing you can do with an hour and a half of your time.

I tried liking it, but maybe my mindset wasn't great to give the movie a chance. Its weird to watch, social kind of animation. The tone was immediately set in the first 10 minutes. I think this is one of those that, you either like it or you don't, type of thing. For me, nope, not my kind of movie, but a solid 6 nevertheless.

Though I didn't really love the linear, rather flat, style of animation throughout this film, I did quite enjoy the underlying tales of mythological beasts that constitute the "Cryptids". They are things like unicorns and yeti. Animals about which science is in abject denial but that put all forms of art into ecstacy. Naturally, these beasts are constantly being sought after so "Lauren" and "Joan" come up with the idea of finding them somewhere safe to live, where scientists can peaceably study and maybe even learn from them. The one that's missing is the elusive "Baku". This creature can eat people's dreams and so is also a target of those who, as ever with mankind, wish to exploit it's powers for military purposes. Can they find one then keep it safe from their well-resourced and malevolent pursuers? It's only as they encounter more and more of these usually quite benign beings that they consider whether or not these frequently beautiful and playful creatures should remain as they have been for centuries. Hidden from the eyes of man. Albeit set in a fantasy world, this does offer us a little food for thought about the relative merits of scientific advance for the sake of it, without any great consideration for the specimens or their "humanity" and there's plenty of imagination employed by auteur Dash Shaw to mix together stories of culture, religion and adventure into an enjoyable hybrid of animated creations that fantasise creatively.

Cryptozoo is an oddly-animated feature that rambles along like it was a storybook adventure crafted in the Seventies - when details were blurred in a haze and stories for children were not always safe.

Honestly, Cryptozoo accomplishes the goal of any good fantasy and science fiction story by crafting a timely tale set in a timeless fashion. Unfortunately the chosen medium and distinct art style highly restricts what should be a tale of openness and inclusion.

Animation is, theoretically, budgetless. The artist can sculpt and paint and render imaginative, unseen worlds and bring them to life. Why then does Cryptozoo look like flipbook doodles on the corners of a Dungeons & Dragons module?

The animation is certainly an acquired taste. Fortunately, its rudimentary style does not totally diminish the compelling story of social relevance. Fiction like this is what opens conversation regarding the importance of freedom and the rights of all. Including animators with questionable art styles.