Title: Extraordinary Tales
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Director: Raul Garcia
Starring: Christopher Lee, Guillermo Del Toro, Julian Sands
Runtime: 1 hr 13 mins
What It Is: An anthology featuring five different animated shorts based on short stories by legendary poet Edgar Allan Poe. Included are: The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell Tale Heart, The Facts In the Case Of M. Valdemar, The Pit and The Pendulum, and The Masque of the Red Death. All directed by Garcia but narrated by different actors or in one case a director. Featuring different types of animation and a central narrative featuring of all things a Raven that is suppose to be the spirit of the famous Baltimore poet.

What We Think: It’s animation is ugly and that seems to fit Poe’s narrative very well. Sadly the disjointed nature and different types of animations used to come off as separate and unconnected. This really makes the film hard to watch. I, being a huge Poe fan, appreciate the films willingness to stick to the letter of the Poe’s writings. It is hard to gauge the writing since most of it is strictly from Poe’s prose, but the narration was good. Christopher Lee spinning us a story with that great voice of his just kills it.

Our Grade: C+, It’s blase but well intentioned. I can recommend this for fans of Poe and his writings, but outside of that it’s a skip for most everyone else. If you are an animation fiend it’ll offer a different look from what most others are used to. It has a uniquely animated spin coupled with the suburb poetry of Poe’s melancholic thought process. I’d be interested in seeing maybe another one, with even more darkness, death, and depression. This one is available in both limited and on VOD right now, so check it out if it interests you.