Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)

Dante journeys through the nine circles of Hell -- limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery -- in search of his true love, Beatrice.

Directors:

Victor Cook, Mike Disa

Writers:

Dante Alighieri (poem), Brandon Auman (screenplay)

Stars:

Graham McTavish, Vanessa Branch, Steve Blum

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Graham McTavish	...	Dante (voice)
Vanessa Branch	...	Beatrice (voice)
Steve Blum	...	Lucifer (voice)
Peter Jessop	...	Virgil (voice)
Mark Hamill	...	Alighiero (voice)
Victoria Tennant	...	Bella (voice)
Bart McCarthy	...	Charon / Filippo Argenti (voice)
Kevin Michael Richardson	...	King Minos / Phlegias (voice)
JP Karliak	...	The Avenger (voice)
Tom Tate	...	Francesco (voice)
J. Grant Albrecht	...	Farinata / Ciacco (voice) (as Grant Albrecht)
Nika Futterman	...	Female Prisoner (voice)
Charlotte Cornwell	...	Nessus / Lust Minion #3 (voice)
Vanessa Marshall	...	Female Sinner / Lust Minion #2 (voice)
Grey Griffin	...	Lust Minion #1 / Dante (9 Years Old) (voice)

Storyline

After fighting in the Crusades for three years, Dante rides back home to his family estate to reunite with his beloved Beatrice and his father. Dante sees a rider following him, but out of the blue, the man vanishes with no trace. When he arrives home, he sees the servants slaughtered, his father murdered and Beatrice near death. When her soul is going to the heaven, Lucifer takes Beatrice to Hell, telling her that Dante has betrayed her. Dante meets Virgil who guides him to Hell, and the poet explains that Beatrice had a bet with Lucifer that Dante would be faithful to her while in the holy war. In return, Lucifer would protect Dante and bring him back home safe and sound. Upon arrival in Hell, Dante learns that he needs to cross nine circles to reach Lucifer ad on his painful journey, he discovers who doomed his family to suffer in Hell.

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Plot Keywords:

hell | crusades | quest | sin | redemption | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, nudity and some sexual content

Details

Country:

Japan USA Singapore South Korea

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

9 February 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dante's Inferno

Company Credits

Production Co:

Starz!,Film Roman Productions,Visceral Games

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Dolby 5.1)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The animation changes as the story progresses.

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Quotes

Lucifer: [Lucifer's voice heard taunting Dante in shifting mirror section of gluttony] . I never laid a finger on her, it was all you Dante.
Lucifer: She must have been so... frightened.
Lucifer: She didn't deserve it, her blood's on your hands friend.
Lucifer: She screamed, but nobody came.

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Connections

Spun-off from Dante's Inferno (2010)

User Reviews

Disturbing but fun to watch all the same

Reading about Dante's Inferno and the nine levels of hell really can be a trip. Trying to imagine what each level is like alone, is a big task. But once this film has been viewed, their will be no other way of thinking about them. It took six directors to make this film come together and they did a swell job with it too. There are some small tid-bits that need to be addressed but overall this film will leave a long lasting impression.

The story starts off with Dante returning home from a battle to see his family and fiancé, Beatrice, slain. It is to his own eyes that he witnesses the devil take his fiancé's soul into hell. From there it spirals down to where Dante goes through each level of hell to save Beatrice. This is where things get interesting. The animation and art crew who designed what the levels of hell look like are very surreal and quite imaginative. Each level of hell has its own trait that makes it specifically different and more horrifying than the one before it.

The voice cast for this movie was good too. All the voices sounded pretty neat for whatever role they were portraying. The one most distinctly known was Mark Hamill's voice, mostly because his voice sounded like The Joker. But seriously, who doesn't like hearing that voice? My favorite character was Virgil, voiced by Peter Jessop. I just enjoyed how Virgil was nonchalant about the whole situation of being in hell with Dante, as if he didn't care! Graham McTavish acted Dante's voice and he did a good job as well. The only thing that viewers could dealt without is Dante's repetitive and obsessive use of the word "Beatrice". I understand that he wants to save his loved one but it gets annoying to hear it in every other sentence.

The other elements that I could not relinquish from my mind were the grisly images that I saw. This film comes off as an action/horror genre epic. That's what I couldn't grasp about it. Reading Dante's Inferno is more like a stroll through hell and this film didn't allow any contemplation. It was more focused on Dante saving his girl from hell. There's plenty of blood and guts to go around though. I can't even begin to think of how much fake blood would have to be used if this was converted to live-action. While watching, it brought me back to when I saw Dead Alive (1992), which also was a gore-fest. Ahhh those bloody memories.

Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic may be a little more oriented to the action genre but there is still an abundance of horror meshed inside. Also kudos to the animation and art crew for their distinctive take on Dante Alighieri's journey through hell.