[Netflix] Love Death & Robots

[Malaphax]

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A collection of animated short stories that span various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9561862/

This is a much more adult version of the animatrix.  The short stories are all over the place including 3dcgi, 2d, live action and different art styles, but nearly all of them are strongly adult rated.  It shifts from modern wearwolves, vampires, post apocalyptic, horror and comedy.  Honestly, the huge variety is hard to handle and some shorts definitely do a better job that others, but it's worth watching.  I'm a little surprised at the sheer volume of motion capture used in some of the 3d animation work but it's still impressive. 

Visually most of these shorts are rather impressive, with a couple standouts.  The storylines are always very short/simple but still entertaining.  I would caution, the serious levels of sexual content and violence are not to be understated, but the shorts generally do not suffer because of it.  I hope Netflix pushes more content like this because it's rather unique compared to much of the current animation work out there.

[Jedi2155]

Loved this thing and re-watched it with the wife. My only complaint is too much furry in one of the episodes.

[kuhla]

Finished this the other day. Took longer than expected because I somehow had it in my head that it was only 7-8 shorts. There were a couple of shorts I did not like but I enjoyed the majority of them. I'm glad Netflix is trying some different stuff and I will happily watch something like this again.

[Jedi2155]

(not in order)

My least favorites are:

• Three Robots
• Sucker of Souls
• Blindspot
• Alternate Histories

My favorites include:

• Beyond the Aquila Rift (reminds me of Deadspace a bunch)
• Secret War
• Sonnie's Edge
• Suits
• When the Yogurt Took Over
• Zima Blue
• Lucky 13

Really hope they make more of these.

*edit* apparently Alastair Reynolds made Zima Blue and Beyond the Aquila Rift which was really good IMO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds

[kuhla]

5 hours ago, Jedi2155 said:

*edit* apparently Alastair Reynolds made Zima Blue and Beyond the Aquila Rift which was really good IMO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds

That's a big name. That's cool.

[Jedi2155]

The guys who did the show were pretty big name directors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Miller_(director) (Deadpool)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fincher (tons of big name titles to his name)

[Jedi2155]

I

never noticed in the original trailer they put this message in there....hoping season 2 comes sooner rather than later...

[kuhla]

I think I'm going to go rewatch zima blue.

[Jedi2155]

Season/Vol 2  was released and I've been complaining left and right about it on Reddit.

[kuhla]

9 hours ago, Jedi2155 said:

Season/Vol 2  was released and I've been complaining left and right about it on Reddit.

So I take it you did not like it.

[Jedi2155]

On 5/20/2021 at 9:05 PM, kuhla said:

So I take it you did not like it.

 

[Malaphax]

So volume 2 definitely isn't as good, but I have substantial disagreements with Jedi2155's rankings.  In fact your bottom 2 ranked episodes are my top 2. 

I was also disappointed that we only had 2 non-cgi shorts, one being hand drawn and the other stop-motion.  I also had some issues with fluctuating quality of the character models, I'm not sure if they used some live action or facial capture for some of the shorts but I suspect that might be the case. 

[kuhla]

I finally watched this last night so I can participate.

1. "Automated Customer Service" - Boring. Not funny. Story has been done so many times.
2. "Ice" - OK. Animation style felt unique. Had some story to it.
3. "Pop Squad" - OK but it feels like this could have been better if they expanded or explained the world a little bit. That does not mean it has to be longer but just explain the setting a little bit. CGI was very good but it felt a little inconsistent.
4. "Snow in the Desert" - Same exact problem as the last one. OK but this could have been a lot more. You get such a tiny snippet of the universe and almost nothing explained so it ends up feeling very arbitrary. Beautiful CGI.
5. "The Tall Grass" - Boring and even a little aggravating. Here is this super crazy thing but uhhh let us just not talk about it or warn anyone.
6. "All Through the House" - Boring. Not funny. Story has been done many times.
7. "Life Hutch" - Another maintenence-robot-goes-psycho short? Beautiful CGI but why this story again?
8. "The Drowned Giant" - I think I actually enjoyed this one the most. There was some opportunity to think. There is this extraordinary event and yet the mundane aspects of life and time seem to always triumph.

[Malaphax]

The new season is decent, very short but decent.  I feel like they had some better art styles than the last season.  I don't think anything was good enough to stand out but I'm glad a series like this exists because I almost feel like it's a sizzle real for animation studios and I can appreciate that there's a ton of creativity and talent that goes into the various types of animation. 

[Jedi2155]

Big fan of Bad Travelling and Jibaro as my two favorite so far, with Swarm being a worth mention. I still need to watch Ep 3 (Very Pulse of the Machine),  and 7 (Masons Rats) but the rest is just okay but every episode so far is better than the terrible Volume 2.

