Writer-director-producer Pablo Bendix III uses live-action stock footage at times to help fill in the gaps he and his team could not animate. The carnival is a bunch of random shots of rides and games from real life, just with Chuck and Cindy animated on top. When Satan is being summoned, there are cutaways to flowing magma in a volcano. No attempt is made to make this footage match the animated world presented or vice versa. It is a strange, jarring look that only further adds to the overall visual assault that the movie does to the viewer’s eyeballs.
Chuck Vs. Satan plays out as an excuse for Bendix III to rail against everything he deems wrong with society today, in a hopefully humorous manner. I still watch South Park, so I am entirely down with this, in theory. In practice, though, that is another story. As rotten as the visuals are, the script is just as illogical. Chuck, a high school student, is the manager of the coffee shop he works at. A high school student is the manager of the coffee shop. Um, what? How? In a movie about resurrecting Satan, this is the single most implausible thing about it.
In that scene, a customer complains about having to wait 10-seconds before being greeted and ordering. Chuck apologizes and then asks her what he can get her. She goes on a tirade about how he shouldn’t call her ma’am, and that she will destroy all those who don’t share her views. It is neither funny or necessary. Chuck is never seen at work again. Quite frankly, the whole movie is a giant big-lipped alligator moment that confuses those watching.
“…a top to bottom mess.”
Another odd detail that shows the laziness of the screenplay is what Chuck and Cindy are learning. Given that he has a job, they are at least juniors in high school. They are learning about the Magna Carte, specifically when it was signed and what it established for the British government at the time. These are things fifth-graders are taught. Then for inexplicable reasons, when fulfilling their last rites to bring forth Satan, Cindy’s parents are decked out in ancient Eygptian style headgear. Egyptians did not worship any Christian deities, including the devil or Satan, as that religion was not established during the kingdom’s golden ages. So, why are they wearing these things?
Given the weak technicals on all the other fronts, it should come as no surprise then that the voice acting is also atrocious. It sounds like all the dialogue in Chuck Vs. Satan is spoken by a computer. Everyone sounds a bit tinny, and the pauses in their cadence give off strong Shatner vibes. It is so robotic and awkward that either Dingo Pictures has made a roaring comeback that no one asked for, or it is a bad computer program. Either way, it sucks.
Including Bendix III, it took at least seven people to breathe life into Chuck Vs. Satan. Seven. That number is almost impossible to believe, given that the end product is such a top to bottom mess. The screenplay’s “topical” jokes are dated and poorly executed, with nothing to say beyond addressing that the perceived issue exists or excessive juvenile humor (lots of poop jokes). The characters are one-note and uninteresting. The music is terrible, and the voice acting is worse. But, most importantly, beyond even the lousy script, is that the medium of choice, animation, is astoundingly awful. It is so unsightly and ugly that it gives poorly animated movies from 20 years ago a run for their money in terms of sheer incompetence.
"…beyond appalling to look at."
