By
Mark Betancourt
Arizona Daily Wildcat
AZ Film Fest's 'Mutant Aliens' and the lobotomy you'll need to watch it
The description provided by the Arizona International Film Festival program for the animated film, "Mutant Aliens," includes this phrase: "wildly humorous, yet poignant." Poignant used to have a not-stupid connotation, but the English language is apparently changing.
Wildly humorous, perhaps, is a more accurate description. Dogs and specks of dirt, in particular, are used in the film to provide at least one funny moment. Of course, people enjoy a wide variety of approaches to humor. If you like it when animated characters hump each other for no reason, this film is for you.
The plot is as follows: Earl Jensen, an astronaut, is abandoned in space by the evil Dr. Frubar. Earl finds his way back to Earth to exact revenge and reunite with his daughter, Josie, but not before living for 20 years on a planet populated by various creatures - one of whom becomes Earl's wife - that resemble features of the human face. For the most part, the events of the story serve to connect the different humping scenes together.
Something about drawing must really get people hot. At any given point during "Mutant Aliens," it is safe to say some kind of sexual transgression will take place within five minutes. While many animators stop at human intercourse, "Mutant Aliens" explores new frontiers by throwing walking noses and mutant animals into the mix. Earl has his way with pretty much anything that moves.
Josie is a character with great depth, however. How else were they going to show boobies?
As for laughing, "Mutant Aliens" practically begs to be ridiculed. Not that the laughter isn't hearty, but it's difficult to avoid the waves of depression that ultimately follow each time the film's diseased plot takes a new turn.
There are a few moments, however, when a faint glimmer of hope sparkles through the sinking feeling. Parts of this film are genuinely funny. The unexpected is still a reliable source of laughter, and "Mutant Aliens" certainly provides surprises. It may be unbearably stupid, but at least it isn't predictable.
Scary as it may be, "Mutant Aliens" is the latest and greatest from an up-and-coming animation filmmaker, Bill Plympton. It was enthusiastically accepted to the Arizona International Film Festival. It may be easy to toss this film aside as a reject, but then again, no one tossed "Armageddon," "Forrest Gump" or practically any of the romantic comedies that came out this year. In fact, they were huge hits.
Maybe film is changing. Sure, it looked like film was headed in a seriously artistic direction over the last few years, but films like "American History X" may have been the last sparkles of afterglow in a dying movement.
"Mutant Aliens" will probably entertain countless people, as have generations of adult animated film before it. And, in many ways, they have every right to be entertained. There's no real evidence that one film is better than another, and in the end, viewers only watch what they truly enjoy. The intellectual approach to film viewing is old news. It's time to have some fun. So what if slugs are the target audience for "Mutant Aliens" - why split hairs?
