In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Friday 21 October 2016

EXTRAORDINARY TALES [2013]

Director Raul Garcia, known mostly for his animation work on Disney's The Lion King & Aladdin, brings us Extraordinary Tales, a gorgeously animated anthology of five Edgar Allan Poe stories.
Stitched together by a ho-hum original framing story of Poe, in the form of a crow (shouldn't it be a raven?), in a deep conversation with Death about his destiny or whatever it maybe.  Apart from some interesting looking visuals, which wears out pretty fast, the framing story is pretty lifeless and very unnecessary.  Thankfully the five animated shorts are all gorgeous to look at, wonderfully narrated by horror heavy-weights like Christopher Lee and Guillermo del Toro and beautifully brought to creepy life by Sergio de la Puente's magnificent score.  The adaptations aren't always faithful, and occasionally threaten to derail but the stylish visuals and very evident enthusiasm make up for it's mildly frustrating shortcomings.

3½ filmy vulture eyes out of 5

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