Review: Daddy, I’m a Zombie! / Cert: PG / Directors: Joan Espinach, Ricardo Ramón / Screenplay: Daniel Torres / Starring: Paula Ribó, Núria Trifol, Ivan Labanda / Released: Out Now
Not another zombie flick? Well no, actually. You see Daddy, I’m a Zombie! (no, you’re not) is the story of Dixie, an animated adolescent girl with issues who dies and has an adventure in the afterlife. So we’re all agreed then? Not a zombie. We could bang on about Dixie and many other denizens of this afterlife being referred to as zombies throughout the movie but we’re just going to let this go; it’s just semantics, after all. Anyway, Dixie has the usual problems of an estranged mother, bullying classmates and a father who’s a mortician; no wonder she’s opted for the goth-look. After an accident with a tree she goes even more goth and makes friends with a mummy, a ghost pirate, a (grateful) dead hippy and battles with some kind of villainess who is stealing the minds of the zombies (we told you they weren’t zombies). You see, turns out she’s got a legendary MacGuffin thing that does something that is quite important for some reason. Couldn’t tell you what exactly; not without watching it again and we just don’t want to.
Unfortunately, Daddy, I’m a Zombie! is probably awful. When we say ‘probably’, what we mean is that despite its ‘family film’ tag, it seems to be aimed very specifically at pre-teen girls and none were available at the time of review. We did try to get the reviewer’s son to watch it but despite the offer of staying up late he lasted about five minutes until the attraction of a sensible bedtime proved to be preferable to watching anymore of what he confirmed to be ‘a girl’s film’. So if a story about girls being bitchy and then realising the importance of friendships is your kind of thing, you might find something to enjoy here. But we warn you that it involves a friendship bracelet and a romance/jealousy subplot so it really isn’t for the fainthearted on that front. Other than that we can confirm that it isn’t funny, it isn’t frightening and every set-piece action scene is a dismal failure. On the plus side, it is quite atmospheric; the music is pretty much bang-on and the sets and cinematography look great. The stylised animations would be rather good too, if they didn’t all go wrong with the legs and make everyone walk funny.
The film also features the Most Predictable Twist of All Time but as pre-teen girls have seen fewer movies than us it might get away with it. In the end Dixie learns that every problem conceals something positive but ‘it’s just a matter of finding it and adding some colour’. Nope, we have no idea what that means either. Definitely no zombies, though.
Extras: None
