It's so 80s it almost hurts, haha.

But that was a very enjoyable brickfilm - bright, colorful, and energetic. It's always fascinating to see brickfilms from the past and see how the medium has and hasn't evolved since then.

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Detective Dew is on the case!

As a side note, I'd like to point out that most of the text for today's Brickfilm of the Week was copied verbatim from the Brickfilms Wiki page on Zap, which was written by sillypenta. So all research credit goes to him!

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I never thought I would see a Brickfilm that could be accurately described as the Pyroland equivalent of Apocalypse Now, but I suppose it says something for the flexibility and creative potential of this medium that such a thing exists.  It does have a very 80s feel, although the sets and bright colours (and weirdness in general) hold up surprisingly well even today.

Interesting to note that while the actual animation is smooth, a lot of it looks rather repetitive, simplistic, even mechanical.  This being the early days of Brickfilming, it's not particularly surprising, given that such things as a codified walk cycle didn't exist, but the range of movement of the minifigs feels rather a bit limited in comparison to, say, The Magic Portal.  It's particularly noticeable at the beginning, where it looks like some of the animation might even have been looped.  Perhaps the film-makers didn't want to spend more time/money/film on animation than necessary (though one would expect the £3000 to cover these sort of expenses).  Not that this is necessarily a bad thing (it actually adds quite well to the overall feel of the film); but it's interesting to compare to other classic and modern Brickfilms.

Overall the quality and technical aspects still look very good, especially considering this was shot before digital frame capture/editing existed.  There's also a blend of live-action and animation that is particularly interesting to see, especially since it does not appear often in Brickfilming.  (I have to admit that I'm mildly disturbed to by all those brightly painted heads, though.)