Extraordinary Tales

Studio: GKIDS
Directed by Raul Garcia

Nov 18, 2015 By Zach Hollwedel Web Exclusive

Writer-director Raul Garcia’s homage to Edgar Allen Poe, Extraordinary Tales, falls far short of the bar set by the master of macabre that inspired it, though its flawed effort is nonetheless commendable. The 72-minute animated film is comprised of five vignettes, each an adaptation of one of Poe’s stories. Garcia acutely employs different animation styles for each segment, imbuing the stories with phenomenal variation, despite their shared helmer, and he strings them together with interludes featuring Poe (as a crow) engaged in a debate with cemetery statues.

Of the five tales included, The Pit and the Pendulum (narrated by Guillermo del Toro) is by far the strongest. The animation is most exciting here, as is the story itself (a fact owing not to Poe, but to Garcia’s re-interpretive powers). In fact, at times, it’s downright near impossible to look away as that vignette unfolds. Unfortunately, Pit is the fourth of the five shorts, meaning it comes after roughly 45-minutes of uninspiring adaptations. In fact, the film opens with the dullest of the bunch. A retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher ought to be unnerving; if well done, it could serve as the perfect setup for the whole film, laying the tone and showcasing Garcia’s choice to use animation to present the stories. Unfortunately, even at under 15-minutes, it drags. It’s neither scary nor upsetting. It checks the boxes for an adaptation, but it fails to do so in a compelling or intriguing fashion. Other tales include The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar and The Tell-Tale Heart, narrated by Bela Lugosi through archival footage. These, too, like Usher, are lukewarm at best.

Unsure of its targeted demographic, Tales straddles the tonal line, flip-flopping like a fish left on the dock. It’s either a film for precocious children, one for younger kids learning about Poe’s canon for the first time, or an animated movie for adults. Garcia doesn’t indicate he’s aware which of those he wants it to be. Depending on the tale, the film vacillates between making references to drunkenness and murder, portraying depictions of orgies and other such bacchanalia, and attempted scares that are likely to terrorize only the youngest of viewers. Extraordinary Tales isn’t universally compelling enough to titillate all of its potential demographics, and it lands somewhere in a murky grey area not primed for any clear viewer.

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