Review of American Pop (1981) by Zach M — 07 Sep 2012

''American Pop'' is one of those overlooked animations that nobody ever talks about and that's a real shame to me. American Pop is about eight decades of music from the 1910s' to the 1980s', when the movie was made, and it follows about eight generations of one particular family and how they had a connection to the music of their generation and at the same time, from good old jazz to swinging to rock and then finally to punk rock.

The animation is very well-done and something you really don't see today, since most, to me, looks like something you could easily make on a computer using flash. No, this movie is hand-drawn and they actually used real actors and just redrew them on paper, which is still pretty unique, but it doesn't mean that it has its flaws. Some of the animation might be a bit bizarre to some people and I find myself laughing at some of it, like at the end there is this Elvis looking guy pointing at little Pete made me laugh at how still he was, but that doesn't mean the animation is very beautiful and always sticks to the style of that certain generation.

The acting of this movie is superb and I love the voice acting of the actors themselves, even though some parts of it can be a little slightly over dramatic like when the character Tony gets angry he gets a bit over dramatic, especially when he talks about corn or Kansas, which now every time I eat corn I'll think about ''American Pop''.

The music is very wonderful and I absolutely love it, its all the taste of music that I love. Classic Rock, Swing, Punk Rock, etc. and they do a marvelous job at the style of the music and the animation that goes with that certain generation of music. Like with the 60s' we have a kind of ''psychedelic'' animation vibe to it or in the 80s' we have a bit of a ''punk'' feel to the animation and that's what makes the movie so wonderful, the vibe of the certain generation the movie does and the music of that generation.

''American Pop'' is one of the most original and unique animations I've seen and its nothing you'll see today since most animations today are not hand drawn or this lovely and I wish the ''Image Entertainment'' still did wonderful and unique animations like ''American Pop'', I give this movie a four star rating and if you love unique animation and music that ranges around the 60s' and 80s' then this movie is for you.