[Jedi2155]

Also my total LDR scoring minus a few episodes I still haven't watched yet.

[Jedi2155]

I just finished the last 2 episodes last night, and would push up Mason's Rat from a C to a B. Very Pulse of the Machine stays at a C for me.

[kuhla]

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Death_%26_Robots#Volume_III_(2022)

welp just started season 3

only 2 episodes in

1. "Three Robots: Exit Strategies"
   1. Regardless of the message, that felt a bit force-fed. Not a fan.
2. "Bad Travelling"
   1. Main character was pretty smart I guess with the vote but I'm not sure why they couldn't just execute the final plan from the beginning. Seems like a big plot hole.

[kuhla]

On 10/21/2022 at 11:02 AM, kuhla said:

wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Death_%26_Robots#Volume_III_(2022)

welp just started season 3

only 2 episodes in

1. "Three Robots: Exit Strategies"
   1. Regardless of the message, that felt a bit force-fed. Not a fan.
2. "Bad Travelling"
   1. Main character was pretty smart I guess with the vote but I'm not sure why they couldn't just execute the final plan from the beginning. Seems like a big plot hole.

Finished it.

1. -
2. -
3. "The Very Pulse of the Machine"
   1. Ok I guess. I feel like if the ending had been a bit more ambiguous, that would have been more interesting.
4. "Night of the Mini Dead"
   1. Alrighty then.
5. "Kill Team Kill"
   1. That was something. Didn't do much for me.
6. "Swarm"
   1. Fun idea I guess but really has that old trope of scientists acting wildly irresponsible.
7. "Mason's Rats"
   1. Those rats are dumb. Maybe a connection to Rats of NIMH?
8. "In Vaulted Halls Entombed"
   1. This was my favorite of the season. I could have done without yet another scene of soldiers continuously shooting ineffectively at some kind of swarm.
9. "Jibaro"
   1. Visually interesting.

[Jedi2155]

On 10/21/2022 at 11:02 AM, kuhla said:

1. "Three Robots: Exit Strategies"
   1. Regardless of the message, that felt a bit force-fed. Not a fan.
2. "Bad Travelling"
   1. Main character was pretty smart I guess with the vote but I'm not sure why they couldn't just execute the final plan from the beginning. Seems like a big plot hole.

I agree with you that Bad Travelling had a huge plot hole.

My favorite is:

1. Jibaro
2. Bad Travelling
3. Very Pulse of the Machine
4. In Vaulted Halls Entombed
5. Swarm
6. Kill Team Kill
7. Masons Rats
8. Night of the Mini Dead
9. Three Robots: Exit Strategies

[Malaphax]

This recent season didn't seem as good as prior seasons. 

• Can't Stop - This is literally a shitty red hot chilli peppers music video and I don't like the band, I think i watched all of 15 seconds of this it was so awful. 
• Close Encounters of the Mini Kind - Cool animation style with the emphasis on tilt shift, but very boring premise, at least it didn't overstay it's welcome. 
• Spider Rose - Meh... Decent visuals but the plot and "twist" didn't grab me. 
• 400 Boys - I like this black culture/ british grime inspired design and overall thought this was a good episode.
  (Same studio that did Zima Blue S1 and Ice S2)
• The Other Large Thing - Cats want to rule the world, very boring idea with generic animation.
• Golgotha - Why is this almost entirely live action?
• The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur - Why in the fuck is Mr Beast in this?
• How Zeke Got Religion - Cool art style, with a slight variation on the nazi occult stuff, good episode. 
• Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners - Basically a series of animated one liner jokes, not even that funny. 
• For He Can Creep - Cats vs Satan, at least this premise was moderately unique. 

[kuhla]

I got around to watching it.

• Can't Stop - Ummm so this was just an animated music video so yeah there was not much to it and the visual style was not particularly interesting.
• Close Encounters of the Mini Kind - Neat I guess.
• Spider Rose - Visually pretty but what was even the point of this story? It was not interesting or stimulating.
• 400 Boys - Visually kind of wild and the story was at least kind of stimulating. Obviously same style as Zima Blue.
• The Other Large Thing - Meh.
• Golgotha - Meh.
• The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur - Premise that has been done 100x and not stimulating visually.
• How Zeke Got Religion - I liked this. To me this was basically like a Hellboy short. 
• Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners -  Meh.
• For He Can Creep - A little fun but kind of meh.

I still want this format to be a thing, multiple shorts with unique visual styles, but this season felt a bit boring overall.