Review: Film 101 gets kid-friendly in horror-comedy Night of the Zoopocalypse

I was a very scared kid. When Halloween rolled around, I would avoid the aisles at the store like the plague, because at a young age, I saw a werewolf mask in one that I can still picture to this day, and that haunted me throughout my youth. I cried easily. When we went on a kid-friendly roller coaster at Cedar Point, they had to stop the ride after the first go-round, because I was the one rider who didn't want to go again. If my brother was watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, I would race through the room, or just avoid passing through altogether, I found the animation so terrifying.

It's a far cry from where I am now. I see pretty much every horror movie that comes out (unless it's, like, excessively gory). But it makes me wonder how I would've fared with a movie like Night of the Zoopocalypse when I was younger. It's such a great kid-friendly bit of horror, a nice introduction to the tropes and beats of such stories without being too scary. But, knowing me, I would've been terrified if I had seen it as a kid.

Which is the movie's credit. This thing is colorful, silly, and fun, but some of the horror beats feel pretty scary. There are exciting action scenes. Characters' lives are genuinely endangered (some of the main cast even gets zombie-fied throughout). And the creatures that they're trying to survive are truly nasty-looking: goopy, slimy, slack-jawed, reptilian horrors. It's great. There was only one kid in the theater at my showing (going during the day on a school day...baller move), and he sounded like he was enjoying it, asking questions throughout, pretty riveted. The movie hits a sweet spot where I can imagine a kid being scared by it but also not wanting to look away. What a joy to watch a movie through your fingers, breathless, excited.

The premise -- inspired by an idea from Clive Barker, who's an executive producer on the movie -- is the kind of simple home-run that feels obvious in hindsight: a zombie outbreak happens at the zoo. In this case, the outbreak is caused by a little meteorite that crashes into the petting zoo area of the Colepepper Zoo. It lands amongst the peanuts, leading to a curious bunny swallowing it, leading to zombifcation, biting, pandemonium. It's clean, clear, simple, the kind of easy-breezy set-up that lets a movie get going without too many bells and whistles, which is a great m.o. for a family flick.

Our hero is Gracie, a wolf who rolls her eyes at her pack's intense training, considering they, you know, live in a zoo. She's headstrong and playful, but she also has all of the pack's tactics down pat, easily reciting the various maneuvers she pulls off like an anime character announcing their special attacks. She teams up with a new arrival, a gruff mountain lion named Dan who only has eyes for the outside world. If he can get a zoo key and make it to the gate, he can return to the wild, leaving these lame zoo-born animals in the dust. 

Gabbi Kosmidis voices Gracie with a charming drawl, sounding a bit like Sandy Cheeks. She has a lovely down-to-earth quality that's pleasant on the ears, and a nice foil to Dan's gruffer delivery. As Dan, David Harbour nails the growling, above-it-all aloofness, bordering on deadpan. It's a great performance that reminded me of Dennis Leary's work in Ice Age, also playing a large-scale feline.

There's a fun cast of supporting characters, with a couple of easy stand-outs. There's a self-harming, cinema-obsessed lemur (Letterboxd users ought to feel well-represented) named Xavier (Pierre Simpson) whose frequent late-night movie watches in the zoo's medical wing have equipped him well for the strange events of the night. His character is key to one of the movie's larger aims, which is helping to equip younger viewers for a life of watching movies. He talks about genre expectations, character archetypes, and even plot structure, educating his companions to help them figure out how to move forward. 

But the biggest scene-stealer is one of the smallest characters: a young pygmy hippo named Poot (Christina Nova) who can barely stop talking, seems completely unaware of the constant danger she's in, and gets most of the movie's funniest lines. Nova's delivery is perfection, every line injected with maximum cuteness, which leads to maximum comedic payoff.

The story beats aren't particularly memorable. It's a lot of start-and-stop, running and hiding, yada yada. The stuff you expect. It moves along at a nice clip, though by the end, I was definitely ready for it to end (weird thing: I stayed through the credits, and all of the involved production companies, financiers, etc.'s logos played at the end, like a weird, anti-climactic post-credits scene). I sort of imagined that, being set at the zoo, there would be more distinctive set pieces and locations, but most of the movie unfolds inside a few buildings and out in the open. There's definitely some fun reveals as different animals join the fray, but overall, it sometimes feels like the strong idea isn't being fleshed out to its fullest potential. 

If the story isn't quite there, at least the movie looks great. The character designs are so cute, with lots of exaggerated proportions and nice-looking textures. Gracie is super skinny but with huge, bulging eyes and a bushy tale, long ears. Dan is an absolute brick of a mountain lion, so buff that I was borderline afraid he might awaken something in me. The zombie animals are the best-looking of all, with their weird movements, glowing eyes, and general wetness. They can also pop apart and reassemble, leading to some wild-looking adversaries at a few points. I love the shade of neon pink that foretells danger. Fun stuff, for sure.

As a gateway to horror, a primer on how movies work, and a fun adventure starring a bunch of memorable animals, Night of the Zoopocalypse is a jaunty winner that's easy to recommend to families. (And for older viewers, keep an eye out for some great references, my favorite being a nod to Alien3.)