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REVIEW: Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic


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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1528
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:31 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Dante has to fight off a horde of grotesque undead babies who are spewed forth from the enormous demonic nipples of Cleopatra.


Zac, I love your writing style
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Anton Chigurh



Joined: 03 Dec 2007
Posts: 257
Location: Guam
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:44 pm Reply with quote
I bet that part happens exactly as described.

I played the demo (put your own "Kratos goes to Hell" joke here) and, while entertaining, the idea of watching - let alone paying hard-earned American dollars for - this thing never enticed me. And seriously, the blurb used in the main page doesn't register for me even as "eh, it's fine." It has more of a "it's pedestrian, so why bother?" vibe to it.
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Cait



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:12 pm Reply with quote
Well, obviously there were already two built-in sequels to this thing when they picked the epic poem to be "inspired" by. But to be honest, as a fan of epic poetry, even I fell asleep reading Paradise. They're gonna have to do a hell of a lot more deviation from the source material to the thing to even make one more, let alone two more games interesting enough to draw anyone in. I'll place a bet right now, though, that Virgil goes bye bye in part 3, since he wasn't allowed into Paradise in the original poem (I believe he left Dante at the Gate, but it's been so many years since I read it).
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:13 pm Reply with quote
here-and-faraway wrote:
Quote:
Dante has to fight off a horde of grotesque undead babies who are spewed forth from the enormous demonic nipples of Cleopatra.


Zac, I love your writing style


Sounds like something Go Nagai would put in his work.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:16 pm Reply with quote
Cait wrote:
Well, obviously there were already two built-in sequels to this thing when they picked the epic poem to be "inspired" by.


Yeah, but that isn't why the notion of a sequel is silly.

It's silly because in this film Dante has that red ribbon thing stitched to his chest before he can enter Inferno and spoiler[at the end when he crosses over to Purgatory, the ribbon falls off and turns into a snake which then delivers a cackling Satan laugh and slithers off into Purgatory, suggesting Satan will continue to be the villain in future installments.]

So yeah.
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Cait



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:21 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
Cait wrote:
Well, obviously there were already two built-in sequels to this thing when they picked the epic poem to be "inspired" by.


Yeah, but that isn't why the notion of a sequel is silly.

It's silly because in this film Dante has that red ribbon thing stitched to his chest before he can enter Inferno and spoiler[at the end when he crosses over to Purgatory, the ribbon falls off and turns into a snake which then delivers a cackling Satan laugh and slithers off into Purgatory, suggesting Satan will continue to be the villain in future installments.]

So yeah.


It also clearly suggests spoiler[that there will be an Adam and Eve spoof in the second or third installment]. No point in not dragging all sorts of Christian symbolism into this thing, right?

EDIT: I mean seriously, I was surprised there was no mention of the city "Pandemonium" in this review, drag a little Milton in there, too, you know?
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2251
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:24 am Reply with quote
Cait wrote:
Well, obviously there were already two built-in sequels to this thing when they picked the epic poem to be "inspired" by. But to be honest, as a fan of epic poetry, even I fell asleep reading Paradise.

Exactly, and consider how many schools teach Inferno and not the other two.

Quote:
drag a little Milton in there, too, you know?

That would be giving the franchise way too much credit.
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Lemoncookies23



Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Posts: 355
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:32 am Reply with quote
I'll probably get this, but I am pissed off that the game was canceled on the PC. Damn consoles....
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Enner



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 91
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:49 am Reply with quote
JairStout wrote:
I'll probably get this, but I am pissed off that the game was canceled on the PC. Damn consoles....


I wasn't aware that there was a version ever planned. Looks like the only pickings there are for chaining action games on the PC are still Devil May Cry 4 and Ninja Blade.

I'm eager to check this out if only because I've watched and enjoyed The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:28 am Reply with quote
Zac: But how does it compare to Lady Death? Wink
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Ryo Hazuki



Joined: 01 Jan 2008
Posts: 363
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:42 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
here-and-faraway wrote:
Quote:
Dante has to fight off a horde of grotesque undead babies who are spewed forth from the enormous demonic nipples of Cleopatra.


Zac, I love your writing style


Sounds like something Go Nagai would put in his work.


As surprising as it may sound, Go Nagai's manga adaptation of Divine Comedy is actually much classier than Dante's Inferno and he's taken a lot influence from Gustave Doré.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:40 am Reply with quote
Zac,


The "C-list" Film Roman you refer to is the American production company that handles The Simpsons! They've been doing The Simpsons since at least Season 2/3 of that show when they were awarded the production contract that was taken from Klasky-Csupo which did Seasons 1/2 of The Simpsons. Their work on The Simpsons has been a hell of a lot more consistent than what K-C did before them.

I know this is an anime site but have a little more respect for American production companies and know who they are before you slam them.

FR isn't the only company that farms out work... Most of the anime production studios do that, too. A fair percentage of anybody's TV production is done in Korea whether it's an American or Japanese animation production.

Film Roman has done many, many TV series and they haven't been all bad. They actually do a pretty decent job on most of their shows.

FR mainly does character designs, storyboards, and layouts in the US. It's the companies that they contract to that slaughter the animation if they don't have experienced animators and a reasonable time to produce the animation. Same thing happens to the Japanese all the time which is a why a lot of anime series get re-animated before they hit DVD nowadays.

*********************

The problem with Dante's Inferno is that it's, well, based on a videogame and videogames aren't particularly deep 95% of the time. I doubt much more than $2 million was spent on this project which isn't a heck of a lot for a movie.

Most direct-to-video projects -- American or Japanese -- are nothing to write home about. The lack of budget in most of these is fairly obvious. They're not going to be animated as well as a Disney feature so nobody should expect them to look 1/4 as pretty. It's going to be the story and staging (composition = camera angles, staging, lighting) in addition to the vocal performances that will elevate them...
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1033
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:26 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Hell (always referred to as “Inferno” here, probably to further avoid any discomfort the obvious religious imagery and language might result in)

...

...

I don't know what to say to that. Calling Hell "Hell" is more offensive than everything else they have stuffed in there? I am dumbfounded.
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Vicserr



Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 480
Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:04 am Reply with quote
Sven Viking wrote:
Quote:
Hell (always referred to as “Inferno” here, probably to further avoid any discomfort the obvious religious imagery and language might result in)

...

...

I don't know what to say to that. Calling Hell "Hell" is more offensive than everything else they have stuffed in there? I am dumbfounded.


Yeah, like calling Hell, Hell in another language makes it less offensive... Confused

Well, if it's a decent action title with loads of gore, I'll pick it up. Twisted Evil
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:16 pm Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:


I know this is an anime site but have a little more respect for American production companies and know who they are before you slam them.

FR isn't the only company that farms out work... Most of the anime production studios do that, too. A fair percentage of anybody's TV production is done in Korea whether it's an American or Japanese animation production.

Film Roman has done many, many TV series and they haven't been all bad. They actually do a pretty decent job on most of their shows.


I know full well who Film Roman is and I am fully aware that they handle the Simpsons. I am also aware that many (most) American television animation studios farm work out to Korea. My point was that they must have farmed this one out to a particularly bad Korean animation house.

It doesn't excuse the fact that their segment is incredibly poorly done. Everyone else is operating on the same budget and yet Film Roman's segment is so ludicrously outclassed that it doesn't belong in the same film.

I'm judging based on quality. I am a fan of all kinds of animation and pay close attention to this sort of thing.
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