In 2014 Takahide Hori created a short film entitled "Junk Head 1". Than three years later he released a full length feature version of the short film simply entitled Junk Head. Now Synergetic is releasing this animation film on DVD.
Mankind can no longer reproduce because of gene manipulation aimed at making life longer. The clones ruling the bottomless underworld may have become fertile. Parton is selected to go on a mission through a subterranean labyrinth crawling with monsters to secure humanity's future.
The animation in this film is impressive to say the least. As an independent filmmaker myself and using just a 30 second scene in one of my films. I realize how much work that took to make that simple scene. I can only imagine how massive of an undertaking this was to make this film. I give Takahide Hori my upmost respect for all the work he put into making this labor of love.
The film says it is in English and the opening crawl is in English yes. But the actual language that is being spoke in this film I believe is a made up thing. It has a hint of Japanese to it, but I don't think it is Japanese. I don't speak Japanese so I cane say for sure. But that language is not necessary to the plot of this film. You can follow the story without hearing the dialogue. But without dialogue the story can be a bit confusing
The soundtrack really help along the scenes in this film. Especially in the chase scenes. The monsters you can tell are inspired by the Alien film series. And after all if you are going to make some scary creatures why not make it like the ones that gave most film fans nightmares. And for stop motion animation, there still is a pretty gruesome violence.
Junk Head won several awards including the best animated feature award in the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival. Also director Hori won the best director of a new wave feature in the 2017 Fantastic Festival. But one of the best probably was the positive reaction to this film by director Guillermo del Toro. If he likes your film , you did something right.
Now this film has been transferred to DVD in widescreen format. The audio soundtrack in a Dolby digital 2.0. One of the major problems with this release is there is no English subtitles. As I said before, not that it is specifically needed to enjoy this film, it's just would have been nice to see.
This film transfer is really spectacular. The picture is crisp and clean. The colors are vibrant taking you right inside the world created by Takahide Hori. The DVD as chapter selection, but that is all. There is no bonus features. I would love to have seen some behind the scenes featurettes or interviews with the director. But to see this incredibly ambitious film get an American film release is nice.
If you love stop motion animation and dystopian future films. I think you may just love "Junk Head".
Update: We have some exciting news! We just heard that this upcoming DVD release of Junk Head will be pulled and a new DVD pressing is coming complete with English subtitles. This is such great news! So a huge thank you to MVD for making this right. This is why we at Classic Cinema+ love MVD so much!
Out of Four Film Reels Sets (Four Being the Best) Synergetic's DVD release Junk Head receives....
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