Sound & Fury (2019) User Reviews

Cool Concept & good music! Keep em coming Netflix!

[jamisonreisbeck · 7/10 · 1 October 2019]

Japanese Anime + scuzzy rock music by Sturgill. Love the idea behind this and the visuals are great and vary from song to song. Basically a 40 minute music video. Does kinda feel like the animation doesn't coincide with the music but still very entertaining and the art direction is on point. Think the Black Keys scoring a samurai western apocalypse short film.

Great concept, poor execution?

[masotoma · 7/10 · 1 October 2019]

I love the idea of Netflix pouring money into an album and an artist to make an Anime-music-album-movie I really do. I really liked the first 15 minutes, with the samurai character, but dance sequence with all the other 'slaves' pulled me completely out of the story, even more so when it became live action.

It should have been ONE good story, no dialogue but some sound would have brought the whole thing alive.

I gave it a 7 only because I believe that this format could become a good medium that brings back music-videos back to their former glory.

Watch it for the first 15 minutes, then you can go on to something else. But, as entertainment it's very niche.

Like the animation, great choices but some of the music was ok.

[vegaskane-46649 · 6/10 · 5 October 2019]

So 8 for animation 6 as an average for music as far as my tastes.

?????

[edwardeggers · 6/10 · 2 October 2019]

Not sure? The anime was cool. The music was real good. No real story. The live action was boring. Would of been better visually to stick to one story. Musically it was great.

Mezmerizing

[ianwagnerwatches · 8/10 · 19 February 2020]

A fascinating experiment. The combination of animated work from different artists, different but cohesive images of a post apocalyptic world, subtle and artful homages, and a non-linear yet clear and satisfying story. I can't think of a better way to accompany a concept album visually.

Entertaining

[aranormer · 6/10 · 30 September 2019]

I was entertained, but that is all. Artist was formerly unknown to me. Music was okay. Anime was okay, though I would have preferred more unified look and feel rather than collaboration.

Completely okay, but nothing spectacular.

Showed Some Promise at first but Deteriorated Slowly

[knightox · 4/10 · 24 October 2019]

It started off pretty damn cool but deteriorated from there. It's like they began a decent storyline but they switched directions and couldn't keep things cohesive. Their artistic budget seemed to decline as the movie moved forward as well. I have no idea why they decided to include the live-action(it was dull-action) stories and scenes. They simply appeared as filler between the animation. Maybe they couldn't afford any additional animated scenes in this long 34 minute movie? I don't think anyone got together and planned this movie out. It's like they just threw some stuff together and said "Hey it's new anime! Betcha some streaming company will pay us!". Do yourself a favor and watch "Love, Death & Robots", especially "The Secret War" episode for a recent good anime. Or check out "Seis Manos", for a 70's style, grind-house anime. The "Silencio" character is coolest, most ruthless Mexican anti-hero I've ever seen.

Wow!

[tallboy610 · 10/10 · 13 October 2019]

For starters I had never really heard of Sturgill Simpson nor his music. What an introduction! The feel of this definitely a callback to Heavy Metal. It seemed a little hard to follow until the end. Once you've finished it it all fits together. I've since watched it several times since the first and it doesn't get boring. There is so much going on i find new things I missed.

Pros and cons

[benjyboom · 7/10 · 8 June 2020]

Some very cool animation, the characters all look great and the way they move is a pleasure to watch. The main story of the samurai daughter is probably the best, but the final fight felt a touch anticlimactic. All of the cool stuff happens before the last few minutes, which felt rushed and uncool in comparison. The skateboarding story was a great change of pace, very light and fun part. The shelter part was chaotic, messy and angry throughout, tough to watch in a good way. Overall, creative, fun and definitely worth watching.

Good animation, the musical side of things not so good

[gav_c · 4/10 · 4 October 2019]

Excellent animation but it's just like watching a music channel for an hour struggling to decipher the story behind the meaning. I think it could of been a lot better maybe in the future we will see better things.

Good concept though I appreciate the ingenuity of it.

Great album with even better anime.

[haroldsx · 9/10 · 4 October 2019]

I went into this completely blind. I had no idea who Sturgill Simpson was. I can't pick out one song that stands out from the rest. They're all good.

