Since 2008, director David Fincher has tried and failed to make a new version of Heavy Metal—the legendary sci-fi animated anthology film—a reality. Everyone from Tenacious D to James Cameron to Guillermo del Toro was rumored to be involved at one point or another. However, as many Fincher projects go, it never saw the light of day and is pretty much out of his hands. In the interim, Netflix picked it up, and now we have a new anthology of animated over-the-top violence, sexuality, and comedy in Love, Death + Robots, a collection of 18 (mostly) animated shorts ranging in length from 6 to 17 minutes involving, in theory, parts of the anthology’s title. Some range from good to amazing, but the whole thing is truly an experience to behold. Here’s a look at what to expect.
It takes violence and sex to the extreme
Let’s get this out of the way first. One of the most controversial aspects of the anthology has been the large amount of violence and nudity on display, with the titillation clearly made with straight dudes in mind. It’s hard to deny who is going to get the most from the sex scene in “Beyond the Aquila Rift,” in which a gorgeous nude woman pours champagne on her chest, but based on what happens later in the short, you can make argument that it was justified. Does the nudity serve the stories? Without spoiling the reveal, I’d say mostly yes. As for the violence, not every short is easy to stomach for the faint of heart (the squeamish should definitely avoid “Sonnie’s Edge” and “Helping Hand”), but most go beyond just violence for violence’s sake. Whether it be the claustrophobic horror of “Sucker of Souls” or showing what truly desperation to survive means in “Helping Hand,” Love, Death + Robots revels in its excesses, but almost always with purpose.
All of its animation is jaw-dropping
We’re all used to CGI reaching new heights every day, but the lingering memories of the uncanny valley in films like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and The Polar Express are still pretty raw. Some shorts in Love, Death + Robots—like “The Witness” or “Lucky 13”— use the same mimicry of the human form in their art styles, and they make us think it’s time to re-evaluate the situation. The work Blur Studio, Digic Pictures, and others have on display may convince Hollywood that maybe this hyper-realistic animation may have a place outside of creepy early-2000s memories and AAA video game ads. But it’s not just the CGI that blows you away. Shorts like “Zima Blue” and “Blindspot” give traditional animation love with brilliantly stylized looks that give me hope that this style isn’t completely dead and gone yet. The anthology clearly says it welcomes all animation forms, as long as you have the story to hold it up.
Don’t underestimate the comedy and storytelling
Science fiction is a writer’s playground and Love, Death + Robots should be Exhibit A for showing just how versatile a genre it can be, especially when it comes to the comedy. If a hilarious story about yogurt taking over the world or three robots hanging cracking jokes around the post-apocalypse can hang with the other grimdark segments, maybe science fiction can give comedy a swing, outside of Fox’s The Orville? But aside from the comedy, Love, Death + Robots continues science fiction’s tradition of asking varied, big, philosophical questions within a limited space. “Zima Blue” meditates on the purpose of life by interviewing a reclusive artist, while “Good Hunting” asks what we lose when we push innovation too far (in a steampunk take on early-1900s Hong Kong). Hitting messages hard like this in the short form is its own art, and some of the Love Death + Robots shorts will stick with you long after the last one plays. One question that I’m dying for an answer to though, is, will we get a Love Death + Robots: Session II?
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