encyes This animated anthology based on 5 of Edgar Allen Poe's stories is well done, complete with choice actors for narration such as Christopher Lee, Julian Sands and a surprising (but obviously dated) monologue from Bela Lugosi who does a fine job reading through one of Poe's most well-known tales, "The Tell-Tale Heart". Animation is slick in 5 different computer-enhanced styles including a linking story between Poe in the guise of a Raven and a mysterious entity desperately trying to conceal her identity when it's obvious from the start that it is Death. This anthology focuses solely on Poe's more famous dismal stories ("The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "The Pit and the Pandulum", "The Masque of the Red Death" as well as the aforementioned "Tell-Tale Heart") and only hint at the less gruesome works and love poems Poe produced during his lifetime. Designed primarily of kids, the interaction between Raven and Death touch on some historical facts of Poe that are quite adult and sad if you know anything about the writer. It's interesting to note how they seem to talk about Poe in both present and past tense. The problem with this anthology is not in the end result but on the material; Poe's works can be very cryptic, hard to read, filled with lavish but difficult to comprehend wording, and host periods of history that sometimes does not translate well with younger generations albeit adults. This anthology may truly only be for Poe fans, as those who do not know his works, or only lightly, may find themselves lost in the imagery and symbolism that he's most famous for.

thefreelanceangel Edgar Allen Poe's stories have endured for decades, and with showings like this--demonstrating how his work continues to fire the imagination--they'll continue to do so for years to come. Each animation style is uniquely suited to the story. The choice of a stark black-and-white stylistic animation combined with the incredible sound of Bela Lugosi reading "The Tell-Tale Heart" was sheer perfection. Sir Christopher Lee and Julian Sands matched 'Dracula's' prowess in reading with fully immersive and emotional narration. And Guillermo del Toro... My gods. He was absolutely the PERFECT choice for reading "The Pit and the Pendulum." The inflection, the emotion and the intensity of his narration was completely profound. Although I was a little disappointed that the final piece--"Masque of the Red Death"--wasn't narrated, that changed in seconds with how incredibly effective the purely visual storytelling was. The score was amazing. So completely suited to this absolutely overwhelming piece. Everything about this was mind-blowing and I will be purchasing a hard copy as soon as I possibly can.

mikebos Before I begin my review, I just have to make a statement. You wouldn't ask a vegetarian to review a steak house, or a film maker to tell you how to fix your car. So, when you see reviews from philistines complaining about the 'quality of the audio recording of Bela Lugosi', or complaining about the animation style, just picture the reviewer as a fully snow-suited Eskimo in a sauna, and ignore their complaints. Moving on...I saw this when it was first released to streaming services, and wrote down my thoughts in an Edgar Allan Poe Facebook group. Now that it's on Netflix, I've revisited, and re-experienced a lot of the same feelings. Here are my thoughts:1) There is a great atmosphere of dread, or "October, the season of death" as Ray Bradbury may call it, over the entire anthology. I love this. Very "sparse" feeling, if that makes sense.2) I really like the original wraparound story. In fact, once the two main characters were positively identified, I found that the wraparound was probably the most creepy and thoughtful of all presentations in the film. However, I don't believe that the voice actor was well chosen to portray the character that he was supposed to be. They needed a more fitting voice for the foreboding style, instead of one that sounds like a generic television family dad. Also, the character's dialogue should've been more poetic. It was too plain for the character portrayed.3) The Tell-Tale Heart segment is simply awesome. They take Bela Lugosi's original audio recording of his reading of the story (from the 1930s, I believe), complete with scratches and audio artifacts, layered over a modern musical score, and very noir-ish / Frank Miller-ish animation. It would've harmed the piece if they removed the scratches and audio artifacts from Lugosi's reading. I'm glad they didn't.4) All stories in the film had narration and/or voice-overs, except for the final story, The Masque Of The Red Death. The only voice in the entire piece is Prince Prospero (Roger Corman) when he spots The Red Death. I believe it was a huge mistake to not narrate the story. It would've been much better to hear Poe's words while seeing the visual. Without the narration, it's almost more of a background piece than an actual story. Although the visual is still beautiful.5) The fade-to-black, fade-to-zero decibel bumpers/dividers between stories and wraparound pieces created too much of a division between sections. They should've run together better. It was almost as if it was 5 separate episodes, instead of a continuous anthology, as was intended.I would definitely recommend it for any fan of Poe. Or even as an introduction to Poe for anybody who hasn't yet become a fan of his.

Tony-Scheinman I'm an unashamed fan of Edgar Allan Poe ... I admit it freely. I've visited every one of his houses in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Richmond, and I have a huge collection of audio readings and film adaptations of his work. When I first got wind of this film and some of the voices connected with it (Sir Christopher Lee and, joy of unexpected joys! Bela Lugosi), I couldn't wait until the release date.Now it is here.Now I've seen it ... and I'm very pleased.Not delighted or overjoyed, but pleased.I have to admit that compared with other animated versions of Poe's work "Extraordinary Tales" is a little lightweight. I was surprised to see quite a lot of kids in the audience of the showing I went to (it took me quite a while to find a theater in my home city where it was showing since the film is currently in limited release), but after having seen the film I can honestly say that this is a great way to expose kids to Poe for the first time. I was prepared for the different animation styles of each of the five stories included in the film, but I was pleasantly surprised that the stories are enclosed by a pastel-animated framing story involving a talking raven (voiced by Stephen Hughes, and I won't tell you who the raven really is!) and the unseen voice of Death (wonderfully performed by Cornelia Funke).As to the stories themselves, here they are in my order of preference: 1) "The Tell-Tale Heart" (narrated by Bela Lugosi); 2) "The Masque of the Red Death" (no narrator); 3) "The Pit and the Pendulum" (narrated by Guillermo del Toro); 4) "The Fall of the House of Usher" (narrated by Sir Christopher Lee); 5) "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (narrated by Julian Sands)I chose "Tell-Tale Heart" as Number One not only because of Lugosi's wonderful narration but also because of the black-and-white animation style used. "Masque of the Red Death" has no narration (except for one line delivered by the famous director of Poe films Roger Corman), but the animation style used here reminds me a lot of Ralph Bakshi's style in his film version of "The Lord of the Rings", very beautiful and flowing. I don't know if "Pit and the Pendulum" is actually CGI, but it seemed that way to me, and del Toro's narration has a wonderful velvety gruffness that makes the listener believe that the narrator is an old man remembering his experience (and I was intrigued by the twist given to the story). The highlight of "House of Usher" is, of course, the wonderful narration done by Sir Christopher Lee and the house and background are beautifully chilling, but the animation of the characters is a little too reminiscent of Minecraft figures and the story is a little too abbreviated (but this too has a wonderful and shocking twist!). As for "Valdemar", the animation is a little too comic-book-like for me, but the on-screen character of the narrator has (to my delight) more than a slight resemblance to Vincent Price!I will definitely add "Extraordinary Tales" to my collection should it ever be released on DVD, and I also definitely recommend it to other Poe admirers and to parents who want to introduce their kids to Poe ... there'll be plenty of time for them to become truly addicted (as I was and am) to the unabridged and more horrific versions ... if they (and you) dare!