Review of Extraordinary Tales (2015) by Nilufer R — 20 Oct 2017

This anthology collection of animated adaptations of Edgar Alan Poe has a lot of the same pros and cons of any anthology. Some segments are better than others, they all have a unique creativity, and the framing device ultimately feels loose and unnecessary. The biggest thing it has going for it is the animation and the narration. Each segment has a different animation style, and each style is wildly unique. One segment has a look like elaborate origami, another uses only the pure colors of black and white for a style like the Sin City comic books. There's even a segment that looks like a living comic book, not a motion comic, but a Tales from the Crypt style comic brought to full animation. Each of these styles is unlike anything I've seen before, or at least never seen done this well. The narration is also great, with people like Christopher Lee and Guilermo Del Toro, and even using an old audio recording of the long-dead Bela Lugosi.

The animation and narration is undeniably well-done, where the movie will divide people is in the adaptation of the stories. Each story is pretty much directly adapted for the screen often with no changes to source material whatsoever. However, since Poe's writing was often open to interpretation and relied heavily on metaphor and mood, a direct adaptation isn't always the best choice. There were a few where watching the visual take on it, I couldn't help but think "no, this isn't how I pictured it". And this is more than nitpicking about where Harry Potter's scar is on his forehead, these are differences that fundamentally change the mood of the story. For example, in Tell-Tale Heart, before the man breaks down and confesses his crime the investigators are just standing looking at him. I always pictured them as being much more friendly, maybe sitting down for tea and having a chat while the man is losing his sanity. The version in the film makes the inspectors seem more malicious, and takes away from of the insanity developing in the narrator. This leads me to believe that Poe's works are probably unfilmable.

But these stories have been filmed; they've been adapted many times. Of all the adaptations, at least this one has a great deal of thought and love put into it. There's clearly a great appreciation for the source material and desire to do something unique with it that also respects and tells the stories. And to be honest, in terms of film adaptations of Poe, this is probably as good as it will ever get. Not perfect, but this is as good as it gets. I respect the admiration it shows for Poe, and I adore the imagery and vocal talent, so overall I did enjoy it, even if there were moments that irked the Poe purest in me.