Dante's Inferno - Animated Epic Review
[small]By - Kyle "Tootmania" Sorrell[/small]
SUMMARY
Dante's Inferno - The Animated Epic is most relatable to a super powered hobo on steroids suffering from dementia praecox who also happens to be verbally acquainted with Shakespeare. The key words here are "Delightfully Schizophrenic". The fact that the entire production is based off of the new video game by EA - Dante's Inferno, which is itself based on the original poem - The Divine Comedy, definitely left its mark here. In its defense, it was produced by 6 different directors, and is, of course, trying to do the same thing that the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight did. Basically, it's a compilation of 6 different animated sequences giving us multiple viewpoints of the same story.
But what Dante's Inferno - The Animated Epic fails to do that both the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight both were able to (for the most part) accomplish - Adequate flow and consistency. Even though the styles of art and animation varied greatly in each segment of the Animatrix, they all do come together and help compliment each other nicely. All the stories in Batman: Gotham Knight don't really come together, but it was really just trying to provide different perspectives on Batman and his origins. Each segment was a different story, thus the changes in animation and design were more understandable.
Here, though, it's all one story. And along the way Dante literally goes from a generic short brown haired soldier to a long, girly haired model to a hulk-sized brute. Even his guide, Virgil, transitions from being bald to being more bald to having a MASSIVE spiky afro-like hairdo to being bald along with an absurdly long neck. I understand that these are just different styles at work here, but goodness, is it jarring, even laughable at times.
Character designs aside, the overall product also suffers from another problem I often see in big name animation - Great art, poor animation. If you've ever seen the IRONMAN animated film that came out not too long ago, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. The characters, and especially the backgrounds and settings, are all very well done. They each have a very deep, intense mood and atmosphere to them, as a story of this kind should have. The characters are all nicely detailed and fully realized in design. But the animation, with the exception of the second segment, is somewhat choppy, and the lip syncing is abysmal (even the average dubbed japanese animation can keep it mildly decent, as to not be too distracting) despite the overall excellent voice acting.
But alas, I will be giving a brief overlook to each individual segment.
SEGMENT 1 - The Descent into Hell - Charon's ride
[small]By Film Roman - Director Victor Cook
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Our story begins with a recitation of the first line of the Divine Comedy - "At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost...". It then shows us our protagonist, a lone crusader named Dante, as he rides through a dark wood, on his way home to his family estate in order to reunite with his love, Beatrice, after serving 3 long, harsh years in the war.[/small]
Basically, after doing some matrix moves on his horse in order to fight off some lions, he returns home, finds his servants, father, and love interest all murdered. He mourns over his fallen love, then witnesses her soul as it is dragged away by Lucifer. He gives pursuit, has to fight off some of hell's minions, Beatrice and Lucifer go through the gate of hell, Dante gets a Cross sown onto his chest, Virgil drops by and helps him get into Hell, they ride Charon to the first circle of hell, Dante gets Death's scythe out of nowhere (literally, it's just lying there on the ground for no reason), he fights some flying demons, crashes Charon into a spiky rock cliff, then Dante and Virgil continue towards the first circle of Hell - Limbo.
As you might have guessed, this isn't so much about the story as it is the action and the setting. The artwork and style here is somewhat generic, but passable, as is the animation. Though you can see quite often during the fight sequences a fair amount of choppiness and lack of flow in the movement. Again, not a deal breaker, but nothing necessarily great either. Admittedly, this segment most closely resembles the look of the video game its based on, for better or for worse.
The setting is great, and as soon as Dante descends into hell, the sight of flaming shades and souls screaming as they rocket towards the rocky landscape of Hell's entrance is more than enough to inform the viewer of where they are.
The biggest problems are the fact that the scythe Dante uses throughout his journey - Death's Scythe - literally comes out of nowhere, and Dante just picks it up and uses it like a pro. Also, the fight scene on Charon was somewhat gratuitous, and the climax of Charons ride felt unnecessarily violent. But alas, were traveling through hell with a scythe wielding crusader and a buff, bald spirit guide, so I suppose it should be expected.
SEGMENT 2 - Limbo - And the great judge of the damned, King Minos
[small]By Manglobe - Director Shukou Murase[/small]
Here we follow Dante as he battles unbaptized babies, enters the gathering place of all of life's greatest poets and famous virtuous pagans. We then meet the great King Minos, a Godzilla sized serpent humanoid whos duty is to judge the souls of all who descend into hell. Dante fights him, kills him in the most gruesome way possible, then descends further into Hell along with Virgil.This segment is definitely the strongest in terms of production values. The art, style, atmosphere, mood, setting, and animation are all great here. I believe this particular section was created by the same people who made Samurai Champloo, and their style definitely oozes something awesome here, which makes it all the more saddening that plot-wise this segment is the most lacking in impact and significance.
