FF 2009 Review. Stingray Sam

What is Stingray Sam? Well that's a good question. Taking cues from old Sci-fi serials, westerns, Monty Python and musicals, Stingray Sam is a rousing B/W and candy colored episodic adventure where our lounge singing hero must find a kidnapped daughter of a celebrity carpenter being held captive on the planet Fredward. He joins his former partner in crime, the olive eating Quasar Kid on a journey to finally pay their debt to society. They find themselves in all sorts of weird situations spanning the galaxy, from male impregnation centers to corporate mascot rehabilitation facilities. Sounds weird? You bet your ass.

Stingray Sam is first and foremost fun as hell. Cory McAbee manages to cram enough story and song in to each episode, each more ridiculous than the other and still come out with a coherent story and structure. McAbee himself as Stingray Sam is incredibly charismatic in the lead and brings a whimsical joy to it all. The whole thing flows well, with each episode being just over 10 minutes long and as a whole the complete story is just over 60 minutes and leaves you craving for more.

The low budget, cut and paste collages and minimal sets don't distract but rather enhance the care free spirit this film has. It's supposed to look this way and I think if they did have state of the art FX work in it, it just wouldn't be the same.

I have not seen McAbee's previous film American Astronaut so I can't really compare the two but I sure am going to hunt it down now and be on the look out for anything else he's going to be doing.

You don't have to wait for it to turn up at a festival, go to www.stingraysam.com and you can download the show, HD or for a portable device or pre-order the DVD or the soundtrack (which rules by the way).

One of the top films of the festival for me.