[UPDATE 2/2/2021] Cryptozoon has been acquired by Magnolia Pictures.
Over time, the animated feature evolved into a family-based genre, with most films targeted directly at kids. But that wasn’t always the case and still isn’t in many countries. With Cryptozoo being an American-made film aimed exclusively at an adult audience with an inevitable R-rating, it promised up front to be different and boy, was it ever. It held its premiere as part of the NEXT category at the Sundance Film Festival.
Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Imagine a themed zoo that houses all of the creatures you thought were a myth. From the obvious inclusions like unicorns and dragons to more obscure and far-out creatures you’ve likely never heard of. Envisioned as a safe haven for these special creatures and a way to educate the world about their existence, Cryptozoo is preparing for its grand opening.
The plot centers around Lauren Grey, voiced by Lake Bell, who has devoted her life to rescuing cryptids from black market traders and corrupt government militias seeking to weaponize them. In her trade, she’s made quite a few enemies, but she’s now on the trail of a special creature with a personal connection to her. As a child, her nightmares were eaten away by a baku, a dream eater. She’s close to finding and protecting a baku, but military men with cruel intentions are also after the innocent being.
Aimed at adults, Cryptozoo is often excessively violent. There’s a lot of animated blood, even some guts, and it gets disturbing quickly. It also relishes in unnecessary sex scenes, none of which are errotic with the crude character designs and animation style. In a story that’s otherwise reminiscent of classics by Hayao Miyazaki, there’s too many moments in the film that are just plain disturbing.
The animation fuses together a lot of different styles, starting with what feels like an animated scratch art project. You can see the pulp of the paper in both the backgrounds and the characters, seemingly scanned in and colorized without any delineation of pencil lines, like the next evolution of the Xerox process. Much of the artistry in the backgrounds is highly detailed and mesmerizing, while the animation itself, primarily the humans, is routinely out of proportion. For all of the effort to make Cryptozoo look handmade, it also seems to rely heavily on Flash animation to move elements of a still drawing. It creates a lot of uncanny valley moments, like a character’s head nodding, but looking like it was cut away from the body to rock back and forth. The lack of movement also draws comparisons to South Park, such as a character swimming towards the camera with only her forearms moving, her upper arms staying still as if she’s waving. It’s impressive that independent filmmakers were able to make a feature-length animated film, but the limited animation is a detriment to the experience.
It’s impossible to be an animation fan and not tap into Disney at some point and the film makes several references. The introductory couple who introduce the audience to Cryptozoo when they stumble upon it at night make a passing reference to Bambi. When the hippie male climbs the fence and sees a medieval tower, he tells his girlfriend that “It’s like the home of Walt Disney” (voiced by Michael Cera). There’s also a moment in the film that takes the protagonist to Orlando and the establishing shot features Spaceship Earth in the skyline, evoking Herb Ryman’s EPCOT concept art color scheme. These moments made my Disney fandom jump out, even if the film didn’t otherwise thrill me.
I would describe Cryptozoo as Jurassic Park meets Princess Mononoke. It had a great concept and even some brilliant moments of execution, but the lack of restraint in some areas made it unenjoyable. I wanted to come out of it believing that anything is possible, that an animated feature can be made at an in-home studio in 2021 with a shoestring budget that is also top-notch quality. Unfortunately, it clearly needed more funding and maybe a third-party to examine the story.
I give Cryptozoo 2 out of 5 stars.