The following film is not your average animated adventure but is a dark gem with a rather macabre message and an unexpected twist. It takes the audience out of their comfort zone and leads them to ponder their own existence. The entertaining short, The Realm Beyond Reason tells the story of two teens who innocently arrive for their first day of work at a isolated pizzeria however, a typical day quickly begins to devolve into a dark sequence of bad intentions and impending doom. The original material was hand drawn by the underground and independent artist Pat Moriarity and animated by Seth Zeichner. It was written by Garrett Shanley, writer of several live action feature films. It is a black and white film that fuses traditional comic book style with modern animation. The art style and direction is effective in presenting a comical take on a surreal impending death and the horrors of the supernatural. The dialogue and expressive close-ups of the facial movements of the characters was wickedly funny and delightfully unnerving. The music that accompanies this short is awesome as well. The Realm Beyond Reason follows in the tradition of earlier dark fantasy series such as Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and Tales of Tomorrow. But above all, for me, it revived the original spirit of the nineties when MTV featured cool underground comic inspired cartoon shorts on the Liquid Television series. It is definitely worth a watch, so sit back and enjoy the artistic dreamscape that is The Realm Beyond Reason.
