The best art style so far: Studio 4C style! When you combine this with 3D and a big budget, it works out great. Beyond really is a feast for the eyes. Most companies need to understand that there’s more than flashy graphics, 3D, lots of realism and lots of CGI in order to make great graphics. You need to add something special for that. Good Witch of the West understood this, Noein understood this and now Beyond also understands this.
The story this time is about a glitch in the matrix. Somewhere, in an old abandoned house, the laws of physics have been rather messed up. A group of kids and one teenager have discovered this, and are having the most fun they’ve ever had in their lives, playing with these laws. Unfortunately, the men in suits have tracked down this error. They rush into the site with a huge truck, close off the area, take the kids away and repair the error. The children return afterwards, but they find that their playground has been destroyed.
Lots of symbolism in this movie. Take for example, the kid’s playground which gets destroyed. That’s happening at more places in the world. At some places, children can have so much fun playing with each other, while adults can’t see this, and plan to use the playground to build, like, an office. But not only that, you can also link this to animals. At the end of the movie, you see rats, who’ve been living inside the haunted house, fleeing from the men in suits. At the moment, things like these still are a major news item with the rarer animals, like tigers and rhinos.
I also found it interesting that we’ve got a bunch of kids who know about the glitch, and they decide to tell our main character, a teenager, about this. In most stories like these, it’s something that the children only know about. It’s interesting to see someone have fun with children 8 years younger than her, like it’s nothing. Talk about symbolism.
Overall, along with World Record, this has been the best story so far. World record had its very intense plot and very interesting main character while Beyond has its incredibly imaginative visuals and deep symbolism. All that’s left now is The Second Renaissance, which is rumoured to be the best of the bunch (I’ve indeed been saving that one for last, in order to save the best for last. ^^)
