Tamala2010: A Punk Cat in Space

Review by Vittorio J. Carli

for Reel Movie Critic

*½

"Tamala2010: A Punk Cat in Outer Space" is a lackluster and juvenile "adult" cyberpunk japanimation film. This cyberpunk cartoon has some religious overtones, but its ambitions never match its craft. It's about a sexy new wave cat (she doesn't seem "punk" to me despite the festival capsule description) that travels in outer space to find her real mother. Tamala looks like a combination of Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse, and she uses her sex appeal to control her laid back boyfriend, Michelangelo (there's no apparent connection to the Teenage Ninja Turtle of the same name).

A leering, perverted police dog that is addicted to Internet S and M porn pursues her. She gets no help from Michelangelo when the dog corners her. Michelangelo is the Peter figure that plays off of Tamala/Christ. A strange set of circumstances lead to her becoming an absurd messiah, like Tommy from the Who's rock opera. The film has a promising central premise, but it is so amateurishly done and is almost unwatchable. The mock advertising, and the attacks on corporate culture are neither profound nor original. The crude black and white animation is neither dazzling enough to be entertaining nor outrageously bad enough to be campy. "Tamala2010" is definitely not the cat's meow.