Zœtrope
2017, Four Hands
Although I'm no stranger to foreign animation (one of my favorites, Fallen Art, is from Poland), Bulgarian CGI is certainly new to me. Only seconds into the DVD, I had to double-check the year of production, as the technical quality took me back to the early days of CGI, circa the 1980s. Anyway, what slowly unfolded was an anthology of stylistically similar short films strung together by a pair of robots lost in an abandoned post-apocalyptical labyrinth/museum sort of thing: think C-3PO and R2D2 meet Pictures at an Exhibition, where the paintings are all by Salvador Dalí. The theme is strange creatures—including some strange humans—doing strange things in strange environs. Given a few sequences of bloody violence, as well as some suggestive subject matter, it's definitely not for the kiddies. It's also definitely not for anyone expecting to be entertained by a story, and aside from our pair of lost robots suffering an existential crisis, there's no dialog. Make no mistake, I fully embrace strangeness, but Zœtrope is just a wee bit too strange.
DKS 5/20/22
GRUMPY OLD FART-O-METER® Rating:
