Scarygirl is one of those animated productions so loaded with colour and bling, so lit up like a pinball machine, that merely absorbing it makes you feel old. While watching I couldn’t help but wonder if today’s youth consume too many flashing lights and loud noises – and, by the way, keep it down, some of us have to work in the morning.
Once accustomed to the film’s retina-straining shininess, it became increasingly clear the creative elements conjured by the directors Ricard Cussó and Tania Vincent are relegated almost entirely to the surface, because under the hood it’s very familiar indeed. An archetypal hero’s journey in which a youngster heeds the call of adventure, steps out of their comfort zone and encounters various friends and foes en route to confronting a blabbering villain with an emotional backstory. The villain is Dr Maybee, voiced by Sam Neill, who verbally chews the scenery and joins a stacked cast including Tim Minchin, Deborah Mailman, Anna Torv, Dylan Alcott, Mark Coles Smith and Rob Collins.
