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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
    Waking Life (Rental)
    20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox . R4 . COLOR . 97 mins . M15+ . PAL

      Feature
    Contract

    Only every so often a film comes along that defiantly kicks, screams, stomps its feet, jumps up and down then petulantly and steadfastly refuses to be easily plopped into any existing category. With an introduction like that, needless to say Waking Life, the latest creation from director Richard Dazed and Confused Slacker Linklater, is just such an obstreperous entity.

    Starting off with the key phrase “dream is destiny”, basically Waking Life is an exploration into the world of dreams, delivered in an often almost overwhelming stream of consciousness style via a series of sometimes loosely connected, other times not, vignettes which flow from one to another. All of these fall within the orbit of a seeming weirdo-magnet who we shall call “some young guy” - for he is never actually introduced to us in any way - who’s played by Linklater fave Wiley Wiggins. Running the gamut from the absurd such as boat cars and monkeys with projectors, to the extreme such as self incineration and pole climbing pensioners to going full on pseud on our arses with deep and meaningfuls on theology, philosophy, evolution, quantum physics and most anything else people that question existence rather than just hitching along on its coattails ruminate upon (or, some may argue, complete wankers often prattle on about thinking they sound all way cool and intellectual and stuff), we’re led through an intriguing world where you’re never quite sure what’s reality and what’s illusion – or what’s possibly a mixture of both.

    "Super perfundo on the early eve of your day.”

    Now, if all of this isn’t confronting/challenging/inspiring/confusing enough (pick an adjective, any adjective), the way Waking Life is delivered to us is what truly pushes it into another sphere of imagination altogether. Originally shot on simple, consumer-grade Sony Handycams, the film was subsequently edited to final stage then handed over to a team of 21 animators, who proceeded to basically paint over the top of all the action in each of their own individual, stylised ways. These range from fluid approaches based closely on the original footage, to further leaps into the bizarre as people morph into representations of their speech or feelings, smiley badges jitterbug about lapels and little things for those who look outside the main focus of the vision dance about almost as if to be some sort of titillating reward for outside of the square vigilance.

    The result is at times truly phenomenal, at others truly stomach-churning. Lars Von Trier and his cronies look positively steady-handed compared to the vision on offer here, which delivers us a kind of intense, visual overload jellylike wobble world. This latter effect comes down to a feature in the rotoscoping software developed for and used in the film’s creation, which basically allows various parts or planes of the image to be stored and moved about as separate objects, so many animators have utilised this to add a further unsettling, other worldly feeling to their scenes.

    The cast hidden beneath the layers of digital paint mostly consists of unknowns, non-actors or people who will be familiar to fans of Linklater’s previous works. A few famous names crop up – Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Steven Soderbergh, even Richard himself - however it’s pretty safe to say that anybody entering into this for a touch of star-spotting isn’t exactly grasping the point of the whole thing. Mind you, who knows what the point of the thing is anyway? Or if indeed there is one at all. Still, we do at least learn the significance of light switches...

      Video
      Audio
      Extras
    Contract

    With all this rather challenging vision bouncing about the screen, you could be forgiven for thinking that some of those problems that usually hit vast expanses of solid colour could be inherent in this transfer. Good news, however, is that things here escape virtually without any problems. The main issue that will have many reaching for the antacid is the juddery nature of most of the pans in the film, some are extremely jerky and it’s hard to determine whether this is just simplicity of animation or a problem resulting from NTSC conversion. Otherwise there are the odd small examples of shimmer and aliasing, however the only example of pixelisation comes early on, and it’s a completely intentional artistic decision. Elsewhere there is nothing but good things to be said for this 16x9 enhanced, 1.85:1 transfer, especially as it is confined to a single layered disc. The generally earthy colour palette is presented extremely well, detail is superb and shadow detail isn’t particularly relevant, as it’s all a bright (visually at least) cartoon world.

    Audio comes in a choice of Dolby Digital 5.1, or nothing else. With the full-on talk talk talk nature of Waking Life there isn’t a lot of opportunity, or indeed necessity, for over the top surround use, and it is in fact restricted to a bit of fleshing out of environmental sounds and the soundtrack, and not much else. There are a couple of occasions where the subwoofwoof gets to have a bit of a say in things, but they are few and far between. As this is basically a film that’s been painted over, synch is more of an issue than with most animation, however pleasingly there are no problems to report, although some leeway must be given for certain stylistic flourishes.

    For some strange reason Fox have decided to release Waking Life in a vanilla as it comes rental version, an odd choice considering the arty nature of the flick – as sadly it would seem inevitable that the solitary copy the local Video Hut deigns to get in is hardly going to bolt off the shelves like some massive blockbuster. The region 1 release, which has been available for some time now, boasts a number of commentaries, documentaries and other goodies, and it can only be hoped that this version makes its way to our shores eventually, as this film is definitely the type that inspires curiosity as to what went into its creative process.

    Waking Life most certainly won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, and anybody going into it thinking, “Cool, it’s a cartoon – just like The Simpsons or South Park” has definitely taken a severely wrong turn at Albuquerque. Some will find much within to spend ages pondering upon or to stimulate discussion with others; some will just see it as a big pile of psychobabble garbage that simply does their heads in and no more. To be honest I think I’m about as deep as a Petri dish, yet I hovered somewhere between these two extremes at various places at various times – basically from “hmm, that’s an intriguing concept” to “fire bad, tree pretty”. One thing is certain though, no matter which way you look at it, Waking Life is a bona fide head bonk.


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  •   And I quote...
    "No matter which way you look at it, Waking Life is a bona fide head bonk..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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