Night of the Animated Dead (2021) User Reviews

A cool concept that suffers from questionable animation

[adotson-98233 · 5/10 · 22 September 2021]

"Night of the Animated Dead" is a very interesting idea, and I don't fully hate this idea, however this movie suffers from some very questionable animation.

What I liked about this movie is that it's quick. It's a nice breezy 70 minute long movie, and it was nice to just have a movie that went quickly. The gore too is also very good. The movie succeeds with its cartoon gore. The voice acting is also very good. The movie did do a great job at making this feel like a homage to the original.

However this movie does suffer from some not good animation. It's not terrible, but it's just very cheap looking. The movie also doesn't take chances to really change things. I get this is a animation of it, but they could've done some new things to change up the story. And finally the middle portion of the movie does slow down a little bit, but it does start to pick up in the final 20 minutes.

Overall "Night of the Animated Dead" is a cool idea that really suffers from cheap animation, and not doing much new, but it had fun gore, and was quick enough for me to enjoy enough.

Return of the Living Dead

[jamieeatsjane · 6/10 · 15 March 2022]

I love the Living Dead series, that said, for some reason the first is the one I've returned to the least. The original Dawn of the Dead being the outright favourite. This retelling has reminded me how good the first movie actually was, good enough to never need a full reboot. Thanks for making me dig out the DVD for the next time I cycle through the series.

Just See the Original

[NickGagnon942 · 5/10 · 5 March 2022]

Basic redo of the 1968 classic buy animated and with some differences like more gore and a flashback scene. This was probably just made since the original film is in the public domain. Still it is watchable.

Why does this even exist?

[avadams · 3/10 · 29 September 2021]

Seriously. Just watch the original movie and appreciate everything that made it the classic horror film that it is. Or watch the Rifftrax version with some friends. This version is basically a shot-for-shot remake of the classic movie with janky animation, middling gore effects, and uninspired voice acting. There's none of the atmosphere or tension found in the original, and not because of the animated format -- it simply doesn't do anything with the source material.

Looks like a bible story from the 90's.

[ksgillihan · 3/10 · 27 September 2021]

Seriously, who green-lit this garbage? The animation is some of the worst I've ever seen.

Fully and wholly unnecessary...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 21 September 2021]

Needless to say that of course I sat down to watch the 2021 animated movie titled "Night of the Animated Dead", as I am a huge fan of the zombie genre. And I have to say that the cover/poster for this particular animated movie definitely looked interesting.

Now, I hadn't heard about "Night of the Animated Dead" prior to watching it, so I wasn't really sure what I was in for here. But the title should have been a dead giveaway. Regardless, I sat down to watch it.

And boy this was painful to sit through. First of all, the art style used in this animated movie looked nothing like the art on the cover/poster, so that was a slap to the face. Even worse was the fact that the entire feature looked like something that you would have seen in the Flash animation that was super popular during the 1990s, you know the small animated segments you saw on the Internet. And with that being said, and it looked and felt like Flash animation, then the art itself felt like something drawn by a youngster.

Then there was the storyline. Of course the storyline was good, as it was based on the original George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". Well, not based on, but a downright copy of. Yeah, this was the story told in "Night of the Living Dead" but in animated form. So there would be some appeal to some, I suppose. Personally I found this to be a fully and wholly unnecessary project. We already have a couple of remakes of the classic Romero zombie movie, so this animated movie was just pointless. Needless to say that the inferior art presentation weren't doing much to sell the project either.

The voice acting was actually good enough, having Josh Duhamel and Will Sasso on the voice cast ensemble. Those were the only two famous I knew about though.

If you are unfamiliar with the mammoth zombie movie that is George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", then shame on you, but then I suppose an animated movie such as the 2021 "Night of the Animated Dead" could be a good enough introduction, because it sets the bar low, and watching the movies afterwards will only heighten the experience.

My rating of director Jason Axinn's 2021 animated movie lands on a three out of ten stars. Sure, I love the story told in "Night of the Living Dead", but this animated cash-in on the franchise created by Romero was just plain and downright unnecessary, and quite an eyesore to watch.

Superb Voice Acting. Nothing else.

[ivantello73 · 3/10 · 23 September 2021]

The movie is just a copy paste of the original oldie, with the difference its animated. And hear me well, the animation is TERRIBLE. I dont know who approved this, but i can do it myself in my computer. Its absolutely awful. Cringey to see.

The voices are the only thing that may keep u from shuting down the tv.

Katharine Isabelle and Josh duhamel really stands out!

For the rest, they are all great!

If u are a fan of any of the actors watch it, if you are not, just turn down the tv and dont spend a single coin in this .

Just atrocious

[mike-shulman77 · 1/10 · 22 September 2021]

Where do I start?

