Imagination (film)

Last updated
Imagination
Imagvanguardfinalfront.jpg
cover art for Imagination
Directed by Eric Leiser
Written byEric Leiser
Jeffrey Leiser
Produced by Jules Engel
Laura Leiser
Joseph Cahill
Robert Berry
StarringEd Gildersleeve
Jessi Haddad
Nikki Haddad
Courtney Sanford
CinematographyNathan Meier
animation: Eric Leiser
Edited byEric Leiser
Tyler Phillips
Music byJeffrey Leiser
Production
company
Albino Fawn Productions
Distributed byVanguard International Cinema
Release date
  • April 30, 2007 (2007-04-30)(Aarhus Festival of Independent Arts)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Imagination is a 2007 American avant-garde animated/live action film, and the first feature length project directed by Eric Leiser, about young twin sisters who have Asperger syndrome. [1] [2]

Contents

Production and release

The project was shot on locations in Prague, Czech Republic, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The film premiered on April 30, 2007 at the 2007 AFIA film festival in Aarhus, Denmark, and was released theatrically in the United States on July 6, 2007, and worldwide by Vanguard International Cinema on February 26, 2008. The DVD release contains extra footage that includes "Making Imagination", "Behind the animation", "Q&A with filmmakers", and "Isolated scenes", as well as special cuts of the soundtrack. [3] It was also featured at the International Animated Film Festival in Istanbul in December 2007. [4]

Synopsis

Redheaded twins Anna (Nikki Haddad) and Sarah (Jessi Haddad) Woodruff, roughly 10 or 11 years old, both have Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and Sarah is going blind. Child psychologist and researcher Dr. Reineger (Edmund Gildersleeve) tries to assure their parents (Courtney Sanford, Travis Poelle) that the kids are smart and "intricately involved in their own imagination". The children enter an institute to be studied, two family tragedies occur, and the girls escape the institution. Throughout much of the film, we see a magical, distorted world through their eyes.

Critical response

Frank Lovece of Film Journal International found this "sad and hypnotic tale" a film that "well evokes the trauma, abandonment fears and magical reality of childhood", and that the film "sweeps us through an array of gently bizarre beasties, times and places, such as a primordial forest where the white elms are covered with eyes. The most amazing sequence involves an earthquake evinced solely through shaky camera, sound effects, stop-motion dirt and rocks and rapid-fire cuts." [2]

Joe Leydon of Variety was less impressed, writing of the film that it was "[s]tylistically pretentious and narratively impenetrable", with "[p]erformances [that] are amateurish at best, and threadbare production values — best typified by a scene where an earthquake is indicated with nothing more than herky-jerky camera movements — recall such campy cheapies as Manos: The Hands of Fate ." He did grant that "its flashes of imaginative animation might be enough to tempt exceptionally hardy festgoers." [5]

Douglas Perry of The Oregonian found that the animated portions of the film had "buckets of ambition and, well, imagination; the surreal visuals are always interesting and at times pretty incredible. Eric Leiser's proficiency and flair in employing a variety of animation techniques is most impressive." Conversely, he found "the live-action scenes ... visually dull and amateurishly acted, weighed down by a ponderous, confusing plot concerning bizarre, quasi-spiritual visions". [6]

DVD Talk called it "a wonderful film to WATCH, allowing yourself to simply sit back and allow the images to wash over you. Leiser may lean toward early David Lynch, especially when it comes to mixing the beautiful with the disturbing, but there are also snippets of Ken Russell and Darren Aronofsky in his style and approach." The reviewer found the characters one-dimensional and forgettable, writing that, "[o]n the human side of things, Imagination is only decent'", but countered that "thanks to the outsized originality of the man behind the camera, this is one eclectic offering that stays with you long after it's over." [7]

DVD Verdict said, "The appropriately-titled Imagination is a fascinating watch. Leiser, who has an animation background, employs every animation style he knows throughout the film, creating one of the most visually rich movies of recent years." [8]

Courtney Ferguson of The Portland Mercury considered the musical score and the animation to be "one of the ... reasons to continue watching" and called ithem "interesting and surreal". She felt overall that "it's nearly impossible to get past [the film's] bad storyline and artsy drudgery". [9]

Partial cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Groening</span> American cartoonist (born 1954)

Matthew Abram Groening is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is best known as the creator of the television series The Simpsons (1989–present), Futurama, and Disenchantment (2018–2023), and the comic strip Life in Hell (1977–2012). The Simpsons is the longest-running American primetime television series in history and the longest-running American animated series and sitcom.

<i>Duck Amuck</i> 1953 animated short film by Chuck Jones

Duck Amuck is an American animated surreal comedy short film directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short was released on January 17, 1953, as part of the Merrie Melodies series, and stars Daffy Duck.

<i>Waking Life</i> 2001 American film

Waking Life is a 2001 American adult animated drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. The series of insightful philosophical discussions at the core of the film are progressed by a young man who wanders through a succession of dreamlike realities wherein he encounters a series of interesting characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Plympton</span> American illustrator, animator, and film director

Bill Plympton is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Award–nominated animated short Your Face and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting with 2004's Guard Dog.

<i>Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends</i> American animated television series

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is an American animated television series created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios as the network's first show animated primarily with Adobe Flash, which was done both by Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank and in Ireland by Boulder Media. Set in a world in which imaginary friends coexist with humans, the series centers on Mac, an eight-year-old boy who is pressured by his mother to abandon his imaginary friend Bloo. After the duo discover an orphanage dedicated to housing abandoned imaginary friends, Bloo moves into the home and is kept from adoption as long as Mac visits him every day. The episodes revolve around Mac and Bloo as they interact with other imaginary friends and house staff and live out their day-to-day adventures, often getting caught up in various predicaments.

