Rating: C-
Dir: Oliver Simonsen
Star (voice): John Di Crosta, Yuell Newsome, Stephen Mendel, Michael Petranech
I am aware of the Cerebus the Aardvark comics, though I never read them. Back in the nineties, I had a housemate who was a fan, so the concept is known to me. Basically, it started as a spoof of sword-and-sorcery comics like Conan. Though by the time the 300-issue series came to an end in 2004, it had pretty much become about whatever creator Dave Sim wanted. Some of those topics didn’t make Sim many friends, shall we say. But he’s still a better person than “ally” Neil Gaiman. Anyway, in 2006 Simonsen started work on this, with a ComicCon’s worth of volunteer animators, and Sim’s permission, if not actual involvement. Fifteen years later, and…
Well, it’s technically rough. Not least because CG animation changed enormously during the course of production – and, boy, can you tell. Some scenes are half-decent. Others look like prototype footage for a Playstation game (not even a Playstation 2 game). Another problem is that bad CG looks far worse than bad cel animation. There are some basic pencil tests under the end credits which demonstrate that superiority. There’s also a sequence where Cerebus gets menaced by flowers, which is traditional style. This is the best thing in the movie, and it is not particularly close. If the whole thing had been done this way… However, it would likely have taken a hundred and fifteen years, rather than fifteen. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Except Hayao Miyazaki.
The plot presumably makes more sense to those who read the comics. Cerebus (Di Crosta) is the hero and, yes, is an aardvark. Who tends to refer to himself in the third person. We arrive in the narrative as he is about to take on evil wizard Necross the HAHAHA Mad (Petranech). Yes, that is the character’s name, per the IMDb. The story then flashes back to how Cerebus was hired by a religious order to retrieve (or steal, depending on your point of view) a jewel of significance to them. This kicks off a train of events, eventually leading to Cerebus facing Necross. Along the way? Stuff happens – and a lot of it feels like it will have fans of the comics nodding wisely.
As a non-fan – which is different from “not a fan”, I should stress – I was often confused, occasionally entertained, and sometimes both. The appearance of a character clearly inspired by Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly would be an example of the last. Mad props to Simonsen for organizing the whole thing. I cannot imagine having the dogged persistence to work on a single project for fifteen years. Let alone, herding cats in the form of wrangling literally hundreds of unpaid collaborators. That anything at all came out the far end is an accomplishment which can only be respected (the movie was almost lost in a 2017 wildfire). I just can’t honestly recommend it for any other non-fans. The rough edges are too rough to overlook. Can’t argue with the accuracy of the title though.