Ultra City Smiths

I know nothing about this shows production but I am amazed/glad that this was made. It really grips your heart, all these characters with their cherubic round faces trying their hardest just to tread water in a world too scared and selfish to be helped.

The aesthetics are perfect. Every scene is set up to tell a store of a city falling apart. Set design is really on point. If you are a junkie for unusual animation or you like old timey detective movies this is going to be a good watch.

For anyone who has ever watched claymation, stop motion, anime, or experimental animation created and written in a former soviet republic or developing south east asian nation in literally any other language than english, this review will make sense.

This is not a normal show, this is a concept piece, chopped up into several conveniently digestible episodes.

This is not a normal show, this is a superbly cast experiment in post-pop culture adorement of the best non-voice actors doing voice over that you might ever hear.

This is not a normal show, this is the love child Bakshi, Eisenstein, Jeunet, Truffaut, Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Nick Park all wrapped up into one, shot in Bosnia, then voiced over in Burbank.

This is not a normal show, which makes it pretty refreshing.

** Minus 2 stars for the OBNOXIOUS and overly interruptive title sequence.

Lose it and let the show be what it wants to be.

Spooky , however, captures the mood and scenes quite skillfully. Jury is still out after just one episode, nowhere do i see it written that this is a musical, and nowhere do i see this advertised. It'll either catch on or not, i am an early adopter with this one, and will persevere for a couple more episodes. It has a story, and interestingly enough, character building, it does feel slightly tacky at moments, so it'll not be to everyone's taste buds. I do like the voices and the seamless experience. Full marks to the stop motion people, and full marks for originality, i just cannot help thinking while watching it, that this is just the beginning of a whole new way of tv series now we have a virus among us all. If so, bring it on, maybe a marvel edition, it's like thunderbirds without the strings. The only item i have seen up until now that comes close to this has been short films from eastern blocs and Europe. It is a brave move to try this, i hope it carries through, and will re write this after i have seen a few more.

I was at first concerned about the visual style as the dolls in the trailer looked all the same, however that turned to be quite the opposite - it's quite impressive how they made all the characters look and behave differently, even though material is seemingly the same. And the visuals in general are amazing too - all the details of the surroundings, it's all very minute and accented.

Than I was curious how the cast ensemble would perform, and even though I had high expectations the voice acting was great - from Tom Waits' creaky narrative through Da'Vine Joy Randolph's pessimistic dialogues, it's all great.

What came as an unpleasant surprise is the general lack of direction of the story - it seems to have a general core event, but then id doesn't really go anywhere. Things happen to characters, which somewhat emphasises the grim nature of the city, but then comes the end of the season and then what? And then nothing. It all starts in a dreamy but promising fashion, but then gets lost in a half-hearted fits of dark humor and indulging in the awkward moments for the sake of those moments, not the general mood.

Overall it's a worthy arthouse animation with great voice actors that unfortunately lacks story development and might get better in season 2, but given it's a fairly pure arthouse it might never get one - so I'd say don't watch it for the story, watch it for the visual style.

Stephen Conrad's style was an acquired taste for me. The first season of Patriot was watched over the course of a couple years. Of course the arrival of its second season prompted me to finish finish the series hooking me on a binge and I became more fluent in The show runner's visual language. The way he lingers on a wide shot or his devotion to (Side note: are show runners considering themselves auteur's now?) Something about it is like a really good folk song that lingers on some moments uncomfortably long while lingering on others that seem equally important. Plus there's a lot of mumbling and incomplete sentences. For the record this shows also rocks.

I know what your thinking. Why am I talking about this other show on the opining paragraph for a review on excellent genre bending gritty puppet caper. Because Ultra City Smiths has the same acquired taste that has the audacity to require the audience to be an active participant. There are moments that happen in the background (sometimes out of focus) that are important later in the story. There are narrative beats that feel off in the first episode that hit a cool rhythmic folky feel like a woody Guthrie balled.

Also, the actually the music is hella tight. So far is Street hustler boy's number is my favorite. I am surprised none of these bangers are trending on tic tok.

As much as I love this show, it's hard to recommend this to anybody right now however I believe this will be a cult classic for sure. And who knows, supposedly there's a big animation boom so maybe the Charlie Kaufman's and Stephen Conrad's of the world will get to keep making cool stuff.