Raúl García's Animated Anthology 'Extraordinary Tales' Reimagines Edgar Allan Poe

Raúl García, a Spanish animator with a long career at Disney, created 'Extraordinary Tales', a 73-minute animated anthology completed in 2015 after nine years of work. The film adapts five Edgar Allan Poe stories: 'The Fall of the House of Usher', 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar', 'The Pit and the Pendulum', and 'The Masque of the Red Death'. Each segment employs a distinct visual style, drawing from influences such as Czech animator Jiří Trnka, painter Tamara de Lempicka, Egon Schiele, George Grosz, Alberto Breccia, EC Comics, Francisco Goya, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The framing device features a conversation between a raven (Poe's spirit) and Death in a paper cemetery. Narration is provided by Sir Christopher Lee for 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and Bela Lugosi (via a 1940s radio recording) for another segment. Vincent Price appears in an EC Comics-inspired segment, with narration by Roger Corman. García previously won a Goya Award for Best Animated Film in 2010 for 'The Missing Lynx', co-directed with Manuel Sicilia. His Disney credits include 'Aladdin', 'The Lion King', 'Pocahontas', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', 'Hercules', 'Tarzan', 'Fantasia 2000', and 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (as part of Richard Williams' team). The film is available on the American iTunes store.