As for the anime, some of the top names are involved in this. Very reminiscent of Heavy Metal (if you don't know, look it up) in the non linear story ark. There is a dance sequence that may throw you off. It's actually a nod to a classic Japanese Samurai film (sadly I can't think of the name). It's the exact same dance.

Hmm...

[focusone-52868 · 6/10 · 2 October 2019]

I get that some of these folks worked on Animatrix, and I can tell with the style, but some of the episodes I didnt understand! Idk, it was okay!

Lame

[jasongehrke · 1/10 · 16 October 2019]

Starts off interesting. Could be a real story but I dont know if its music or animation. It just loses me completely like during the dance number track. Not worth anyones time.

Grading on a curve here

[cferalpenn · 7/10 · 14 April 2022]

These kind of things are difficult to accurately judge but it is okay.

The lack of cohesion would hurt it if it was an anime, as well as all the jumping around in time. A few of the vignettes are seemingly completely unrelated to the main storyline and while might be the coolest bits (last man standing and mercury in retrograde) they drag the main story down by breaking it up and watering it down.

As far as the music it's mixed some of the compositions are good but the lyrics are average and muddled the country western singer vocals get samey and dull after a while. (Just Breathe and Last Clockmaker on Mars are highlights but lyrically even they weren't spectacular)

At it's worst it is something you can play in the background at it's best it's a neat collection of music videos.

5/10 anime 8/10 music videos 6/10 album.

great art, great fun

[iconoclastcurmudgeon · 9/10 · 10 October 2019]

Don't look for a linear story or homogenous style here; it's more about impressions, themes, and the mesh of atmospheric music with dynamic animation. expect an experience, but don't expect a one-foot-in-front-of-the-other narrative. also, watch through the credits. they're not at the end.

Decent animation but...

[sajpratt-82-265277 · 3/10 · 13 October 2019]

Too bad about the music--mundane, standard rock licks and pedestrian lyrics. Decidedly not a suitable music track for the animation sequences. I applaud the effort to promote one's music using interesting animations, but other than that, this is a very long 'music vid' that becomes tedious after the third song.

Great anime short..with a killer soundtrack.

[Ghostrunner66 · 9/10 · 29 September 2019]

This was great. Excellent neo-steampunk visuals of a dytopian future, remniscent of 1981's Heavy Metal. Mizusaki's anime is awesome as Simpson flexes his musical muscle, in this soon to be cult classic. A well spent 41 minutes.

the music doesn't fit the animation AT ALL

[turiyasega · 3/10 · 6 October 2019]

Think Akira, but fire Geinoh Yamashirogumi and hire Aerosmith to score the film instead. Unwatchable unless muted.

Trippy animation and music

[scotty-mitchell · 9/10 · 4 October 2019]

It's a crazy feast for the eyes and ears. I was blown away for the whole show. The music is like grunge country blues and the animation is mesmerizing.

Headache

[Zeesh_Q · 1/10 · 1 October 2019]

Don't bother unless you are wishing for a heache. Poor taste

Wow!

[stvnlblnc · 10/10 · 12 October 2019]

This anime short truly reminds me of the Cowboy Bebop series/movie. The whole rambling story line and disjointed scenes, along with the soundtrack make for a hell of a ride!

Incoherent mess

[tonysundell · 1/10 · 6 January 2020]

Oh boy, where do I begin? Artsy smash up of things that just don't resonate together. At first an anime revenge-story that for some reason has some awful country music on the background. I kept thinking: do I have wrong audio source chosen or why this seems so immersion breakingly bad. However this, uh what ever this is, turned into a dancing video in middle of the most interesting part, where the chosen movements highlighted 3D models lackcluster parts and then out of nowhere it becomes a japanese live action flick with absolutely nothing interesting happening. It all went even more downhill from there...

Great!!

[jtchrist-29842 · 10/10 · 26 February 2020]

I have been a Sturgill Simpson fan for a long time. Love the movie as well as the soundtrack!

Wastage of time

[strangem-34576 · 1/10 · 16 January 2021]

Absolute rubbish. Complete wastage of time. Don't waste your time on such stupid thing

A treat for your eyes

[fozbuns · 10/10 · 9 October 2019]

I went into this without any knowledge or expectations and my eyes were glued to the screen. The creators were able to meld together various types of animation and stories into one well-done cohesive whole.