Okay we all know Rob Zombie and the way he films, it's all about the uneasiness of the situation, the excessiveness of it all whether it be extreme amounts of gore, language, nudity, fast paced cuts and over the top acting. It's nothing new going into the Haunted world of el superbeasto to think it would be anything different, I knew the moment I heard Zombie was going to do an animated film that he in fact was going for Cool World meets Fritz the cat. The man obviously loves his Woman in seductive form and he loves his exploitation turned to 11. Of course Haunted world is no different.
Now I won't sugar coat the movie, it's graphic, as graphic a comic movie I've ever seen, boobs pop up everywhere, people mutilate themselves and are killed in graphic ways, there's sexual situations at every turn and language so course that it would make a sailor curl in his boots. It's to be expected and to be honest it get's a little old after awhile. I don't understand why Zombie can't just tone it done a little. I know he's really into the horror aspect of it all but sometimes I think Zombie does it just to do it, it distracts from what could be a really cool Animated movie.
Now it's not all bad, in fact the acting is quite entertaining and good, especially Tom Papa as Superbeasto, he's so over the top it's hilarious. He plays a wrestler living a crazed strange world where his characters are all monsters and creatures outside of a few people. What makes the movie interesting and fun is it does detour from his true horror genre, yes it has it's horror routes but the movie is so much different than what you've seen from Rob zombie, I say he should tone it down but the movie as a whole is somewhat fresh, it's somewhat funny thanks in part to Mr. Lawernce and Tom Papa in part writing the script. Instead of having Rob zombie write true cliché character, the characters here are different and entertaining. I especially like the new takes on some of Zombies movie characters like Dr. Satan, which in this movie is skinny, scrawny and has a pet ape and surprisingly is voiced by the most awesomeness Paul Giamatti. You also Spongebob himself Tom Kinny playing Otto the deranged father from Corpses, as well as Sid Haig playing Captain spaulding. Even though these characters are gruesome in the live action movies, there played with quite entertaining delight and goofiness in this movie. Heck they even threw in Rosario Dawson for good measure.
Now on the flipside the story plays a lot like a elongated TV series, being from Starz media I'm almost assuming that this will become a TV show in the future if it catches on. It doesn't make sense all the time and feels like it's too disjointed at some points where the story literally stops to show us some sexual situation or naked woman and man having sex. The story to me is probably it's weakest point, it's not all bad and can make you chuckle if you have a disturbed sense of humor such as myself but still it's like I said earlier, it's almost like Rob Zombie is paying homage to fritz the cat.
On one last note, I expected the film to almost have a Heavy metal feel, in that the animation would be disjointed and raw but instead we get something close in line to Osmosis Jones and Beavis and Butthead, it's slightly disjointed but it's not too extreme, it's just what it is. Trust me when I say it's very cool to look and very well drawn but it still could have used a slightly heavier disjointed feel.
Okay to summarize, out of all the Zombie films I've seen this is the better of the films, it doesn't mean it's all around great because it's not, it has problems, some more glaring than others but within all it's flaws the movie is still fun to watch and I would recommend it with only slight caution, if you get offended easily then be cautious otherwise I give it a 7/10.
