El Superbeasto is a Spectacular Cartoon Movie

I cannot believe I kept passing up on watching The Haunted World of El Superbeasto for so long because it looked like a tribute to Mexican wrestlers. I have nothing against Mexican wrestling, I just don’t have a strong familiarity with it and figured I wouldn’t get the jokes or story. This is not Mexican wrestling even though it features a hero who is part of that sport. It is Rob Zombie letting loose with anything his imagination conjures up from Dr. Satan, to zombie nazis to a superheroine with a robot who is horny for her body. It is a wonderful feast for those of us who like our animation to be wacky and naughty.

The best comparison I can give is Ren & Stimpy with nudity and blood.

I have a love/hate relationship with Rob Zombie’s work. He does art films but often his stories don’t seem to work and yet there is always something nostalgic within his movies that appeals to me. I liked House of 1000 Corpses except for the ending. Devil’s Rejects was better though it dwelled on some nastier elements of human nature that I don’t care to dwell on myself (but I’m sure Zombie is influenced by films like Last House on the Left). Halloween was a good attempt to tell the background story of an unstoppable serial killer but I didn’t like the actress replacement for Jamie Lee Curtis and I couldn’t even finish watching Halloween 2 because I got bored. So Zombie is hit and miss, kind of like my own cartooning experimentations. I strongly support his need to do it as an artist and applaud him for trying to do more than just the latest Jason type sequel, but sometimes an experiment is just that and doesn’t stand as a solid piece of work. Zombie is not done yet though, who knows.

I would say, out of all of his films, animation captured his perverse sense of humor and El Superbeasto is his twisted opus. Highly recommended.