From the very first second of Love Death & Robots Volume 4, I was duped.
The animated anthology series has always pushed the limits of what was possible with animation, from hyper-realistic CGI to ultra-stylized 2D images — all under the careful guidance of creator Tim Miller. But in Volume 4, the opening short is “Can’t Stop,” a music-video-esque short showing a performance of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, all portrayed as marionettes.
Directed by David Fincher, harkening back to his days as a music video director, “Can’t Stop” is, aptly, addicting to watch. But as I watched a puppet version of Flea slap the bass, one question raced through my mind: how was all of this possible?
The answer, I learned later, is that it isn’t. “Zero marionettes were harmed in the making of that film,” showrunner Tim Miller tells Inverse. “It's all CG, it's all computer-generated, but we lean heavily on the established way that puppets can move, and we tried to emulate that wherever possible. But there's no way anybody could do 13,000 people in an audience with marionettes all with strings.”
It’s just a testament to how ambitious the series can get. Love Death & Robots Volume 4 contains a number of sequels and follow-ups to previous shorts, including a cyberpunk short set in the universe of Volume 3’s “Swarm,” and a follow-up to the previous episode “Night of the Mini Dead,” using tilt-shift photography to show an alien invasion story as if it were all unfolding in a diorama.
There are also some amazing brand-new concepts, like “Golgotha,” Tim Miller’s own short that utilizes a rare medium for the series: live-action photography. The series stars Our Flag Means Death’s Rhys Darby as an unassuming priest sent to make contact with an alien species. There’s also not one, but two, different shorts involving cats and evildoing.
But the highlight for many is sure to be “400 Boys,” directed by animator Robert Valley. This is the third short for Valley, who previously made “Zima Blue” and “Ice.” It’s very easy to tell which shorts are his, as they all feature stark, angular character designs in 2D animation. “400 Boys” is a post-apocalyptic saga based on Marc Laidlaw’s short story of the same name.
But Valley drew inspiration from another work: The Warriors, the 1979 movie following gangs traversing a dystopian New York City. “I'm a fan of that movie, and Tim Miller was too, as it turns out,” Valley tells Inverse. “I use that for the general sort of vibe of the characters and specific kind of dystopian, futuristic kind of gang of people. You’ll notice they're all wearing vests and that kind of thing.”
Now, Valley is setting his sights high by developing a new project: a feature film. “I’m no spring chicken and I've got a few years left in my career here, and I think I'm ready to step up to something longer form,” he says. “And Tim and I are sort of conspiring right now on some stuff.”
That’s the beauty of Love Death & Robots: filmmakers can cut their teeth on shorts and learn the ropes for loftier projects, and viewers can get a glimpse of cutting-edge animation technology and brilliant story ideas that may not quite have the legs for a full-length feature. “Nobody questions it for a 10 or 15-minute short, but the minute you start spending the kind of money you'd need to do a feature, everybody starts going, ‘Well, who is it for and how big is that audience?’” Miller says.
So for as long as possible, he’s going to try and show as many different styles as possible. “We've been given this opportunity to tell stories with tools that are maybe too expensive a process to use for some other people,” Miller says. “And I feel very fortunate to do that, so I want to make the most of it and tell stories that benefit from being told in that way.”
