Three years on from the generally entertaining Son of Bigfoot, Ben Stassen returns with this vastly superior sequel; between his two Sasquatch adventures, the ever-busy Stassen made the middling The Queen's Corgi, an amusing enough diversion, yet one which didn't demonstrate much progress on the part of the Belgian filmmaker. Bigfoot Family, however, might well be Stassen's best film to date, and it manages to marry top-drawer animation to an appealing, exciting story, which is a trick that Stassen and his studio nWave haven't always managed to pull off with their films - not that they're the only purveyors of animated features to have slipped up in such a manner. Although nWave have always made a good fist of producing solid animation in the face of megabudgeted competition from the likes of Pixar, Blue Sky, Dreamworks and the like, Bigfoot Family may be the first film from the Belgian studio to pose a serious question to the all-conquering Disney and its various subsidiaries. Which is not to say that nWave can realistically expect to take on the big American animation studios in financial terms, but, from a creative perspective, Bigfoot Family is a film that holds its own against any feature-length toon from the past year or so.
As with the first film, it's Adam, the offspring of Bigfoot, who is actually at the centre of the story. Adam's life has changed considerably since he successfully tracked down his missing father in Son of Bigfoot, and his family's home is now shared with the myriad woodland creatures that helped his dad during his stint in the wild. Furthermore, Bigfoot himself has become a major celebrity - the film's alternative title is Bigfoot Superstar - and it now seems that everyone wants a piece of the hirsute scientist. Bigfoot has little interest in milking his status for financial gain, but rather decides to use his newfound fame to help a good cause, so he heads to Alaska to join a group of protesters who are camped outside an onshore drilling site. Shortly after arriving in Alaska, Bigfoot vanishes, so Adam and his mum (and the unruly animals) set off for Alaska in the hope of solving the mystery; as in Son of Bigfoot, Adam is charged with locating his missing father, and in a further parallel with the first film, his investigation brings him up against a sinister, greedy megacorporation.
With its largely recycled plot, Bigfoot Family could easily have served as a pale imitation of its predecessor, but the outstanding animation - the Alaskan wilderness is brilliantly recreated - immediately marks the film out as one that's looking to improve on Son of Bigfoot (which itself boasted fine tech credits); however, and as previously noted, great animation counts for little if you don't have the script to support it, but here both the dialogue and humour are well-judged. While the basic setup offers nothing very new, Stassen and his crew have made a charming, witty, family-friendly film that appeals to young and old alike; the catchy, poppy soundtrack, courtesy of Belgian group Puggy, helps ensure that things move along at a nice clip Tweens are covered, too, via a subplot involving the crush the awkward Adam has on his good friend Emma. While Bigfoot Family covers some environmental issues, it never does so in an overly preachy way, and its ideas about renewable energy and the future might prompt one or two interesting enquiries from younger viewers.
Bigfoot Family made its debut at last year's Annecy IAFF, and it's a pity that such a great effort from nWave was denied a clear run at the box office; while the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a situation that everyone in the filmmaking world has had to adapt to - numerous films that were intended for theatrical distribution have plunged straight to VOD - it seems a great pity that what may well be the jewel in nWave's crown has bypassed so many cinemas. The film, like the rest of the studio's feature output, was made to be shown in 3D, and it is quite possible that this expense would have been spared had Stassen and his colleagues known what was in store for the film industry. However, you can - and should - support the film now that it's out on home video, and you can even watch it in 3D if you have the required setup at home. Bigfoot Family is easily nWave's best film since The House of Magic, and it provides some much-needed fun in these troubled times.
As a longtime fan of the IMAX format, I was very keen to see Haunted Castle on its initial 3D release. For one reason or another, that never quite happened, but a full seventeen years later I can now say I've scratched that particular itch - albeit via home viewing. Haunted Castle is very much a throwback to the times when we went to the IMAX to see briefer films which were either of the novelty or educational variety, with Ben Stassen's 38-minute film falling firmly into the former category. Nowadays, such fare isn't really to be seen at your nearest IMAX cinema, which at this very moment will likely be hosting a screening of a tentpole release such as Solo or Jurassic World 2.
If you're a fan of Belgian pop music, you may well get an added buzz from the film featuring tracks by both Arid and Lunascape; Arid's frontman, Jasper Steverlinck, actually takes the lead role, while there's a scene in which Lunascape's Kyoko Baertsoen performs the band's "Lane Navachi". Steverlinck's Johnny is a jobbing musician (surprise!) who has inherited the entire estate of his estranged rock star mother, played by Baertsoen (double surprise!). While all these riches are headed Johnny's way, there's the caveat that, in order to seal the deal, he has to travel from America to Europe to visit his mother's spooky castle. OK, it's not merely spooky, but I think the film's title provides a major spoiler that no reviewer can really match.
As Johnny makes his way around the huge mansion, we soon witness some supernatural goings-on, such as suits of armour that come to life and instruments that start playing themselves. Johnny's mother appears as some sort of ghostly apparition, and we learn that her great fame and fortune were down to her selling her soul to a certain Mr. D (any ideas?), voiced by Simpsons legend Harry Shearer, who now proposes the same deal to Johnny. Johnny passes up on the offer, and Mr. D's assistant Mephisto takes the musician on a tour around some pretty dark corners of the castle, including the film's most child-unfriendly area, in which we see a series of musicians who have sold their souls being tortured in Hell (surely not much of a selling point for what's on the table?) Johnny's mother appears intermittently, imploring her son not to make the same mistake that she did; at times he does appear to be in two minds as to whether he should accept Mr. D's offer, but I'll let you discover what his final choice is. Concert footage of Arid closes the film, but are they performing with or without the help of the dastardly Mr. D?
