We Are The Strange.
What can I say about this movie. It's an experience, to say the least. I can almost guarantee you that within the first ten minutes of the movie your first comment will be "What the ****?!" Looking at the title you'd think this movie was, well, strange. But 'strange' alone in a gross understatement. Saying this movie is "strange" is like saying the surface of the sun is "toasty." You might try to compare this to other strange movies like, say, Labyrinth, or Corpse Bride, but really you can't. You just can't.
More than anything else, this movie is a statement in visual art. The combination of stop-motion animation, 8-bit graphics, and CGI animation is both innovative and crazy to look at. The dark world that is StopMo city (get the name?) has almost no cohesive structure to it whatsoever. The fight scenes (if you can call them that) which were most definitely inspired by old school anime, is like watching a kid play with action figures. Actually the whole movie feels like it come from the deep dark recesses of some ten-year-old's abandoned toy chest.
The character designs are...innovative. The first Characters we meet Blue and HIM are probably the closest to normal anybody's gonna get in this film but that's not saying much. eMMM, Rain, and Ori look like they came from nightmares of Tim Burton. Despite the crazy designs however, each character's design, better than any other movie I've seen, reflects that character's personality, purpose, and even background almost perfectly. You take one look and you can easily say "Oh, this is the bad guy" or "Oh, definitely a tragic heroine" and so on.
The dialog (there's dialog in this movie?!) is few and far between. There's probably less than five minutes of speech throughout the entire movie...for all characters combined. Like I said, this is more on visuals. What dialog does exists is short and straight to the point. There are no pointlessly long exchanges between characters even for humor's sake. Each sentence spoken has heavy significance to the plot so when someone talks you'll know you should listen.
As for the plot (yes, boys and girls, there is a plot in here somewhere) it's hard to find at first, mainly because of the movie trying to visually rape your mind. But if you concentrate really hard (I mean reeeeeeally hard) there is a coherent plot about two lost tragic characters trying to find their way.
eMMM and Blue are the classic tragic heroes, both starting out at the bottom of the dumps then slowly but surely finding their courage within each other. the vigilante pair Rain and Ori, though feeling like a really bad ripoff of Batman and Robin, presented an exciting view of a wrongfully accused man and a misunderstood weirdo, fighting for justice. HIM is the stereotypical villain of the piece who thinks of only himself and thinks nothing of plunging the city into darkness if for nothing more than his own pleasure.
All of these character elements come together in a straight-forward plot line typical of most epic stories. The characters and their motivations are easy to understand once you get into the movie and it's easy cheer for the good guys and hate the bad guys (though HIM's low droning voice make it kinda hard to take him seriously) Watch this movie once to get a hang of the visuals. Watch it again to truly appreciate the story.
In conclusion, I loved this movie. I really did. It was weird yes, but refreshing in a way that it provided an escape from the usual canned mainstream coming out of Hollywood. It was an experience to savor. It's not boring. It never gets boring. Sure you'll feel like a weirdo for appreciating it, but maybe that's a good thing.
Just for chuckles, you should also watch the 1337 version.