<i>Rejected</i> 2000 film by Don Hertzfeldt

Rejected is an animated surrealist short comedy film directed by Don Hertzfeldt that was released in 2000. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the following year at the 73rd Academy Awards, and received 27 awards from film festivals around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Bickford (animator)</span> American animator (1947–2019)

Bruce Charles Bickford was an American artist, animator, and filmmaker, who worked primarily in line and clay animation. From 1974 to 1980, he collaborated with Frank Zappa in Los Angeles. Bickford's animation was featured extensively in the Frank Zappa videos Baby Snakes and The Dub Room Special. Zappa also released a video titled The Amazing Mr. Bickford, which was entirely composed of Bickford animations set to a soundtrack of Zappa's orchestral music.

<i>Arthur and the Minimoys</i> (film) 2006 film by Luc Besson

Arthur and the Minimoys is a 2006 English-language French live-action/animated fantasy film directed and co-written by French filmmaker Luc Besson. It is based on the first two books of the Arthur children's books series, Arthur and the Minimoys and Arthur and the Forbidden City, by Besson.

<i>Coraline</i> (film) 2009 film by Henry Selick

Coraline is a 2009 American gothic stop-motion animated dark fantasy horror film written for the screen and directed by Henry Selick, based on the 2002 novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman. Produced by Laika, as the studio's first feature film, it features the voices of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr., and Ian McShane. The film tells the story of its eponymous character discovering an idealized alternate universe behind a secret door in her new home, unaware that it contains something dark and sinister.

<i>Total Drama Island</i> Canadian animated comedy television series

Total Drama Island is the first season of Total Drama series, a Canadian animated television series created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch. The series premiered in Canada on Teletoon on July 8, 2007, and ran for 26 episodes, each 22 minutes in duration with a special 44-minute season finale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Leiser</span> American filmmaker and animator

Eric Leiser is an American, filmmaker, animator and holographer.

Rose Bond is a Canadian-born media artist, animator and professor who currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She has been considered a scholar on the subject of animation and an experienced animator herself. Bond's animations and short films have been shown at film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival. Bond is also known for her architectural animation installations. She shown work at Exeter Castle in 2010 and created a prototype animation for the Smithsonian. Bond's hand-painted films are held in the film collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vídeo Brinquedo</span> Brazilian animation studio

Vídeo Brinquedo is a Brazilian animation studio, located in São Paulo, known for producing animated films widely viewed as cheap mockbusters of comparable, more successful films from studios such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, 20th Century Animation and Blue Sky Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chel White</span> American film director

Chel White is an American film director, composer, screenwriter and visual effects artist. In his independent films and music videos, White is known for his stylized, often experimental use of images, unusual animation and narratives depicting an outsider's perspective. He often adopts darkly humorous and poetic sensibilities to explore topics of love, obsession and alienation; with dreams and the subconscious being his greatest influences. He describes his own work as “stories and images that reside on the brink of dreams, or linger on the periphery of distorted memories.” A Rockefeller Fellow, Chel White has made three films based on the work of Peabody Award-winning writer and radio personality Joe Frank.

<i>ParaNorman</i> 2012 stop-motion animated film

ParaNorman is a 2012 American animated comedy horror film directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, and written by Butler. Produced by Laika, the film stars the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jodelle Ferland, Bernard Hill, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, and John Goodman. It is the first stop-motion film to use a 3-D color printer to create character faces, and only the second to be shot in 3-D. In the film, Norman Babcock, a young boy who can communicate with ghosts, is given the task of ending a 300-year-old witch's curse on his Massachusetts town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Hertzfeldt</span> American animator

Don Hertzfeldt is an American animator, writer, and independent filmmaker. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee who is best known for the animated films It's Such a Beautiful Day, the World of Tomorrow series, ME, and Rejected. In 2014, his work appeared on The Simpsons. Eight of his short films have competed at the Sundance Film Festival, a festival record. He is also the only filmmaker to have won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Short Film twice.

<i>Marvel Animated Features</i> Direct to DVD series of animated films by MLG Productions

Marvel Animated Features (MAF) is a series of eight direct-to-video animated superhero films made by MLG Productions, a joint venture between Marvel Studios and Lions Gate Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angus MacLane</span> American animator (born 1975)

Angus MacLane is an American animator, filmmaker and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios. He co-directed the film Finding Dory (2016) and made his solo feature directorial debut with the Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear (2022). MacLane is also a Lego enthusiast and created the CubeDudes building format and designed a LEGO WALL-E that has become an official set from The Lego Group.

<i>Its Such a Beautiful Day</i> (film) 2012 animated feature film directed by Don Hertzfeldt

It's Such a Beautiful Day is a 2012 American experimental adult animated comedy-drama film directed, written, animated, photographed, produced and narrated by Don Hertzfeldt.

References

  1. ↑ Amid (July 4, 2007). "Imagination". Cartoon Brew . Archived from the original on January 16, 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  2. 1 2 Lovece, Frank. "Imagination". Film Journal International . Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Imagination DVD". All Movie Guide . Retrieved September 4, 2010.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. ↑ "Animation film festival offers nearly 300 films". Today's Zaman (in Turkish). December 6, 2007.[ dead link ]
  5. ↑ Leydon, Joe (October 24, 2007). "Imagination". Variety . Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  6. ↑ Perry, Douglas (February 28, 2008). "Movie Reviews: "Note by Note," "Delirious," "Living in Oblivion" and "Imagination"". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 30, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  7. ↑ Gibron, Bill (February 26, 2008). "DVD review: Imagination". DVD Talk . Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  8. ↑ McEntire, Mac (May 9, 2008). "DVD review: Imagination". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  9. ↑ Ferguson, Courtney (February 28, 2008). "Film Shorts". The Portland Mercury . Portland, Oregon. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.