Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher
(2004)
review by Head Cheeze

Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher is equal parts Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, and John Kricfalusi, with a little bit of post 20th century irony thrown in for good measure. It's a cartoon that's as impressive as any you're apt to see, with gorgeous animation, laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, and rousing scenes of action and adventure.

Oh, and it's also a student film.

Alexander Woo optioned Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher from fellow students Bill Presing and Matt Peters (the co-creators of the Rex Steele comic book) as a senior class project. Two years later, Woo's "project" has surfaced as a short animated film that puts much of it's big budget studio ilk to shame. With a throwback visual style, hilarously accurate voiceovers (the narrator of the flickering "newsreel" footage is spot-on!) and clever use of modern animation techniques, Woo has crafted a truly impressive piece of animated cinema that pays homage to the romanticised stylings of the sqaure jawed heroes of old, while also managing to blaze a few new trails for himself.

The series is set up like the classic serial shorts (the same films that inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark), and introduces us to the all-American hero, Rex Steele, and his generously proportioned sidekick, Miss Penny Thimble, as they travel into the Amazon in search of a hidden Nazi fortress. When they arrive, Rex is soon abducted by the even-more-generously proportioned Greta, henchwoman of the uber-evil Eval Schnitzler. Schnitzler's plan is to build a missile silo in South America, and only Rex (and Penny!) can stop him.

Filled with in-jokes, innuendo, and good ol' fashioned big breasted woman wrestling in skintight clothing, Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher is truly a breath of fresh air, especially in an animation world deluged by squiggle-vision and other half-assed, low-budget approaches to the medium.

Rex is coming to DVD courtesy of Monkey Suit Press, and will be a two-disc set loaded with behind the scenes goodies, animatics, the original comics and more.