I am doing a few quick writeups of titles that are playing in my local Victoria Film Festival and the 2025 edition has bean absolutely wonderful and even quite a bit of a surprise for this film fan! While I tend to attend more major film festivals like TIFF and SxSW, VFF snuck up on me again to be quite the festival that is bigger and bolder than it appears.
So of course many know that I love my animation and I wanted to kick it off with a look at the upcoming NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALPYSE which is coming to Canadian cinemas in early March! The fine folks at Victoria Film Festival had an early screening as part of their Jammies & Toons, Sunday morning screening complete with cereal. My colleague Ed Sum was there and sent in a few photos, and yours truly was also able to take an early look at what should be a hit release in theatres this March.
ABOUT: When a strange meteor crashes down at Colepepper Zoo, an alien virus begins infecting the wildlife, turning adorable critters into ravenous, slobbering zombies. The remaining zoo inhabitants must band together to survive the growing zombie hoard, learning a thing or two from each other and looking beyond their spot on the food chain. Leading the pack is Gracie, the rambunctious wolf who has never quite fit in with her own kind, and Dan, the irritable mountain lion who has recently been captured from the wild. Together, they ward off incoming zombie animals with the help of a lemur, an ostrich, a capybara, a scene-stealing pygmy hippo, and more.
Night of the Zoopocalypse has all the trademarks of the zombie genre with expertly-crafted animation, vibrant action sequences, and plenty of hidden references for horror fans in the audience.
Reaction: NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE is way more funny and edgy than I thought it would be, and I feel like we are in some kind of animation renaissance. If FLOW or even Dreamworks’ recent DOG MAN is proof of anything, it’s that animated features can now be made for far less money than studio pictures and now still create a breathtaking look, all depending on the animation team behind it and their creativity.
Based on a concept by Clive Barker (of all people!), this is both a mix of genre and family oriented animation with an idea that might turn off parents with very little kids, but I’m also okay with kids getting a little scared. In this world where our zoo animals can become “zombified”, it gets a lot of mileage out of its fearless lead characters and the supporting animals, all of which have their own three dimensions in both character and voice work.
And this is also Canadian! It looks like it is based out of a zoo in Ontario, but the animation is from all over the world. At its heart is the likes of Scott Thompson and Rob Tinkler doing the voices, but we also have the talents of David Harbour doing the voices of the tiger. Visually, this movie is also really great, with a lot of eye popping colours that will look great on the big screen, and the movie is also very aware that “BIG EYES” are the key to a visual treat on screen.
All being said, this movie WILL scare some much younger kids with some darker imagery, but I think kids ages five and up will love it. And the movie has a lot of fun jokes and references for animation fans.
JAMMIES & TOONS Screening at VFF:
This is an annual tradition at the Victoria Film Festival. In the past it has screened either a feature or a block of short films. A great personal memory was coming down early in the morning several years ago to watch six Looney Tunes shorts all while gouging on several bowls of dry cereal and sipping from my coffee thermos. As I’m a kid at heart but now with a caffeine addiction, you have to mix it up a little bit. Special thanks to friend and contributor Ed Sum for sending me a few photos from the Sunday screening.
NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE is coming to Canadian theatres in March. Thanks to the Victoria Film Festival along with Elevation Pictures for giving Get Reel Movies early access to the movie!