AMERICA THE MOTION PICTURE

AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE is an ultraviolent animated satire on Netflix about George Washington coming to his own as the leader of a new nation as he avenges the murder of his best friend, Abe Lincoln, and establishes America, with the help of Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Thomas Edison, Geronimo, and an African American blacksmith. AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE moves at a steady pace and has some fairly funny moments and some Christian, moral, patriotic, and pro-capitalist content, especially at the end, but they’re outweighed by the movie’s constant foul language, raunchy content, extreme violence, and strong satirical, irreverent politically correct attacks on America and the Founding Fathers.

The movie opens with most of the founding fathers playing beer pong to decide if “we the people” or “us rich white guys” will be used in the Declaration of Independence founding documents. Thomas Jefferson wants to use “Us rich white guys,” but he’s outvoted. Just as they sign Declaration, the British arrive, led by benedict Arnold, and brutally slaughter all the Founding Fathers present.

Cut to Washington spending time with Abe. The two are clearly great friends, though the movie hints at a homosexual relationship between them. Washington walks, talks and looks like an exaggerated frat bro jock, whereas Abe is presented in a way that’s more true to his legendary moniker “Honest Abe.” The two are attending the play OUR AMERICAN COUSIN VINNY at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. While they’re watching the Red, White, Blue Man Group perform, Benedict Arnold enters, turns into a werewolf and murders Abe Lincoln, leaving behind a grieving Washington. Bleeding profusely, a mortally wounded Abe makes George Washington promise to continue Abe’s dream of revolution and found a new nation called America.

George runs after Arnold’s carriage and tries to avenge Abe. After a bloody fight, Arnold escapes, and Washington goes to bed with his future wife, Martha, After fornicating, Martha urges George he needs a team to help him defeat the British. He recruits a list of characters with names known to anyone who remembers grade school civics class. While none of the characters approximate what we know about the real-life people they’re named after, perhaps the most shocking contrast comes when George recruits the famous “wizard” and “sorcerer,” Thomas Edison who, for some reason, is depicted as a short-haired Chinese woman. When they first meet, the British are trying to burn her at the stake for witchcraft, but the “witchcraft” is actually “science-craft.” Also, the charges against her are the scientific method of “creating a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, and drawing conclusions that refine that hypothesis.”

George’s efforts to assemble a team lead him to find a horseman at a horse race in a scene that’s a satire of the street racing in the FAST AND FURIOUS movie franchise. While there are funny moments peppered throughout the movie, this scene is the only point in the movie where an entire scene is rather funny, as opposed to just a joke or punchline within the scene. While most of these references may go over the heads of viewers who aren’t familiar with the FAST AND FURIOUS franchise, fans of the franchise will enjoy it.

Once George gets his team together, they begin their mission to take down the British. There are twists, turns and jokes aplenty as the story unfolds. When the British kidnap Washington’s wife, and Benedict Arnold reveals his plan for world domination, Washington must find a way to stop them once and for all.

AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE has some fairly funny jokes. For example, there are the jokes about Thomas Edison, and dialogue where the American colonists repeatedly call the British “the fun police.” Also, the movie’s pacing is steady throughout the whole running time. However, although the movie’s ending restores some patriotic sentiments to the story, the beginning will make every patriotic citizen who loves America want to turn off his screen in the first five minutes. Furthermore, despite patriotic sentiments supporting freedom at the end, which includes a clever use of the Lynard Skynard rock anthem “Free Bird,” the movie shows the Americans begin the new country by attacking one another and fighting over slavery, women’s rights, land taken from American Indians, and the like. There’s also a homosexual man wants to know about getting comprehensive healthcare.

The positive content in AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE promotes friendship, perseverance, consistency, sacrifice, freedom, and unborn life. For example, George Washington wants to become a father, and Martha Washington encourages George not to give up. Also, in several scenes, George quotes some general moral or political lesson, then says “John 3:16.” He also prays to God and says, “In God, I trust.” Finally, a Christian Cross leads him in the right direction in one scene.

However, the positive content in AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE is heavily marred by nearly constant foul language, lots of crude sexual innuendoes, multiple homosexual references, extreme bloody violence, a celebration of drinking beer, and a cocaine reference. Also, the movie’s frequent crude content contains strong politically correct, racist, pro-homosexual content that mocks some American traditions and the Founding Fathers. For example, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln seem to have homosexual feelings for one another, and it’s implied that Sam Adams and his drunken male friends engage in homosexual acts when they’re together. Finally, despite the movie’s brief Christian content, the British forces call King James “our Lord and Savior” two or three times. This joke is clearly meant to mock the King James Bible, which is one of the greatest cultural and literary achievements in English history. Also, when a homosexual man says he wants to marry his boyfriend, a stern old woman smacks him with a Bible and says, “Sinner!” The filmmakers clearly think all the negative satire is funny and not to be taken too seriously. Ultimately, however, the obscene, politically correct and raunchy content in AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE is abhorrent and unacceptable.