Parents might wonder if “Night of the Zoopocalypse,” about an attack of zombie zoo animals and inspired by horror master Clive Barker, might give their children nightmares. Children respond so differently that the best I can say is that some children will find the inspired zombie-fied creatures with sharp teeth and glowing eyes “fun scary” or even funny, but some will come down on the side of “scary scary.”
It is easier to predict children’s reaction to the meta-commentary throughout the film: most likely confusion or boredom. A lemur named Xavier (Pierre Simpson) constantly describes what is happening through the lens of the midnight movies he watches when he pretends to be sick so he can stay in the zookeeper’s office overnight. He happily explains to the other animals that “Often at this point the heroes are starving and resort to eating each other,” and that Act Three is about “sacrifices made, risks taken, and in the end, triumph…or crushing defeat.”
As for parents’ reactions, while they might appreciate references to classics like “Night of the Living Dead” and some thoughtful lessons about loyalty and teamwork, they might be disappointed in the lesser quality of the character design, voices, and animation compared to the films from Disney, Pixar, and Illumination that children watch over and over.
The setting is the bright and colorful Colepepper Zoo, popular with families. The first animal we meet is a brave young wolf named Gracie (Gabbi Kosmidis) being chased through the trees. It turns out it was a training exercise for Gracie and the other young wolves, led by her grandmother Abigale (Carolyn Scott). Just because they live in a zoo does not make them safe, Grandma Abigale warns the pack. “Sooner or later something bad or worse is going to happen. It always does.”
When the zoo’s automaton clock plays the music that means the zoo is closing for the night, all the humans go home, including the zookeepers. Only the animals are left when a small, glowing purple meteor crashes into the zoo, and soon a rabbit finds itself in a glowing purple cocoon, incubating the zombie virus that will turn it into a giant zombie and soon infect most of the other animals, including the whole wolf pack, including Abigale, except for Gracie.
A mountain lion named Dan (David Harbour) agrees to be Gracie’s bodyguard. In classic buddy movie fashion, they are complete opposites. The zoo is Gracie’s home. She was born there and has never known the dangers of the outside world. Dan lived in what he calls the wild and longs to return. Wolves live in packs and Gracie has always had her family around her. Dan is a loner. She is young and optimistic; he is older and cynical. They form a temporary alliance, and then, over the course of the night, they develop respect for one another and then friendship.
Meanwhile, another group of not-yet-zombie animals is hiding out in the zoo’s gift shop, including movie fan Xavier, an arrogant and selfish proboscis monkey named Felix (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) who never stops talking about how he should be the boss because he has the biggest brain, a sarcastic ostrich named Ash (Scott Thompson), and Heather Loreto as a feisty capybara (with “Flow,’’ animated capybaras seem to be having a moment). The zombies are huge, with glowing yellow eyes and rubbery skin that makes them look balloon-ish, as though they floated in from the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. Their body parts come off, but this is a movie for children, so they re-attach. And it is not a spoiler to say that someone figures out a way to un-zombie them.
Much of the film is the characters trying to escape the zombies, with some breaks for humor and a life lesson or two. The mechanics of the chase scenes are well-designed, but the overall look of the film is lackluster, the characters are thinly imagined, and the dialogue is oddly obscure in a movie intended for children, especially one that wants to stay on the fun side of scary.
Children can be introduced to horror; after all, scary stories about witches, ghosts, giants, and monsters have been shared by families for centuries. They let children address their own fears in a safe way and help them learn agency and problem-solving. But films like “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” “Monster House,” and “Hocus Pocus” are much better options.
