Review: Tender Metalheads is full of feeling

Yesterday, I was reading an article on Cartoon Brew about the return of the European Animation Awards after a six-year hiatus. Among the list of eligible animated features were some familiar titles (including some of my favorites from the past year like Mars Express and Rosa and the Stone Troll), along with some I had never heard of. This, of course, led me to try to track them down. Every year, I try to seek out as many animated features as I can, sometimes finding myself tumbling down rabbit holes trying to figure out who I can e-mail to try to get some info or, even better, a screener. 

Which brings me to this review, and more largely, this blog. I’ve been toying with the idea of launching an animation-specific blog for a while. I watch more animated movies than anyone I know, some of them obscure, some borderline impossible to find. I want to help boost the profile of these movies, encourage people to expand what they mean when they say “Animation is film” or similar (very true) sentiments. The world of animation is so much bigger than most people realize, even than I realize, I’m sure, so I want to help bring it into focus a little bit more. (For anyone else who loves animation, the afore-mentioned Cartoon Brew and Animation Magazine are two of the outlets I rely on the most for news and info).

Anyways, one of the movies that’s eligible for this year’s European Animation Awards is Tender Metalheads (Heavies Tendres), a movie so good that it made me finally pull the trigger on starting this little blogging venture. 

From directors Joan Romas Monfort and Carlos Perez-Reche, as well as producer/creator Juanjo Sáez (whose childhood serves as the basis for the feature, and the 2018 series of the same name), Tender Metalheads is very aptly titled. It follows two boys, Juanjo and Miquel, who form a friendship in 1991 Barcelona over a love for heavy metal music. Juanjo has a lovely family life but struggles at school, both academically and socially. Miquel, meanwhile, has a plethora of problems at home: an absent father whose shadow still looms large, an alcoholic mother who brings home a parade of loser after loser, and a couple younger sisters he often finds himself caring for. 

If it sounds like well-tread narrative territory, it is. But it’s done exceptionally well here, with a unique setting and a depth of feeling. Miquel emphasizes the importance of feeling in music, how that’s what it needs to be good and worthwhile. By that metric, this film is a massive success. The boys’ unlikely friendship is beautifully built, with a lot of humor and heart, so many small moments adding up to a really lovely portrait of what a great friendship can look like: not perfect, maybe a bit lopsided, messy, but always coming back to a place of care. 

I would be remiss not to mention the animation. It’s very evocative in its simplicity. A lot of sketchy lines, blank faces, big white spaces around the frame. It feels like watching comic panels come to life. It’s purposefully rough and feels appropriate for a movie not only about metalheads, but also a boy finding his passion for drawing. I just loved looking at it. The voice cast is great, too; I especially loved the actor who played the teacher who serves as a(n unlikely?) ally to the boys. 

As of now, the film doesn’t have US distribution in place, but hopefully it’ll find a home here. International animation doesn’t always have a plethora of options to find its way stateside (GKIDS can only distribute so many movies every year, after all), but this is so good, I’m hoping it will find a way.