Animonday: Memories
Three very different tales from the mind of Katsuhiro Otomo make up this film. The first (and best) is an outer space ghost story, “Magnetic Rose” that blends elements of Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Sunset Boulevard to create an exceptional piece of animation. There’s a genuinely creepy atmosphere to the derelict spaceship whose distress call entices a salvage crew into a dangerous area of space. The characters are well developed and you genuinely care what happens to them which makes the story’s climax all the more powerful.
“Stink Bomb” is a farce that highlights military stupidity, as a secret chemical weapon is inadvertently used by a lab worker with disastrous consequences. A little over-long and very over the top this is nevertheless a lot of fun. As the military tries, somewhat ineptly, to eliminate one man, as he gets closer and closer to Tokyo they use every means at these disposal, and I do mean EVERY means. It’s completely different in both tone and animation style from the first story.
Finally “Cannon Fodder” is a blackly humorous tale about the stupidity of war. Directed by Otomo himself and featuring another style change this shows a day in the life of a boy and his parents in a city involved in a perpetual war. This is a “steampunk” world, with huge steam powered guns firing shells at a distant enemy. It also has a bleak Orwellian feel to it, with workers going about the same routine as they are urged to try a little harder in the hope of final victory by public service announcements . It may be a bit heavy handed with its message but it has so much style and inventiveness that it’s easy to forgive its overly simple “war is bad” message.
