18/07/2024 - In their over-the-top animation hit, Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski create a fascinating world populated by magical beasts, but the narrative arc is disappointingly stereotypical

After a strong festival run back in 2021, when it won the Innovator Award at Sundance, the over-the-top, eccentric and skilfully handmade adult animation hit Cryptozoo recently screened at Fest Anča in Žilina. In this second independent feature by acclaimed American graphic novelist and filmmaker Dash Shaw and animation director Jane Samborski, the protagonists must save a slew of magical beasts from the US Army.

Set in an Orwellian version of 1960s America, the film shows a military world populated by sentient creatures called cryptids. Some cryptids are familiar mythical beasts - think minotaurs, dragons, krakens, winged horses - that come from Polish, Nordic, Mesopotamian or Greek mythologies, while others look as if they have stepped out of the surrealist paintings of Leonora Carrington.

Out in the wild, they are humiliated, abused, hunted down and killed. On top of that, the army hires smugglers to kidnap this weird wondrous bunch in order to use them as biological weapons against an unnamed enemy. The cryptids’ only means of survival is to take refuge in the Cryptozoo, a sanctuary where they can hide.

Joan (voiced by Grace Zabriskie), who runs and funds the Cryptozoo, is an apparently benevolent old lady and mastermind akin to Judi Dench’s M in the Bond series. She employs the younger Lauren (Lake Bell), an idealistic veterinarian whose fighting skills would make Lara Croft blush, and the gorgon Phoebe (Angeliki Papoulia), who hides her deadly snakes under a headscarf. Together, this crew is on a mission to find a unique Japanese cryptid named Mariko. Known as a baku, this cross between a pig and a baby elephant is of particular interest to the army for its special power to suck out people’s dreams and memories. If the state could somehow control people’s dreams, it could control their will. “Without dreams, there could be no future”, Joan says early in the film.

There is a sense of earnestness that permeates the film’s theme and aesthetic. As a result, the surrealist imagery of the phantasmagorical alternate reality affirms this approach, yet the central arc of Lauren’s hero journey sits too conveniently between good and evil. She is somewhat conflicted by the fact that the zoo will sell plush toys of the cryptids and function as a full-blown Disneyland, commodifying the creatures. Meanwhile, the film jabs at the blind self-righteousness of people like Joan who have decided that the Cryptozoo, and thus captivity, is a better life for the cryptids. Who is the evil one then? The US military, the self-righteous Joan or the complicit Lauren?

That said, the world of Cryptozoo is fascinating as it oscillates between a utopian vision - with expressionistic bright colours that highlight the oddness of cryptids - and the dystopian image of landscapes and small towns drawn in pastel shades that add an alarmingly realistic touch. The characters are mostly drawn in natural watercolour tones, as seen with Lauren’s mane of red hair or Joan’s wrinkles. The gorgon Phoebe is strikingly painted in monochrome, which sets her apart from the other characters. The soundscape includes the original score by American musician John Carrol Kirby, who goes for a quiet yet rhythmic combination of synthesisers and flutes, reminding us of the folkloric origins of many cryptids.

On the whole, the film’s animation brings verve and vivaciousness to an otherwise rather  stereotypical narrative. Shaw gestures towards the duality of good and evil, but ultimately, Cryptozoo fails to sufficiently elaborate on this dichotomy in cryptid nature, which results in them being perceived only as raw material for exploitation or a self-serving vehicle for redemption.

Cryptozoo is a United States production by Fit Via Vi Films, Electric Chinoland, Washington Square Films, Low Spark Films, and Cinereach. World sales are managed by United Talent Agency (UTA).