Cyan Eyed
2021 · 8m · Canadá
Directed by Ryan Grobins
Genres: action, animation, sci-fi
Tones: theatrical, whimsical
After years of searching, Grunt, the automaton, finally met the bounty hunter pirate captain Corliss Vail, and his objective is clear: rescue the young Nessa Baelin, with a supernatural talent, from imprisonment in the bounty hunter's spaceship and return her to Nessa's father, in a steampunk action adventure.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Steampunk rescue mission with a supernatural kid—sounds like every other animated adventure, and it probably is, which is exactly why I'm not the one picking it.
Theatrical whimsy and genre pulp can coexist, but the film needs formal discipline to earn that tonal balance; without seeing the editing choices that justify the tonal shifts, this reads as decorative rather than considered.
The supernatural talent angle—how Nessa's power is framed visually and cut into the action sequences—is the decision that either justifies the whole bounty-hunter setup or wastes it, and that's the kind of specific craft choice that separates a competent adventure from something that sticks.