Film Reviews

Sky Blue

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Catherine Cavadini
• Details: S Korea / 86 mins (15A)

2142. An environmental catastrophe has left civilisation debased; what remains of the population ekes out a living in Ecoban, a Metropolis-style city that depends for its survival on diminishing reserves of carbon compounds mined by slaves known as the Diggers. Grim, grey and poisoned by toxic rain, Ecoban is a place where blue skies and sunshine are but teasing memories of the mythical, Atlantis-like Gibraltar. Narrated by Jay (Cavadini), Blue Sky tells the story of how an underground resistance force (led by Jay's old boyfriend Shua (Worden) rises up as freedom-fighters on behalf of the Diggers, while the evil Locke (David Naughton) plots a sinister coup. A brilliantly animated tale from South Korea, Sky Blue offers little by way of plot - there's nothing here you haven't seen in kiddies' Saturday morning eco-friendly cartoons. All the effort appears to have gone into constructing the vivid and occasionally hallucinatory animation, and to a certain extent it was time well spent - fans of the genre will doubtless drool at the breathtaking action sequences. Unfortunately, when things slow down a little and the characters start to interact, they are as two-dimensional as they are drawn, and no amount of sexy animation is going to sustain interest for an hour-and-a-half if you don't care about those being animated.

Review by Declan Burke