Fitzgerald Grass, otherwise known as Retronoob, is a nascent filmmaker. His work Dream Chaser The Roach King is readily available on YouTube. This animated feature is Grass’s first effort. It’s crude, hand-animated using what I suspect are Adobe Creative Suite tools, and it shows great potential in the storytelling department. To that end, dear reader, I will do my best to review this earnest first attempt at a feature-length Space Fantasy animated film.
Dream Chaser The Roach King opens with the title character, our Dream Chaser (Fitzgerald Grass), fighting off AI bots. You will see that Grass is deeply antagonistic towards artificial intelligence in this film. That is not inherently a bad thing. It is a definite story beat that you should be mindful of, dear reader. Landing on a random planet, staving off AI monstrosities, Dreamchaser eventually meets The Roach King, King Sar (Michael Lewandowski). There is an instant friendship. However, King Sar is beset by many foes, all of them roaches. This is where I tell you if you’re not a fan of cockroaches, Dream Chaser The Roach King is not for you.
Alternatively, if cockroaches do not creep you out, then Dream Chaser The Roach King is an interesting film to watch if surfing YouTube. To find out if the Roach King and Dreamchaser successfully survive this adventure, you will have to watch this one. I’m not spoiling it. What I will say is that there’s a certain charm to the crude, rudimentary hand-drawn characters and environments. All that you see was painstakingly created by Grass himself. Character design, landscapes, and animation are all done by the hand of Mr. Grass. Watching Dream Chaser The Roach King gave me a sense of nostalgia. When I was young and in high school, this was the caliber of animation I was capable of. Indeed, were I to undertake animating a production entirely by my lonesome, it would be akin to this effort we see here with Dream Chaser The Roach King.
“Landing on a random planet, staving off AI monstrosities, Dreamchaser eventually meets The Roach King, King Sar.”
It could be, some 35 years into my writing and animating work, my sole ventures might be of a better quality. This is the hope I will cling to, dear reader. It is the same hope I hold for Fitzgerald Grass. Dream Chaser The Roach King looks like a first draft. It is absolutely not, as you see the evidence of Grass working on this production for many months. Indeed Fantastic Planet a French production from 1973 has a similar aesthetic and approach to Dream Chaser The Roach King. In the case of Fantastic Planet, René Laloux had a whole team to work with in rendering and drafting his imagery. Were Grass to find himself some collaborators to share the drafting, rendering, and animation tasks I think he could create excellent visual imagery indeed.
Dream Chaser The Roach King is an earnest effort that is worth watching. I tremendously enjoyed the denouncement of AI tools. There is much to glean from this YouTube film. First and foremost, Fitzgerald Grass has a keen command of his imagination. While his visual language needs practice and enhancement, I encourage Mr. Grass to keep at it. One day, he very well might produce a glorious hand-drawn animation.
"…an earnest effort that is worth watching"
