Director: Yoshiyuki Momose Studio: Studio Ponoc Genre(s): Drama Rated: PG (For scary images, peril, thematic elements and some violence) |
It seems like animation this year is determined to examine the human psyche at the movies. First, we got Pixar's "Inside Out 2," in which the brilliant Emeryville animators visualized what uncontrolled anxiety can look like inside your head. Now Studio Ponoc is looking at what happens to the imaginary friends we as adults forget. Granted, maybe I'm not the best person to be having this discussion with; I genuinely have no recollection of ever having an imaginary friend, as I spent most of my childhood days with my miniature schnauzer Schultz. Still, as kids play with toys, eventually we grow up and move on to other things.
What happens to those imaginary friends though? Do they simply disappear, like a form of creator's death? "The Imaginary" follows a young girl named Amanda and her imaginary friend Rudger, who spend their days playing with each other as Amanda uses her imagination to bring them on adventures. And Amanda has quite the imagination: she can find a way to go on a sledding adventure all while trying to avoid a giant monsters chasing them because he wants to use them as ornaments on his Christmas tree.
Maybe sequences like these primarily exist to show that the studio (which was formed by es-animators and producers from Studio Ghibli) can create visually imaginative worlds and sequences without the help of Hayao Miyazaki, but they are as engaging as anything Ghibli can create, so I'll let it slide. Besides, it's wonderful to enjoy the film for all the beauty that animators can create before it delivers on its sobering reality, in which Amanda is involved in a car accident that threatens to change her life forever.
P.S. I saw "The Imaginary" in a movie theater, where the visuals popped out and overwhelmed me by their sheer beauty. Sadly, the film is being distributed by Netflix, and since they hate people having great movie experiences, most will be watching it on their TV screen. Thankfully, the film is great enough that a small-screen experience is also good, but a big-screen experience is transformative. It's a shame most people won't experience it this way.
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