Day 29: The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

No mas! No mas!

In honor of the WWE's Royal Rumble tonight, I thought I'd watch a movie involving a Luchadore wrestler. Personally, I think Chris Jericho is going to win the Royal Rumble and face CM Punk for the title at Wrestlemania. I also think some surprise entries into the Rumble include Rey Mysterio, Goldust, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and MVP. Ok, that's enough wrestling nerding-out for now. Unfortunately, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto focused more on extreme cartoon violence and nudity instead of suplexes and powerbombs. While that disappoints my wrestling fan side, it pleased my cartoon side.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto follows the animated adventure of the masked wrestler/actor/secret agent, El Superbeasto )Tom Papa). The evil and nerdy Dr. Satan (Paul Giamatti) has kidnapped stripper Velvet Von Black (Rosario Dawson) in order to make her his bride and gain super powers. Aided by his sister Suzi-X (Sheri Moon Zombie) and her robot partner Murray (Brian Posehn), El Superbeasto must fight through monsters, creatures, Nazi zombies, and his own ego to defeat Dr. Satan and save Velvet Von Black.

I'd say this is horrible, but its happening to a Nazi, so it's ok

This movie boasts a huge cast of famous voices. Including those listed above, Danny Trejo, Harland Williams, Clint Howard, Ken Foree, Sid Haig, and Bill Mosely all lend their vocal talents. Even though this movie is animated, it is definitely not for children. There is tons of sex, nudity, cursing, and violence. I'm fine with all of that, but you should be fairly warned if kids wants to watch this. The humor is crude and a bit sophomoric, but there are some true laugh-out-loud moments. The songs, performed by Hard N' Phirm, are especially entertaining.

Rob Zombie loves horror movies and this entire movie is a big love letter to the genre. You can spend the entire movie picking out all the famous monsters, plots, and references to other films. Zombie knows this and even has songs to point out that a scene is directly being ripped from Carrie. The animation is clear and well done, sometimes reminding me of the old Ren and Stimpy cartoon. The movie clocks in at about 75 minutes, which makes me wonder if it ran long or short. Why not just crank out another 10-15 minutes and make it a full-length movie? I know Zombie was working on The Devil's Rejects and then Halloween while El Superbeasto was being worked on, so perhaps he could not devote his full attention to making this movie longer.

Say "John Cena sucks!" Say it!

Overall, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is a funny raunchy ride into the world of horror. The animation is very good and the cast of characters is top notch. The humor does get a bit crude sometimes and the blatantly nudity and sex would make anyone uncomfortable if they had to watch it with their parents. It's more suited for a stoned college student than a 12 year old. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is worth a watch for some laughs and to catch lots of horror references. Now it's time to watch the Royal Rumble. Go Y2J!

7/10