Night of the Animated Dead (animated remake)

[MinionZombie]

What on earth is the point of this? It's just a remake, but animated (dodgily by the looks of things), with the characters and locations looking the same as the original movie ... I mean ... how did they score the voice cast? And this is from Warners?

[paranoid101]

We continue to pay for for the copyright cockup.

[sandrock74]

This is from Warner Bros? The animation looks really spotty. I'd expect better from them.

[EvilNed]

This is from Warner Bros? The animation looks really spotty. I'd expect better from them. It's distributed by Warner bros., not produced. Anyway, the point of this is that the rights are free and it's a recognizable brand. Thus it's easy money.

[Neil]

we continue to pay for for the copyright cockup. lol!! - - - Updated - - - What on earth is the point of this? It's just a remake, but animated (dodgily by the looks of things), with the characters and locations looking the same as the original movie ... I mean ... how did they score the voice cast? And this is from Warners? Bizarre!

[MinionZombie]

Yep - still looks absolutely fucking pointless!

[Moon Knight]

Has there been a franchise milked to death like the Romero films? Talking about Night and Day for the most part. Yikes.

[beat_truck]

Sooo, it's going to be a poorly animated remake with the script being word for word the same as the original or very close to it..... alrighty then.

[MinionZombie]

Sooo, it's going to be a poorly animated remake with the script being word for word the same as the original or very close to it..... alrighty then. It's set to make 1998's "Psycho" remake look like a wonderful idea, then.

[Neil]

Anyone watched this yet? Seems to include scenes of Ben in town?

[deadhead412]

So I watched the recent Night of the Animated Dead film and what can I say? It had an interesting voice cast and presumably a real studio behind it, but ultimately its another casualty of the Night of the Living Dead copyrite SNAFU. I fear we will continue paying for the sins of the Walter Reade Organization. It did nothing new besides some added gore, and brief flashback to Ben's escape from Beekman's Diner(which was the most interesting component of the flick). Beyond that it was flat, too derivative, and the animation was cheap looking. But it did cause me to revisit the OG Night remake, Tom Savini's 1990 outing. I hadn't seen it in years when I was little and rented it on VHS and I remember that it didn't stick with me more compared to Night '68. But I loved it this time. First off the zombies are possibly the best put to screen maybe second to Day of the Dead. They really feel like dead things coming at you. Tony Todd is a masterful Ben who I almost favor over Duane Jones' interpretation. He's a bit more dimensional and on the edge. One minute he's crying the next he's motivating his upstairs crew. Patricia Tallman brings a more modern and sensible Barbara to screen. William Butler reinterprets Tom into more of a terrified kid which makes his actions later in the movie make more sense. Overall this universe feels much more real as well. Where in the original our characters kind of shrug off the idea the dead are reanimating and attacking people and the news reports this really earth shattering news as a matter of fact pretty calmly. But in the remake we see people and the media struggle with the idea and realizing the truth behind the crisis scares the hell out of them. Drawbacks do exist. While it kind of works for me, Tom Towles hams it up a bit making Cooper a more overt asshole as opposed to his more scared/cowardly counterpart in the original. The soundtrack is kind of dated and boarders on cheesy. It also lacks the claustrophobic feeling in the original. The MPA robbed a freaking Tom Savini production of its special effects(You can find the workprint version with the gore intact).

[beat_truck]

The workprint is nothing to get excited over. There is one extended shot of a zombie's head exploding from a shotgun blast. A tiny bit more gore from the McGruder zombie getting shot. The shot of the of fire poker being pulled out of Uncle Rege's head is extended, but the special effects used for it aren't the best looking, so not much loss there. Maybe a little more blood splatter from a few head shots. Not much else is different besides an alternate / extended opening sequence and a few bits of extra dialogue. Plus a different soundtrack, mostly lifted from other horror movies.

[JDP]

With Savini at the helm, the remake should have been a gore fest, it's his goddam' trademark. Yet it wasn't. Always found this very puzzling.

[Neil]

So I watched the recent Night of the Animated Dead film and what can I say? It had an interesting voice cast and presumably a real studio behind it, but ultimately its another casualty of the Night of the Living Dead copyrite SNAFU. I fear we will continue paying for the sins of the Walter Reade Organization. It did nothing new besides some added gore, and brief flashback to Ben's escape from Beekman's Diner(which was the most interesting component of the flick). Beyond that it was flat, too derivative, and the animation was cheap looking. I couldn't bring myself to watch it... And looks like it was the right move Thanks...

[MinionZombie]

Aye, no way in hell am I gonna watch this shit. As for Night 1990 ... if I could change one thing about it, it wouldn't be the gore first up - it'd be Judy Rose. The way the character is written and performed, toppling wildly from absolute hysteria and stupidity to awkwardly gung-ho is something I find so irritating. Sure, Tom Towles chews up the set a bit, but Judy Rose ... ... geez. I agree on the soundtrack. There's something very off about that score, it just doesn't fit, it feels kinda 'too light' or even a bit sci-fi channel at times, and hasn't aged well. The only track I actually really like is the end credits theme, but most other tracks, especially that opening track, kinda feels like an episode of Law & Order or some such thing. The library tracks chosen for Night really amplify the sense of doom about the whole situation and ramp up the horror. I do love the zombies in the Savini remake, though. Excellent make-up work, making the zombies look more 'realistic' for the freshly dead (e.g. the cemetery zombie - GREAT zombie sequence!) ... Barbara rocks in this. I loved the original, of course, but she didn't get a huge amount to do, whereas in this flick it's a bit more balanced between her and Ben. You can see the influence of Ellen Ripley on the character, and in a time long before Twitter and identity politics stinking up the joint, you can actually do something like Barbara in Night 1990 without making it all about that, you know? Or having everything grind to a halt so that the movie can tell the audience instead of show. Anyway, sudden tangent aside, I've always been a little bit here and there about Night 1990. Some parts I love, some parts I really struggle with. A handful of different things could've made it truly sing, but it ain't half bad by any means, and is certainly way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of all the other remakes/reboots/whatever of NOTLD we've seen since.