Popular reviews

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  Review by Karsten ★★★★½

  monkey mondays #5

  i thought this french stop-motion fox movie was wonderful, obviously. some of the best looking stop motion animation i’ve ever seen. so innovative, can’t say i’ve seen anything that looks like this. all this sped up motion blur, the dance sequence with the bird where the background is moving, all amazing. adorable and delightful. something about their eyes makes me laugh. but most importantly, the best monkey we’ve seen in the challenge so far. he’s got glasses on. happy monkey mondays everyone

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  Review by Jack Darnell ★★★★ 2

  The question of how to spend father-daughter time:

  Most Dads: Go to the park, watch a movie, go biking, build a dollhouse, have a tea party.

  Starevich: Create an animated feature of a selfish anarchist asshole taking on a corrupt authoritarian military state filled with adultery, public executions, assassination conspiracies, mutilation, inefficient bureaucracies, murder, religious sacrilege, and questions about the afterlife

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  Review by Drew Edelstein ★★★★ 5

  This is 30s-European Fantastic Mr. Fox, somehow serving up the best looking stop motion I've ever seen, and with a dash of socialist revolutionary politics to make the whole thing extra special.

  This channels the energy of peak Looney Tunes 10 years before Looney Tunes even began to peak.

  This was made by a man who animated dead bugs the same year the Titanic sank because he couldn't get live ones to perform a story about domestic infidelity, inadvertently making one of the funniest films of all time.

  This has some of the most charming adventure antics I've ever seen, equal parts lighthearted and twisted enough to make me cackle and giggle at equal turns.

  This shouldn't exist given everything I know about film history and every expectation I had going in.

  I'm so glad it does.

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  Review by Eddie White ★★★★

  Like a 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Of the '30s. Incredible, eerie and charmingly phantasmagorical, like the dream or nightmare of a child of the past.

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  Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★★

  4th Ladislas Starevich (after The Cameraman's Revenge, The Mascot and The Insect's Christmas), 1st Irene Starevich

  Starevich's most successful film despite its thoroughly dislikable main character. It should lay claim to being the first sound animated feature, being largely assembled during 1929/1930, but due to a lack of money it was only released seven years later and that was thanks to some questionable funding from the Nazis. The animation is just as complex as the later Mascot series, but it's somehow more impressive how Starevich is able to keep a narrative together for a whole hour while juggling the sheer complexity of his puppetry. He and his daughter somehow manage to craft a complete menagerie of different animals, each uniquely…

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  Review by bombsfall ★★★★★

  God there just isn't anything like this movie. Nothing /moves/ like it. A storybook fever dream. Uncanny and beautiful. One of my favs.

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  Review by Mason ★★★½

  If you're interested in the history of animation, I highly recommend this. Or if you enjoy Fantastic Mr. Fox like I do, there's probably an influence here. Plus, the animation is incredible for something made over 90 years ago and released in 1937. Technically, this is greatly impressive, from the aforemented quality of animation to the fitting score. Every frame of this feels alive, to a degree I was not expecting. And also, the climactic scene at the tower is hilarious. It encapsulates everything I enjoy about this, from the lively animation to the random slightly dark comedy. Tonally, this is all over the place, and I have no idea what the target audience was, but it made for an amusingly bizarre experience. I'm not sure how to feel about the themes, but I'm glad I found this!

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  Review by HAL ★★★★

  Some of the most brutal violence I’ve seen inflicted on animals… which made it fun! 
  Some of the most intricately detailed animations I’ve ever seen a stop motion animated film produce. And it was made in the 30s!! Insane!

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  Review by 👽 Zara 👽 ★★★

  got pretty bored and creeped out by those oddly realistic stop motion puppets but i still think it's worth seeking out if you're not a 5 year old like me

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  Review by olivia ✨ ★★★½ 4

  if the booby traps in the final act don’t kill the wet bandits i don’t know what will

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  Review by Robo Balboa ★★★★★

  Holy shit, my dudes.

  The word "miraculous" gets thrown around a lot, especially when it comes to things many people put many long hard hours into to accomplish or creating, but this genuinely feels like some sort of miracle.

  A French, stop-motion animated film released in 1937, based on 12th Century folk tales, ten years in the making, released eight months before Snow White, and survived and survived all the years and decades, and now, nearly a century later, I can watch it on YouTube, and have my big dumb brain blown to bits by it. Miraculous.

  For 2023, my goal is to go forth and discover films I've never seen, the classics, the blind spots, etc., and this wasn't…

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  Review by Justin Decloux

  Jaw droppingly well-made stop motion animated film that features a plethora of animals being beaten (seemingly to death) by humans. Also, the moral of the story seems to be cheat, lie and steal your way till someone calls you resourceful and makes you king.