User reviews

Story is not bad and pretty easy understandable, cool gladiator setting in outer space. Visually stunning, the aesthetic of the clothes, patterns, and creatures (dinosaurs) is good. Delivers the core message of the hierarchy and the cruelty in humanity.

Unfortunately the pronunciation and tone of the voice over is so awkward. It actually ruins the whole experience for me as a native Mandarin speaker. Not really understand the reason why behind the voice casting.

Perhaps I will buy the original book since looks fun in the short episode, looking forward to digging the background and characters.

The episode in the technical department was really well done, nothing to say. I love this style of animation and would watch hundreds of shorts made in this exact manner.

The problem, however, was everything else. The story, in my opinion, is confusing. Honestly even now that I look back on the episode, I struggle to make sense of the whole plot of the episode. I don't even understand why there are dinosaurs, making them appear in my opinion without any logic (it seems like they were running out of ideas and said 'But why don't we put some triceratops and a t-rex, just to put something in?') Even the final twist I find absolutely without logic. I won't give spoilers but those who have seen the episode will hopefully agree with me.

In conclusion, nothing can be said about the technical department, it is really well done and thought out. The rest, however, is highly insufficient and makes the episode less memorable than it could have been.

Space aristocrats organize a bloody gladiator match in honor of their marriage.

This is probably one of the most Heavy Metal-like episodes of LD&R. It's got pretty much everything a teenage boy needs: dinosaurs, naked women, and bloody gladiator battles. As an added bonus, it's reminiscent of Taarna in some ways. Certainly not in plot, but it's got the whole "I'm a naked badass chick" thing in spades.

The thing is that there isn't a whole lot to it other than the naked badass chick, which was already done to perfection in Taarna. If you're going in this direction, you might as well push it all the way to 11. Although the art was great, thematically, this was not an 11.

On one hand, it seems to know that it's exploitation. However, it seems to be suffering from delusions of grandeur. This is especially true at the end, when you get this sentimental Big Message. Delivered by a naked chick.

I'm not really sure if Bai Ling was given the correct direction here. She seems to be treating this episode as if it's serious, creating a disconnect between the exploitative content and the serious voice acting. Did nobody tell her that her character was going to be riding naked on a dinosaur?

The announcer did not sound all that good to me. The delivery was probably better than I could have done, but I'm not a professional. It was only later that I saw that it was some YouTuber. That's rather disappointing. I would have thought that LD&R could appeal to big name voice actors.

The big upside to all these complaints, though, is that the art is quite good. It's fast-paced, action-oriented, and suits the story. The aristocrats are appropriately decadent, and the warriors look and act like badasses. It's got a comic book flavor to it, but mostly just in the sense of insane stuff happening for no reason (like dinosaur fights in outer space).

Although this is perhaps the closest LD&R has gotten to Heavy Metal, I think it's more of a pale copy than anything else. Why didn't they get better voice talent? Where's Alberto Mielgo and his incredibly creative, mind-screw episodes? Oh well. At least we got space dinosaurs.

What a fitting role for Mr Beast. Showing off people fighting against each other, killing each other for sport and the entertainment of the elite. Others have pointed out that he appears more human in this animation than he does in real life and for some weird reason that is true. He is a despicable thing in vaguely human form and having him appear in any form of entertainment makes me sad. Although, to re-iterate, the detestable role he plays here very much mirrors what he is doing in real life.

I did enjoy the ending, though. Other commenters said the whole thing doesn't make sense. I mean, fair. It's a very tiny glimpse into a world we know nothing about. But I also don't know what else you need to know. Where the dinosaurs came from? They were just there for the entertainment and for spectacle. There's nothing else to it. Sometimes you need to remember that it's just a story and you should really just relax.

Why? Why do we need these appearances? Yes Mr Beast paid for it. It's just advertising in a show that's supposed to be about showing off the concepts and art of creators. Why? It's just irritating, I love the series even the low points are decent. I just really wanted to come on, watch a show and enjoy it without really having to think beyond the references, stories and comparisons being told and shown. And you'd think this would be like, criticising him. Which is should, for his exploitative content. But as soon as you bring him on it becomes just self referential media. Advertising. For a man who already has destroyed the minds of the young.

This season has not been filled with hits, but this episode makes me not want to watch it at all anymore. After looking it up and seeing articles written about why they picked him for this, I have lost respect for the creaters of the show.

