Junk Head (Blu-ray Review)

Stop Motion Animation! I have loved it ever since I watched my first Ray Harryhausen film. Even after all these years and even with CGI getting better than I ever would have dreamed, there is still something so cool to me about the stop motion animation.

In 2014 Takahide Hori created a short film entitled "Junk Head 1". Then three years later he released a full-length feature version of the short film simply entitled Junk Head. Now after an error in the DVD release Synergetic and MVD Visual are releasing this animation film on Blu-ray.

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 opening film crawl is in English, but the actual film language is an unknown alien language. With this new Blu-ray release we get English subtitles so you can read the dialogue, and while it helps to have the English subtitles, the subtitles are not overtly necessary. I think most could figure out the plot without them.

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 Blu-ray in widescreen format. The audio soundtrack in a Dolby digital 2.0. As we noted above the language is alien dialect with English subtitles. The film transfer is really spectacular. The picture is crisp and clean. The colors are vibrant while the world is gritty and raw. It really takes you right inside the world created by Takahide Hori.

Now in addition to a really ambitious stop motion sci-fi adventure film. The Blu-ray also includes a special bonus featurette The Making of Junk Head. This feature takes you right into the amazing creation of this world and its creatures. A really nice bonus.

As much as I loved the DVD release of Junk Head I think this Blu-ray is better. I truly cannot recommend this film enough. For sci-fi fans, stop motion animation fans or just fans of good storytelling. Head over to Amazon and order your copy today.

Out of 4 Film Reels (4 Being the Best) Junk Head Blu-ray receives.....