Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space (2002)

Best movie ever!

Absolutely the worst movie.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Astro Boy style animation meets disturbing, incoherent surrealism in this odd project from a Japanese music duo called toL. I'm ready to try animation experiments anytime (most seem to come from Japan these days) so I was very interested in this film once I had heard of it.The danger with artistic experiments is that the creators sometimes confuse self-indulgence with creativity and that seems to be on display here. Or perhaps the need to complete a 90 minute movie caused them to stretch out an hour of material past the breaking point. Regardless, I found between the snooze inducing boredom was a lot of brilliance . The perpetual grayness doesn't help as it (and the disjointed narrative) successfully simulates a disturbing dream.If all was indeed created by only one animator, this person is due a reward. Visually excellent. The music and soundtrack are very good. The basic story, well, lets say it's been done before by Tezuka and other anime creators.Worth a look if you are interested in the outer reaches of animation or a fan of trippy movies.

I can see why some reviewers might not care for it, but I think this movie is incredible. It is largely associational, confusing and disjointed, and this is by no means made up for (in fact, perhaps exaggerated) by the long, dull, ex-positional monologue towards the end. But the very fact that the main character nods off repeatedly during said scene is evidence of the film's awareness of its own means and purposes, whatever they may be.Purely affectively, I can say that the experience of watching this movie, if you can let go of plot expectations, is dreamlike, hallucinogenic, thought-provoking, and, as much because of the devastatingly catchy electro-pop soundtrack as any other element, at times transcendental. A shame it's so difficult to come by; I had to buy it region 2.

In the same whimsical frame of mind as the Japanese classic "Funeral Parade of Roses," Tamala 2010 is a surreal journey into the world of cats and product placement. Is that weird enough? My partner wanted to leave the theater the whole time, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this flick. If you can suspend your "Western" need for plot and coherence, sit back and enjoy the fabulous animation (black and white tip o' the hat to Disney's "Steam Boat Willie"), crazy situations and fantastic soundtrack. Any film which takes place on another planet and includes both Hello Kitty drag queens and a mention of the Loch Ness Monster is OK by me. Even if you hate this film, YOU WILL NEVER FORGET IT!

The movie is centered around the kitty-cat Tamala, who appears to be about 1 years old but has a potty-mouth and a tendency to drop-kick anyone she passes.In her universe, cats and dogs are as humans are in ours and Earth, known as Cat Earth, is to a very large extent owned by the large corporation Catty&Co.(spoiler warning) In the movie, Tamala's attempt to reach her berth place in the Orion system, means she ends up on planet Q, where there is a legend of a god named Tatla who will bring the world to some sort of apocalypse, which will signal the inevitable rebuilding of society in an endless cycle. (end of spoiler)The unraveling of this storyline is the basis for the entire movie and the single reason for its failure. In its style, it is naive and clear, with all cats and dogs being bug-eyed and drawn in a fifties pattern. Intermittently, the film goes into CG-mode and beautifully rendered sequences of a robot-cat (Tatla) and Cat Earth is shown for what it most likely really looks like. If the story had been complete, the incoherent story telling style might have succeeded, but as it is, it only succeeds in rambling on and on about Tatla, Tamala and all the other things we don't care about. People were walking out of the theatre all the time while the movie was showing and I don't blame them (at first I did, but towards the end I was also becoming fed up with the incoherency).I don't mind a story open for interpretation: I loved Lost Highway and still think its a great movie if for no other reason than for the fact that it is SO open for interpretation. But there must be *something* to hang on to, some kind of vested interest from the viewer. In this movie there is none. We are presented with oodles of characters, none of which are particularly interesting or sympathetic and end up not caring what happens to them.There were a few surprise laughs as Tamala drop-kicked some innocent bystander or said the f-word in some unexpected sentence, but other than that I think most people were mollified by the whole experience.Go see "Spirited Away" instead, much better and much more engaging.