The film puts forward the interesting notion that it took until the advent of rock 'n' roll for music to become an attractive bait for Mephisto et al to lure souls with, and there is a little creepiness among the clunkiness - the aforementioned sequence in Hell seems slightly too much for what is supposed to be (and indeed played as) family entertainment. The project does feel very off-kilter, as the music is completely the wrong fit - the opening theme, by Arid, is extremely underpowered, with their closing track not much better suited; the Lunascape number is also an odd choice for the sequence it features in. Presumably both artists were chosen chiefly for the marketability they would lend to the project, regardless of the appropriateness of their music.
While it is perhaps slightly unfair to assess a film intended for the biggest of screens on a television (although admittedly a 43-inch TV, on which the end credits were still far too small to read), its problems are still obvious; CGI has come on in leaps and bounds since Haunted Castle first bowed in IMAX cinemas, and the years have not been especially kind to the film - although it must be said that the 3D does work surprisingly well (although maybe that's actually not too surprising when you consider how effective the 3D is in Stassen's recent feature films). It does, at least, try to marry a story to the visuals (something the novelty IMAX film had not really been doing to that point), and it remains of interest to those who've tracked Ben Stassen's career all the way up to his present position as a successful (and fairly prolific) director of animated features. The DVD release includes both the 2D and 3D versions. Darren Arnold Images: nWave
If the school holidays are looming (as, let's face it, they always seem to be), you could do far worse than fish out Kesteloot and Stassen's Robinson Crusoe (AKA The Wild Life), which is exactly the sort of cheerful, colourful option you need on standby during such times. While Robinson Crusoe may be made by a studio (nWave) who don't have the same clout or resources as the likes of Dreamworks or Pixar, it's really not too far behind the standard of the recent output from both of those Hollywood powerhouses. This film was released between Belgian nWave's The House of Magic and Son of Bigfoot, and although it's not their most recent movie it nevertheless features the best 3D animation of all their films to date.
As its instantly recognisable title flags up, Robinson Crusoe is based on the classic 1719 novel in which the eponymous character is shipwrecked on a remote, uninhabited island. Well, uninhabited by other humans, that is, as there's plenty of exotic fauna on display (including a tapir, a goat, an echidna and a chameleon), and the film neatly inverts the emphasis of Daniel Defoe's book so that the story is really about the animals; Crusoe is really just another character who has to fit into the community the creatures have created on their island paradise.
As the human interloper gatecrashes the animal party, all are suspicious and/or fearful of the new arrival with the exception of parrot Mak, who yearns to escape his idyllic lifestyle and explore the bigger, busier world. Crusoe dubs his new ally "Tuesday" (a nod to the book's human counterpart known as "Friday"), and the bird tries to convince his fellow creatures that this visitor means them no harm. Who does mean them harm, however, is a pair of very mean cats who also survived the shipwreck and now have their own agenda for the island and its inhabitants. Thus, Crusoe and the animals need to join forces if they're to see off these moggy invaders. Cats frequently get a very raw deal in films, coming second only to snakes when it comes to anthropomorphised bad guys; the ones featured here are as scheming and cruel as The House of Magic's Thunder is cute and cuddly.
As mentioned earlier, there's plenty of appealing, high quality animation to enjoy here, with the rendering of the cats being especially impressive. So, do keep this one in mind for a rainy afternoon during the next school holidays (alternatively, keep it on ice for a year then crack it open to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the book's first publication). Robinson Crusoe is a fun and enjoyable spin on a classic tale, and a film in which nWave once again demonstrates how to get the most out of stereoscopic animation.
Ben Stassen's 2013 animated movie The House of Magic, while initially rather underwhelming, was a film which certainly improved with repeated viewings. Since that effort, Stassen has co-directed (with Vincent Kesteloot) Robinson Crusoe, but for Son of Bigfoot the Belgian filmmaker has reteamed with his House of Magic partner Jeremy Degruson. Happily, Son of Bigfoot, which features terrific animation, stands as Stassen's best achievement so far, and the humour in it should appeal to both children and adults alike.
The story centres on Adam, a young teen who is finding school rather difficult on account of a trio of bullies who won't give him any peace. Adam's problems are compounded by both his hair and feet growing at a rate which neither scissors nor shoes can keep up with. As the boy struggles to keep these strange developments from his (single) mum, the mother/son relationship becomes rather strained. With not much in life going his way - there’s also a complication involving a girl he likes - Adam starts to think about tracking down his mysteriously absent father.
The movie's title has already informed us, assuming Adam is the son in question, who his dad is. We soon have it confirmed that Adam's father is indeed Sasquatch, and he's been living in the woods for years in order to avoid detection by an evil pharmaceutical company who are desperately searching for a hair growth formula. Adam locates his dad in the forest, but is soon joined by henchmen from the nefarious corporation; thankfully, some determined woodland creatures are on hand to lend support to Bigfoot and son.
As mentioned earlier, Son of Bigfoot's animation is especially good, and in technical terms the movie is easily the best of Stassen's films. For a film where much of the focus is on hair, the animation has to be just right, and here the style is both convincing and appealing. For perhaps the first time, Stassen's studio nWave have made a film that can at least take on the likes of Dreamworks, Blue Sky and Pixar, even if it will probably come off second best. It remains to see where nWave will go from here - earlier this year, they parted ways with the heavyweight StudioCanal (who were nonetheless involved in Son of Bigfoot), although Stassen claims that his company will now move on to more expensive productions. While many Bigfoot movies have come and gone over the years - Bobcat Goldthwait's Willow Creek being a recent, nerve-shredding example - Son of Bigfoot stands as a fresh, child-friendly take on the legend. Darren Arnold
