EDEN Season One
It’s no Wall-e
UK/US Netflix, streaming now Creator Justin Leach
Cast Ruby Rose Turner,
David Tennant, Rosario Dawson, Neil Patrick Harris
This anime (the first to be produced directly by Netflix) is presented as a miniseries, but given that it’s just 100 minutes long, it’s just as easy to watch it as a movie .
A CGI series that tries its best to look like a hand-drawn cartoon (only 5% of shots take advantage of the 3D camera; the rest are either fixed or panning shots), it’s set on a future Earth inhabited by robots, where humans vanished long ago. Then two droids find a baby in a capsule. They raise it as protective parents, but the girl must eventually uncover the mysteries of the world.
The series strives for Pixar-like charm and pathos, and the second half fumbles for our heartstrings. Unfortunately, apart from some poignant music, pretty much everything in it clunks. It’s fun to hear David Tennant’s familiar tones as the “daddy” robot for a while, but even he feels more constrained. The characters aren’t interesting or funny enough, the journey is bumpy, and the synthetic look only passable.
The story ends up being rather sad for young kids, and too elementary for anyone older. The later reveals are mildly interesting if you’ve followed how anime and manga treat robots as close kin to humans, but mild interest is all this offers.
Andrew Osmond
Justin Leach first developed the story – then planned as a film – in 1998, after seeing Three Men And A Baby.