Getting a disgusting mysoginst as an actor just because he has love, death, & robots posters on his wall and they want his younger audience-who shouldn't be watching most of LDR's episodes anyway-is not a great way to get views.

If viewership is down, pay better writers. We stopped watching after this one and I don't know if we will finish the season, but there were only a couple of episodes that were worth it before this one.

Even without his character, it's not a great episode.

Seriously, all this talent and money, wasted on shorts that tell NO story. There is no deeper meaning, no grand concept. It is just naked gladiators fighting each other and a T-rex while riding Triceratopses on a wheel shaped space station to please some generic nobles. There is not even a surprise about who wins, you would never guess, it is the japanese chick who had any dialogue, unlike the others. But of course first she teams up with the black chick to kill the men, because girls gotta support girls. Not the white chick of course, she can die. And then black chick gets instantly eaten by T-rex. Also took no genius to figure out that maybe the nobles should not fly too close to the ground where a giant Dinosaur is.

I often wonder this rather lackluster series that only produced so far, maybe 4-5 good episodes in 4 seasons, could have been so much better if they took to the classics. Have them animate short sci-fi stories written by Lem, Asimov, Bradbury. Even short horror, written by King. Anything would have been better than wasting our time and their money on blood and nudity.

EDIT: I only learned by checking other reviews that the announcer guy was voiced by this Mr. Beast youtuber, a guy whom like Pewdiepie, I have never watched before, just hear people talk about him. I'd never have recognized him, he is just generic announcer guy. So for what it's worth if you do not know who he is, you'll never guess he is in this.

I appreciate the attempt to infuse the script with Chinese poetic language, but the result reads like superficial cultural appropriation. Take the wolf imagery: it bears no relation to the historical and literary symbolism wolves hold in Chinese tradition, nor does it follow any coherent narrative logic. The monologue is so disjointed that it borders on unbearable for a Chinese-speaking audience. I have to wonder whether anyone with a genuine grounding in traditional Chinese culture ever reviewed the text. The very passage that was meant to anchor the story instead lays bare its hollowness. Invest enormous sums and manpower in the visuals and, for a touch of "exoticism," sprinkle in Mandarin dialogue-yet show no concern for the cultural spirit that Mandarin inevitably carries. It's a dispiriting way to make a film.

Graphically well made (although hated the character design), but nowadays it's not an argument anymore.

Why having mrbeast? He brings nothing, so does bailing. Typical nerds making the hero a femal asian. Cheap.

The story made no sens. Basic at best.

I'm copying my answer because there's no 600 words worth of comment for this cheap short.

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Graphically well made (although hated the character design), but nowadays it's not an argument anymore.

Why having mrbeast? He brings nothing, so does bailing. Typical nerds making the hero a femal asian. Cheap.

The story made no sens. Basic at best.

Release the beast from my memory, personal grip but Mr Beast has no place in entertainment, that aside, this story felt weak at its core, not particularly pleasing look or real feeling characters, undeserved use of mandarin to make it seem more important, and unlike the first 2 seasons I felt very little after it had finished, alot of the season 4 episodes seem to be slightly too short, the previous seasons didn't seem to have trouble making you engage with the character but pretty much half the new episodes do, not sure who is to blame but it looks like the ideas people are either out of them or have been replaced by the new people who are pretty much tanking 75% of current tv.

If you read other reviews, this is not even the only problem, but why are we highlighting a person who is gamifying charity, misleads audiences, commodifies suffering, is co-founder of a health hazard food product marketed towards children, has promoted illegal gambling practices and does it all for views and profit?

Allegations from sources like Rosanna Pansino claim he pressured friends and employees to gamble on Bustabit, an illegal Bitcoin gambling platform in the U. S., and former employee DogPack404 accused him of running 46 illegal lotteries during a livestream by tying prizes to merchandise purchases without a free entry method, violating U. S. laws like the FTC's "no purchase necessary" rule.

We should also mention the 2024 Beast Games lawsuit highlight claims of sexual harassment, lack of medical care, inadequate food, and unpaid expenses and wages, as well as misrepresentations about the number of contestants on the show. The way he brushes it off is "hundreds of other people had fun" - completely brushing off responsibility, 0 empathy, showing his true character.

If you don't know who MrBeast (Jimmy) is, and like the animation and the series, awesome - but if we are giving people like this a platform for the sake of "art" then maybe the "art" shouldn't exist in the first place.

