The Witness was a pleasure to look at. It was fast-paced, but I didn't get a whole lot out of it. There's something to take from the ending, but I'm not sure what and if it couldn't have been constructed in a better way. Still better than the previous two.
Suits was fun! Pleasant to look at with a little twist on farm-invading aliens topped with simple, cute dialogue about. It's my favorite so far: giving an actual story while sticking to the themes and keeping my attention.
Finished the series, talk about ending on a whimper. "Alternate Histories" might be my most "wtf is this shit???" ever. It's just too stupid and juvenile. "Secret War" feels like playing one of those Metro games --- well made, great looking and has alot going for it but it is so basic in its execution and extremely boring.
All in all, I enjoyed this, but there were pretty low lows. I just don't enjoy all the nudity (I can google porn if I want), so all it ends up doing for me is making it much tougher to recommend this series. :/
Some the highs were great, though. And I loved Three Robots
The Witness was a pleasure to look at. It was fast-paced, but I didn't get a whole lot out of it. There's something to take from the ending, but I'm not sure what and if it couldn't have been constructed in a better way. Still better than the previous two.
Yeah, I felt like I didn't get that one. Maybe something about the cycle of violence? Probably one of those things where the thematic plot is supposed to be "real" as opposed to the diegetic plot? I dunno. The animation was amazing, though.
So, 10 episodes later, and the ones I've enjoyed so far are...
Three Robots
Suits
Good Hunting
Suckers Of Souls
The Dump
I find that the more technically impressive 3D episodes are usually the weakest, they have some interesting concepts and they look lovely, but the above examples trim the bloat and fat away and they left me more satisfied after watching them. Shape-Shifter was pretty neat as well I guess! Had that satisfying "Avenged my Dead Homie!" arc and it did it in style!
Some people on twitter were speculating Netflix might be differing the order based on what it thinks your sexuality is, but that apparently isn't true.
Using a shitty trope like "this lady is badass because of rape" in a tossed-off manner such as that is real fucking gross. They could have gone with anything, handled it in any way, and they chose that. Followed by the unsubtle-as-fuck rape imagery later in the episode.
Some people on twitter were speculating Netflix might be differing the order based on what it thinks your sexuality is, but that apparently isn't true.
The entire short is about rape. They spew exposition at the start, then she goes into a fight with a guy whose pre-fight smack talk implies that he's going to make her suck his dick when she loses. Even the final parts of the fight itself is directed as if it is a rape, with his monster essentially pulling a knife and pinning her monster against the wall, especially with the shot of him gripping the wall so he can better force the knife in.
The idea that they can go "nuh uh" and wave it all away is laughable. The twist being "it's not about rape!" doesn't change that the entire thing was about rape.
Finally finished the whole thing and like others its a pretty mixed bag in terms of quality. However I found it surprisingly watchable even if there was some groan worthy writing sprinkled through out and some of them were basically just cool to look at and didn't offer much in terms of unique stories or interesting characters. The action was generally great across the board. I'd love to see Netflix continue to support this with more seasons or even developing some of the shorts into longer movies or even entire shows of their own.
Some more episode specific thoughts:
The Witness - Visually its incredible and I honestly thought most of it was rotoscoped. However it felt rather meandering and plodding despite its short run time and seemed to have no real point other than looking cool and leading to a rather limp reveal at the end. Suits - Rather straight forward and unsurprising stuff but it was comfy and enjoyable. Felt like an opening cutscene from a game but in a good way. Zima Blue - The absolute stand out with some incredible scifi imagery as well being the most interesting story thematically. Going to check out the short story but have usually enjoyed Reynolds other works. Soul Sucker - Straight up pulpy fun with some ridiculous gore and what almost felt like some Looney Toons style visual comedy and gags in the middle of vampire onslaught. I actually enjoyed the dialogue and characters as crude and edgy as they could be. Good Hunting - One of my favorites of the season and kept changing things up when I thought I knew where it was going. I'd actually love to see this adapted to a much larger movie or show of its own. Kind of reminded me of Battle Angel Alita in parts. Beyond the Aquilla Rift - Really impressive but certain aspects like facial animations in parts were a little off. Story itself was cool if a bit predictable and that final reveal was disturbing in its implications That spiders mouth is where a vagina would be... Shape Shifters - Cool premise but rather run of the mill military stuff all around
This is what teenaged boys who like tits should be watching. They shouldn't be playing battle royale games or watching some fucking garbage on Youtube or Twitch. They should be watching this shit.
