Genndy Tartakovsky, a master of story telling...

When I first saw "Primal" listed on HBO MAX, I didn't realize that it was a Genndy Tartakovsky production. If I had, I most likely would have watched it sooner. It's just so damn good. Do yourself a favor, watch it now, here's why...

Usually, cartoons don't interest me, so I just pass them by. With the exception: PIXAR. I pay attention to Pixar releases because I have a history with them. However, they seem to have gone a little stale over the past few years. What I mean by that is they have found a formula and are sticking to it- make the audience cry. Nonetheless, they still know their craft, but I feel that they have reached a peak. I doubt they will ever come up with another "Wall-E", or even more poignant, another "Up". Those risks have been taken, and those stories have been told.

The other major animation studios are no different, sometimes they break free of what works and come up with something truly wonderful, but rarely do they take the risk. I think it's important to acknowledge that as a business owner, revenue is king and it controls where you go as a business. What works is also what pays. So I am not hating on these studios for being unoriginal, it does however make the story telling uninteresting and it seems like all the features they release are kind of the same. This is especially true for Disney.  

For years I have stated that animation is one of the most underrated, underutilized, and misrepresented ways to tell a story. Most animated features don't try to tell a story, they emulate what has worked for others. I think this happens because animation is not a quick process, and it sure isn't cheap. It's not worth the gamble to make something original and have it flop, so no one tries. The result are the same facsimiled stories lacking the soul of the original copy. These stories lose authenticity with each copy and become more and more bland as they are replicated.    

Authenticity is one of the things that makes a work good. It is after all a representation of the creators inner self and the action of being vulnerable and true to that vision. It's the same for all genres of art- from music to paintings. When we tell a story, the whole point is to present a message that resonates with people. Very few storytellers can imbue their art with authenticity in a way that captures the audience. Genndy Tartakovsky excels at it. 

I have mentioned Genndy Tartakovsky before, I grew up with his work so naturally there is an attachment to it. Most of us grew up with his early works. We might all recognize the animations he did for Cartoon Network, shows like Dexters Lab, The Powerpuff girls, and Starwars: Clone Wars. Good fun for children, but not as deep or nuanced as his later stuff. They're mindless but fun, and sometimes they have their moments. I won't knock them, because as a kid I loved them. 

Where I think he hit his stride, that is to say, providing an in depth story with layered meaning, subtle nuance,  and mastery of the medium was Samurai Jack. I've mentioned this show before. Genndy tells a deep and meaningful story while getting the message across without over-complicating the process of comprehension. 

What makes Samurai Jack such an interesting show is how unique it really is. Genndy uses all the arrows in the quiver to tell the story. The two he relies the most on are sound (music and sound for ambience), and dialogue (or a lack there of). The music is unique, the sounds are choice and well placed, even their volume tells us something about the actions throughout the story. The dialogue is not wasted. Genndy doesn't fear telling a story where there are only a few lines of speech. He doesn't explain what is intended to be obvious to the viewer. He is too busy showing them what is happening to explain the action. 

Which brings me back to Primal. Primal is what Genndy couldn't do on Cartoon Network during day-time hours. Thank god for Adult swim! Although it's a cartoon, it's not for children. It is, however, brilliant. 

Let me clarify, this series tells a great story without a single complete line of dialogue. In fact it's not even until episode 10 that even one word is spoken with meaning. But holy shit, when that one word is spoken, you fucking know what it means. It's wieght has been carried through nine brutal episode- nine bloody, heart breaking, emotionally driven, painful, bone breaking episodes. When that single work is uttered at the end of episode 10, wow, it works in a way that no dialogue ever before has. After that word there is dialogue, but none of it has English as context. Dialogue after the word is there only to establish that people talk, nothing more. Genndy leaves the interpretation to the audience, and believe you me, there is some interpretation to do because none of it is in common language (you might understand the lines if you speak Arabic, Irish, or old Norse). 

The music is paint, just like the sound effects. They are well thought out and placed in spaces where the audience will notice them for all the correct reasons. They provide some great context to the story and aren't just sounds we have all heard before. The also don't repeat through out the story. The music, just like in his previous works is great and used correctly- when the mood dictates, sad music where there is sadness, angry music where there is anger, cautious music where there needs to be caution, etcetera, ad nauseam, that is all. 

When you boil this story down to it's key components, it's not even that great of an idea, and it requires a lot of suspension to watch. I am just going to give this one up, I mean, it's about a caveman and his pigmy t-rex friend wondering around the ancient jungles sharing trauma, blood and raw meat. The execution however, is breath taking. You completely forget the gaping problems with the premise and embrace the little caveman and his T-rex companion. You share in their struggle as they fight off larger carnivores, zombie brachiosaurs, half man-apes in fits of roid-rage, old witch-crones and their gods, and natural disasters to name a few. Their struggle is real, its brutal, and its... Primal (see how I did that). 

This one is so good that it has a 100% on rotten tomatoes, a rating I fully agree with. I also give it a flawless score. Thank you Tartakovsky for delivering on a great story.

Go see it today!     

Cheers!