The Story:
So, to start off, I will discuss the ideas that the movie has, and I'll admit that there are some good concepts here. You see, this film has several angles, ranging from a black comedy about a sinking high school, a disturbing disaster movie about the students trying to survive said high school, a social commentary on the flawed labels and cliques of the high school hierarchy, a story about two best friends getting into conflict and a trippy and exaggerated take on the making of the movie, and I can see how, on their own, any of these ideas could work to make a solid film, where the black comedy side could be used to satirise movies of a similar nature, the exaggerated origin side could be like mockumentaries ala This Is Spinal Tap, the disaster movie side could bring in some suspense, the best friends side could develop the characters and the social commentary side could serve as a good thinking piece about how high school society can hurt and even traumatise people for years to come.
It has a lot of good tools at its disposal that, with the right focus and attention, can make for a pretty solid feature. However, there is a catch to them, because if you remember, I said that these ideas can work on their own, and the film is so ambitious that it tries to tackle all these ideas at the same time. And this leads to the movie's biggest problem, being that it over ambitiously tries to do all these different concepts within the short amount of time it has, but in the process, leaves the story with no focus and undercuts every angle it tries to do, as the exaggerated origin side is barely present, the best friends side is established at the start then forgotten about until near the end of the film, the social commentary side only appears every once in a while and both the disaster movie and black comedy sides don't work since they constantly clash with one another, which also causes the tone to be all over the place.
However, the unfocused narrative isn't the only thing wrong with the story. You see, whilst the over abundant concepts are already bad enough for even a 3 hour long movie to handle, this film also has another detail I've barely mentioned, that being that it's shockingly short, as, if you include the credits, the movie barely clocks in at 75 minutes, which leaves the concepts with less dedication than they already did, because now, they have to rush through everything at such a fast pace that it makes the film harder to follow and renders itself nearly incomprehensible. And it truly is a shame, because I really think this had some massive potential and could've even made a solid movie, but because the filmmakers ambitiously thought they could fit in every idea they had despite the already minuscule amount of time at hand, it just feels like wasted potential.
There really were some good concepts that could've worked well for an animated film, but in the end, do they mean anything if they're just scrambled into an unfocused mess of a story? (4/10)
- - - - - - - -
The Animation: Okay, so maybe I had some big issues with the story, but who knows, the feature could be capable of making up for it by having some nice animation. I mean, Dash took inspiration from several different sources in the world of animation, ranging from films and shows like Fantastic Planet and Speed Racer, to styles like limited animation and even to famous figures like Ralph Bakshi and Osamu Tezuka, so surely, he must've put that long list of inspiration to good use, right? Well, yes and no. When it comes to the ideas for the animation, there is some solid stuff that could've worked rather well, but its style does have some problems and pretty distracting ones, too. Now, I'll start off with the positives here, and say that the designs are very well done, working well to show that this film is more rough and sketchy than you'd get from mainstream animation, as well as allowing for some decent use of simplicity that can help bring to mind a comic book made by a teenager, which certainly does fit considering that the movie is set in a high school.
Also, one impressive element of the visuals is the cinematography, as there are some impressively well-crafted and beautiful shots that show that the filmmakers definitely are talented at giving a really mesmerising and filmesque look to the feature. However, with the good stuff out of the way, there is a bit of a problem with the animation, and that is its style. Now, when I say the style has an issue, it's not that it tries very little to make itself look unique, in fact, the issue is that it tries way too much to look unique, to the point of looking out of the ordinary for all the wrong reasons, as like the story, it mixes in so many things at once, ranging from cheap to smooth, grainy to vibrant, minimalist to busy and much, much more, doing so to the point it becomes overwhelming and hard to sit through. In fact, the visuals are so overwhelming that this is one of the few films that actually made me feel queasy when watching it.
Now, I know that it seems like I'm exaggerating, and it could just be me who felt this way, but it really was difficult to enjoy the animation when my stomach churned whenever I looked at the screen, meaning I couldn't acknowledge the clear talent present because I was constantly distracted by its cluttered style. Not to mention that, when it comes to the character animation, it can be pretty mixed, where sometimes it's pretty smooth and polished, but other times, it can look rather awkward and stiff. And this really sucks to say, because I can feel that there's a talented crew behind the animation and they definitely earn my respect, but because of the movie's overly ambitious nature, it's hard to really appreciate everything the animation offers when it tries too hard to stand out to the point of being hard to watch or even stomach.
I know there's some talent and effort present and the team definitely tried as much as they could, but due to the film's biggest issue, the animation just feels like too much. (5/10)
- - - - - - - -
The Characters: Well, despite the movie's ambition problem, it actually didn't do much with the characters, in fact, I don't think it really cared much about them, as due to the feature focusing on trying to be too many types of films all at once, it leaves the characters with little to work with, only giving the bare minimum. First, there's the main character Dash, based on the director himself, who's an egomaniac who loves talking and building himself up as a talented genius, but is quite brash and rude to his best friend Assaf, and let me say right away that Dash is insufferable, where for most of the movie, he constantly boasts about himself and treats Assaf like dirt, giving him a nasty impression, and even if he does apologise to Assaf and tries to change by the finale, it doesn't fix much when most of the time, he's been a selfish ass.
Next, Assaf is Dash's best friend who starts having a blossoming romance with their fellow editor Verti, who has trust issues from her past bullying that's only brought up briefly a few times before it gets resolved in the finale, Mary, a popular overachiever who slowly becomes more aware of the issues with high school popularity, Lunch Lady Lorraine, the tough lunch lady who lost her husband years ago, Brent Daniels, a senior at the high school who's crude and perverted despite his reputation and Principal Grimm, the principal of the high school who now feels remorseful for what happened to the students.
Now, these characters may not have much in terms of writing, and what little there is is pretty sloppy, but if there's one good thing I have to say about them is how they have some good voice acting behind them, where the actors are clearly trying their best with what little they had and help give the characters something useful. Does it salvage them in any capacity? No way, they're lost causes, but I will give credit that the actors did try their best with what they had, and did a decent job.
Though the characters don't try so hard that they hinder themselves as everything else in this film does, they're instead hindered by the fact that they didn't try at all. (4/10)
- - - - - - - -
Well, this was disappointing, I was really hoping that this feature would end up decent, but instead, my hopes just ended up sunken. My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is an animated film that does have a crew of talented people behind it and some promising ideas if given the right dedication, but it tries too hard to insert everything it has on display in very little time to the point where it barely utilises any potential that it might've had. Sure, it's got some decent ideas, solid voice acting, some impressive elements of visuals, such as the cinematography, and even a nice score by Rani Sharone, but the movie's constant over ambition and short runtime hinders itself by trying to do too much with most of its ideas, resulting in a story that's both a narrative and tonal mess, rushed pacing, animation that can get overwhelmingly cluttered and bare bones characters.
Now, despite what I've said about this film, I would recommend for people to watch it to see if they will like it or not, because it could just be that I didn't really mesh with the feature like others have, and if other people can get into it, then more power to them. Personally, I do truly respect the people behind this for simply attempting to make this film, let alone succeeding to do so, and frankly, I can appreciate their dedication, so it really is a shame I didn't get into this. I can respect Dash for trying, but I just hope he does better next time. (4/10)