I'd be interested in some kind of narrative structure connecting all these stories but that can sometimes be more than is needed. I'd be game if the next season attempted to handle that somehow especially if this originally started out as a new Heavy Metal movie.
I have yet to see one I genuinely think is amazing quality. The only ones I actually enjoyed were the military ones, the farmer one is quite interesting. The robots were okay actually, pretty funny. But was Tim Miller involved in all of these? If that's the case, I'm glad he's not involved with Deadpool anymore. Some of the dialogue, my god. And again, I LOVE Deadpool. So I'm not beyond some immaturity and stupidity
I really fucking hope they make sure a big chunk of the next batch have more diverse people behind the shorts. This whole run felt pretty painfully straight white dude, except maybe Zima Blue and Fish Night.
Most of these felt like interesting ideas with pretty great CGI ruined by poor writing and gratuitous direction. Then you have a few that are just nasty, like The Dump and Helping Hand, that just felt like they wanted to make the viewer feel as shitty as possible.
It's a pity, because I really enjoyed the format, and like others are saying, stuff like The Witness is an incredible visual marvel, but very few of these came even close to sticking the landing.
The entire short is about rape. They spew exposition at the start, then she goes into a fight with a guy whose pre-fight smack talk implies that he's going to make her suck his dick when she loses. Even the final parts of the fight itself is directed as if it is a rape, with his monster essentially pulling a knife and pinning her monster against the wall, especially with the shot of him gripping the wall so he can better force the knife in.
The idea that they can go "nuh uh" and wave it all away is laughable. The twist being "it's not about rape!" doesn't change that the entire thing was about rape.
The entire short is about rape. They spew exposition at the start, then she goes into a fight with a guy whose pre-fight smack talk implies that he's going to make her suck his dick when she loses. Even the final parts of the fight itself is directed as if it is a rape, with his monster essentially pulling a knife and pinning her monster against the wall, especially with the shot of him gripping the wall so he can better force the knife in.
The idea that they can go "nuh uh" and wave it all away is laughable. The twist being "it's not about rape!" doesn't change that the entire thing was about rape.
Yeah, it's about as subtle as a brick to the face. It feels like something a writer thinks "ohhh those so clever " and pats themselves on the back for it
Sonnie was just awful. Made me probably appreciate Three Robots more.
The Witness had great visuals, but the story was completely underwhelming.
Suits had a horrible framerate
Skipped Sucker of Souls due to the ridiculous description
Yogurt just what the fuck
Sucker of Souls: Full frontal male nudity and extreme blood/gore/decapitations.
When the Yogurt Took Over: Brief topless female nudity.
Beyond the Aquila Rift: Brief male backside nudity and prolonged topless/backside female nudity.
Good Hunting: Full frontal male and female nudity, scenes of sexual violence, blood/gore/decapitations.
The Dump: Full frontal male nudity, blood/gore/decapitations.
Shape-Shifters: Full frontal male nudity and extreme blood/gore/decapitations.
Helping Hand: Extreme decapitation.
Fish Night: Male nudity and mild blood/decapitations.
Zima Blue: Male nudity.
Blindspot: Cartoon blood/gore/decapitations.
Ice Age: Brief blood/gore/decapitations.
Alternate Histories: Full frontal male and female nudity, cartoon blood/gore/decapitations.
The Secret War: Extreme blood/gore/decapitations.
The other two (Three Robots and Lucky 13) are free of nudity/gore.
The female nudity is sexualized in Sonnie's Edge, The Witness, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Good Hunting (and the scene of sexual violence in this one is directed towards women), and Alternate Histories.
The male nudity is sexualized in Beyond the Aquila Rift, Good Hunting, and Alternate Histories.
Male nudity is used for comedic effect in The Dump and Alternate Histories; Female nudity is used similarly in When the Yogurt Took Over and Alternate Histories.
