The Toymaker’s Key review – steampunk sci-fi animation is eclectic if overwrought

Produced by a very small team, this fantasy adventure story, though chaotic and derivative, hints at what future tech-savvy creators could produce beyond studio constraints

This independently made British fantasy-sci-fi animated feature is described by its makers as a “motion comic film” and seems to be, judging by its end credits, the work of little more than a dozen people, six of whom worked on the song that plays over the aforementioned credits. The script is painfully derivative, an unholy alchemical amalgam that features chiselled-cheeked heroes, duplicitous helpers with parti-coloured hair, purple-skinned butterfly people whose females have perfect nipple-less breasts, a sprinkling of Metropolis-like robot workers, and a generous dash of steampunk futurism strained through the sieve of Japanese anime.

The animation itself is decidedly odd, a no-less eclectic mix of animatics, limited movement and occasional close-ups featuring hyper-realistic facial movements as if executed via a CGI version of rotoscoping. It’s also almost entirely humourless, and yet given a choice between it and, say, some Hollywood comics franchise release with a squillion-dollar budget I think I’d rather watch this. At least it feels more like the future of film-making instead of the IP-obsessed past the mainstream industry keeps foisting on us.