Cryptozoo

Cryptozoo (2021) is Dash Shaw's adult hand-drawn animated film, ready to watch online on iFILM. As a child, Lauren was rescued from her nightmares by a baku, the mythical eater of dreams. Grown up, she hunts cryptids and shelters them inside a hidden sanctuary.

The dream is audacious: build a park where unicorns, gorgons and other creatures of legend can live protected and out in the open. Then a stray couple wanders past the fence, and the utopia starts to crack. Lake Bell and Michael Cera lead the voice cast, while the hand-painted animation plays like a psychedelic seventies postcard come to life — acid colors, loose lines, nothing slick or computer-smooth. Shaw keeps arguing with himself: does saving rare beings really mean caging them?

The film made a splash at Sundance and took its animation prize — this is art house, not a family matinee, with scenes of violence and nudity. For anyone tired of polished studio cartoons and hungry for strange, authored fantasy, it will absolutely land. Stream Cryptozoo (2021) online on iFILM.