Following on from two cult hits: House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, El Superbeasto wasn't the hit Rob Zombie hoped for, but to go from gory horror to adult animation was a bold move. It reminded me a lot of the wacky style of Ren & Stimpy or even Tex Avery cartoons, mixed with meta humour of The Simpsons, South Park and the adult humour of Ralph Bakshi animated films. Let's be honest it's not as good as any of those previously mentioned, but it's not outright bad and in places it is laugh out loud funny.
The film features El Superbeasto who looks like Santo the Mexican wrestler and appears to be some sort of James Bond figure as well as a porn star. Suzi X is his sidekick, a cheerleader type woman who is also an allround martial artist, super spy and sex symbol. Suzi X steals Hitler's reanimated head from a castle. Meanwhile a mad professor in the form of Satan is trying to find a bride. To be honest I lost the plot with this one.
The fun of this film is spotting the references everything from The Munsters,Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Bride of Frankenstein to Village People's YMCA . The animation is computer generated and looks better than most, if not all TV animations of the the time. It's very bright and very wacky with overexagerrated facial expressions and movements, but it's not necessarily beautiful especially compared to 00s Ghibli.
I had a few big laugh out moments from El Superbeasto, but I'm a big fan of crude, vulgar humour. That said it's less funny than the best episodes of South Park, Beavis & Butthead etc. It has to be said the voice acting and original music are both excellent and elevate the production values beyond that of a late night HBO animated series. It is a fun ride, but didn't really hold my attention even for the short runtime.
On Censorship: The UK DVD has an 18 certificate, but the film was passed uncut at 15, indicating the extras my have pushed it up to an 18. The film is very violent and has a lot of sexual humour albeit played for laughs. The film is fairly easy to get hold and as you would expect from a newish film both the DVD and BR have a superb print and 5.1 sound.
The film features El Superbeasto who looks like Santo the Mexican wrestler and appears to be some sort of James Bond figure as well as a porn star. Suzi X is his sidekick, a cheerleader type woman who is also an allround martial artist, super spy and sex symbol. Suzi X steals Hitler's reanimated head from a castle. Meanwhile a mad professor in the form of Satan is trying to find a bride. To be honest I lost the plot with this one.
The fun of this film is spotting the references everything from The Munsters,Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Bride of Frankenstein to Village People's YMCA . The animation is computer generated and looks better than most, if not all TV animations of the the time. It's very bright and very wacky with overexagerrated facial expressions and movements, but it's not necessarily beautiful especially compared to 00s Ghibli.
I had a few big laugh out moments from El Superbeasto, but I'm a big fan of crude, vulgar humour. That said it's less funny than the best episodes of South Park, Beavis & Butthead etc. It has to be said the voice acting and original music are both excellent and elevate the production values beyond that of a late night HBO animated series. It is a fun ride, but didn't really hold my attention even for the short runtime.
On Censorship: The UK DVD has an 18 certificate, but the film was passed uncut at 15, indicating the extras my have pushed it up to an 18. The film is very violent and has a lot of sexual humour albeit played for laughs. The film is fairly easy to get hold and as you would expect from a newish film both the DVD and BR have a superb print and 5.1 sound.