Checkered Ninja

Within the first five minutes of Checkered Ninja (2018), a Danish computer-animated film that combines the style of Pixar with the attitude of Adult Swim, a child working in a Thai sweatshop is viciously beaten death with a stick.  The doll he was making comes to life and swears vengeance against the foreign toy tycoon is committed the crime.  So….yeah…Toy Story it’s not.  

 

A huge hit in its native country, director Anders Matthesen’s film is a bit of a hard sell in North America, where animated films fall into two categories:  family-friendly or NSFW.  Checkered Ninja straddles the line between both, adding plenty of crude language into the usual mix of fart jokes and groin hits.  It’s a distinctly odd experience, since the obvious target audience is pre-teens who should identify with its relatable protagonist, Alex, a 7th grader whose dream of being part of the cool crowd comes true thanks to his stuffed pal’s expert advice on love, parents and martial arts.

 

The animation is fun and fast-paced, if lacking in that Pixar spit and polish, while the script hits on all the usual adolescent problems like bullies, brothers and impending adulthood.  The ninja’s mission of vengeance (obviously) attracts the most attention, if only to see how far the film will really go.  While it draws the line at cold-blooded murder it does stuff Alex into a mental asylum and force him to buy a kilo of cocaine.  Animation aficionados will certainly admire the novelty and kids see way worse on YouTube.  So Checkered Ninja lands as a foreign oddity that will mostly inspire a lot of “WTF did I just watch?!”

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