The animation is awful. About as disjointed as it gets. It's almost like they said let's save money by using half the frames. It was like watching the old stop motion Thomas the Train which would have actually been preferable.

The story... well... I'm a huge NOTD fan and the original is a classic. The black and white is extremely claustrophobic and makes you uncomfortable watching. Even the remake which is close to shot to shot is extremely well done by Tom Savini. Well they take way to many liberties here in changing the story. Combine that with the terrible animation and plodding voice acting and it makes for an extremely boring experience. I mean if you're going to change so much of the movie... and keep the ending the same as the classic... wtf?

This was obviously made as a tribute to the original and I can respect that but when you have to fast forward through a movie with a 70 minute run time that doesn't say much for the movie.

Not as bad as these negative reviews say

[andrewbecker26 · 7/10 · 21 January 2022]

This was a decent animated take on a beloved classic. It has a few little problems sure. Some of the voices don't have feeling behind them. Otherwise it's almost a shot for shot retelling of the original with some additional scenes added such as the diner scene from Ben's story. If you're a fan of the original and aren't an asshole you will have a good time.

minus 4 stars for crappy animation and bad redux.

[surfisfun · 2/10 · 21 September 2021]

Really, unwatchable as a fan of animation or the original movie.

Not recommended.

Poopoo animation .

Watch The original movie, was awesome then but maybe not anymore if born after 1980 ....

Cheers.

Quite faithful to the original.

[fibreoptic · 8/10 · 3 October 2021]

While reading some of the reviews on here my expectations sank but I thought what the heck, I'll watch it anyway. I was expecting really shockingly bad animation but was pleasantly surprised because when I did watch it I thought the animation was okay. Not of high standards but I've seen worse. I think the lowish quality of it is akin to the original. The original didn't look that great, was low budget but it turned out to be an iconic classic because of the direction and story telling. Seems fitting to me it doesn't look high quality (feel free to down vote me :).

I thought the voice acting was fine. The film is faithful to the original but there are quite a few small differences. An example of one is when Ben explains how he got from town to the house and we see a flashback. I thought that was cool. Some nice animated gore scenes to boot makes this for me a good zombie movie and a compliment to the original.

I'm not sure how strong it will hold up on its own but maybe if it comes released on a bonus disc with the original it would be something definitely worth buying. Another reviewer said he hoped they would animate Dawn Of The Dead. I'd be up for that.

It as it's charm.

[kardayathomas · 7/10 · 30 October 2021]

I love the original NOTLD, it's one of my all time favourites. This film essentially uses the same script as the original. With a few little tidbits added in such as when Ben is telling the story of being at a diner when he found out what was happening. This film shows that scene in flashback as he's telling the story.

It would have been cool if they had put an interesting twist at the end or something like that. But that I guess would have served a different purpose than what this film was trying to accomplish.

Why? Just why?

[WPardo9793 · 2/10 · 19 October 2021]

Why would anyone try to remake a classic using sub-par animation and attempting to copy everything from the original?

There's basically no change from the 1968 Romero film, which would have been OK if it had tried to advance the story or told it from a different perspective.

The animation is laughable with clunky movements and overly simplistic character depictions.

I love the original film, but this was terrible.

Not the worst I've seen, but it seemed to try

[travispetrillo · 3/10 · 21 September 2021]

It's been forever since I've seen the original, but this film did seem to try and remain faithful to the original plot, though I can't say that's a good thing, given that the story is so dated, and can no longer be sold simply for its unique concept.

Where this movie really lacked though, was the animation and art. I may have enjoyed the story for the nostalgia factor alone, but I couldn't help but be distracted by the characters choppy and awkward movements, and just how bad they looked in general. With animation that would have been subpar even in the early 90's, this movie seemed more like a parody that forgot the funny, than a remake.

did not manage to see full movie

[Gringoen · 2/10 · 21 September 2021]

This was very boring and animation was terrible. Why would anyone spend money on making thius?

Just a complete waste of time

[wiredarp · 1/10 · 22 September 2021]

Its full of people doing unrealistic things, badly.

Theres really nothing likeable about it at all, just a procession of idiots doing idiot things, and then dying. You get more plot progression in a level of Left4Dead than you do in this entire show.

Pros? I guess the animation quality isn't terrible, nor are the sfx/voice acting.

Hard to believe something like this actually got made. You see fan made shows all the time on youtube that squeeze more plot into 10 minutes than this manages to do in an hour.

Its extremely rare for me to ever rate something 1 star, but this one gets that distinction. Its simply a complete waste of time. Save yourself 60 minutes of your life.

Who is this for?

