Review: DANTE'S INFERNO: AN ANIMATED EPIC - An Awesome Adventure of Hellish Bloodshed

Supervising Director: Mike Disa 

Voice Actors: Mark Hamill, Victoria Tennant, Vanessa Branch, and Graham McTav

Synopsis:

Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery! These are the 9 Circles of Hell made famous by Dante Alighieri in his famed masterpiece, Dante’s Inferno, his first story of The Divine Comedy. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic will take you on a harrowing trip through Hell as Dante braves the forces of evil, slaying demons and monsters of extraordinary imagination, all to save his love Beatrice, from the clutches of Hell’s master - Lucifer. 

This animated film is a companion piece to the hit Electronic Arts video game. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic, is inventively told through eyes of visionary animation directors from around the world, including Shuko Murase (Ergo Proxy) and Yasoumi Umetsu (Kite: Liberator) among others, including the renowned animation studios behind such films as Ghost in the Shell, Blood the Last Vampire, Tales of the Black Freighter and Samurai Champloo. 6 Directors, 6 terrifying visions of Hell, 6 different animation styles. 

Review:

I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer or film clips for this film or not, but they were enough to get me really interested in seeing this film. I recently had the opportunity to attend a screening for this movie, and I gotta tell ya, this animated movie was freakin awesome! Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic is a beautifully bloody violent work of art. Not only is the animation breathtakingly incredible, but the story is very strong and engaging. From beginning to end I was engrossed in this insane vision of hell, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

I have a feeling this movie is going to shock the hell out of you. I wasn’t expecting what I got when I watched this movie. I knew the film was going to be dark, but I didn’t know it was going to be this dark and disturbing. The creative team that developed this film didn’t hold back anything. Make no mistake, this movie is a hard ‘R’ film that takes blood, gore and violence to new levels of madness. It's hard to describe what this movie entails without giving certain things away. This movie should be watched not knowing too much about it so that when you do watch it, you get the full blown experience of this film. But, I will tell you that there is non-stop bloodshed.

I loved the different styles of animation that were used to tell this story. It never distracted from what was going on in the film, I actually really enjoyed seeing the different styles play out throughout Dante’s journey through the nine circles of hell. All of them were different, and according to the supervising director they let each director and animation studio do whatever they wanted. They gave them free reign to design the animation style, characters and background however they wanted. I think it’s cool that they let them do that. Everyone stuck to the same script though, so it’s still one solid fluid movie of death and greatness.

As you probably know Universal Pictures is currently prepping up to film a live action version of this story, but after seeing this animated movie, I honestly don’t know how they are going to top it. It just seems like whatever the studio ends up doing will be pretty tame and watered down compared to what was accomplished in this animated epic. Even if you compare it to the live-action film version of Silent Hill, as crazy and insane as that was, Dante’s Inferno is a better, more insane, all around film. 

In the end, what it all comes down to is the story and script, both of which were solid. Most direct to DVD animated films have problems with the script due to time and budget restraints. But, Dante’s Inferno was still able to come out strong, which I was really impressed with.

Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic was an incredible film. They throw “epic” in the full title of this film and rightly so, the movie really is an epic adventurous masterpiece. If you can handle an intense amount of violence and an insane amount of crazy bloodshed, then I highly recommend that you go get yourself a copy of this movie when it comes out and watch it. You wont be disappointed. Enjoy!