Love Death + Robots (Netflix series)

[Neil]

wUFwunMKa4E

This is a series of individual 10-15 minute animated episodes. Really enjoying is so far (5 episodes in).

Note: Some mature content in places!

[MinionZombie]

I added this to the watch list the other day, but haven't started on it just yet.

It's all different topics and styles, right?

[shootemindehead]

That trailer is fucking annoying.

:mad:

[MinionZombie]

That trailer is fucking annoying.

:mad:

:lol::lol::lol:

You wot? It's bangin'! :D

I must start on this soon, a good little filler for awkward amounts of time (and something better to do that channel hop).

[Neil]

I added this to the watch list the other day, but haven't started on it just yet.

It's all different topics and styles, right?
Very different... yes...

[shootemindehead]

:lol::lol::lol:

You wot? It's bangin'! :D

I must start on this soon, a good little filler for awkward amounts of time (and something better to do that channel hop).

It gave me a bangin' headache.

I might have a look at the show, but I'm certainly not watching that trailer again.

[MinionZombie]

I watched the first short-in-the-series last night - the one about the 'mind meld fighting monsters'. Amazing CGI animation in that! The detail, the texture, the design, the use of colour - all fantastic - and a neat little story to go along with it. Mind you, I was a smidge confused by the ending...

So the main lady in it - with the scars on her face - that body was just synthetic, but she was 'in the cloud' ... but then was she also inside the monster? Or was the monster what she was actually inside of, and the humanoid body was just the 'public face'?


It gave me a bangin' headache.

I might have a look at the show, but I'm certainly not watching that trailer again.

:lol::lol::lol:

- - - Updated - - -

Okay, so having watched "Sonnie's Edge" last night (the mind meld monster fighting one), I watched "Three Robots" (comedy, three robots tour a post-humanity earth while on holiday), "The Witness" (action drama, a witness to a murder attempts to escape in a surreal city), and "Suits" (action, farmers ward off an alien invasion using mechs).

Anyway - so that's four so far, and all four have been excellent. "Three Robots" was wonderfully funny and charming, a little bit Pixar but with a grown up edge to it. "The Witness" has a superb visual style that is a curious blend of real and CGI (so it seems) to form a sort of hyper-real look. I was watching this as the window cleaner came along - and naturally just as he started washing the window facing the TV, that's when the bit where the lead character performs a strip show, grinding boobs 'n' bush into the camera :lol::lol::lol: ... ... and then "Suits" was really good fun, too. That one has a sort of mixture between CGI and a hand drawn look (combined with a lower frame rate), and I got surprisingly wrapped up in the stakes and the human drama going on amidst all the big, ballsy fun.

Tim Miller (Deadpool) and David Fincher (as if you don't know who he is!) are the two producers.

Shoot - definitely give it a looksee!

[shootemindehead]

Yeh, I've watched a few. Hit and miss, but good. The robots on holiday was pretty decent. The Nordy girl in space was a bit off as I thought the voice acting was a bit flat and some of the animation/modelling didn't convince. The one with the Russians in WWII was ok, but it's easily the best animated thing I've seen in years and the one with Mary Elizabeth Winsted was funny(ish).

- - - Updated - - -

So, I've watched a good few of these now and, as I suppose is to be expected, they are wildly inconsistent. I couldn't finish a couple of them because I thought they were awful, like 'Sonnie's Edge' - just irritating - and 'The Sucker of Souls', which was so marred by awful, "hip" characters, I had to turn it off.

There are some genuine good episodes in there though, like 'The Witness', 'Suits', 'When the Yogurt Took Over' and 'The Dump'.

The show is like one of those old fashioned gag comedians, in that if one joke fails to land, you'll get another one along soon that might and you won't have to wait too long for it.

[Neil]

I watched the first short-in-the-series last night - the one about the 'mind meld fighting monsters'. Amazing CGI animation in that! The detail, the texture, the design, the use of colour - all fantastic - and a neat little story to go along with it. Mind you, I was a smidge confused by the ending...

So the main lady in it - with the scars on her face - that body was just synthetic, but she was 'in the cloud' ... but then was she also inside the monster? Or was the monster what she was actually inside of, and the humanoid body was just the 'public face'?



:lol::lol::lol:

- - - Updated - - -

Okay, so having watched "Sonnie's Edge" last night (the mind meld monster fighting one), I watched "Three Robots" (comedy, three robots tour a post-humanity earth while on holiday), "The Witness" (action drama, a witness to a murder attempts to escape in a surreal city), and "Suits" (action, farmers ward off an alien invasion using mechs).

