NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE
Belgium/Canada/France, 2024, 91 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Gabby Kosmidis, David Harbour, Pierre Simpson, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Scott Thompson.
Directed by Ricardo Curtis, Roderigo Pérez-Castro.
There have been some entertaining animated horror films like The Corpse Bride. This very colourful film is something of a variation on a zombie Apocalypse theme (and one title considered was Night of the Zoombies). The present title, of course, is a nod in the direction of Zootopia.
The film opens with a suspenseful ghase, a young wolf, Gracie, being pursued by young wolves, egged on by their grandma. But, it emerges that this is a game and that the setting is a zoo. And some visuals showing the range of the animals in the zoo as well as the families enjoying the visit, reluctant to leave when time is up.
In the sky, two spacecraft collide, a piece of space debris, electrified, hurtles to earth, landing in the zoo – and a curious little bunny touches and is transformed into a zombie-like creature. Mayhem in the zoo, huge transformations, monstrous characters to frighten the young audience (and perhaps some of the older).
But, Gracie is a survivor and encounters a mountain lion in the zoo, Dan. The film follows their adventures, escapades for survival, smoke and danger, the key to the gate to escape. In the meantime, there is a motley group of survivors taking refuge in one of the zoo’s rooms. They provide chatter, humour, and become very much involved in the adventure and the fight for survival.
One of the creatures in the room is Xavier, Hispanic accented English, giving a humorous running commentary on how horror films develop, the genre, the conventions, expectations, dialogue, all of which is acted out – or, sometimes, contradicted. This provides some humour for adult audiences and horror aficionados.
The solution seems to be soap and water to turn the creatures back to normal, especially when Dan is transformed. However, the big plan to flood the pool with water and soap creates only larger monsters. And, spoiler, the antidote in fact is music!
And, happy ending, cranky grandma who has always expected the worst becoming more mellow and everyone else returns to normal!
