Just a few short years ago, I would have assumed universal recognition of this truth. We’re talking about a cartoon film in which Martin Luther King Jr. and Marilyn Monroe show up to Abraham Lincoln’s funeral and George Washington seeks I.M. Pei’s advice on how the Lincoln Memorial should be designed. The extent to which history is being rewritten here is beyond ridiculous; it’s completely insane.
Despite the fact that less than two weeks have passed since Congress and President Biden formally declared Juneteenth a holiday, conservatives in several states are fighting to ensure that youngsters are not taught the true story of how and why Juneteenth became a holiday.
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You Still Don’t Think I’m Taking This Seriously Enough, Do you?
Please allow me to bring up Reagan Escudé, a student here.
The film is out just in time for Independence Day and it’s a bold satire of the nation’s founding complete with electric guitars, werewolves, and dick jokes. “wildly tongue-in-cheek animated revisionist history” is how Netflix characterises it.
Directed by Matt Thompson (Archer, FX), the film was written by Dave Callaham (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2) and features the voice of Tom Holland. The dynamic combo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller serve as producers (The Mitchells vs. the Machines). The animation for Archer was created by Floyd County Productions, the firm Thompson co-founded.
Lord is One of the Two Writers Credited for Into the Spider-Verse.
He hand-picked Spider-Men (or Spiders-Man?) from alternate dimensions inspired by anime and film noir. Together with Phil Lord, they revived the 21 Jump Street franchise by creating fake scripts for sequels that placed the main characters in fantastical settings such as “Ninja Academy” and “Scuba Class.”
They view intellectual property as just another toy to be zipped around with the mouth making aeroplane noises, as exemplified by The Lego Movie; Batman, Gandalf, and Han Solo all make appearances in a purer, more knowing expression of the hyperactive crossover that has since given us Ready Player One, Avengers: Endgame, and the upcoming Space Jam sequel.
In a scene where JFK and both Roosevelt presidents attend Lincoln’s funeral, a throwaway bit sticks out for its pure goofiness among visual jokes that rely too much on movie references. Some of these are clever non-sequiturs (why do George’s fantasies of his dead friend take place in the Reservoir Dogs warehouse?), but many others are hammer home to viewers until they no longer register as unexpected.
Last Words
Despite that, I really enjoyed this strange parody of American history. It would have been easy to dismiss this as a juvenile product 10 years too late if not for the outstanding 2D animated action sequences, odd premise, and vocal cast.
It certainly is that in some ways, but it’s also a lot of fun to watch a historically accurate depiction of how this idiotic nation came into existence. This is the ideal summer comedy for teenagers who dig South Park and Seth MacFarlene, or for any dude-bro who knows how to switch off his brain. On behalf of the general public? The end result could be different for each person.
