THE STOLEN LYRIC

Some guy named Chase Peter Garrettson decided to string together 555 song segments to provide the script for an animated story. On the surface this is an intriguing idea.

But somewhere between concept and execution, it became a hot mess. It really isn't clear what purpose the film has other than to show he could pilfer the songs without paying royalties because he never uses enough of any song and is protected by section 107 of the US copyright laws. I am assuming that explains the title.

The story - and I use that word loosely - revolves around a rock group that seems to be trying to stick it to a big record company by using drugs and trickery to accomplish heaven knows what.

Because no one person voiced any character you have to endure one hundred different voices per character. Moreover, because the song strings aren't cohesive, it takes a lot to create the dialogue. To make a complete though Garrettson intertwines soloists, groups, male, female, rock, blues, whatever.

The dialogue can flow from The Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to James Brown with no chance to be comprehensible. Therefore, there is no character development and even if there were, the animation is the equivalent of of elementary school doodling.

One could only assume that Garrettson is hoping that his project leads him to other gigs, but the film never demonstrates anything more than elemental skill development .

"The Stolen Lyric" is one of those headache inducing film projects that would only appeal to someone whacked out on LSD. The initial concept is inventive, but then it goes to the toilet. [VOD]   -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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