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THE SPINE OF NIGHT | An Ultra-Violent, High-Fantasy Epic!

This animated fantasy-horror flick is guaranteed to melt your face off!

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The Spine of Night is an ultra-violent, high-fantasy epic adventure that is reminiscent of sword and sorcery classics. Features mind-bending sequences thanks to its elements of dark magic and the film becomes a visual treat courtesy of its full-on brutality. Within the first moments, The Spine of Night grabs you by surprise as the rotoscope animation is pure artistry. And in the vein of Heavy Metal, the film pushes all the boundaries as it showcases visual storytelling at its best.

The Spine of Night takes the viewer through the centuries and to a medieval hinterland where fantasy fables. The story focuses on the thirst for knowledge, the lust for power, and ultimately the blaze of both. When an earthly dark power- a mysterious blue flower known as “the bloom” is stolen from its rightful caretakers, all of the mankind slip into an unending world of strife and darkness as the flower can create great abundance or be used to destroy. It’s up to a group of heroes from different eras and cultures to stop the one responsible and bring back balance to nature and mankind.

The Spine of Night functions somewhat as an anthology, we see a series of tales tied together by a common thread and told hauntingly and beautifully from the perspective of Tzod, a centuries-old swamp witch voiced by Lucy Lawless, her character naked with barely primitive clothing and gear braves this barbaric high fantasy by climbing through frigid conditions whilst ascending a mountaintop to speak to the flower’s guardian voiced beautifully by Richard E. Grant. What ensues is exchanging tales centred on betrayal, slaughter, and oppression. This gives the audience a deeper understanding of this universe and its capricious gods. Tzod uses the blue flower to perform hallucinatory rituals for her tribe, but its power is stolen by lord Pyrantin (Patton Oswalt), who has an army at his disposal and megalomaniacal ambitions. However, both are screwed over by a scheming necromancer who wants to take over the world until the flower itself begins to drive him mad. what begins as a simple desire for power becomes a genocidal crusade for death and destruction. Directors Morgan Galen King and Philip Gelatt deliver something spectacular.

The film doesn’t mess around when it comes to its depiction of sex and violence, the film at its best is full-on brutal with full-on nudity and graphic carnage. People are sliced and diced in some visceral sequences. The violence jumps out of the screen thanks to its exceptionally detailed, rotoscope animation. The backdrops are glorious as each sequence switches up its colour palette. Characters are brought to life through the rotoscoping technique with painstaking expressive detail. The filmmakers have achieved in making this world feel like a nightmare and have succeeded in indulging all the tropes such as fantasy, surrealism, imagination to make a fantasy epic, a first in adult animation. 

The Spine of Night is available on Shudder from March 24th.

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Animation

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | Teaser Trailer – Paramount Pictures

The Turtle brothers as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants.

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Genre:

Animation, Action, Adventure

Release Date:

August 4, 2023

Director:

Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears

Cast:

Paul Rudd, Giancarlo Esposito, Rose Byrne

Plot Summary:

The Turtle brothers as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants.

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Animation

Netflix to Team with Legendary Entertainment for Live-Action Feature of ‘My Hero Academia’

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Netflix seems to be in on almost everything anime or manga-related including live-action iterations for some of the more popular franchises. First, having made a Death Note film back in 2017, followed by a live-action Cowboy Bebop series before pivoting to focus on the One Piece and Avatar the Last Airbender series, it seems that they are taking another swing on a big anime property for their streaming service.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix will team with Legendary Entertainment, best known for their monsterverse films centering on Godzilla and King Kong on a live-action feature film based on the popular manga, My Hero Academia. Joby Harold (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Army of the Dead) will write the script as Shinsuke Sato (Alice in Borderland, I Am a Hero) will make his English-language debut as director for the film. My Hero Academia debuted in 2014 and has quickly ascended into one of the more popular manga titles before gaining attention and turning to anime where its currently in its fifth season. 

Legendary boarded the property all the way back in 2018 aiming to create a live-action movie and will aim to generate a wide-scale audience by teaming with Netflix. My Hero Academia revolves around a world in which 80 percent of people have a power called “quirks.” Lead character, Izuku Midoriya, or Deku, is a superhero fanboy who happens to be a part of that unfortunate 20 percent without powers and is discouraged. However, after meeting the legendary hero, All Might, he sets on a path to become the ultimate hero himself.

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Animation

DC and Warner Bros. Discovery on Cusp of Animation Deal with Amazon

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There has been much anticipation in waiting to see the unveiling of the structure of James Gunn and Peter Safran as the new heads of DC for Warner Bros. News came just this week from Gunn that the comic book flagship money maker for Warner Bros. that he and Safran are aiming to make everything cohesive within their vision connecting movies, television, video games and animation throughout the universe. However, a new report from Deadline sees that they may be looking at a new (or additional) streaming home for animated content surrounding their heroes and villains.

In an article originally reported from Deadline, Channing Dungey, the Chairwoman of Warner Bros. Television, has alluded to “closing a big deal” with Amazon featuring DC branded content in animation on their streaming platform, Amazon Prime Video. Though she also explained that HBO Max will be the “first stop” for all things DC, it’s interesting to note a deal such as this potentially going through with a company and competitor as big as Amazon, no less.

While it’s hard to imagine any major DC characters synonymous with the brand such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern getting animated foray onto Prime Video, it begs the question, could we see Amazon as a pipeline to popularity for some lesser-known characters getting introduced to a larger audience? There is so much potential and richness of characters within the DC landscape that have yet to be introduced through live-action or animation so this seems like a risk that might be worth taking, especially considering the financial troubles that Warner Bros. Discovery has been reported to have. 

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