...not in the story itself, but in the stylistic approach. Some of the animation is absolutely gorgeous--treatment of lights both in the scenes and "creatures of" throughout is spectacular--some of the rotoscoped scenes are excellent as well, so I am absolutely boggled by the decision to use what amounts to doodle level human characters that look and behave as cutout animation rather than something much stylistically fluid. It is abundantly obvious that they had the technology and skill to do better, yet they didn't. I am forced to wonder why.

That aside the story itself is rather interesting, but the acting is deadpan flat. It reminds me of a disinterested grade school teacher reading the same story to a different classroom for fifth time that day. There is literally no emotion coming through. Jokes are told without a thought to a punchline, serious scenes are acted with the same flat response as action scenes. It's just voiced by people that seem to not care one way or the other about conveying any emotion. Again I have to assume that was a stylistic choice, and again I am forced to wonder why.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike it. It comes off a lot like a 70s hippies flash back that was heavily influenced by Lightyears(and it is), and in a way that's somewhat enjoyable, but it could have been improved in so many areas, and it wasn't, and again I wonder why.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that does not look like your typical movie and yet evokes artistic styles of days gone, that contains a wealth of meaning for anyone open-minded enough to partake, and that does not shy from sharing deep truths that have consistently defined the state of human society over several centuries.

"Cryptozoo" on Amazon Prime Video is one such movie. Directed and written by Dash Shaw, the film felt like a deep-dream dive filled with societal realisms and truthful explorations of what it means to be 'different'.

The voice cast did great jobs. They managed to convey all the messages their characters stood for without taking attention away from the illustrative animation quality. The dialogues were modern, even contemporary, and contained references to the 'hippie' days.

Lead animator Emily Wolver created something genuinely evocative with this title. Animation director Jane Samborski ensured that viewers would feel like they're part of the story.

In some sequences, Dash Shaw succeeded in creating a 'dual layer storytelling' effect, with two characters appearing as though they were some new-age versions of Adam and Eve and the place they happened to visit was a sealed-off Garden of Eden. One of them became an important player in the plot later on. The rest of the time, Shaw delved right into the crux of the story through Lauren Gray's (voiced by Lake Bell) self-appointed (global) missions to save 'Cryptids' (hybrid animal/animal-human/hybrid-human creatures) from danger. And he (the director/writer) brought it all together neatly near the end.

In truth, all the characters, even the world itself, within the confines of this movie were potently allegorical, symbolic, and oftentimes showcased direct artistic parallels to a society with which we're each, in our own way, familiar.

John Carroll Kirby's musical scoring set a special tone throughout Amazon Prime Video's "Cryptozoo".

Who knew a movie so simple could hold meanings so profound? Plenty of potent themes pervaded nearly every scene of the film. It felt like observing a 'moving painting' that gently encouraged you to learn from, decipher, and/or deduce its contents as and when they showed up, like players on a stage.

"Cryptozoo" from Magnolia Pictures is both evocative and provocative, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

To put it simply, when one uses intentionally naïve style of drawing. Combined with a story that sounds as if it was written during the 60s by an ardent hippie and then has the voice actors performing their roles as seriously as they can without a shred of a smile - it doesn't work well together. The audience I was watching it with reacted with laughter though no joke has been told, I was cringing in my chair with embarrassment. I'm sure the film creators didn't aim for either but that's what they got.