User Reviews

The premise is typical: A child must embark in a journey to stop an evil force. It is also a musical fairy-tale, but has nothing in common with the usual Disney output.

As another reviewer pointed out, yes, there are some similarities between this and The Neverending Story. And yes, there are some aesthetic similarities with the works of Tim Burton.

But this is far more bizarre, more dream-like, almost reminiscent of the most surreal works by Terry Gilliam; no wonder he plays a small role here, since his most recent work seems to be the main influence of this animation, the longest one Rosto ever made before his death in the year 2019.

Since I saw his short Jona/Tomberry in the year 2009, I always found his CGI animations to be a fascinating spectacle, even if it often was confusing and hard to follow (There seems to be an interconnection between his films and comics, featuring some recurring characters)

Monster of Nix is confusing at moments, but mesmerizing too, from to end. Like a crazy, whimsical dream one never wants to forget.

Very few modern animators would deserve the "auteur" title, but Rosto is definately among them. I would have loved to see much more stuff from him.

"The Monster of Nix" is an animated half-hour short film written, directed and produced by Dutch filmmaker Rosto. But don't worry, the language in here is English. This film has a touch of David Lynch to it, a touch of Tim Burton and an ounce of Coraline. However, it never reaches the strength in terms of story from the latter. A little boy apparently has to save the world and go against an evil monster, which looks like a gigantic raven. The boy looked more like a girl to me I must say. In any case this is not a watch for young audiences really as they might get frightened by some of the more creepy moments and the music is also in fairly frightening. Same can be said about the main character. Even if it's a kid, it is a bit on the scary side with its grayish hair. I must say that he looks more like a girl actually, not a boy. Anyway, all in all I was not too impressed by this short movie and the story seemed a bit insufficient even for 30 minutes only. Not recommended, unless you're a big fan of Terry Gilliam or Tom Waits.