The District!

"The Hungarian cartoon feature The District! is a last-minute shoo-in for the title of 2007’s most original animated film, no small triumph in a year that also included the releases of Persepolis, Ratatouille, Beowulf and Paprika," declares Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times. "The movie is a sexually explicit, scabrously funny portrait of multiethnic European urban culture, similar to Ralph Bakshi's early-1970s adults-only animated movies Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic, but richer and more coherent... On top of its other considerable achievements, this is a dazzlingly assured piece of filmmaking. Merging seemingly hand-drawn, two-dimensional characters and deep-focus, intricately shadowed, simulated 3-D backdrops, The District! is like a dirty, thrilling pop-up book you can step into."

"Eye-popping as The District! is, the overarching geopolitical satire is a haphazardly lobbed grenade too dim-witted to be explosive," writes Aaron Hillis in the Voice.

"This consistently mesmerizing Hungarian film follows in South Park's footsteps, artfully hitching cogent social commentary to an absurd, offensive and hilarious narrative," writes Kate Folk in the L Magazine.

This film's been around since 2004, so you'll find more reviews at the IMDb.

Posted by dwhudson at December 19, 2007 5:07 AM