aka the Good, the Bad and (the) Rushed
This was unexpected. I would've thought we wouldn't get a new series for another year at least, and sadly, it shows in the overall quality.
Without going into spoilers for certain films, these new ones lack the deeper meaning, thought provoking, heart wrenching and shocking turn of events that were the hallmark of the first series.
Just as a basis, for me the first series has most of the highest quality short films ever conceived, almost only top notch stuff. The second series on the other hand was more of a hit or miss, it had at least 2 (Pop Squad, Snow in the Desert) or even 3 that stood out high from the mid and kinda boring, but even the boring (Ice, Drowned Giant) was still someone's artistic vision realized and provoking at least some thought.
This third season is more like just More Content. Some amazing and some "just good" content, but less risky, less depth. A much safer bet.
It is still worth the time, these are funny, action filled, scary, gory animated movies, but way less thought provoking, way more "casual". It feels like content, not an art exhibition (with one exception). It also feels rushed. It feels like this was made for the money, for the re-subs, for the investors more, than it was made for the sake of creating art, pushing limits, telling stories.
Overall, no episode stood out as a jaw drop visually (except if it turns out that Jibaro is truly a 100% cg) or story wise, no episode made me curl up into a ball and cry for an hour, no episode made me rewatch it instantly and post it around to my friends.
The whole series was more balanced than the last for sure, at the cost of loosing it's edge, but it lost it's pits (except for the 3 robots) as well and it's still enjoyable.
TLDR for the younger-than-boomers amongus.: it's kinda mid
This was unexpected. I would've thought we wouldn't get a new series for another year at least, and sadly, it shows in the overall quality.
Without going into spoilers for certain films, these new ones lack the deeper meaning, thought provoking, heart wrenching and shocking turn of events that were the hallmark of the first series.
Just as a basis, for me the first series has most of the highest quality short films ever conceived, almost only top notch stuff. The second series on the other hand was more of a hit or miss, it had at least 2 (Pop Squad, Snow in the Desert) or even 3 that stood out high from the mid and kinda boring, but even the boring (Ice, Drowned Giant) was still someone's artistic vision realized and provoking at least some thought.
This third season is more like just More Content. Some amazing and some "just good" content, but less risky, less depth. A much safer bet.
It is still worth the time, these are funny, action filled, scary, gory animated movies, but way less thought provoking, way more "casual". It feels like content, not an art exhibition (with one exception). It also feels rushed. It feels like this was made for the money, for the re-subs, for the investors more, than it was made for the sake of creating art, pushing limits, telling stories.
Presented in the order Netflix showed it to me. I know this order can be different for some ppl for some reason, but I consider this the original intended watch order.
1: Three Robots: Exit(ing from my watch list) strategy ; This was outright bad. I loved these guys in the first one, but this is just a garbage tier attempt at humor and poisoned with current day politics for whatever reason... It has no place in this anthology. it's the Rushed: The animation and rendering quality was so low compared to the first one, it's like it was made just a week before release. My draft renders look this noisy with such low res textures and flickering when I make my first previews in 540p just to check if the timings right. It's not a "style choice", it's the sign of being done last minute... It's the only one that stood out as way subpar and thus earns the "shame on you" place in my list.
2: Bad Travelling: THE ONE to watch! This is where you get the story twist, the insane visuals, and the most satisfying ending imo. The best of em. Directed by Fincher and animated by Blur studios, and it shows. It's a proper movie with good voice acting, great music and sound, and overall highest quality in every regard. This takes the cake in my list.
3: The very pulse of I'm falling asleep here come on now... : the "Chinese clone" of Fish Night from the first series. The mandatory Trip video, but without the awesome sounds and music, without the relatable characters, and thus no falling into deep depression by the heart wrenching ending of the original. It's not bad really, it's just Meh.
4: Night of the Mini DEAD: Tilt shift plus zombie apocalypse. Do I need to say more? It's a fun one, looks great, it's funny, it's what you'd expect. I enjoyed it!
5: Kill Team Kill: G.I. Joes vs Mechabear, the R rated adult animated movie. Yes, it's as good as it sounds, I love the classic 90s animation style, although it could've used way more funny dialog. Overall I enjoyed it.
6: ZERG, I mean, Swarm! : this is a neat one. I might have to re watch the ending, cos that dialog was a bit convoluted for a non-native English speaker like me. This is also one where I feel like there was a bit more left in it, where it feels a bit rushed just for the sake of finishing the action sequence which was rather unnecessarily long. I wanted to see more and I'd definitely want to watch a next episode. Strong contender for the third place, both visually and cos it has an interesting premise. (post a screenshot if you spotted an actual 1 to 1 copy of a zerg unit, I couldn't find one in my first viewing)
7: Scottish ye bastards!: Masons Rats has the gore, the fun, the accent, the feels and the whole thing is superbly done! I really enjoyed this one. If you want to end on a high note I'd highly recommend you watch this one last! This takes Second place in my list.
