Movie of the Week: Extraordinary Tales

Alexa: I feel like I use some variation of the phrase “It’s an interesting idea but it falls flat in its execution” a lot but… “Extraordinary Tales” is an interesting idea that falls flat in its execution. If you’re a fan of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, there is probably something for you in this showcase of five of his best-known stories. Four of the five are essentially abridged narrations of the stories with accompanying animations, while the last one is only visuals and music. I liked the idea of giving each story its own distinct animation style, but I found the animation in all of them to be disjointed and generally off-putting. “The Tell-Tale Heart” was the most interesting and by far the creepiest. “The Masque of the Red Death” was probably the most visually engaging, but it was missing something without narration. I found the introduction and transitions, a weird little subplot between Poe in the form of a raven and Death, to be completely unnecessary and distracting. The anthology’s greatest asset by far is its narrators. Notable horror genre favorites like Christopher Lee and Guillermo del Toro lend their voices and perform Poe’s words beautifully. But ultimately it’s not enough to save the film’s uneven structure.

Joel: As with any collection of shorts clumped together in an anthology film, some are going to shine brighter than others. It can make it tricky to review a movie like this as more often than not, you end up with a handful of mini reviews rather than a review of the entire movie as a single experience. Individually each of these shorts has something interesting and unique to offer. Each of the shorts made a bold and stylized choice when it came to the animation and I would say that more or less, the story benefited from their respective animation styles. Visually, each short is striking and memorable. In many ways, each short individually feels like a really great adaptation of a Poe short story, one that would be really good to show in a language arts class after having read the short story itself. Each one is able to do something unique, yets at the same time, they’re all able to capture a distinct Poe feel that helps to tie the five shorts together.

However, looking at the movie as a whole there are a few things that need to be pointed out. Between each of the shorts there are a segments of Poe (represented by an animated raven) discussing his work with Death (represented by the graveyard that the raven is in). I get the desire to try and tie the movie together with an overarching story, but these segments don’t add anything to the movie. They’re the least “Poe” feeling moments of the movie and interrupt the flow far more than they help. You spend each one twiddling your thumbs, just waiting for the next short to begin. There’s also the matter of the order of the shorts. Your personal preference may vary on which shorts are better than others, but for the most part, the movie starts with the best and goes through them in descending order of quality. Some of this just comes down to which of Poe’s original works was better than others. Some of this comes down to how adaptable each of Poe’s stories are. For example, “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a story that relies heavily on a focus on the other four senses when the narrator can’t see, something that doesn’t translate super well to a visual medium. We should also probably discuss “Masque of the Red Death.” For this short, the narration was discarded entirely leaving the story to be told in a purely visual way. While this is interesting, and gives this short something that helps to distinguish it from the others, it also means that this one relies on knowledge of the original work more than the others do.

Finally, we need to talk about the length of the movie, which ends up being just over seventy minutes, barely long enough to be considered feature length. While this runtime may help to answer why the Poe/Death conversation bits were added (to help pad the runtime), you have to wonder why a sixth short wasn’t added to the collection, especially when “The Cask of Amontillado” is noticeably absent here. Ultimately the movie feels a little less than complete when viewed as a single feature, but individually each of the shorts is a fairly well done adaptation with some of them (The Fall of the House of Usher) are truly excellent. Each short individually is worth watching, and this collection provides an easy way to see them all, just try to think of it as a group of good short films, rather than a feature all on its own.

Chris: I enjoyed Extraordinary Tales more than I expected to but I agree with Joel and Alexa, the framing story felt like it was forcing a narrative line through each segment and it felt clunky and a little cheesy. In a tribute to Edgar Allen Poe, the worst part about it was the stuff not written by Poe.

Beyond that the only segment that didn't really do anything for me was the final one. I wasn't a fan of the animation (the others blew me away) and doing it without narration. Again, this is a tribute to Poe, the writer, and you've got a segment based on his work without the words. Sure, you still understand what's going on through the visuals but again, if you're honoring the writer, include the words. Ultimately, my favorite segment was the first, the animation was incredible and Christopher Lee was the perfect choice to narrate just about anything.

Jason: I have grown up reading, watching, listening to, and generally enjoying the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe. My father made sure to introduce me early and I've been a huge fan since. Poe was a master of thematic atmosphere. I feel that this collection of short animated films wonderfully conveys the stark, moody feel that Poe was going for when he wrote these stories. These five are probably his most well-known short stories and are therefore more easily digested. I could probably write a scholarly essay on each story in turn but I'll spare you the tedium. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is by far my favorite in this little collection. The texture of everything and the beautiful vocal stylings of Christopher Lee perfectly evoke how I feel when I read Poe. The most terrifying of them is easily “the Tell-Tale Heart”. The grainy recording of Bela Lugosi plays against the bleak ultra-high-contrast of the animation to present an unsettling image. Next is “Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”. The stand out point in this one is its homage to the great Vincent Price. While they did not get to use his voice, his visage is right at home with Poe. Side note: if you have never seen Price’s old Poe movies, do yourself a favor and get a hold of them. At least his Pit and the Pendulum. It's well worth your time! Speaking of “Pit”, this one in the series probably falls flattest of them here for me. I do love hearing Guillermo del Toro, a notorious lover of authors like Poe and Lovecraft, but that story really is very cerebral and wasn't translated quite as well here. Finally, “Masque of the Red Death” was beautiful. The use of color in the story converts so well to visual imagery. However, without narration, there is some context that is lost. It is still a terrifying story though.

Needless to say, I loved this collection. Maybe it's because I love Poe’s work so much, maybe because I love animation like this, and maybe because it is genuinely wonderful. I would love to see another like this with more of Poe’s stories. There is so much there to work with!