Night of the Animated Dead
review by Bobby Blakey
“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”
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In 1968 the late George A. Romero set the tone for all zombie films with his classic film Night of the Living Dead. Now Warner Bros is bringing an unprecedented presentation of the story in a new way with the new feature Night of the Animated Dead featuring the voices of Josh Duhamel, Dulé Hill, Katharine Isabelle, James Roday Rodriguez, Katee Sackhoff, Will Sasso, Jimmi Simpson and Nancy Travis. Could this animated feature bring something fresh to the classic flick or should it have stayed buried?
Night of the Animated Dead follows siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania when they are suddenly set upon by zombies. Barbara flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with stranded motorist Ben and four local survivors found hiding in the cellar. Together, the group must fight to stay alive against the oncoming horde of zombies while also confronting their own fears and prejudices.
I wasn’t sure how well this was going to work so I made sure to revisit the original film so I could get the full scope of it connecting to the original. Let me say this isn’t just an animated remake or something this is a full on recreation of the film albeit with some new embellishments to the gore and some trimming of the story. This film trims the fat and brings some fun extra gore to bring the film into the blood filled present day.
The animation comes off a bit amateurish, but I think it might be by design to give it that old feeling of the time the original was made. The art design of the characters and everything around it was very simple, but still effective if you can relate it to the original feature. Those seeing as a new film and nothing more will likely not have the same frame of reference which does the film as a whole a disservice.
The story is streamlined to get to the point and ditched a lot of the slow build elements that built the tension of the other film. It’s not needed as
much for this one as it gets right to the fun of it all and incorporates more blood and dismemberment than was in place previously. In the end the film is a fun take on the classic doing it justice and bringing a bit more to help it stand out.
Revisit George A. Romero’s 1968 horror classic in this unprecedented presentation with Night of the Animated Dead available now on digital, Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.