Zombillenium (2017)
Stars:
Zombillenium, the Halloween theme park, happens to be the one place on
earth where real monsters can hide in plain sight. When Hector, a human,
threatens to disclose the true identity of his employees, the Vampire
Park Manager has no other choice but to hire him. To see his daughter,
Hector must escape from his Zombies and Werewolves coworkers.
Based on several graphic novels by co-writer/director Arthur de Pins, collaborating here with Alexis Ducord, Zombillenium
is an entertaining, irrepressibly European animated feature grounded in
an amusing gothic fantasy concept. The idea is that the titular
amusement park is run by real vampires, werewolves, zombies and other
creatures of the night, all pretending to be fake monsters. Given the
supernatural themes and more spooky than usual content, this probably
skews a little older than the all-ages demographic of most U.S.-backed
cartoon features, which could help bolster the film's appeal as a niche
item.
That said, beyond the realms of co-producing nations Belgium and France and their near-neighbors, the script's clanking plot skeleton, the lack of star names in the voice cast and the unfamiliarity of the property will still keep this on the distribution margins among Francophiles and graphic-novel fans.
The story is set in architecturally and meteorologically distinctive northern France, where towns of tightly terraced housing are enveloped by industrial zones and sodden gray skies. Widowed single parent Hector (voiced by Emmanuel Curtil for the French-language version, David Gasman for the English one) lives with his 8-year-old daughter Lucie (Esther Corvez-Beaudoin/Ann Herstad). As a health and safety inspector, Hector is naturally cautious and rather officious, so when Lucie won’t stop going on about how much she wants to visit the nearby theme park Zombillenium to ride its roller coasters and the like, Hector's suspicions are piqued. Hoping to find a safety violation so he can refuse to allow Lucie to go, he instigates a spontaneous inspection.
Unfortunately, when he takes an elevator down to the ninth sub-basement floor, he discovers that the park is built over a gateway to hell, a purgatory ruled by the Devil (Emmanuel Jacomy/Geoffrey Carey), to whom park manager and head vampire Francis (Alain Choquet/Jerry Di Giacomo) must answer. Francis has no choice but to bite Hector and thereby turn him into a monster like himself, although the form Hector eventually takes — with a beefy, super-strong physique, asymmetric horns and tremendous agility — conforms neither to vampire, werewolf nor zombie characteristics, but has a little bit of everything.
Hector also develops ace ax-man skills on the electric guitar, which comes in handy when he ends up forming a very Gallic-style rock combo with assorted other characters from the park, including zombie-skeleton Sirius (Mat Bastard/Doug Rand) and comely, sleeve-tattooed teen witch Gretchen (Kelly Marot/Kaycie Chase), who is literally the Devil’s daughter and has been working as a sulky intern at the park. Antagonism is mainly provided by vampire Steven (Alexis Tomassian/Mark Jane), a chiseled looker who conforms to the Twilight-established physical characteristics of a vampire, down to the sparkly-in-sunlight skin and withering condescension toward lesser beings.
The script by de Pins and Ducord spends a disproportionate amount of time establishing the contours of its universe, clearly with an eye to world-building sufficiently to lay the groundwork for sequels. Less energy is expended on developing an engaging narrative trajectory. Ultimately, storytelling seems to be less the point than finding instances to show off the dazzling visuals, a hyper-seamless melding of 3D rendering and 2D design that extracts lines and shadows from the figures but still has an extraordinary fluidity. A scene, for example, in which Gretchen takes Hector for a ride on her skateboard-broomstick has a whizzy swoop and swish, and will look spectacular in 3D.
With the attractive character design making the "cast" especially appealing to tweens and up, this could almost be described as the hippest animated feature involving undead creatures and amusement parks since Scooby-Doo.
That said, beyond the realms of co-producing nations Belgium and France and their near-neighbors, the script's clanking plot skeleton, the lack of star names in the voice cast and the unfamiliarity of the property will still keep this on the distribution margins among Francophiles and graphic-novel fans.
The story is set in architecturally and meteorologically distinctive northern France, where towns of tightly terraced housing are enveloped by industrial zones and sodden gray skies. Widowed single parent Hector (voiced by Emmanuel Curtil for the French-language version, David Gasman for the English one) lives with his 8-year-old daughter Lucie (Esther Corvez-Beaudoin/Ann Herstad). As a health and safety inspector, Hector is naturally cautious and rather officious, so when Lucie won’t stop going on about how much she wants to visit the nearby theme park Zombillenium to ride its roller coasters and the like, Hector's suspicions are piqued. Hoping to find a safety violation so he can refuse to allow Lucie to go, he instigates a spontaneous inspection.
Unfortunately, when he takes an elevator down to the ninth sub-basement floor, he discovers that the park is built over a gateway to hell, a purgatory ruled by the Devil (Emmanuel Jacomy/Geoffrey Carey), to whom park manager and head vampire Francis (Alain Choquet/Jerry Di Giacomo) must answer. Francis has no choice but to bite Hector and thereby turn him into a monster like himself, although the form Hector eventually takes — with a beefy, super-strong physique, asymmetric horns and tremendous agility — conforms neither to vampire, werewolf nor zombie characteristics, but has a little bit of everything.
Hector also develops ace ax-man skills on the electric guitar, which comes in handy when he ends up forming a very Gallic-style rock combo with assorted other characters from the park, including zombie-skeleton Sirius (Mat Bastard/Doug Rand) and comely, sleeve-tattooed teen witch Gretchen (Kelly Marot/Kaycie Chase), who is literally the Devil’s daughter and has been working as a sulky intern at the park. Antagonism is mainly provided by vampire Steven (Alexis Tomassian/Mark Jane), a chiseled looker who conforms to the Twilight-established physical characteristics of a vampire, down to the sparkly-in-sunlight skin and withering condescension toward lesser beings.
The script by de Pins and Ducord spends a disproportionate amount of time establishing the contours of its universe, clearly with an eye to world-building sufficiently to lay the groundwork for sequels. Less energy is expended on developing an engaging narrative trajectory. Ultimately, storytelling seems to be less the point than finding instances to show off the dazzling visuals, a hyper-seamless melding of 3D rendering and 2D design that extracts lines and shadows from the figures but still has an extraordinary fluidity. A scene, for example, in which Gretchen takes Hector for a ride on her skateboard-broomstick has a whizzy swoop and swish, and will look spectacular in 3D.
With the attractive character design making the "cast" especially appealing to tweens and up, this could almost be described as the hippest animated feature involving undead creatures and amusement parks since Scooby-Doo.
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