Warner Bros Home Entertainment, out now digital, Blu-ray and DVD.

Siblings Barbra and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania when they are suddenly set upon by zombies. Barbra flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with a stranded motorist.

George A Romero’s classic 1968 horror classic returns as a new, animated colour movie, but in the wake of many other remakes that have taken advantage it being in the public domain, the question is what new does it bring to the table?

From Tom Savini’s excellent, gory remake in 1990 to the execrable 2012 Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation, to the poor CGI animation of 2015’s Darkest Dawn, the Romero original wasn’t crying out for another outing. So, what’s new about director Jason Axinn’s (To Your Last Death) new animation, which is based on the original script by George A Romero and John Russo?

At 68 minutes (6 of which are end titles) it’s nearly half an hour shorter than the already lean original, and is in colour. Characters are styled on the originals and are animated in a basic style that’s reminiscent of the Doctor Who animations of lost episodes. They are voiced by familiar genre names like Josh Duhamel (Jupiter’s Legacy), Katherine Isabelle (Hannibal), Katee Sackhoff (The Mandalorian) and Jimmi Simpson (Westworld), but even with all this new talent, I’m struggling to recommend this truncated new version over the original.

Warner’s physical release (an HMV exclusive in the UK) includes a nine-minute documentary on the making of the movie, speaking to the creatives and featuring scenes of the actors recording their dialogue.

Verdict: ‘We wanted to show how powerful the movie is by remaking it in colour and animated,’ explains director Jason Axinn. Lack of colour and animation didn’t stop the original from becoming a classic, and if anything, adding them now detracts from the experience. 6/10

Nick Joy