What a fever dream. The mix between a video game platform and an animated film, Boys Go To Jupiter makes the audience feel like you have a choice in what is going to happen next. Until you realize you’re watching a film and not in a virtual reality space. This stylish, albeit different feature debut is surreal in every way. Julian Glander’s voice is distinct in this coming-of-age animation.
Young boys Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett), Beatbox (Elsie Fisher), Freckles (Grace Kuhlenschmidt), and Peanut (J.R. Phillips) had been such good friends, constantly making trouble and bombing around town. That is until Billy drops out of school and attempts to make money by delivering food with the company Grubster. He plans on making $5000, paying his sister Gail (Eva Victor) back for letting him stay with her, and getting his own place. Friendships begin to fall apart as Billy is so focused on earning an ‘income’ while his friends would rather stay kids for a while longer.
Boys Go To Jupiter attempts to combine many different elements into an unusual, but fascinating, animation with such a short runtime. Whether it be Billy trying to grow up too fast, the other boys being boys, fruit experimentation that may change the world, or finding aliens that have come to Florida for their own holiday, sometimes, there is a bit too much to digest. While being hard to grasp at times, the film closes most of its plot points, even if it does end in a more fictional way.
The animation of the film is where audiences can have a bit of fun, with its Adventure Time feel, but more three dimensional. Characters have different shapes to them, their limbs are not all there, and their mouths do not articulate the words in full. The choice of this computer-generated aesthetic makes the film feel like an old video game.
While there are high and low points of Boys Go To Jupiter, what I found the most fun is the video game aesthetic. Sort of like animated versions of the LEGO Duplo figures but with more roundness to them. There is a message to be seen in Boys Go To Jupiter even if the viewer must dig a bit more, unneeded if they would just like to enjoy the animation and the pure silliness of the film itself.
Comments
Post a Comment