Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic Blu-ray DVD Review
Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic Blu-ray DVD Review
From poem to comic book to game to movie.
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While I'm definitely more familiar with Dante Alighieri's medieval poem than I am Jonathan Knight's shoot'em up RPG about a descent into the ninth circle of Hell, I'm not a complete luddite. I do know what an Xbox is, and I'm not at all opposed to great literature being used as source material for videogames… But I was a little wary when the screener of Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic arrived on my doorstep, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. It's because the movie is a cartoon. Generally speaking, I'm really not a fan of animated films unless they've got Walt Disney's name on them. I am, however, a fan of cinematic themes such as Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. So, it was a toss-up as I pressed the PLAY button on my remote.
The movie, set in a medieval era, starts off with dashing Dante (Graham McTavish, "Prison Break") losing his lady love, buxom Beatrice (Vanessa Branch, who plays Giselle in the Pirates of the Caribbean films), to a dark mysterious force who drags her soul down into the depths of Hell. Dante follows, having to live through each concentric circle, every one worse and more terrifying than the last.
With voice work from the likes of Mark Hamill and Victoria Tennant, and illustration by artists from studios such as Production IG (Kill Bill animated sequence), Dongwoo (Batman: Gotham Knight), and JM Animation (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic has a lot more going for it than the usual direct-to-disc horror flick.
The story is very basic, never deviating far from the "superhero" crusading knight schtick. The female characters are all very much from the fantasies of boys who're adept at holding their limited edition Frank Frazetta posters aloft with one hand. Lucifer is 1-D evil, as expected. The dialogue isn't great but the epic story sweeps along fluidly, so I'm not complaining. Best treat of all is the successful translation of the extreme violence, blood and gore from the videogame to the DVD screen. Personally, I didn't feel the need to "kill" — the filmmakers handled the death scenes quite well, and I was content enough to simply watch the God of War style carnage.
Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic is what it says it is: Dante, the inferno, animated and epic. It's fun to watch just once for the casual gawker (that's me), but fans of the game might enjoy a second spin and a look at the Blu-ray features (in addition to six different covers [one per unit] there is also a trailer for the game and animatics from the film).
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson