- “Mysterious things happen in the dark, don't they?”
- ―Tagline
Kaleidoscothic: The Mysterious Soul (or simply Kaleidoscothic) is a 2027 American 3D computer-animation crime horror comedy film produced by Thirty-8 Animations and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first entry of the Kaleidoscothic film series. It is based on 'The Mysterious Soul', the first entry of the web comic anthology series 'Kaleidoscothic' created by Reloaxa, who directed and wrote the film.
Film Summary[]
In the spooky hidden faraway town of Hellville, goths are able to roam free without worrying about other humans. A few years after Hellville was founded, the founder disappeared without a trace and the town's independent detective agency The Desolate Noir are dedicated to putting all the pieces together and solve the mysteries on his whereabouts in between a slew of other crimes committed in or near the town. Every worker is focused, serious and diligent... that is except for Eris Redwine, who is silly, lively and frivolous and Bella Esposito, who is laid-back, indolent and cool, two girls in their early 20s who have been best friends since they toddlers. Both often don't take their jobs seriously and try to bring peace, fun and colour to Hellville. But when members of The Desolate Noir start vanishing, it's up to them to try and solve BOTH mysteries. There's also talk of an unidentified being known only by the nickname "Sinister Cold" living in the depths underneath the Earth and a mysterious voodoo book called "The Gothic Pages", which was buried away for hundreds of years.
Plot[]
Voice Cast[]
- Chloë Grace Moretz as Eris Redwine, a silly and frivolous 21-year old goth girl who loves reading and gardening.
- Keke Palmer as Bella Esposito, a cool and laid-back 21-year old goth girl who loves music and pastel colours.
- Sylvester McCoy as Sinister Cold, the given nickname of a goth who was the founder of Hellville and fled away a few years after it's founding and committed a mass murder-suicide, but was never caught in the act. His monstrous dark soul is now scuffling away underneath the town, leading a ghastly tribe to haunt the residents.
- Anya Taylor-Joy as Kimberley, a coffee girl who's great friends with Eris and Bella. She's always hanging by the town coffee shop Cryptic Coffee.
- TBA as Adrian O'Neill, Bella's abusive uncle who harms and tortures his niece on a daily basis.
Production[]
Release[]
Home media[]
Reception[]
Box office[]
Critical reception[]
Kaleidoscothic: The Mysterious Soul received positive reviews with praise going to the characters, voice performances (especially that of Grace Moretz, Palmer and McCoy), pacing, creativity, animation, atmosphere, humour and entertainment value, although some criticised some aspects of the writing and occasional gory moments. In retrospect, the film has received critical acclaim and is now regarded as a classic. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 198 reviews, with an average score of 7.6/10. The site's consensus states: "The writing doesn't quite match the mastery of a lot of Reloaxa's other works, but Kaleidoscothic is still a dark, entertaining and mysterious adventure complete with a cast of some of his signature unique, well-developed and lovable characters." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 based on 49 reviews, indicating "Generally favourable reviews." In CinemaScore polls, cinema audiences gave Kaleidoscothic an average score of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Trivia[]
Soundtrack[]
Video game[]
Sequel[]
Following the film's success, Reloaxa stated in an 2029 interview that he was adapting the other entries of the web comics series into films too.
The first sequel, titled Kaleidoscothic II: A Stitch in Crime, was released in 2032 exactly five years after the original and was a box office success, but generally received mixed-positive reviews.
Television series[]
Reloaxa stated in an interview that he was in talks with Thirty-8 about making a TV series based on the films and then confirmed a few months later that it was in development, set for airing in 2031.
However, during production, Thirty-8 Animations had been brought by Disney, causing the series to be pushed back, then it was shelved and Reloaxa's since said it's been cancelled.
But a couple of years later, he said the series was back in production and it aired in 2037, to generally mixed reviews. Only 28 episodes were produced.