Sean Meredith’s cheerful, modernized look at the Dante Aligeri classic (adapted by Meredith, Paul Zaloom, Sandow Birk & Marcus Sanders), using simple two-dimensional cutout stick puppets cavorting on fanciful, toy-sized forced-perspective stage sets of painted cardboard flats, does a neat trick getting across all the various levels of punishment to fit the crime & past sins of weak and/or wicked humans. More living comic book than artful graphic novel, story takes a back seat to the pleasure of seeing how the creative team tackles the next visual challenge. Consistently involving, if not consistently enlightening; reaching a visual peak toward the end when the style turns yet more limited, suggesting the black & white/silhouette animation technique of the pioneering Lotte Reiniger.* But then, shortly after, touching bottom with a painted live actor standing in as Lucifer. (Talk about dropping the ball.) Still, if not always hitting the sweet spot between wacky fun and refreshing homage, close enough to work as eccentric intro to a difficult work.
LINK/DOUBLE-BILL: *At an hour & twenty minutes, Reiniger’s best known work, THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED/’26 , is, perhaps, too much silhouette animation! But her many shorts are tough to find. Here’s a neat, if somewhat heavy-handed, mini-bio to get started on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gm9kZLP0uE
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