LIFF27: After School Midnighters Review
rating: 3
Not many family films can boast having a skeleton and a skinless anatomy model among their leading characters, but then After School Midnighters isn't quite what you'd expect from a 'family film'. Certainly one of the more striking and surreal features LIFF27 has to offer, this Japanese CG curiosity brings a Tim Burton-esque touch of the macabre to your conventional cartoon adventure movie. It might also be one of the oddest films you've ever seen.
After stumbling into the science lab of St. Claire's Elementary School, three precocious girls - the screaming Mako, the spoilt Muko and the near-silent Mutsuko - are surprised (but not, crucially, scared) to find that they have inadvertently disturbed anatomy model Kun (or, to give his full name, Louis Thomas Jerome Kunstlijkand) from his display stand. Despite an extravagant musical number, in which he attempts to warn the children about the shadowy creatures that lurk in every corner of the school, he proves no match for their boundless energy and endless questions.
And so, frustrated, he tells them that the school holds three challenges, each offering a medal, and that only when all three are collected will they be granted any wish. And that, he hopes, is the last he'll see of them. Yet his lab buddy, a skeleton named Goth, is somewhat more sympathetic, hoping that retrieving the medals will prevent the school from being closed down. And so he convinces Kun to follow the trio as they embark on a series of spooky and increasingly difficult tasks. Along the way they encounter spiders, sea monsters and classical composers - all while coming ever closer to discovering St. Claire's dark secret....
For the most part, it's engaging stuff: a parade of eccentric characters, impressive effects and just enough surrealism to keep things from growing stale. The outcome of the three challenges may be predictable (it is a kids' film, after all) but the jokes certainly aren't. This is largely due to the film's coupling of cutesy humour with the rather more risqué. Take, for example, the scene in which Kun begins to introduce himself to the girls, only to leave the lab screaming with an elephant's face scribbled between his legs. And you'd be hard pressed to find a Disney film in which a cartoon rabbit points a pistol to a lead character's temples.
In typically madcap fashion, the inclusion of three gun-toting, half-skinned rabbits (taking their names and characteristics straight from The Godfather) threatens to take us into darker territory.But, instead, it marks the peak of a film unsure whether to pander to its preteen audience or aim for more adult approval. At times it is difficult to determine which is the loudest: the roar of childish laughter as Kun knocks Goth to the floor for the tenth time- or the swoosh of another joke shooting high over their heads.
The three challenges, set in a swimming pool, computer room and music hall, respectively, require more than a little dramatic license and it's unlikely that an invested audience would see one particular closing gag as anything but anticlimactic. Yet you'd be forgiven for letting this slide, for it is here that the film showcases its more spectacular effects- with the finale in the computer room practically screaming to be seen in 3D.
Despite initially brimming with ideas, it's a shame that the film can't find its way towards a natural conclusion; choosing instead to orchestrate an overblown, overlong finale in which every plot thread is hastily brought together. This race against time, pitting our protagonists against the most fearsome of foes, should of course prove a highlight, but instead the film finds itself increasingly relying on slapstick and slow-mo sequences to grab our attention. Let's hope that the sequel, green-lit in August this year, can iron out the tonal inconsistencies and give the House of Mouse a real run for its money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXOlWTBkJ8A