I don't have any specific data, but the female nudity was definitely afforded considerably more screen time over the course of the series than the male nudity was (like, you see the dude's butt for like a second in Aquila Rift but the woman is standing around topless for a decent portion of it).
~
Overall, next season I would like to see more balance when it comes to the gaze-y sexualization of female v male nudity and I would also love for a more diverse range of writers/directors, stories, and tones. (even though I'm all for hyper violence ft. monsters and shorts that exist solely to depict sexuality - more of those too please!).
This anthology is incredible. All I could think watching so many of these CG shorts is how fantastic it'd be if they were made into games. Especially "Suits" and "The Secret War." I am in awe of the creativity on display here. Utterly enrapturing. Just wow. Hands down the best thing I've ever seen on Netflix. I sincerely hope this gets the attention it deserves so we can see more in the future.
Edit: having now given this thread a quick look over I was not expecting this reaction at all. I've never disagreed so hard with so many folks on this forum. Y'all are some jaded people
I've always understood it to mean "a limb or body part (not just the head) being separated from the rest of the body", but that might not be the case for everyone else in the world. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm digging the animation but I've watched 3 and have been a bit disappointed thus far. Not enough to stop watching, but this is starting to feel like I want it to be good more so than it is.
Overall I really enjoyed the series, and I love the anthology nature of it. I hope Netflix has more of these types of series planned.
Sonnie's edge - awesome visuals, cool concept, and a neat ending.
Three robots - fun little romp
The witness - cool premise, middle act was a bit much, predictable ending
Suits - I had fun, I enjoyed the action and story, also a cool art style
Sucker of souls - I thought it was fine, nothing particularly special about it
When the yogurt took over - meh
Beyond the aquila rift - one of the high points of the anthology, incredible visuals, and an interesting ending that left me with more questions than answers which is cool
Good hunting - didn't really like this one too much, story wise. Felt forced, but I thought the lore was interesting
The dump - laughed at the absurdity of it, another fun episode.
Shape shifters - again pretty cool lore and premise, but cliche war bro drama
Helping hand - this one got my anxiety going, enjoyed it
Fish night - visually neat, but it didn't do much for me
Lucky 13 - wasn't really into whole ship relationship thing, a bit boring
Zima blue - the best episode, so good.
Blindspot - fun action piece
Ice age - it was fine, didn't hate it, didn't love it
Alternate histories - could have done without it, pretty stupid actually
The secret war - interesting ramp up, meh cliche ending, but found it interesting enough that I'd like to see it expanded upon.
Most of these felt like interesting ideas with pretty great CGI ruined by poor writing and gratuitous direction. Then you have a few that are just nasty, like The Dump and Helping Hand, that just felt like they wanted to make the viewer feel as shitty as possible.
Maybe this is a case of autocorrect or something but why would either of those shorts make you feel as shitty as possible? I'm not even sure why you would feel shitty even a little bit from watching either one of those.
Overall, I generally enjoyed the anthology. Like any venture of this kind, some are going to be good, and some aren't going to be good. That rings true here. Animation, in general, was quite strong, but there were a couple of episodes that were basically just pumped up game cutscenes.
Still, glad to see some artists get a chance to show off their stuff. I'd agree about a wider net of writing talent next time. Put me in the camp that acknowledges a couple of episodes that linger in "male gaze" territory, but overall I'd say most episodes didn't rely on that (or it was quite brief). This isn't Heavy Metal in terms of constant DDs in your face. A bit skewed that way still, but sometimes a breast is just a breast. Ultimately, nudity has to function within the story, and only a couple of moments failed in that regard (for me).
My breakdown is as follows:
Standouts
- Beyond the Aquila Rift (what an ending)
- Lucky 13
- Zima Blue (a stunner all throughout)
- The Secret War
Flawed... but Fun
- Three Robots
- The Witness
- Suits
- Sucker of Souls
- Good Hunting
Decent-ish
- Sonnie's Edge
- When the Yogurt Took Over
- Shape-Shifters
- Helping Hand
- Fish Night
- Ice Age
Edit: having now given this thread a quick look over I was not expecting this reaction at all. I've never disagreed so hard with so many folks on this forum. Y'all are some jaded people
Some of these were okay. There was gratuitous nudity in some of them that was distracting and kind of off putting. Others actually made me cringe. Guess one way to convey a reddit tier cat meme is to do it with hundreds of thousands in animation budget
The animation and art direction was generally stellar across the board. The writing... varied.
