I hunt high and low for something interesting to watch these days. So, I was pleased to find The Spine of Night at random. Mainstream is becoming boring, with only a few movies, here and there, that I look forward to seeing. When I find something like this movie, it makes me happy.
The Spine of Night is a fantasy animation, very similar to The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit; but the ones from the 70s. Sort of bad, but at the same time good.
The movie stars Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Better Gabriel, Joe Manganiello, Patrick Breen, and Larry Fessenden. Philip Galatt and Morgan Galen King write and direct the movie.
The Story
The official plot of The Spine of Night is:
Ultra-violent, epic fantasy set in a land of magic follows heroes from different eras and cultures battling against a malevolent force.
It’s honestly difficult to break down the story, so I won’t. We meet Tzod (Lawless) as she makes her way to see The Guardian (Grant). She tells him of an epic story of why she is there and how bad their world has become.
There is so much going on, but you are dropped right into the middle of it all. The only thing I will spoil is that there is something called Blue, which is a flower that gives people powers.
Some use it to heal and do good; others want it to become benevolent god-like creatures. I loved how none of where this is happening is fully explained; it was ‘this is the story, keep up’. Kind of like Starship Troopers.
The Animation
In today’s world, all the animation we see is clean, precise, and neat; and I kind of hate that. As I said about things like Wallace and Gromit, I like to see the fingerprints of the animators.
The Spine of Night goes back to the type of animation you would see in a Saturday morning cartoon, like Dogtanion and the Three Muskahounds, or Dungeons and Dragons. It’s all hand-drawn, usually not very well, but you didn’t mind it.
I read that the animation took seven years, mainly because there were only about four people max working on it at any one time. I also heard that they filmed the actors, then drew over everyone to keep it looking ‘real’.
You can see the weight of people fighting, them swinging swords, stabbing each other. It looked cheap, but also looked real at the same time. It’s hard to pin down, but I couldn’t look away; I didn’t spend any time on my phone.
The Lore
The best thing about The Spine of Night was how you were taken to another world, with a lore you didn’t understand, but I found myself fully invested. There were some moments I felt like I could have sat on the edge of my seat if I wasn’t so relaxed on my sofa.
We’ve all seen stories of good vs bad in a fantasy setting: LotR, Dark Crystal, Conan the Barbarian, Willow. All of those movies, and more, take us away to a place that doesn’t exist, but it’s real.
The Spine of Night is the same. Sure, I’m guessing not many people have heard of it, but that’s a real shame. The story is impressive, the action is brutal, and you want the heroes to triumph over the bad guys.
Overall
This is a hidden gem of a movie. I found it at random and put it on my watchlist. When I saw it, I wanted to watch it again, and then share it with everyone. It’s not going to be as big as LotR, but if you like a fantasy adventure, you can’t go wrong with The Spine of Night.
It reminded me of Heavy Metal, in the style and story. As I said, the animation is dated, but it still has such a good style; combined with a solid story, it was a great watch.
It was described as ‘not for kids’, and they are right. Tzod is naked throughout the movie; a point that annoyed me, as a lot of her scenes were on a cold mountain. Since this is animated, the violence can be as brutal as it likes, and it doesn’t hold back. There is a lot of red colouring used by the animators.
If you want something original to watch, give The Spine of Night a chance. It was really well made, a great story, and it gave me the good kind of nostalgia, like I used to have watching kids’ cartoons on a Saturday morning. Although, just to say it again, this isn’t a kids’ cartoon; it’s adult animation.
It only came out in 2021, so it’s not hard to find.
