You'll Definitely Recognize Some Actors' Faces in 'Love, Death + Robots'

The medium of animation always deserves more credit, especially in a show like Love, Death + Robots. The anthology series showcases several vibrant short films with groundbreaking and refreshing visuals. Each short serves as a testament to what's possible with animation. From quirky cautionary tales about time travel to cyberpunk dystopian fight clubs, there's no shortage of creativity with these stories and how they're presented.

Some films aren't afraid to get downright trippy with their visual aesthetic in presenting dreamlike sequences of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. But many films try to make the animation look as life-like as possible. Certain films feature visuals that look so real that people have been asking if Love, Death + Robots is all animated. What we can tell you is that some films tend to take some interesting approaches to their presentation.

Love, Death + Robots is an animated anthology of short films on Netflix. Rather than telling a unified narrative, each film is its own unique story. The series reaches across horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and every genre in between. You could watch an entire season (or "Volume") in an hour or so to check out how different studios tackle different stories in vastly different ways.

Some films are animated with traditional 2D animation while others are presented with some hyper-stylized 3D visuals. Many films use photo-realistic 3D to tell intense and gritty narratives.

There's no one right way to tell a story in Love, Death + Robots. There's just an unspoken rule to use animation to let your creative vision run free. For all intents and purposes, the series is mostly animated.

The series has even used actors' likenesses and voices to tell stories. In Volume 2, Michael B. Jordan stars in a short film called Life Hutch. Michael plays a space pilot who crash-lands on a craggy planet and finds himself trapped in an abandoned space station with a malfunctioning killer robot. His face is used for the character to supplement his voice work, but the film is still portrayed using animation.

Animation is used in every single short film in Love, Death + Robots. However, one film, in particular, plays a little loose with the assignment. Volume 1 of the anthology includes a short film called Ice Age. It tells the story of a couple who finds an antique refrigerator in their new apartment. Inside the freezer, they discover a whole universe that evolves and modernizes in a matter of hours. They find themselves casually keeping track of the civilizations inside.

This film uses a unique blend of live-action and animated sequences. The couple, portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Topher Grace, are captured on camera in live action. All of the sequences inside the freezer are animated. While not an exception to the series' mission statement, it is thus far the only film to take such a unique approach to using animation.

Volume 3 of Love, Death + Robots is currently streaming on Netflix.