When George A. Romero dropped his debut feature Night Of The Living Dead in 1968, few would guess how much it would truly revolutionize the horror genre. While the term “zombie” is never used in the film itself, Romero helped bring about a whole new interpretation of what that word meant as it took the traditional Haitian voodoo “zombie” (check out the film Zombi Child for more context) and shifted it towards towards the reanimated flesh-eating ghouls we know and love today. Yet, it was not just the flesh-eating that has allowed the film to endure; Night Of The Living Dead contained immense depth as it tackled topics as varied as the pitfalls of media, racism and American values in the 1960s. For such a landmark film, it feels like a slap in the face to Romero that a bureaucratic screw-up allowed the film to lapse into the public domain which has allowed the film to be exploited by parties far and wide. Some, such as the Romero-penned official remake from Tom Savini in 1990 honor the legacy of the original. Unfortunately, sometimes we get something like Night of the Animated Dead.
When this new animated adaptation from Jason Axinn was first announced, it seemed very unnecessary but there was at least a curiosity factor at play that they could do something inventive with the story. Somehow stay true to the social commentary of the original while updating it for a modern context (plus possibly a little extra gore) – is that too much to ask? Apparently so. Our worst fears about what this might end up being came true; Night of the Animated Dead takes the original text, strips it of all of the nuance and moments of tension-building, and adds copious amounts of gore in hopes of distracting bloodthirsty audience members. The film is practically sprinting through the key plot points as if it has an important engagement to get to after the ridiculously long credits have stopped rolling. The one creative thing that the film tries to add is a scene previously alluded to in the original, and it stands as one of the moments of fresh air. The film gets lazy by trying to play the greatest hits when it should have had the confidence to try out some new material.
If the new creative team had simply taken the entirety of the original film and just given it life through some gorgeous animation, the film still would have been redundant but it would have been a lot more watchable. They would not have needed to shave almost a half hour of desperately needed character beats and sustained dread. More importantly though, we would not have gotten a film that looks as if it was a student project uploaded to the internet. I have no doubt that the animators who worked on this film are good at what they do, but the direction they were given stylistically is unacceptable for a project of this stature. The movement is extremely stilted and awkward which makes any moments of potential dread dissipate almost instantly. There is nothing remotely scary about anything happening on screen, and the one moment of satisfying carnage takes place in the memorable pickup scene before once again falling back into boring predictability. Would it have killed them to increase the budget and get some quality animation?
We do have to show some love for the voice cast, who likely had no idea how poorly executed the final product would be. Just the fact that we have a Psych reunion between Dulé Hill and James Roday Rodriguez warms my heart a little bit. Josh Duhamel likely walked across the hall from the booth where he was recording his role as Harvey Dent in Batman: The Long Halloween to voice Harry Cooper here, and once again he does great work. In a bubble, the entire voice cast is doing good work, but they deserve better than what the final product delivers. It makes sense why everyone wanted this to happen, but there is not a world where this pleases most audience members. You are much better off going back and watching or rewatching the original classic.
Video Quality
Night Of The Animated Dead comes to Blu-Ray with a mostly pleasing 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The colors present in this transfer are nice and vibrant with the wide range of hues permeating the frame. This vividness is where the presentation truly shines. Black levels are strong, but even with the short running time there are some compression artifacts and light banding at points. Due to the animation style, textures and details are not the strongest. As mentioned, one of the oddities of the film is the lack of fluidity when it comes to character movement. These are aesthetic choices, though, and not a fault of the transfer or encode. This is a Blu-Ray presentation that should please audiences on a visual level who choose to seek it out.
Audio Quality
This release boasts an immersive DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that really packs a punch throughout the runtime. There is a significant amount of activity in the low-end due to the zombie siege and other kinetic moments. Dialogue comes through clearly without getting overwhelmed by any competing sound effects or score. The track engages all of the channels with panning effects and sounds of explosions that really makes you feel like you are in the thick of the onslaught. The sound design is by far the strongest part of this new effort. Warner Bros. has delivered a crackerjack audio presentation that brings it to life quite nicely.
Special Features
- Making Of – Animating The Dead: A ten-minute featurette with director Jason Axinn, producer Michael J. Luisi, and several key voice actors such as Josh Duhamel, Dulé Hill and Will Sasso. This is mostly an exercise in self-congratulations on what they created, but there are some insights into the animation process, the voice work and creative choices that curious fans may want to seek out. The moments where they show comparisons to the original film accentuate the disparity in quality between the two.
Final Thoughts
Night Of The Animated Dead is a misguided attempt to capitalize on a beloved property without wanting to put in the effort to do anything interesting to update it. The vocal performances are solid across the board, and we could probably give a shout out to the sound design, but everything else leaves you wanting significantly more. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has provided a Blu-Ray with a solid enough A/V presentation but not much in the way of special features.
Night Of The Animated Dead will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital on October 5, 2021.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.