Gateway horror is essential and the new animated film Night Of The Zoopocalypse is a prime example of this niche piece of developmental entertainment. We all remember the first time we saw a movie that scared us a little, but yet, we liked it. For me it was the moment Laurie Strode was fumbling for the keys to the house as Michael Myers slowly pursued her.For others it might be Princess Mombi and her many heads. Here directors Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro harness the narrative soul from a story by Clive Barker, playfully adapted by writers Steven Hoban and James Kee, to frame a classic zombie movie within the confines of a kids movie. Night Of The Zoopocalypse is a painfully charming distillation of the themes in movies like Night of the Living Dead or anything that it inspired.

Gracie (Gabbi Kosmidis) is a wolf living in the safekeeping of Cullpepper Zoo. A combo zoo and family amusement park, this idyllic play land adheres to a strict operating schedule complete with a theme song that plays at closing to usher humans guests out through the gates. Late one night, Gracie witnesses a meteorite as it disintegrates into a rock landing in magenta glow within the zoo somewhere in the petting zoo. This otherworldly meteorite transforms the cute and fuzzy animals there into ooey-gooey monsters with glowing eyes. In the fray Gracie tangles with the cantankerous mountain lion Dan (David Harbour) and the two are captured by zookeepers before the place closes up for the night.

Gracie and Dan wake up in cages inside the zookeepers office. Here they meet Xavier (Pierre Simpson) Lemur who hapenns to be a well versed movie buff. Soon the entire zoo is overrun by slimy, gelatinous versions of the previous collection of fuzzy animals. Gracie and Dan must overcome their natural carnivorous inclinations to find a way out of the zoo to safety. Along the way the encounter Felix  the proboscis monkey (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), Ash the ostrich (Scott Thompson), and Frida the capybara (Heather Loreto). Against an increasing army of slimy, glowing, infected zoo animals, this group of survivors must learn the value of overcoming differences and work together as a group to survive.

We’ve seen the exploration of these themes before. We have even seen the attempt at carefully introducing horror concepts to a younger audience. But something about this is a little more nuanced. Hoban and Kee craft a zippy little script that is lousy with classic horror movie references and convention. So much so that Simpson‘s Xavier is used as a harbinger of doom with his extensive knowledge of cinema. The trick here is that they put the story and the stakes first, then they temper it with wild colors by art director Kevin R. Adams and fart jokes. The characters and they story come first.

This isn’t a revelation of cinematic genius, but it’s good talent getting the formula right in order to introduce the safe fun of the horror genre to a new audience. I really enjoyed the zany horror in Night Of The Zoopocalypse. It’s a gentler introduction than we ever had.