Fritz, Meet Beasto: Rob Zombie's The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

I have defended Rob Zombie's much-poo-pooed film career on this site before. I feel The Devil's Rejects is a very good film, and that the rest of his oeuvre does not deserve the kind of demonization it has accrued with many internet critics. Earlier this month Zombie gave me reason to revoke my meaningless "internet geek seal of approval." Halloween 2, to put it politely, was abysmal, in fact it was one of the many reasons I haven't had an installment in a while. I usually like to keep things upbeat, write about films and books that I really like, I felt it unfair to kick Zombie when he was down, the internet had enough bile in it already.

That's the bad news, the good news is that less than a month after that train wreck comes Rob Zombie Presents: The Haunted World of El Superbeasto a straight to video, adults-only animated feature film. Fans may remember Zombie hawking this as his next project right after the release of Rejects in 2006, well it seems to have had quite a bumpy road to release but here it is.

I wasn't expecting a lot, the words "straight to video" never inspire much confidence, but as a throw back to a genre that never really got off the ground (the "adult" cartoon ala Fritz the Cat, Heavy Metal, etc.) Superbeasto could not work better. I've heard the words "juvenile", "filthy" and "dumb" thrown around about this film, and that is a very accurate way to describe it, but I wouldn't use them in a negative way.

The plot is threadbare, but this ain't Shakespeare: El Superbeasto is a has-been Luchador/superhero whose life revolves around strip clubs and the hot wings found in strip clubs, he is forced to do some actual hero work when the villainous Dr.Satan kidnaps the "stripper of his dreams" in order to gain the powers of hell. On his adventure he teams up with his secret agent sister Suzi X ( voiced by Sheri Moon Zombie) and her lovesick robot ( comedian Brain Posehn). All this is set among some of the grossest, most offensive and funniest animation in years.

The reason I like Superbeasto so much is because it is the perfect venue for Zombie to fully indulge in the creative quirks that gently annoy some people and infuriate others. His penchant for including over-written dialogue, endless genre cameos and oodles of popculture refrences and namechecking are the things that made Halloween 2 such a chore to sit through, but in Beasto's cartoon world they seem right at home. Some of the film's biggest laughs come from sight gags that only genre fans will get (i.e. Dr. Phibes playing the organ at a wedding, Varla from Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! sharing a beer with Otis from Rejects, etc.).

Far and away the best part of Superbeasto is its outstanding cast of voice actors, the imdb reads like a laundry list of genre stars, and even though quite a few of them only get a line or two, it's admirable that Zombie went through the trouble of tracking these people down. Aside from the genre stars the cast also includes Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti chewing some serious cartoon scenery as Dr. Satan and geek it-girl Rosario Dawson doing a hilariously un-PC voice for the stripper-in-peril Velvet Von Black.

The animation is smooth and polished-looking. The whole affair has a very Sponge Bob meets Tex Avery look (especially the scene in which we are introduced to Velvet, which plays like an X-rated version of Avery's classic "Red Hot Riding Hood" ). The film even has a few musical numbers (with music provided by Hard 'n Phirm) and some of these prove to be truly standout moments (a profane riff on a School House Rock segment comes to mind).

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto has all the subtlety of a freight train coupled with the intelligence and maturity of a 13 year old boy who has skipped one too many doses of Ritalin, if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, stay far away, but if you like your cartoons lewd, crude and blood splattered pick this up pronto!

Blood, Boobs & Beast... and Heart

John Paul Kinhart's documentary Blood, Boobs & Beast explores the life and cinema of DIY filmmaker Don Dohler. It shares many qualities with this years fantastic rockumentary Anvil!: The Story of Anvil and the classic homemade-movie-epic American Movie but while each of those film's protagonists can be seen as wide eyed dreamers and in they end instill us a somewhat goofy mix of pity and admiration, we never feel that Dohler is "out of touch."

Dohler reaches the height of his success at the midway point of the film (which is comprised of recent interviews, vintage home movies, and behind the scenes clips of Dohler's last film) and the modest level of success he rose to (his impressive involvement in the underground comics movement which gave him some early brushes with fame, his launch of a do-it-yourself SFX magazine called Cinemagic which helped impart the inspiration and know-how that many talented artists needed to break into the industry, and his first few films, one of the best of which-Nightbeast-is included in this 2-disc set) is inspirational without the touch of "let's laugh at the hero" irony found in similar docs.

The film takes a disheartening turn in its second half when we see Dohler take a back seat to some of his collaborators, squeezing out cheap shot-on-video exploitation film that trade the sci-fi element that originally interested him in filmmaking for cheap gore effects and gratuitous, pointless nudity(the film's title is a play on the "three B's" Blood, Boobs, and Beast, which are needed to insure an independent horror film gets distribution, much to Mr. Dohler's chagrin this "way of the world" axiom permeates the bulk of the creative discussions he has with his partners)

I spoil nothing when I tell you that the film ends on a note that makes it drastically different than those more "uplifting" films. On the back cover (and in the DVD's introduction with Troma head Lloyd Kaufman) it is revealed that Dohler recently passed away in 2006. The film's final scenes, in which it is quite apparent that the cancer diagnosed during filming will kill Dohler, are heart-rending and frustrating. Don Dohler wasn't a crazy dreamer, he was fully aware of the short comings of his films, but the ones he was most proud of, the ones that are set apart by their ambition and good-natured do-it-yourself aesthetic are the ones that he will be remembered for. While it is sad, this film is a crucial companion to Dohler's films. It helps us to better understand and sympathize with the fan, filmmaker, and family man who so passionately threw himself into an industry that never really accepted him.

I can't recommend this movie enough, great stuff.