Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Mystery On Prime Video Blends Live Action With Stunning Animation
If you’re a fan of animation in all its glorious forms, you may be overjoyed to learn about a little under-the-radar Amazon original series called Undone. The show, which ran for two seasons on the streamer, packs an impressive cast, a mind-bending storyline that will leave you reeling, and a wholly unique animation style unlike anything you’ve seen before. If you haven’t had the chance to check out this hidden gem, be sure to do yourself a favor and pull it up on Amazon Prime Video today.
Rotoscoping Animation
I was first drawn toward Undone when I learned that it was created by the visionary minds behind the hit Netflix animated outing BoJack Horseman. Unlike the depressed horse cartoon, however, Undone offers a strange, almost visually jarring animation style brought to the screen by motion capture and rotoscoping technology.
This means that most shots of the show were achieved by hiring the performers to pantomime in front of a green screen and then animating their expressions and environments over the camera-shot footage for an odd blend of live-action filmmaking and hand-drawn animation.
Shares DNA With Bojack Horseman
If I’m being perfectly honest, the animation style actually made me slightly dismissive of the show at first, but once I learned that BoJack Horseman creator Rafael Bob-Waksberg and series supervising producer Kate Purdy were the brains behind the operation, I quickly scrambled to catch the show on Amazon Prime. As the first episode of the series cut to the credits, I was already hooked and proceeded to binge-watch the entire first season of Undone over the course of two days.
A Trip Through Space And Time
The narrative of Undone centers on Rosa Salazar’s Alma, a depressed underachiever living in the shadow of her sister, who is still struggling to get past the death of her father 20 years after his passing. In the series’ pilot, Alma gets into a near-fatal car crash after having a vision of her father while behind the wheel, causing her to run a red light. Following the crash, she seemingly develops supernatural powers, which allow her to toy with the elasticity of time, space, and reality as she knows it.
Uncovering What Happened
The first season of Undone follows Alma as she attempts to use her powers to uncover the truth about her father’s death and the purpose of her abilities and unlock a timeline where she can live in harmony with the world. As this narrative plays out, the audience is left in a state of uncertainty, as it remains mostly unclear whether Alma has truly gained these abilities or if she is only processing fantasies in her mind as a result of trauma-induced mental illness.
Streaming Only On Amazon
REVIEW SCORE
The series is absolutely mind-bending, incredibly fascinating, and well-deserving of a larger audience. While it’s gone mostly under the radar since its release, Undone was a smash-hit with critics and audiences alike, resulting in a near-perfect 98 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 93 percent general audience score to match. Rosa Salazar absolutely stuns in the leading role, while talented performers such as Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie, Siddharth Dhananjay, Daveed Diggs, and Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk round out the cast.
If you’re interested in catching Undone for yourself, the series is currently streaming in full on Amazon Prime Video.