Anyway - so that's four so far, and all four have been excellent. "Three Robots" was wonderfully funny and charming, a little bit Pixar but with a grown up edge to it. "The Witness" has a superb visual style that is a curious blend of real and CGI (so it seems) to form a sort of hyper-real look. I was watching this as the window cleaner came along - and naturally just as he started washing the window facing the TV, that's when the bit where the lead character performs a strip show, grinding boobs 'n' bush into the camera :lol::lol::lol: ... ... and then "Suits" was really good fun, too. That one has a sort of mixture between CGI and a hand drawn look (combined with a lower frame rate), and I got surprisingly wrapped up in the stakes and the human drama going on amidst all the big, ballsy fun.

Tim Miller (Deadpool) and David Fincher (as if you don't know who he is!) are the two producers.

Shoot - definitely give it a looksee!

She was in the monster... And her avatar was her humanoid form. Everyone else of course was a regular human, and using their monster as their avatar. Her edge, was that she was the monster!
RE graphics, see what you think of Lucky 13 :)

[MinionZombie]

Neil - ah, yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up. I'd kinda figured that was probably the case, but it was just a smidge confusing when I watched it.

Hmmm ... I really enjoyed Sonnie's Edge. Superb animation and design. Sure, it wasn't so much about character (e.g. "Suits" had more character depth), but it's a thrilling way to kick things off.

Watched some more last night.

"Sucker of Souls" was a bit meh. I didn't really get into that one, and the opening sequence was kinda confusing (was it a flash forward? But why were there only two of them, which doesn't gel with the quartet who are fleeing by the end of the short).

"When The Yogurt Took Over" was good fun and didn't outstay its welcome. A nifty, kooky little idea well executed.

Then I skipped ahead to squeeze in a little one with "Alternate Histories". Multiple ways of killing Hitler? Naturally I had to check it out. Again, a good little bit of fun that was enjoyably wacky.

Here's an odd thing from the Wiki page:


In March 2019, Netflix revealed that it was experimenting with a new approach by including a different order of episodes to different users. In response to an accusation that the episode order was based on the streaming company's perception of a user's sexual orientation, Netflix responded via Twitter that there were four unique episode orders, released to users at random.

I had noticed that the order on Wiki was slightly different from the order on my list (although most of the order is identical to what's listed on Wiki).

I see that some reviewers have been rather sniffy about it, essentially crying about nudity and sex being involved. Some idiots have complained that it's not for kids ... yeah, no shit, like a huge amount of other material available on Netflix! LD+R was never supposed to be for kids, anyway! Morons. Speaking of morons, I saw one review where the critic begrudgingly gave the series a "C" grade ... after having only watched six out of eighteen shorts. :rolleyes: Living their lives getting paid to be offended by art they've only half-bothered watching ... where can I get a job like that?

- - - Updated - - -


RE graphics, see what you think of Lucky 13 :)

I preferred the visual style of "Sonnie's Edge" and "The Witness", however "Lucky 13" was very impressive in its own right (it went more for near-realism).

More shorts done, more thoughts:

"Lucky 13" - I really dug this one, the love between one woman and her machine (a drop ship). I got kinda wrapped up in it and felt the kinship there. Good action, sweet mocap, cool story.

"Ice Age" - a few bits of dialogue were a smidge clunky, and a little bit of finesse here and there could have lifted it up a touch, I did still quite enjoy it. You've just gotta go with it (a civilisation is living inside an old fridge and its moving at an accelerated rate), and dig it for what it is: a nifty bit of fun with a wacky premise.

[bassman]

I watched the first few entries, but these aren’t generally “my thing”, as they say. Some gorgeous animation, though!:eek:

[MinionZombie]

"The Dump" - quite a goofy one about a giant garbage monster, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Helping Hand" - a lone astronaut has to go to extreme lengths to get back to their ship. Again, I enjoyed this one, although the facial animation looked a bit weird and I did think "where the hell are your straps/harnesses?!" (to keep her attached to the ship at all times) when she was performing the EVA.

[Neil]

"The Dump" - quite a goofy one about a giant garbage monster, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Helping Hand" - a lone astronaut has to go to extreme lengths to get back to their ship. Again, I enjoyed this one, although the facial animation looked a bit weird and I did think "where the hell are your straps/harnesses?!" (to keep her attached to the ship at all times) when she was performing the EVA.

I liked Lucky 13 :)

[MinionZombie]

"Zima Blue" - an interesting little idea. Wasn't all that fussed about it, but some nice imagery and a nifty central conceit.

"Blindspot" - didn't really like this one all that much. There wasn't really any story to it, just an action sequence. Some good animation and they injected some life and fun into the vague characters, but it did leave me rather cold generally.

"Secret War" - Russian soldiers battling hellspawn during WWII. Excellent CGI animation, great look to it, and I enjoyed the violence and action. Felt quite atmospheric and part of a wider story. The editing of the last few scenes needed a bit of finesse, maybe just how a couple of those final moments were staged, but overall I rather liked this one.

I think I've got four more to go now.

