00Dee Boned: Venison Jelly

Venison Jelly at last propels the Dee Boned series beyond the realm of short, energetic action spoofs and into a unique, worthy franchise all its own, and creator Russ Stepan into a very elite category of 3DMM animators and directors. Like Will Maltby, Guy Collins, and Daniel Martin before him, Stepan achieves a kind of surreal kinetic energy in the proceedings of his films, heightening the action into a category all its own; this is the stuff Looney Tunes is made of. With this style comes restraint, pacing, and comic timing, qualities Maltby and occasionally Martin are known for but not renowned for, and despite the gleeful abandon with which Russ leaps into wildly creative action sequences, Venison Jelly is not without purpose, bizarre and hilarious though it may be. Dee Boned's character occupies a world ripe with clicks and whirs, machines that snatch you out of bed and fire you from a cannon into your office, messages that self-destruct right when you finish reading them, bosses that come into your office by blowing the door off, where a missing sandwich is motivation enough to launch a series of high-octane action sequences and thrilling chases across a variety of locations. That it remains stubbornly convinced that even mundane tasks deserve the most over-the-top action movie sensibilities accompanying them is why it works. And it's gut-bustingly hilarious.

The mood is set in the opening sequence, taking a cue from You Only Live Until You Die with Dee Boned fighting through hilariously unnecessary obstacles just to get to work. It's here where the most major addition to the series becomes apparent: the characters now have voices. And these voices are fantastic. Russ turns in a great performance as Dee Boned, becoming one of the few 3DMM characters whose voice turned out exactly like I'd imagined it, and Jaymond is excellent as the rogue Agent 539, though he still seems to be channeling Satanik at times. It's Robert Pavlinsky as X12, Dee Boned's boss, who really shines, however. The voice is hilarious in itself, even without the character's dialogue, which suggests he's just a few sandwiches short of a picnic. When Dee Boned points out that his entire office has been destroyed, X12 suspiciously rumbles, "Wait a second," like the important fact that's been overlooked is that the file cabinet is still standing, and he helpfully kicks it over to make Dee Boned's statement accurate.

The whole movie shares this deliciously off-kilter set of principles; it'd be easy to misinterpret Venison Jelly as a pointless action movie, missing that the false accusation of Dee Boned as the culprit and the chase that takes up most of the second and third acts actually DO have a motivation behind them. There's a big difference between a movie that throws a MacGuffin up on the screen to set up a plot and one that supplies real, if patently ridiculous, context for it. Is a missing sandwich really worth a standoff in the woods, a motorized skateboard chase up a mountain, a lumber facility showdown complete with buzz saws swinging every which way, and so on? Venison Jelly maintains with utter conviction that yes, it is, and is offended you should even ask; of COURSE it's worth it! The only suggestion in the tone of the movie that it might all be blown way out of proportion is a comment by Dee Boned at the very end, and that's only to lead into a different joke altogether. As I said earlier, the series works because its ridiculous motivations are inherent and unstated -- the idea that it might be a stupid premise isn't even worth mentioning, the movie doesn't even consider it.

This idea is enhanced greatly in Venison Jelly largely due to a huge technical advancement all across the board. Russ's zany, frantic animation is given plenty of chances to shine in ways it didn't have time to during the shorter runtimes of RC and YOLUYD. Dee Boned is completely absorbed in his world, running, dodging, and in many ways compensating for the utterly berserk spy movie conventions turned loose on the script; you get the impression that over time he's learned not to question the weirdness that follows him around and has gotten good at staying one step ahead of it. The direction is phenomenal, making use of those same conventions to set up hugely entertaining situations and create fantastic payoffs instead of reaching a brilliant climax and then flatlining like JDR Revival and other highly stylistic action movies. And the biggest surprise of all is that the script is actually very intelligent; Russ knows exactly how to present a ridiculous situation or character motivation and write dialogue so that the person delivering it isn't in on the joke. The log flume conversation comes to mind, and Jaymond's delivery of lines like, "Some stupid, selfish FATTY ate my slice of cake!" as the revelation for 539's hatred of Dee Boned makes it all work.

The best part about Venison Jelly is that it works on so many levels -- its unwavering belief in the character and plot motivations make it work as a kind of surreal action/thriller, while the same over-the-top seriousness enhances the comedy in a much more intelligent way than if it had been self-aware or self-parodic; and then of course it works as a combination, creating an excellent spoof of spy and action movies; and then on top of all of this it exists on a level all its own, with a unique voice that's inspiring because it's funny, and funny because it's inspiring, and so on. If there are any negative points, they'd probably have to be that the film does such a great job of realizing Dee Boned's potential that I don't know if any further installments would be able to top this. Venison Jelly pushes Russ's star series as far as I can see it going. But then again, I hadn't expected a lot of what the movie showed me, so being surprised again might not surprise me.

Critical Score: 93/100.
Personal Score: 95/100.