8: In Vaulted Halls arachnophobes BEWARE! : this is also a really good one. Visually very much top notch, and the story isn't half bad either! The twist, if we can call it that, the way it reminded me of Starship Troopers and Halo and Diablo in some moments, and the overall quality makes this the Third place in my list.
9.: Jibaro: aka what the actual fuck did I just watch! The Art movie edition. It takes a similar visual style to The Witness from the OG, just with dancing instead of actual normal movement. It's, striking? intriguing? artsy crap? It certainly Not something I'd put as last in the episode list. More of an opener. I feel like it's a bit too long. The story is as expected, the action is fast and the visuals are overwhelming with the weird camera movement. It's certainly something. It will certainly evoke some emotion in the viewer, be it an adrenaline rush or outright terror. When it comes to it's CGI, I don't even know how to rate it. It looks like real footage with a paintover/filter with some kinda bad looking CG added in post in a few shots. But by just looking at the credits it's also possible that the whole thing is fully CG, in which case, this is the most insane thing I've ever seen and I have no fucking clue how they pulled it off, and I'm a fuckin CG artist!! So yeah, this was something that I found both boring and strange and interesting at the same time, so it earns the highly regarded WTAF spot on my list
1: Three Robots: Exit(ing from my watch list) strategy ; This was outright bad. I loved these guys in the first one, but this is just a garbage tier attempt at humor and poisoned with current day politics for whatever reason... It has no place in this anthology. it's the Rushed: The animation and rendering quality was so low compared to the first one, it's like it was made just a week before release. My draft renders look this noisy with such low res textures and flickering when I make my first previews in 540p just to check if the timings right. It's not a "style choice", it's the sign of being done last minute... It's the only one that stood out as way subpar and thus earns the "shame on you" place in my list.
2: Bad Travelling: THE ONE to watch! This is where you get the story twist, the insane visuals, and the most satisfying ending imo. The best of em. Directed by Fincher and animated by Blur studios, and it shows. It's a proper movie with good voice acting, great music and sound, and overall highest quality in every regard. This takes the cake in my list.
3: The very pulse of I'm falling asleep here come on now... : the "Chinese clone" of Fish Night from the first series. The mandatory Trip video, but without the awesome sounds and music, without the relatable characters, and thus no falling into deep depression by the heart wrenching ending of the original. It's not bad really, it's just Meh.
4: Night of the Mini DEAD: Tilt shift plus zombie apocalypse. Do I need to say more? It's a fun one, looks great, it's funny, it's what you'd expect. I enjoyed it!
5: Kill Team Kill: G.I. Joes vs Mechabear, the R rated adult animated movie. Yes, it's as good as it sounds, I love the classic 90s animation style, although it could've used way more funny dialog. Overall I enjoyed it.
6: ZERG, I mean, Swarm! : this is a neat one. I might have to re watch the ending, cos that dialog was a bit convoluted for a non-native English speaker like me. This is also one where I feel like there was a bit more left in it, where it feels a bit rushed just for the sake of finishing the action sequence which was rather unnecessarily long. I wanted to see more and I'd definitely want to watch a next episode. Strong contender for the third place, both visually and cos it has an interesting premise. (post a screenshot if you spotted an actual 1 to 1 copy of a zerg unit, I couldn't find one in my first viewing)
7: Scottish ye bastards!: Masons Rats has the gore, the fun, the accent, the feels and the whole thing is superbly done! I really enjoyed this one. If you want to end on a high note I'd highly recommend you watch this one last! This takes Second place in my list.
8: In Vaulted Halls arachnophobes BEWARE! : this is also a really good one. Visually very much top notch, and the story isn't half bad either! The twist, if we can call it that, the way it reminded me of Starship Troopers and Halo and Diablo in some moments, and the overall quality makes this the Third place in my list.
9.: Jibaro: aka what the actual fuck did I just watch! The Art movie edition. It takes a similar visual style to The Witness from the OG, just with dancing instead of actual normal movement. It's, striking? intriguing? artsy crap? It certainly Not something I'd put as last in the episode list. More of an opener. I feel like it's a bit too long. The story is as expected, the action is fast and the visuals are overwhelming with the weird camera movement. It's certainly something. It will certainly evoke some emotion in the viewer, be it an adrenaline rush or outright terror. When it comes to it's CGI, I don't even know how to rate it. It looks like real footage with a paintover/filter with some kinda bad looking CG added in post in a few shots. But by just looking at the credits it's also possible that the whole thing is fully CG, in which case, this is the most insane thing I've ever seen and I have no fucking clue how they pulled it off, and I'm a fuckin CG artist!! So yeah, this was something that I found both boring and strange and interesting at the same time, so it earns the highly regarded WTAF spot on my list
Overall, no episode stood out as a jaw drop visually (except if it turns out that Jibaro is truly a 100% cg) or story wise, no episode made me curl up into a ball and cry for an hour, no episode made me rewatch it instantly and post it around to my friends.
The whole series was more balanced than the last for sure, at the cost of loosing it's edge, but it lost it's pits (except for the 3 robots) as well and it's still enjoyable.
TLDR for the younger-than-boomers amongus.: it's kinda mid
