Extraordinary Tales

More of a tribute to the work of Edgar Allan Poe than an adaptation, this anthology of animated tales from filmmaker and Disney animator Raúl García presents digest-sized versions of five of Poe's most famous stories. Christopher Lee narrates “The Fall of the House of Usher," illustrated with images in a stylized look of folded paper creations. "The Tell-Tale Heart," inspired by the art of Argentine comic book artist Alberto Breccia (and resembling the stark style of the Sin City graphic novels and movies), is set to an old recording of Bela Lugosi reading the story (with audio crackles intact). These two entries are the most interesting, thanks to the dramatic narration and strikingly stylized art, but the visuals are illustrations rather than cinematic expressions of the tales, and the subsequent stories are even less dramatically compelling. Julian Sands reads "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," which resembles a flat 1950s-era Classic Comics adaptation with animated panels; Guillermo del Toro narrates the first-person "The Pit and the Pendulum," with CGI animation that looks more like a video game than a movie; and the final story, "The Masque of the Red Death," is presented as practically wordless. Ultimately, the stories are truncated and the animation is functional, while the wrap-around sequence featuring a raven (representing the spirit of Poe) in conversation with a statue of death, is ineffective. While this is an affectionate tribute, there are much better adaptations of Poe's stories available. Optional. (S. Axmaker)