 |
| Image courtesy of Synapse Films |
In recent years between the internet and home video, the
multimedia verse has seen the rise and proliferation of the internet animated
web series. Whether it’s Salad
Fingers, David Lynch’s Dumbland, Burnie Burns’ Red vs. Blue, Vivienne
Medrano’s crossover from web series Helluva Boss into the mainstream
with Hazbin Hotel and more recently Michael Bay’s announcement of a Skibidi
Toilet film, the internet is like a broken dam gushing forth into the
mainstream. Often comprised of short
episodes sometimes ranging from a few minutes to twenty or more, usually
cropping up on YouTube before being picked up by distribution deals, the web
series format is not only forming a sizable presence in streaming media but
also the physical media format as well.
Case in point: Synapse Films’ director’s cut release of YouTuber
Michael Neel’s animated web series Infinite Santa 8000. Originally created as a thirteen-episode program
with episodes running about three minutes or so, in 2013 Neel recut the series
into a feature including redoing a number of shots and expanding the length of
the short series into that of an expansive two-hour film. Presented here for the first time with
running audio commentary by co-creators Neel and co-author Greg Ansin, the
three-years-in-the-making project primarily created with hand drawn animation
and some occasional 3D effects in Photoshop CS4 with animation in After FX CS4
comes to blu-ray from Synapse Films in a limited-to-1,000 copies slipcover
special edition.
In the year 8,000 exists a post-apocalyptic Mad Max landscape
of roboticized cyborgs, mutants and criminals devoid of humanity which has been
wiped out. People must kill not only to survive,
but to earn money to buy food to eat. No
one is free of the world’s wicked ways, including a roboticized Santa (Duane
Bruce) who spends his days in gladiatorial arenas fighting off robots and
monsters. At home in his secluded Santa
Ranch lives his roboticized girlfriend Martha (Tara Henry) who is kidnapped by
the evil disfigured James Bond villain Dr. Shackleton (again Tara Henry). Armed to the teeth with weaponry and his
trusty roboticized reindeer at his beckon call, Santa ventures out into the
wasteland fending off any and all manner of mutant monsters, flying bat sharks
and a giant killer Easter Bunny.
Clearly subversive, ultraviolent, deranged and more or less
a beer-and-pizza animated epic that perhaps overstays its welcome a little bit
at 102 minutes, Infinite Santa 8000 is the kind of movie you’d stumble
upon flipping channels after hours before landing on Adult Swim. Replete with a heavy metal soundtrack and
over-the-top kills, it feels more than a little bit like Metalocalypse by
way of Frosty the Snowman. With
its off-kilter mixture of Christmas tropes, mixing disparate holidays ala The
Nightmare Before Christmas, and riffs on the newfound violent killer Santa
Claus from Fatman to Violent Night, it aims to be an insta cult
movie. Though some of it gets a little repetitive
like the endless scenes of Dr. Shackleton mouthing at the camera evilly, the
whole thing is kind of a homegrown lo-fi romp clearly having originated on the
world’s most popular streaming platform.
The kind of thing you’ll either judge by it’s cover or will
try on to see if it fits, Infinite Santa 8000 is very clearly not going
to be for everyone. In the time-honored
tradition of Synapse Films who have made themselves known as being on the
edgier side of the boutique releasing label horror landscape, Infinite Santa
8000 feels right at home with their back catalog of subversive and/or
transgressive features. Fun for parties
and/or animation aficionados keen on the web series format as a new cinematic
medium, Infinite Santa 8000 won’t open up new doorways of the mind as it
plainly asks you to check your brain at the door. But if you can turn your thinking cap off for
a little while, you’re bound to have some stupid over the top fun with this.
--Andrew Kotwicki
