By the time the United States inserted themselves into the Vietnam War in the 1960s, there was a marked shift in the attitude towards interventionism. Suddenly, the demographic of young adults that used to line up in droves to go to war were suddenly more interested in peace and harmony (and psychedelics). The dream was to have everyone hold hands and start planting the seeds for an idealized society. But, what if the seeds are planted in rancid soil?
The ideals of free love and utopias-gone-wrong are what Dash Shaw’s sophomore feature Cryptozoo rests on. Lauren Grey (Lake Bell) is an army brat. Her childhood was plagued by violent nightmares from her time on the army base until she was visited by the Baku – a Japanese cryptid rumored to take away nightmares. The encounter left her so enamored with rare creatures that she chose to dedicate her whole life to their conservation by saving them from becoming government assets. So, to combat this, she and fellow cryptid enthusiast Joan (Grace Zabriske) create a massive sanctuary to relocate the creatures they capture under the guise of education and safety. When word gets out that the same Baku has been captured to be used by the government to quell the anti-war efforts, Grey is tasked with bringing the creature back to the Cryptozoo for display.
Cryptozoo’s biggest asset is its animation. Jane Samborski’s animation is stylistically perfect for the film: the colors are simultaneously bright and whimsical without ever looking too unrealistic – as if everything is one degree off from reality. Samborski also leans into the psychedelia of the 1960s as well. Most notably is the opening sequence of an incredibly stoned couple making love in the pitch black woods, but within the light of their fire everything is illuminated in flowing rainbow hues. While the cryptids’ designs are expected to be beautiful and fantastical, I was shocked by Samborski’s designs for the human characters moreso. Each character looks real, well as real as possible for a fantasy animation, with cellulite and body hair aplenty. The style of Cryptozoo lends itself well to establishing its time period and capturing the attention of viewers.
While the animations for Cryptozoo are incredibly unique, the plot is incredibly overdone. It’s the same tale of questioning where the line is between exploitation and appreciation. Grey and Joan think the Cryptozoo is the solution to cryptid integration, hunter Nicholas (Thomas Jay Ryan) and cryptid-dealing faun Gustav (Peter Stormare) believe giving cryptids a tangible purpose is a better method. The only entertained third perspective is Phoebe’s (Angeliki Papoulia), the gorgon sent to assist Grey, who thinks that cryptids just want to be left alone but soon she succumbs to Grey’s creed. All the humans speak on behalf of cryptids as if they have some authority which, no matter which way someone chooses to interpret cryptids, has some incredibly outdated and harmful applications. It doesn’t help that even when Grey is confronted with her own moral shortcomings, she still sticks by the zoo until she has no choice but to abandon it.
Cryptozoo is obviously a labor of love from Shaw and Samborski. The five years put into the film pay off visually with a striking animation style and immediately enrapturing character and scenic designs. Ironically, the rest of the film is very black and white with a very binary moral code. Thematically, there was a fair amount of wasted potential especially with the periodic references to the political turmoil of the decade. Unfortunately, the gorgeous animation cannot save Cryptozoo from its afterthought of a plot and an overdone morality tale.
