Henchmen (2018)

(On Cable TV, April 2019) Chances are that you haven’t seen low-budget Canadian animated superhero film Henchmen and that’s too bad: while hampered by production constraints and an undercooked script, it does show off an exceptional art style, some good ideas and a certain energy within its short 89-minute running time. The shortcomings of the film are apparent early on with slap-dash worldbuilding sloppily introduced, an opening action sequence that doesn’t quite know how to juggle its two protagonists or how to ease us into the film’s atmosphere. The crass pun-addicted opening villain doesn’t help either. The production limits of writer-director Adam Wood’s film also become obvious early on, with lush matte painting acting as background to much of the cell-shaded 3D-animated action: To its credit, the integration of both works very well, but the static nature of the 2D backgrounds becomes obvious with time. The scriptwriting is uneven—I’d like to praise the protagonist’s occasional temptations into evil, but I’m not sure they’re controlled all that finely. Still, Henchmen becomes better and better as it advances, taking a slightly different outlook on superhero tropes and not being particularly taken with super-heroism as a way of life. It’s still sloppy in how it doesn’t explore its own ideas, and has redundant or annoying characters taking far too much space. It’s still a bit of a pleasant surprise, especially given its perceived budget (you’ll notice that the credit sequence is markedly shorter than other animated features). It even keeps some money in store for a few party anthems—”Ballroom Blitz” never gets old, the “Falling Free” sequence is good, and while “Sweet Home Alabama” is a great song, I’m not sure it’s used all that wisely here. If you keep your expectations in check and can make it past the first twenty minutes or so, the rest of Henchmen is a nice little surprise, and one that should be seen more widely.