Deck the Hacks 2

Deck the Hacks 2
Directed by Ned Carlson

With very little in the way of support, criticism, or even acknowledgement from the community, Ned Carlson just keeps chugging along behind the scenes, expanding the already massive library of films about his characters and the world they inhabit. Deck the Hacks 2 continues that tradition, but hopefully not the same history; this is a film that deserves to be seen, with characters that demand an audience and a storytelling style that demands to be acknowledged. These types of films are rare in the 3DMM community, and if not for Dragon Films, they'd probably be nonexistant. It's expressive, good-natured, and solidly character-driven, with motivations and conflicts that are well established and satisfyingly addressed before the end. Carlson maintains that his movies are created with the sole purpose of being entertaining, and that's what they do. But even PAMs can entertain. Deck the Hacks 2 actually tells a story.

This is the first CNCW Studios film I've seen, finally becoming hooked by the Talk and Tampering skit featured in the 2004 Awards Movie. With no background into the series beyond the brief and frankly 3DMM-related conversation there, I wasn't sure how accessible it could be considering it's the sixth or seventh installment in an ongoing series. Certainly I've been in this position before, releasing Alternate Vlarion 3 to a community that hadn't had the hours of story and character background the previous episodes provided, so I was definitely wary going in.

Deck the Hacks 2 is a self-contained story instantly accessible to first-time viewers of this series.

I mean it, you can go in with no prior knowledge of the characters, the storyline, or Ned's directing and storytelling style and you'll gain a hold on what's happening almost instantly. It opens with a brief and energetically humorous recap of the original Deck the Hacks, which in itself manages to give us a strong overview of the characters before the movie proper begins. When we transitioned from this recap to the main titles, I noticed with some surprise that there was a transition. The music faded out at the precise moment, the recap was carefully constructed to lead into the titles, and the whole thing just felt very fluid and professional despite a slightly lower grade of animation than we're typically used to. It feels like there should be a disconnect between the professional writing, voice acting, sound design, and production values and the aged look of the visuals and animation. And to some degree, there is. But for the most part, this just feels like the level of production quality we all should have been at in 2000. If Deck the Hacks 2 had come out in 1999 or 2000, people would have sat up and taken notice.

The plot is fairly simple and has a playfulness with logic in a couple moments, but it remains solid and doesn't deviate into nonsense at any point in the 38 minute runtime. Our protagonists Dirtbag, Gramps, Ronji, and Chef Kook are celebrating good times a year after thwarting mad scientist/hacker Willy a year ago (this is cleverly and quite humorously established with a news report at the beginning of the film). However, Gramps begins to feel obsolete and useless after conflicts with Ronji and a brawl at a cafe, and eventually resolves to leave town. Meanwhile, businesses are going bankrupt all over town and Dirtbag decides to do some investigating, and soon enough Willy's threats in the recap seem to have been genuine. A few moments create conveniences for comedy's sake, but Ned is careful to balance them so they don't disrupt the plot (Ronji with the pocket rocket being the most obvious example). The whole thing is carefully scripted so that even when we are able to anticipate character motivations or plot twists, they're well-supported by earlier events and are always entertaining to watch.

The characters are well-established, largely through the voice acting, but also through amusing and fairly well-written dialogue for a 3DMM movie. There's a sort of bombastic corniness to characters like Gramps and Chef Kook, and the shrill desperation of many lines can make you smirk, but it can also make you roll your eyes. Even so, this tone fits with the good-natured and cartoony style of the film and series, so very little feels out of place. The only thing that really stuck out in a bad way for me was a kind of unconscious prejudice toward Ronji for his ethnicity. Some jokes were just as good-natured and amusing as anything else in the film, and well-written for him as a character (His response to being in jail was one of my favorite moments). But others, like the "For the love of Saddam" comment on the space station and Gramps calling him "Iraqi boy" seemed more prickly and uncomfortable than amusing or character-driven. Ronji doesn't strike me as a stereotypical character despite his voice being similar to the cab drivers in Osama's Heroes or Moderately Confused (or any other time Ramu is used for that matter), so these moments stick out as being a little hostile and not in tune with the rest of the film. The friction between Ronji and Gramps is funny, since they both stereotype each other a little bit, but there is a sense that it can be taken too far.

The only times the films slips below its general quality level are when it becomes obvious that Ned is trying to do something and it isn't working. The cutting between the bar scuffle and Dirtbag searching for evidence of something fishy going on at the library feels like a failed attempt to juxtapose two plot elements that have little to do with each other in tone, event, or motivation, and really hurts the flow of the movie up to that point. Ned also clearly has a ways to go before his default actor animation is able to support the fighter aspect of his series (the idea of a band of fighters also reminded me of STEEL, despite the playfulness with the concept). Other issues like poor camera angle choices, limited effects, and an abundance of default actor animations remain noticable, but are only a detriment when something else is going wrong with the movie. Also, the CNCW universe is, from what I can tell, not focused much on effects or action apart from the somewhat odd fighting concept.

Having not seen the original or any previous CNCW films, I'm not sure whether the hacker premise may give off a deja vu effect for some viewers, or come across as a bit of a repetitive sequel to DTH or not, but that impression lingers slightly. I also wonder if this may not be the best CNCW for those unfamiliar with the series to start out on, but only in the way that one wouldn't want to be introduced to a TV show with certain episodes. These are purely first-impression concerns, and only because the series is so extensive and its episodes seemingly self-contained.

Overall, however, Deck the Hacks 2 succeeds as a surprisingly entertaining and light-hearted film with moments of brilliant comic inspiration and interesting and amusing characters. It's easy to glance at a long release with admittedly under-the-bar construction from a less-known director and never get around to checking it out, which I have admittedly done up until now. As a matter of this community supporting itself, I implore more people to check out Deck the Hacks 2 and leave at least a paragraph or so of feedback, but primarily I recommend it because it's hugely entertaining and fun to watch. Great work, Ned, and keep it up!

Critical Score: 70/100.
Personal Score: 75/100.