If you haven't heard of Atlas the Animated Movie now you have. It's a movie made by Austin McConnell that is based on an obscure superhero comic which uses motion capture to create a superhero movie with a low budget feel. On September 8th it was released for free on YouTube.
I really enjoyed the movie. It had an interesting combination of the possible and the superheroic. Jim Randall is a skinny overworked office worker who is bored of his job and doses off and plays video games but can do a good job when he puts his mind to it. He has a friend coworker who helps keep him out of trouble with his boss. One day, the boss announces that the company is being restructured and introduces to the workers the company's auditor who is a beautiful woman who just moved in from another city. When her ride doesn't show up, he drives her to her apartment where she lives with her younger brother who just got into a fight with some delinquent kids. It turns out that the delinquent kids work for the mob and one of the gangsters punches Jim in the face and he goes home, being sorry for himself.
In a strange dream, Jim meets the god Atlas who excoriates him over how weak he is and confronts him to do better with his life. So Jim takes 3 months of saved vacation time and meets a relative on a ranch to become a stronger man, bit by bit. That is a large part of the movie's beginning.
Jim becomes a superhero after being forced into it by his coworker's young brother who now works for the mob and refuses to leave.
The film is slow to pick up steam but is fun to watch and I give it an 8 out 10. If there were others like it I may have given it a 7 out of 10 but it is good and new enough to warrant an extra star.
I have not posted much about new obscure animated movies and many that I've posted about are now posted about on mainstream media. The movies I am enjoying the most nowadays are now longer obscure. There are some shows that I really liked that got cancelled like Elliot from Earth. I haven't loved an animated movie since The Wind Rises but I was surprised at how good Inu Oh was.
I am eagerly awaiting Austin McConnell's next film, a 2D animated film named Catman. It is another superhero film in a flared flat style. No relation to the character featured on Fairly Oddparents.
I am interested in other comic adaptations besides superhero comics. Obscure Cities is a great series of comics that I would love to see adapted into movies. I have slowed down on watching superhero movies because they don't have much new to offer. I want to see surrealism, action, some horror(less extreme than Mad God), and sci fi. I will say more at a later date and here is the movie for those who want to watch it.