Philip Gelatt wrote and adapted the vast majority of the shorts, and I'm impressed he attempted to tackle so many styles and tones.On the other hand, he was only periodically successful. Whenever he went into Heavy Metal Emulation Mode, the writing took a noticeable dip.
On that note, I knew it was originally supposed to be a reboot of Heavy Metal, so the rampant T&A and sophomoric humor didn't surprise me. It did make me roll my eyes a few times though.
Zima Blue was one of the best, if not the best, of the shorts. It successfully merged its thematic aims with art direction and animation to achieve something relatively deep in less than ten minutes. Truly gorgeous.
Sonnie's Edge was one of the few where the action felt like it had some stakes. The superior cinematography and editing went a long way. The writing was over the top pulp, which is too bad, as it obscured some of the cleverer bits.
A defense of the exposition dump and the short in general:
It's not immediately obvious that the wall of backstory and motivation given to Dicko was basically theater.
Dicko wanted Sonnie to take a dive, presumably for his (implied) champion. His inquiry of her edge was also likely going to be fed to that same champion, in order to destabilize her and win regardless of her refusal to take a dive.
Sonnie's teammate/manager played up the rape backstory to provide plausible, but not entirely true, motivation. We know she's playing it up, because she is part of the reason Sonnie/Khanivore exists.
Obviously, the rape allusion in the battle ties into what Sonnie says later about how people can't see past it. It's Gelatt essentially retroactively telling the viewer to go back and look at that scene from Sonnie's point of view:
her long range options are gone, she likely knows that her opponent knows about her "edge" and would seek to humiliate her, so this scene where she is reliving that assault is actually a scene where she is baiting the opponent to get close enough to use her head horn/blade.
I don't think it's an entirely successful subversion, but what the short is going for is pretty clear.
Beyond that, Lucky 13 was pretty solid, and featured an actual woman that wasn't used for titillation. So that's nice. It had some of the better choreography and editing in the series as well.
Beyond the Aquila Rift was... actually good. It contains possibly the only example of narratively useful titillation in the series. The ending managed to subvert it's own predictability and garnered some actual existential pathos.
Good Hunting had such a strong central theme that I hated seeing it be so cruel and exploitative to its female characters. Those scenes essentially undermine the thematic thrust of the whole short. The Heavy Metal influence wore down what was otherwise a beautiful piece.
Speaking of beautiful pieces, Fish Night. Jesus Christ.
Shape Shifters was basically a battle scene with a strongly political undercurrent that was danced around hard. I wish, for instance:
That it would have had at least a small moment where either the Afghani or USMC werewolf recognized the irony of the both of them fighting each other on behalf of state/ideological actors that likely hated them.
The Dump was the equivalent of a ten minute fart joke and fully lived up to its given title.
The Secret War had amazing animation. It also had some of the worst editing in the whole anthology. It was paced like a YouTube cutscene collection.
I loved the Sucker of Souls' animation and art direction. The dialogue, especially the banter, was generally trash.
Suits was fine.
The Witness watched like a fever dream with some completely ridiculous nudity. At times, I swear to god, the studio just had the main character naked to show off how well they animated breasts in different situations.
"See, this is how real breast's look when the woman is dancing across a couch!"
"Look! This is how breasts realistically sway when a woman is running through a town with a conspicuous lack of people!"
I haven't seen any of these yet, but the general praise for Rift & Zima Blue - both adaptations of Alastair Reynolds short stories (and IIRC Zima is setbin the Rev Spave universe in the Glitterband) - just makes me want TV adaptations of all his work even more.
I think Diamond Dogs would be a good one to do an extended short of - maybe 20-30m.
I loved them all. The Heavy Metal connection is strong and definitely drove many of the selections. I feel "Sonnies Edge" would have been better had they not "cockney'ed up" all the accents, that particular accent is really grating to me. Hope they do more Hamilton though, his stuff is visually great. Be nice if they did some Peter Watts as well.