[BandSAboutMovies · 2/10 · 6 November 2021]

Who does this movie exist for? Anyone can easily find Night of the Living Dead and there's really no need for it to be nearly shot for shot remade with more in your face gore and overacted voiceovers.

Sure, you get to see what happened in front of Beekman's Diner, but otherwise, all this movie adds is more viscera to the proceedings. The characters look beyond flat and the only thing that the ones that look like the original actors will do is make you want to just watch the black and white classic that this shamelessly copies.

Jason Axinn made To Your Last Death which had so much more going for it than this effort. Lack of effort, maybe.

About the only thing to watch this movie for is to see who takes over each voice. Barbara is Katharine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps and her brother Johnny is Jimmi Simpson from Westworld. Dulé Hill is Ben, while Harry and Helen Cooper are played by Josh Duhamel and Nancy Travis. Tom is James Roday Rodriguez and Judy is Katee Sackhoff while MAD TV comedian Will Sasso is Sheriff McClelland.

Otherwise, this is an overly referential version of the original film that would have been better off if it Ralph Bakshi rotoscoped the inspiration and just made it look more cartoonish.

New movie fans won't have any need to see this and fans of the original will undoubtedly be upset with the fact that this offers little new. Instead, all it does is give you more: more blood, more internal organs, more animated bodies that feel like they float instead of moving like people.

Also take a look at that great art on the cover. You're not getting anything like that in this cartoon.

What a waste of time and money

[gamergoth · 2/10 · 26 October 2021]

Was so excited to watch this, I spent $10 on Vudu and bought a digital copy. The animation was bad and dated. It did not have the same impact as the classic. They tried to add extra gore which did nothing to make this better. Save your money and wait for the dollar store release. I'll give them a couple stars for effort (I'm not an animator and I know time and skill went into this).

They're coming for you Barbara

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 25 September 2021]

This is an animated feature based on the original black and white classic. Very true to the original. Cheaper than colorizing the original. Nothing really new to see here. Why?

To true to the original

[lucusnovak · 10/10 · 21 September 2021]

If they wanted it the same they got it right. It is exactly like the 1968 original, I was hoping for something of a remake like the 1990 film with a slightly altered story. The scenery is even the same with the same 'camera angles' most of the time. Since have seen the '68 version so many times I can say the next line annoying my girlfriend and for that it is awesome. Hope they do Dawn of the Dead.

Night of The HORRIBLY LAME...

[gstark-09796 · 1/10 · 6 October 2021]

ABSOLUTE GARBAGE.

HORRIBLE ANIMATION... HORRIBLE, JUST PLAIN HORRIBLE.

Good try but lousy animation

[darkartist1977 · 4/10 · 16 October 2021]

This follows the original Night of the Living dead almost exact. I was excited to see it. And to be honest it would have been good. But the animation is the downfall. Very choppy is some places. If maybe the animation was like some of the other animation WB produces. It would have been extremely good....my Rating. Story : 7 Animation : 3.

Lazy Art...Use your imagination.

[rosalesr-63206 · 1/10 · 28 October 2022]

If I were the director, I would remake Night Of Living Dead in 2020s decade with live action. Imagine Helen Cooper as wealthy wife asian-american with luxury silk green dress and high heel with her selfish arrogant wealthy husband Harry and their Gen Z/Gen Alpha daughter Karen...that will be very dramatic to see zombified Helen in silk green dress after get killed by Karen. The Cooper escaped from wedding could be reason why they dressed formally. Imagine Barbara and Johnny in Tesla car visiting their dead mother in cemetery. Tesla car have touchscreen that detect the people...imagine Tesla car's screen detecting the dead. Calling 911 would not work because they are busy helping the others or get eaten by zombies. Imagine seeing zombies in fashions from 2020s decade. I means Tom Savini directed Night of The Living Dead very well in 1990s and that is beauty of art. Slow zombies are better than fast zombies. Art requires depth and more details. The set, fashions, house and everything is Art. You cannot rush the art.

animated remake

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 16 October 2023]

It's a remake of Night of the Living Dead (1968) using animation. In a way, this reminds me of George Lucas reworking the original Star Wars trilogy with CGI. Only George A. Romero is no longer with us. I don't know if he had anything to do with this effort. That is this movie's greatest flaw. I would be more interested if I know that this is George's vision. It's like a new story board of that iconic movie. The animation style is rudimentary. This is almost an exercise in remember the original. I keep trying to figure out what has been added. That is possibly this movie's greatest contribution.

Awful

[piggulu · 2/10 · 6 January 2022]

Just awful.

Unless this was a college final project there was no excuse for creating this. You're better off watching any of the billion Scooby Doo episodes or movies if you're in the mood for animated spooks.

Seriously awful.