One of the weird things about today’s entertainment landscape is the move away from event-programming of the cable era to the always-available aspect that streaming provides. This means that one is less likely to be channel surfing late at night, stumbling onto something that, depending on your age, you shouldn’t be watching just yet and is more likely swiping through titles on apps without any glimpse of the content. This lack of discovery may make it harder for potential young horror heads to experience that rush of watching something you might not yet be ready for and having it change your perspective. What does this have to do with Night of the Zoopocalypse, the new film from co-directors Rodrigo Perez-Castro (Koati) and Ricardo Curtis (Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade) being distributed by Viva Kids (home of Hitpig! and Rally Road Racers)? Night of the Zoopocalypse is, essentially, baby’s first horror film, a midnight movie for young adults/kids that you’d screen ahead of their 9pm bed time, offering plenty of disquiet to get them squirming, yet executed with enough of a wink-and-a-nod to make it funny, too.
Gracie voiced by Gabbi Kosmidis in NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids/Viva Pictures.
Things are pretty harmonious at Colepepper Zoo, which is why wolf Gracie (voiced by Gabbi Kosmidis) doesn’t take her grandmother Abigale’s (Carolyn Scott) emergency preparedness exercises as seriously as the rest of the pack. But this changes when a mysterious object falls from the sky, turning one fluffy bunny into a mutant progenitor, threatening to destroy the entire zoo and beyond. Partnering with a media-savvy lemur, Xavier (voiced by Pierre Simpson), a newly-arrived mountain lion, Dan (voiced by David Harbour), and three other survivors, she tries to survive the night and get free in the process — that is, until a plan forms that might just turn this zootragedy into a zoocelebration.
L-R: Gracie voiced by Gabbi Kosmidis, Poot voiced by Christina Nova, and Dan voiced by David Harbour in NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids/Viva Pictures.
For an equivalent production to compare scares, in time for Halloween 2024, Illumination released Sing: Thriller on Netflix, a Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” adventure with singing, dancing, and plenty of scares. If your kids are fine after watching that, then they’ll be fine with Zoopocalypse. It’s not just because it utilizes a similar visual language of purples, greens, and blacks to denote the terror of these mutant animals, but because Zoopocalypse structures its narrative and the action within it to provide a safe environment for a dangerous story.
So what does that mean?
L-R: Dan voiced by David Harbour and Gracie voiced by Gabbi Kosmidis in NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids/Viva Pictures.
Inspired by a concept from Hellraiser’s Clive Barker, screenwriters Kee and Hoban create an atomic age horrorshow for an Illumination target audience. This translates to the typical poop and fart jokes, an oft-silly character design for the mutants, and uncoordinated chaos of the escalating infected all through the prism of young adult terror. This creates a wonderful opportunity to use the framework of Night of the Living Dead (1968) or Mars Attacks! (1996) for the narrative while incorporating character designs that are more ParaNorman (2012) or Madagascar (2005). Through this approach, the film doesn’t so much pull its horror punches as dull them with a gelatin-like veneer. For clarity, the pre-mutant mammal animals are given a specific, nearly-felt-like texture on their furry parts, as though they were sown together as a plushy one would purchase while exiting through the gift shop, and a solid plastic look on their bare skin that then turns wholly gelatinous — slightly neon, partially see-through, and completely absent natural physics — enabling the mutant animals to behave unnaturally in frequently ridiculous manners that can also be taken as terrifying. A favorite are the little chicks who get turned early in the film, their soft, squishy, round shapes transforming into vibrant yellow bun-like forms comprised mostly of a mouth with dark blue/black teeth and tongue. They continue to move on tiny feet, but can also fling themselves with their tongues, a handy tool for traversing obstacles to find prey and also for snagging the “top bun” that keeps falling off and potentially being left behind. It’s weird and unsettling, while also being so goofy as to come back around to silly. This is Zoopocalypse’s bread and butter, whether it’s the appearance of tree frogs, the original fluffy bunny, or the horror trope of the unscrupulous character who threatens everyone’s safety by being a selfish jackass, make it scary through a unique lens while being familiar enough to not completely shake the target audience from the experience.
Bottom: Xavier voiced by Pierre Simpson in NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids/Viva Pictures.
What makes Zoopocalypse the aforementioned solid first steps into horror are how it embraces and meta-explores the very tropes that newbies won’t be aware of thanks to a smart construction of narrative and characters. Consider a young adult/teen who sees Scream (1996) before having watched Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978) or any other horror films referenced throughout the narrative or by Jamie Kennedy’s film savvy Randy. If they enjoy the twisted hilarity of Scream, they may be more likely to test out those other stories because now they have a sense of how they work, thereby undercutting the tension just enough to put more than their toe in the unlit dark waters of the horror genre. Through Xavier, a lemur who loves watching movies in the zoo infirmary, the characters are given information that will aid them in their quest, but also require them to keep checking in on “second act surprises” or “third act twists.” Through Xavier, the audience is even told what kind of genre story they’re in, even as it may change. It’s a safety net for young viewers who may not be as wise to horror landscape and, by keeping the characters animals, adds an extra layer of protection from the type of dangerous activities that go on in the film. This speaks to the intentionality of Perez-Castro and Curtis as directors, creating a world that is like ours, but different enough to feel safety despite the continually rising threats. The downside, of course, is that the film does follow a fairly standard arc of introduction, fragile teamwork, disintegration, and reclamation. Luckily, and consider this a spoiler if you like, it has a happier ending than Night of the Living Dead, so it’s certainly far more family-appropriate in that regard.
Night of the Zoopocalypse makes more use of its character and art design to set atmosphere and tone than the fairly top-tier voice cast including Harbour (Violent Night; What If…), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim’s Convenience), Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall), and Simpson (mother!). They and their castmates offer engaging performances, but nothing that a more skilled set of voice actors could do as well or better. Instead, for the adults, it’s just fun hearing Alexei and Apa arguing with one another. That said, none of the performances are boring or phoned-in, each character feeling fully realized within their specific character arc and archetype. It will be relative newcomer Christina Nova (Bakugan) who will steal the show as Poot the Pygmy Hippo — guaranteed.
Without the opportunity for discovery, it’s up to conscious choices to explore or investigate art when the opportunity strikes. There’s absolutely something wonderful about having access to everything at your fingertips, but the absence of happenstance, of luck, or accidentally tripping onto a film you might not otherwise watch does leave one feeling a little like rites of passage are being lost through the digital age transition. In this case, if you’re looking to share in a midnight movie with your young’uns, Night of the Zoopocalypse is going to entertain and maybe even get them started on exploring the stories that inspired this. I don’t think this is going to inspire a simple transition from Zoopocalypse to Hellraiser (1987) directly, but maybe The Witches (1990), Corpse Bride (2005), or ParaNorman, which are gateways into other kinds of narrative adventures all on their own.
In select theaters March 7th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Viva Pictures Night of the Zoopocalypse webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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