[CRITICAL] ZOMBILLÉNIUM

The crisis of culture and society, ZOMBILLÉNIUM epitomized the evils of our time behind creatures more human than monstrous.

With its stunning opening scene, ZOMBILLÉNIUM keystroke input via a setting atypical of the North of France. A clouded sky, brick houses, fields of wind turbines and electricity pylons are shaping a landscape identifiable. The generic fact in particular echo of the sad spells of minors of the region, tragically caught in the traps, and then retrieved by the Devil, and a vampire in a suit and tie for pecuniary ends.

Fort of a political and social dimension quite rare in the animation public, ZOMBILLÉNIUM impinges on the flat-bands of the zombie films directed by George A. Romero (night of the living dead, Zombie) operating as a distorting mirror of our individualist society, formatted, and capitalist. Therefore, it is not trivial to follow Hector, “sir,” controller of the standards and “licencieur” professional, who, following a visit to misfortune of the park, will end up on the side of the dead, and thus review its priorities “demonic” to the downside.In this microcosm that is the famous theme park, the hierarchy of classes appears, at first sight of the most sustainable. The fantasy vampires staying at the top of the scale “monstrous” while the zombies remain the worst students in the class. All of these “monsters of series Z” (werewolf, mummy, zombie, witch), air-dried, ringardisés and denatured by a cinema, with little concern for their myth, does not weigh so heavy in the face of the enthusiasm of generation that focuses the figure of the vampire, or, rather, the sparkling Robert Pattinson in which Steven is an avatar parody.

By reversing the positions, ZOMBILLÉNIUM attempts to restore the rightful place and dignity to these forgotten symbolic of the world of culture, or allegorical of the world social and political. If the “disneyenne” – the story of a widowed father and selfish who “abandons” her daughter – who never embraced the furious rhythm of the social satire, the duo of filmmaker, Arthur Pine and Alexis Ducord, managed to find the right balance of narrative and graph between references to popular culture (Twilight, Thriller Michael Jackson, selfies and other mini Cooper), the imaginary and its many visions, mythological and biblical (theHell of Dante, the Devil, the wheel, the cerberus, Faust) and a social reality (world of the company, its unions, CEOS, shareholders, trainees, etc) to please the larger.

Adapted from his own comic book title of the same name, ZOMBILLÉNIUM d’Arthur de Pins andAlexis Ducord perfectly transcribed the universe disenchanted and cynical, as well as the ambition, visual, deeply cinematic image of the plans together, of original material. There is a real desire to offer an animation that exceeds the standard disneyenne and its shimmering colors, and rooted in a social and cultural reality, thereby engaging the viewer in a critical reflection on the conventions and the methods they impose.

Antoine Gaudé

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