Latest news with #SpiderRose
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How ‘Love, Death and Robots' Season 4 Made the Ultimate Cute Little Guy
Season 4 of 'Love, Death and Robots,' Netflix's adult animated anthology, offers several delights. These include the live-action apocalyptic comedy, 'Golgotha,' from creator Tim Miller, and executive producer David Fincher's 'Can't Stop' music video, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers recreating their iconic 2003 performance at Slane Castle, Ireland, as CG string puppets. But the biggest delight is the emotionally stirring 'Spider Rose,' helmed by series supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson ('Pop Squad' and 'Kill Team Kill'), which occupies the same cyberpunk universe as Season 3's 'Swarm.' Both are adapted from Bruce Sterling short stories about human survival on an asteroid mining operation dominated by competing factions: the genetically-engineered Shapers and the cybernetic Mechanists. More from IndieWire The First-Dayers of 'The Pitt' Highlight the Need for More Portrayals of Competent Young Professionals 'Arco' Review: France's Answer to Studio Ghibli Offers an Emotional Sci-Fi Epic In 'Spider Rose,' the grieving titular Mechanist (voiced by Emily O'Brien and mo-capped by Miller's Blur Studio) plots her revenge against the Shaper who murdered her husband. However, that means bartering with the large reptilian Investors, who loan her a cute alien pet she calls Nosy. It is through Nosy that she rediscovers her lost humanity. ' I love the story because of the emotions, and the idea that this woman has ruined herself in her grief and trying to find her way back has quite a steep price,' Yuh Nelson told IndieWire. 'I think that that sort of emotional journey is interesting to me, and also how to show that visually.' Although 'Spider Rose' was always on 'the writer's wall,' it never made the cut until this season, when Yuh Nelson found the right empathetic through line. But, of course, there's more than meets the eye to Nosy. He's not mischievous, like a Gremlin, but there's a definite edge to him. The trick was not overdoing it so that he still looked appealing. 'I love the design process of trying to find something that would make you feel so sympathetic to it,' said Yuh Nelson. Blur Studio provided the effective key frame character animation. But instead of opting for a typical space monkey, Yuh Nelson was drawn to something much more cuddly. 'To me, its purpose was to try and become closer to [Spider Rose],' she said. 'But we actually had designs where it was very monkey-like with long, spindly limbs, and it crossed the threshold towards creepy rather than empathetic. So I tried to push it a little bit towards bush baby because that reminds me of cuddly.' But they made Nosy multifaceted because he appears in two stages: slimy and furry. 'We looked at adorable pet frogs from Japan mixed in with French bulldogs for the first stage because they have those adorable butts and that waddle to them,' said Yuh Nelson. 'But the second stage was bush baby.' This enabled Spider Rose to become more attached to Nosy. They play games and she holds it tenderly. 'You know how certain creatures camouflage so other creatures won't eat them? In this case, it's kind of flipped,' continued Yuh Nelson. 'The idea is that creatures will do things to survive by developing these visual defense mechanisms to be more adorable.' You could say that 'Spider Rose' represents the Season 4 poster child of 'Love, Death + Robots' in the way it embodies all three parts. 'I don't know if it's an entry drug for 'LDR' because there is a lot of violence,' Yuh Nelson said. 'Usually, if people haven't seen the show before, we recommend that they watch one of the comedies first. In the case of 'Spider Rose,' there's an entire world involved. And we really wanted to make this one like a tentpole: a moment that's lush and emotional, that's gonna really reflect the level of the story.' 'Love, Death, and Robots' is streaming on Netflix. Best of IndieWire The 19 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in May, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal' Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies: 86 Films the Director Wants You to See Christopher Nolan's Favorite Movies: 44 Films the Director Wants You to See
The Verge
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Love, Death, and Robots keeps a good thing going in volume 4
At its best, Netflix's Love, Death, and Robots creates the same feeling as picking up a collection of sci-fi short stories. You don't always know what to expect, and not everything is brilliant, but you're guaranteed to experience something interesting. That was especially true of volume 3 of the animated anthology, which offered nine shorts, all of which were excellent. The latest volume doesn't quite hit the same heights, nor does it have a singular standout episode like ' The Very Pulse of the Machine,' but it's still a strong offering. What volume 4 does do well — and it's something that's a strength of LDR as a whole — is offer a wide variety of tones and styles. There are still the dark, violent, and hyperreal episodes that are so closely associated with LDR, like 'Spider Rose,' a follow-up to last season's 'Swarm,' which tells a cyberpunk story about a woman consumed with revenge who ends up finding it with the help of a very strange creature. There's also 'The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur,' in which trained warriors fight to the death in front of rich dignitaries and royalty, all while racing on dinosaurs. In a strangely inspired bit of casting, the death races are hosted by MrBeast. But the show also continues to push beyond classic, darker science fiction. There's a lot of comedy here, for instance. One episode is a confessional for smart devices like connected toothbrushes and toilets, which complain about how horrible it is to serve humans. Another follows a cat intent on world domination, who finds the perfect accomplice when its owners bring home a robotic assistant. And if you enjoyed last season's 'Night of the Mini Dead,' there's a sequel that similarly turns an alien invasion into a cutesy diorama of death and destruction. And while the show still skews heavily toward CG animation, there are a pair of great 2D episodes, as well. 'How Zeke Got Religion' is pure Heavy Metal and is a story about a group of WWII soldiers who end up fighting a demonic monstrosity summoned by the Nazis. It's filled with copious amounts of blood and gore and a truly terrifying monster that's all hands, mouths, and screams. That's joined by '400 Boys,' a wild and kinetic post-apocalyptic action story about a world filled with warring gangs that join together to fight a group of towering, naked babies that are simply called 'boys.' Volume 4 takes a few fun risks, as well. 'Golgotha' is the show's first fully live-action short, a simple story about a priest, an alien invasion, and a resurrected dolphin who might be the messiah. Like the best of LDR, the episode is satisfying on its own, but it also leaves you wanting to see and learn much more about its world. Not all the episodes are quite so successful. 'For He Can Creep' is a fine-if-forgettable tale of a cat fighting Satan, while 'Can't Stop' is an impressive-looking music video that turns the Red Hot Chili Peppers into marionettes but feels pretty out of place amid the rest of the season (and LDR as a whole). But even the worst episodes of volume 4 are still interesting, and that's the promise of Love, Death, and Robots, really. Streaming services have helped usher in a new wave of sci-fi anthologies, which have ranged from prophetic and impactful to completely unnecessary. LDR might be the most consistent modern example of the form. It's funny, violent, and surprising — and almost never boring.
