“The Liberator” qualifies as an interesting experiment, and not much more — using digital animation over actual footage (an evolution of the process once known as rotoscoping) to create a highly stylized look, but then telling a World War II story in a stiff, uninspired way.
Those interested in the process should surely want to take a look at this Netflix miniseries, which was actually developed for the History channel. That said, it’s hard to suggest sticking around for this fact-based story of a one much-decorated infantry unit’s march across Europe, a project whose dialogue and presentation suffer from a lifelessness only enhanced by the washed-out nature of the animation.
Premiering on Veteran’s Day, the series was created by Jeb Stuart (“Die Hard”), based on the book “The Liberator: One World II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey,” which focuses on army officer Felix Sparks and his Oklahoma unit that consisted largely of Native Americans and Mexican-Americans. Their journey began in Italy and concludes with the horror of the Dachau concentration camp.
The technology at work, with the unwieldy name Trioscope Enhanced Hybrid Animation, establishes a comic-book-like feel. While the characters look real, if a little fuzzy, the backgrounds can be rendered in a way that creates animated tanks and explosions, without needing to construct sets or find locations.
The visuals, however, actually work against becoming wholly engaged in the drama, blurring the distinctions of the characters, who, beyond Sparks (played by “Damien” star Bradley James), are pretty thinly drawn (pun intended) to begin with.
Rotoscoping was championed by animator Ralph Bakshi on movies like “The Lord of the Rings” and “Fire and Ice,” and this certainly resembles a next-generation application of the process, which creates interesting possibilities going forward.
For starters, it would seem to be a way to produce certain kinds of action movies more economically — which, as Variety reported, was the motivation for transforming what would have been an eight-part live-action version of the story into its current four-part form.
Like any technical gimmick, though, a movie or TV show is only as good as the writing and characters. It’s there where “The Liberator” fails to come alive, coming across as a pale version of old black-and-white World War II movies, in a way that feels — as is so easy to do when the emphasis is on gee-whiz technological tools — like focusing on the wrapping and bow instead of the gift within them.
“The Liberator” premieres Nov. 11 on Netflix.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.