For all you folks bemoaning the lack of penis, it's well known that penis flop physics is years behind boob jiggle physics, cut the programmers some slack :p
But I think casual Male nudity is much easier to pull off in the cgi realm, of course much easier to have all your females be nude as well. Now to get past that "no erect penis" taboo....(though I think "Alternate histories" did it, though that is very stylized).
This anthology is incredible. All I could think watching so many of these CG shorts is how fantastic it'd be if they were made into games. Especially "Suits" and "The Secret War." I am in awe of the creativity on display here. Utterly enrapturing. Just wow. Hands down the best thing I've ever seen on Netflix. I sincerely hope this gets the attention it deserves so we can see more in the future.
Edit: having now given this thread a quick look over I was not expecting this reaction at all. I've never disagreed so hard with so many folks on this forum. Y'all are some jaded people
I loved them all. The Heavy Metal connection is strong and definitely drove many of the selections. I feel "Sonnies Edge" would have been better had they not "cockney'ed up" all the accents, that particular accent is really grating to me. Hope they do more Hamilton though, his stuff is visually great. Be nice if they did some Peter Watts as well.
For all you folks bemoaning the lack of penis, it's well known that penis flop physics is years behind boob jiggle physics, cut the programmers some slack :p
But I think casual Male nudity is much easier to pull off in the cgi realm, of course much easier to have all your females be nude as well. Now to get past that "no erect penis" taboo....(though I think "Alternate histories" did it, though that is very stylized).
I've watched ten of 'em thus far. Wanted to share my thoughts with you guys.
There are no spoilers.
Three Robots - Navel gazing at its worst. You know [thing], amirite?! *shoulder nudge*
That apathetic robot did undeniably have its charms, though.
The Witness - Those visials. Maaan!
Suits - "Cool" quips, and lots of them. In fact, let's base all communication entirely on that. Ugh!
Sucker of Souls - Same as Suits, only done better, and the story is a bit more interesting.
When the Yogurt Took Over - Takes you in solely by being ludicrous and funny. One of the shorts that use their time well, this far.
Longer ones have told less.
Beyond the Aquila Rift - One of my favourites. Makes you feel uneasy early on with subtle touches. I like the setting and the story it tells; makes my mind wander to another place. Escapism in a nutshell.
Good Hunting - Reminds me of early 90s Disney animation. It's beautiful and smooth.
Weird pacing, though. It's like they wanted to make a full movie, but cut it short.
The Dump - Short on time, with a predictable story. Forgettable, yet OK.
Shape-Shifters - Uses werewolves to talk about race? Kind of like how black people were sent to war, but not treated equally? Maybe not. It's wholly forgettable, though.
One of the longest ones, yet feels much smaller. Eh.
Helping Hand - Uses its time well for what it's going for. Looks beautiful. All the space-themed shorts, in fact, has a very good look to them.
I finished watching the season a couple days ago, picked out my top 4:
In no order:
Sonnie's Edge
Three Robots
Zima Blue
Beyond the Aquila Rift
It wasn't until later that I found out all the stories are based on previous short stories and that of the 4 I liked the most, 2 were written my one of my favorite authors, Alastair Reynolds, one was written by another author I (sometimes) like, John Scalzi, and the last was written by an author my friend has been trying to get me to read (Peter F. Hamilton). I'm glad I didn't know about the authors beforehand since it might have skewed my thoughts.
Overall, it was a fun ride watching all of them and I hope more seasons are in the works.
I'm debating making a topic about Zima Blue as I found that to be the one episode that had some really interesting themes and things to say beyond the rest. Both very grandiose and yet also very intimate.
I wanted to like this, but man, it is just rife with adolescent, edgy pandering at best and deeply misogynistic undertones at worst. I'd have thought we'd be past the stage where adult animation means tits and deeply unpleasant, overly sexualised violence.
Do we know how many of the shorts had female directors?
There has never been an adult oriented western animation style anthology before. I hope we get more.
Between this and Castlevania I'm really digging the direction Netflix is going. Western focused animation for adults hasn't really existed since HBO's Spawn.
There has never been an adult oriented western animation style anthology before. I hope we get more.
Between this and Castlevania I'm really digging the direction Netflix is going. Western focused animation for adults hasn't really existed since HBO's Spawn.
