LogFAQs > #975408286

10. Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

Johnbobb: 1
Evillord: 5
Karo: 8
Ermine: 8
Mythiot: 10
Suprak: 19
Inviso 21
Plasma: 23
Red: 23

Total: 118

Johnbobb: 10/10 fucking incredible, no notes. Seriously, wild and creative movies like these that I would never see otherwise is a big reason I participate in these lists.

Evillord: Adaptated from the Spanish comic Psiconautas by Alberto Vzquez, set on a once-idyllic cartoon island after a nuclear disaster. It's certainly a dismal film - Birdboy himself is simultaneously drug-addicted and demonically possessed. No one in this desolated setting really comes off as a good or a bad guy, it's all flawed people doing what they need to do to survive. We get to know a fisherman piglet named Zachariah who is friends with Birdboy and struggling to support his ailing, sometimes abusive mother with his job rendered almost impossible because the factory disaster wiped out all the fish. He gets robbed of what little savings he has by the other principal characters, Birdboy's sweetie Dinky and her two friends, who are trying to get the fuck off the island. All of these characters remain complex enough and are treated with enough empathy that it makes the story both compelling and interesting to think about, and the emotional tone is balanced out by some beautiful, almost video game like sequences of Birdboy adventuring, which with the film's lovely 2D artwork put me in mind of Hollow Knight. The sort of satirical Catholic angst at the heart of the film, especially with Dinky's family and their dog dressed up in a gimp suit which they insist is their good child, was an interesting element, though I have to admit I felt a little too detached from Spanish culture to quite get it.

Karo: A handful of animal kids who struggle to find happiness in a semi-post-apocalyptic world, and they go through an astounding amount of trouble to find a way off their island when they could have just asked the pig boy for a ride on his boat (or stolen it), but I digress.
Themes of drug addiction and mental illness play a large role in the story, and the characters involved are always treated with a commendable amount of humanity. There are also some bits about genocide and ethnic cleansing of the avian animals. Did I mention that this is a very dark movie?
The plot seems to meander in places and could have used more focus, but that does not detract much from the film's haunting beauty. Sadly the animation isnt the greatest but it makes the most of things though stylization and direction.
It is Animal Crossing after atomic armageddon. It is a perfect fusing of the cute and the macabre by up and coming director Alberto Vasquez and I look forward to what he has in store for the future.

Ermine: I really really REALLY wanted to enjoy this one more. The artstyle was very striking and intriguing (except for the super close-up of hands or feet that were super gross for no reason). I love how different and unique the film feels, along with its characters but almost immediately when you start watching the film, your first thought is, "Oh, how are all of these characters going to die in brutal and disgusting ways?" and I could never really get that thought out of my head.
I'm not sure if that's what the writers were intending on but I couldn't shake that ever and was just waiting for the ball to drop on every character being brutally murdered in some way.
Thankfully it never really happened, but ultimately, I really didn't enjoy or feel anything from the ending of the film. Birdboy dies (as expected) and then the movie kind of just ends. Alright?
We don't get a hopeful ending and we don't get a bleak one. It just kind of ends. Alright then...
Still mostly enjoyed my time with the film. It was pretty dece!

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Inviso: I dont really know how to express my feelings on this movie. On the one hand, its just bleak and depressing, and honestly? It creeped me out in its tone and animation style quite often (Dinkys dad and dog are nightmare fuel), and theres just a never-ending string of sadness. From the pig guys mom dying because a parasitic spider left her, to the fox kid getting beat up and called a thief multiple times (despite only thieving ONE TIME), everyone is just miserable and trying to find some way to get a better life in this horrible post-apocalyptic world. That being said, even though the plot was a disjointed mess at times (with far too many minor subplots going on with little pay-off), I was still fully onboard watching it, for the most part. I kept hoping for a happy ending, and even though I didnt get it, I was invested through and through. Also, as a final note, Sandra deserved more screentime. Her weird, inner psychopathy was brought up several times, but it wasnt explored as much as it should have been.

Plasma: The art style reminded me of Hollow Knightwhich is a plusbut the story is a train wreck that left me feeling nothing but boredom and confusion.

Red: I'm going to be honest, I was never sure where this story was ever trying to go. We've got multiple plotlines that kind of meet up, but also are never necessarily completely fleshed out, sometimes get uncomforably weird, and then we've got the rampant drug use and child drug use. All masked with somewhat strange animal characters. While the screwed up world definitely had me curious where they were taking it, the world was uncomfortable in a way I definitely didn't enjoy and with it being somewhat nonsensical and poorly paced I can't say I particularly enjoyed the experience.