The Mandarin voiceover felt very unnatural - even the tone when swearing sounded completely off. I also agree with previous comments that the image of the wolf doesn't carry any special meaning in Chinese culture. In fact, I'd add that it often has a negative connotation, associated with criminal or predatory behavior. No one in Chinese culture would compare themselves to a wolf in a positive light.

As for the Chinese poem at the end, it made no sense in the context of the plot. The original meaning of the poem is about the author's deep loneliness and his wish for the moon to be his companion - but what does that have to do with this storyline???

I normally don't write reviews for low ratings just to bash it, but this is just too ridiculous and it kind of pissed me off. I don't understand why they had to make it Chinese, speaking as a Chinese, I'd been happy if they made it any other culture or race that they understood better.

Obviously the wolves and the poem didn't make any sense whatsoever, but what's worse is that monologue. It's painful to read, I say read because as a native Chinese I couldn't understand it without reading the subtitle, because of the words itself and how it was said.

They probably got it very badly translated from English on DeepL or something and copy-pasted straight on to the script.

The words were garbage and the voice acting was no better. Not criticizing the actress, I'm sure she might do better speaking whatever her first language is, cause she didn't sound like someone who speaks Mandarin, the speech pattern was way off, sounded more like AI. And like I said as a native speaker I couldn't understand, I thought it was another language at first. And the "emotions" sounds totally contrived, understandable considering she doesn't really speak the language.

I didn't have much expectations for this season, but I have to say I expected better than this.

Not all of us are teenagers who are satisfied by seeing a youtuber animated as a character - let me just say that right at the beginning. Good grief, the story was just annoying, how many more times can we see this setup without falling asleep? Oh the evil rich drinking their expensive glasses of whatever, while watching the poor perform to their amusement... YAWN, honestly. To make it a bit worse, it was a bit self-indulgent, seemed like it takes itself too seriously for what it is. Nothing new, nothing ground-breaking, yet, performed in a way where it is the first of its kind. Well, not really...

It is like they hired Mr. Beast based on his thumbnails only to learn he is a terrible voice actor. He is so flat and unemotional when he is supposed to be some energetic ringmaster for gladiatorial games. The Mandarin voice over is also so flat and boring. It feels disconnected from the story. Later, the lead actress kisses another actresses out of nowhere that feels more Edgelord BS to shock someone than part of the story. We know nothing about these gladiators other than they are in great shape and can ride dinosaurs. So, I don't care when they each die or when one of them kisses another. Nor do I care when one somehow develops a kinship with a Tyrannosaurus Rex and suddenly becomes a wolf pack together.

In the end, it left me with "Ah, ok. Whatever."

To celebrate the betrothal of Jovian royalty, highly trained über-athletes compete in a hyper-violent dinosaur race around a vast track orbiting Jupiter. There is not much to the story beyond an excuse for lots of CGI (featuring physics-defying martial-arts, heroic posing, and stampeding styracosaurs) and for an annoying 'stream-of-thought' voiceover about some kind of interplanetary class-struggle. The CGI is good but after a while it all starts to look the same and the gladiatrix's final act of defiance was trite and predictable. OK as technological showcase but lacking as a stand-alone story (often a problem with this series). Since I don't know who 'MrBeast' is, I don't care that he is 'in' the film (but others certainly do).

Found some of the scenes gripping but the narrative / voice over was quite silly and worse, the panning of angles over the women's bodies and the ridiculous kiss scene smacked of male-gaze footage, more suited to the 1980s. Disappointing.

Animation needs to get out of the dinosaur age (no pun intended) and get into the present times. A sad waste of what could have been a good animation short.

Interestingly, I knew right away that no women directors or writers were involved, but most animations would benefit from female perspectives in order to avoid these tragic faux pas and tired old tropes.

In a shocking twist the Tyrannosaurus Rex isn't the biggest predator in this Episode about fighting with and on the backs of giant dinosaurs.

In a true-to-life fashion Jimmy "Mr Beast" Donaldson hosts a series of winner-takes-all games in order to exploit poor people for the entertainment of his fellow subhuman ghouls with more money than sense or common decency.

What follows is a series of death-defying stunts with enslaved people fighting each other to the death using their bare hands and grappling hooks in order to topple their fellow gladiators off the top of colossal triceratops, in a surprise twist the final two of the gladiators are lovers who live until Jimmy does an ass-pull and unleashes another twist: a titanic T-rex is unleashed and proceeds to eat one of the remaining gladiators. The final gladiator and the T Rex must then fight to the death.