Leeds International Film Festival - Appleseed Alpha

Appleseed Alpha is set in a post-apocalyptic earth, where the surviving humans coexist with cyborgs which have a higher ranking than the humans. The main characters, 'Deunan' a human who fought in the war, and 'Briareos' an elite cyborg designed for war, end up helping a girl and an android who they find whilst doing a mission for a robot named 'Two Horns'. The narrative was obvious in some parts but it was still very entertaining and gripped the audiences attention with the explosions and action that followed suit with the two main characters where ever they go.

The appearance and movement of this animation was amazing with the use of CG, the backgrounds were very distressed and worked well for setting the scene of a post apocalyptic earth. The lighting was stunning it helped to set the atmosphere through the use of shadow, the shadows helped to make the characters more sinister and show how bright and desert like the earth had become.

The animation for the robots were far better than the movement of the humans. The robots animation held more personality through the exaggerated walk cycles and general movement, which can be seen in both the characters, 'Two Horns' and 'Briareos'; Two Horns having a casual slumped approach, and Briareos, being more aware and alert. This use of movement added to the characters personality helped the audience to identify with these characters, able to tell whether the character is good or bad. The animation for the humans however lacked in these exaggerations, they lacked any stylized movement so the actions felt boring, for example there wasn't alot of anticipation to make the action more exciting/tense when the main character was fighting the enemies she faced. At one point in the movie the main character Deunan jumped into an armored suit and ran alongside with Briareos, and the movement of the suit was far too quick and felt jagged compared to the smooth animation of Briareos.

Deunan and Briareos