Anna Daniels
After Battle Angel, Rosa Salazar kept herself at the forefront of innovation, claiming the lead in another technically ambitious project. This one, however, made its premiere via the land of streaming — and what can we say about Amazon’s psychedelic animated confection Undone but that it really is every bit as ambitious as Battle Angel, and in many ways bests the feature.
For the record, that has more to do a with character and story than anything. That’s because Undone, for all its narrative audacity and mind-melting visuals, actually puts soul-searching spirituality ahead of its enthralling visual aesthetic. At the center of the story is Salazar’s Alma, who narrowly escaped death in a horrible car crash only to find herself able to traverse time and space — a mysterious gift she uses to seek the truth about the death of her father. What follows is a reality-shattering saga as visually arresting as it is deeply soulful, and at times laugh-out-loud funny.
As for the visually arresting part, we can tell you that Undone was created using the same rotoscoping technique as Richard Linklater’s Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). We can also tell you that the tech continues to evolve, and you’ve never seen it used quite like it is in Undone. Regarding the soulful and laugh-out-lout funny part, consider that Undone was co-created by BoJack Horseman‘s Raphael Bob-Waksberg. We’ll let that last tidbit sink in for all you BoJack fans who have somehow not sought out Undone.
Written by: Looper