If these guys had animated the final segment, it would have been like icing on the cake. Instead it comes across more as though you were given a giant chocolate chip cookie, and then right afterwards forced to consume several expired Nutrigrain bars.
SEGMENT 3 - Lust, Gluttony, Greed, and Anger
[small]By Dongwoo Animation - Director Nam Jong-Sik[/small]
We now follow Dante and Virgil as they traverse through the harsh and everlasting storm that is Lust, the bellies of Cerberus in Gluttony, a golden factory of torment in Greed, and the vile River Styx in Anger.This is the segment that irks me the most. This company has some of the worst style and lip-syncing of all the segments, and even more contradictory character designs, and yet they were given 4 WHOLE LEVELS OF HELL! Why!? Dante now looks like a girly, androgynous, even anorexic underwear model, Virgil now has a huge spiky afro and emo-styled make up, and all the females have these massive bug eyes, thus making them all look alien and deformed.
[small]Lookin' good, daddy-o.[/small]
Four of the most profound and atmospheric locations in Hell, all given to what was arguably the worst animation studio. To make it worse, the stories and plot here are also very important, and involve some much needed character development. Which, again, makes you wish they had assigned these parts of the story to Manglobe instead.
Their work here isn't necessarily terrible, its just the lowest quality of the bunch. The scene where Dante's father and Beatrice are talking with one another at dinner is handled particularly poorly.
Lucifer bites Beatrice's head in half, then rips her spirit arms and legs off. Kinda creepy and also not executed as well as it could have, but it's pretty funny to watch, none the less.
SEGMENT 4 - The City of Dis, and the circles of Hell known as Heresy and Violence
[small]By JM Animation - Director Lee Seung-Gyu[/small]
Dante and Virgil make their way through the burning City of Dis in Heresy, and across the plains of Violence. Dante also meets his mother and brother Francesco in these circles.They decided to make Phlegyas into some sort of giant armadillo looking thing. Also, the entire style for this segment has an almost typical cutesy-pootsy anime style here. It's technically well done, but aesthetically speaking its just distracting and almost feels out of place.
SEGMENT 5 - Fraud - Beatrice's corruption and redemption
[small]By JM Animation - Director Kim Sang-Jin[/small]
Dante must now travel across the 10 Malebolge in the circle of Hell known as Fraud. At its end he must fight a corrupted Beatrice, discover why Dante's brother was cast into the Inferno, and head towards his final battle in the last circle of Hell.The irony of this segment is that, while the art and character design is some of the worst here, the animation and movement and emotions expressed is top notch. It's also, yet again in the most ironic of ways, the cheapest segment, due to it's ever so slight amount of scene recycling. It isn't too noticeable though, and overall this segment is fun to watch. Definitely one of the better ones.
SEGMENT 6 - Treachery - Lucifer's plight, and Dante's redemption
[small]By Production I.G. - Director Yasoumi Umetsu[/small]
We reach the end of our hero's journey, travel the icy realm of Treachery, discover Lucifer's plan, and end it all in Purgatory.This is yet another ironic segment. The animation is great, and the final fight with Lucifer feels appropriately intense and desperate. But, yet again, this segment contains even more scene recycling, and the character designs, mostly of Dante and Lucifer's "released" form, look downright stupid.
WHY, exactly, is Dante "Hulk-ified" here? And Lucifer's "released" form looks far too stylized. The lip-syncing is also perhaps at its worst here, completely unable to keep up with the voice actors as they portray great range and emotion.
BUT, at the same time, the animation and action are great, and the conclusion is satisfyingly vague (if that makes any sense).
If Lucifer wanted Dante to kill his "big" form in the first place to release him, then why did he put up such a hard fight? Why did he make it so hard for Dante to get to him? Nit-picking, I know, but it still seemed kind of odd to me.
CONCLUSION
Overall, it's a fun adventure, with some great atmosphere and voice acting, and enough action to satiate those seeking it. Though it lacks the overall impact and substance of The Animatrix, nor is it as memorable. I would suggest borrowing it from a friend or renting it if possible. Its far too short and light on substance for anything more than that.
