Written, directed and voiced by Lena Greene, co-written by Alessandra Clark, Los Angeles, 3036 A.D. Humans are on the verge of extinction, and the world is now run by…trash. Tuna Tartare is a bombastic can of tuna fish who runs Throats Karaoke Bar with her BFF Susan, a fake Louis Vuitton purse with crippling anxiety. Also voiced by: Ryan Bush, Joe Castle Baker, Lesli Margherita and Ruby McCollister.
There’s something inherently satisfying about animated short films that go all in on bombarding your senses with colour and Tuna Tartare is a great example. Its vivaciously neon, which is both incredibly enjoyable to watch and extremely fitting for its outrageous leading character. A quality which is already plenty charming but becomes even more so with how Lena Greene employs a variety of different animation styles. The way that they all seamlessly blend into one another, with an intentionally messy, hectic personality is a lot of fun.
The writing from Greene and Alessandra Clark is fast and furious, it’s funny and absolutely relentless. It’s also got some great messages mixed into its humour, particularly the obvious one of denoting how so much of humanity is trash, so true, but also a lovely one about not letting other people define you or how you feel about your passions and talents.
Within Tuna Tartare there’s a cornucopia of styles and tones, its beautifully queer and feels like you mixed drag with 1980s women’s wrestling, and made it via the Cartoon Network, supervised by Fran Drescher. That may sound like a lot, and it is, but in a fantastic way. Especially led by such a brilliant voice performance from writer, director Lena Greene. She creates a character who is truly bursting with energy and personality, she’s aggressively confident, a little bit quirky and comes across like you blended a drag queen with an instructor from an old-school workout VHS on cocaine.
Tuna Tartare is unapologetic, colourful, vibrant and fun. Lena Greene creates an unstoppable, exploding energy with both her directorial style and performance. The animation is terrific and the way it’s constantly moving through different styles is enthralling to watch. It’s queer, it’s loud, it’s entertaining but it’s also surprisingly sweet and thoughtful.
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