[shootemindehead]

Finished out these. The vast majority are mediocre to poor, but there's a few good ones in there.

Some surprisingly dull voiceover work though in more than a couple of episodes, I thought.

[MinionZombie]

Likewise I finished them off the other day, although my overall opinion of the series is higher than shoot's. I enjoyed the vast majority of the shorts quite a bit.

"Beyond the Aquila Rift" - again, great CGI animation and design. Not a hugely original type of story, but then again it's so rare to come up with something unique these days (if at all possible). A solid little sci-fi tale.

"Good Hunting" - initially I wasn't so much into this one, but it gradually pulled me in and I found it quite interesting as it segued into a steampunk version of Hong Kong under British rule. Not for the easily offended, though.

"Shape-Shifters" - I really enjoyed this one. Kinda takes the term "dog soldiers" literally in the setting of the Afghanistan war. Again, great CGI animation and design, good amount of action, and generally quite enjoyable.

"Fish Night" - it's got that kind of cell shaded style of animation and initially I wasn't so keen on it, but then the animation got really beautiful. However, it just ends rather suddenly and there doesn't seem to be much point to it.

[Neil]

Finished out these. The vast majority are mediocre to poor, but there's a few good ones in there.

Some surprisingly dull voiceover work though in more than a couple of episodes, I thought.

Shame... My summary was a couple were mediocre and the rest were different degrees of enjoyable. Definately looking forwards to a season 2...

[blind2d]

Shame... My summary was a couple were mediocre and the rest were different degrees of enjoyable. Definately looking forwards to a season 2...

After watching them all with one of my girlfriends, I agree with Neil. :)

[shootemindehead]

Shame... My summary was a couple were mediocre and the rest were different degrees of enjoyable. Definately looking forwards to a season 2...

It's an interesting idea, but they really need to tighten things up a lot and characters need to be written much better. The most entertaining of all of the episodes was 'Three Robots', which worked well, apart from the cat ending which was kinda meh.

But, the major problem with each episode was that they all ran out of steam very quickly, even though they're all under 15 minutes long.

[MinionZombie]

Sometimes it's a struggle to get enough character into a short film when you've also got to wrestle an entire plot from start to finish inside a tight running time. That said, it's not impossible, and yeah, some needed a bit more work in terms of characterisation. I see that many were based on short stories that were then adapted by the same dude ... perhaps if the adaptations had been split 50/50 with another screenwriter there would have been more time left over to work on the finer details?

Still, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Only a couple of weak links IMHO.

[shootemindehead]

Sometimes it's a struggle to get enough character into a short film

True, but I'm not talking about "enough" character, as it were. I'm talking more about tropes. What I mean is that they (and they're not alone in this) litter the stories with hip arseholes, whose idea of good dialogue is badly written kwel yap that's drenched in quips and unfunny attempts at humour. The writers think that's what the kids want to hear and they think they're oh so gas, but it just makes everyone sound like a prick.

I'm so sick of it and it infects nearly everything these days.

[Neil]

Season 2 out on Netflix ;)

[MinionZombie]

Season 2 out on Netflix ;)

Only 8 episodes this time around, but good quality and I blasted all eight on Friday.

"Automated Customer Service" was really good fun, but I wasn't so fussed with "Ice" personally (just felt like it didn't really go anywhere). I really dug the look and feel of "Pop Squad" and "Snow In The Desert", while "The Tall Grass" had a really interesting visual style and moved along nicely. "All Through The House" had an almost stop motion look to it and was quite enjoyable and very brisk, while "Life Hutch" had some amazingly almost photo-real CGI (similar to "Snow In The Desert" in that regard even though they were by different animations studios), and finally "The Drowned Giant" was a weird but enjoyable piece with some striking imagery.

Obviously they must be splitting the episode order over two years and two volumes - the first volume was eighteen shorts, but this is only eight and so the overall running time is naturally much shorter than beforehand.

It does also feel like they took fright at the negative initial reviews of volume one (which, once you actually looked at them, were all based on clickbaity churnos getting their knickers in a twist having only reviewed six-out-of-eighteen shorts!!!, morons who were looking to cram their wokeness down their readers' throats and wring their hands like some pious tosspot) ... and so this selection of shorts is almost entirely devoid of sexuality, unlike the more daring first volume. I wonder if Miller and Fincher were trying to be a bit more esoteric with this selection. It has moments of violence (e.g. "Life Hutch" and "Snow In The Desert" with gloopy headshots and crushed body parts), but that too is softer by comparison.

The first volume had a really broad range of stories and styles and feels, while this second volume feels a bit more limited in range (but again, it's eight shorts vs eighteen).

[MinionZombie]

y105qh6gF3M

So "All Through The House" was stop motion animation after all! I knew it had the look, and wondering if it could be, but just assumed they'd somehow made CGI look like stop motion.

BWB507yaBXI