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Imagination (film)
Encyclopedia
Imagination is a 2007
American
avante garde animated/live action
film
, and the first feature length
project directed by Eric Leiser
, about young twin sisters who are suffering from Asperger syndrome
.
, 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. It was also featured at the International Animated Film Festival
in Istanbul
in December 2007.
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."
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."
Douglas Perry of The Oregonian
in speaking toward the animation work of the film wrote "Eric and Jeffrey Leiser's semi-animated film has 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." But Perry was less impressed with the live action sequences, offering "the live-action scenes in Imagination are visually dull and amateurishly acted, weighed down by a ponderous, confusing plot concerning bizarre, quasi-spiritual visions".
DVD Talk
praised the film because of how the subject matter was handled by the director, writing "[t]his is 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 makes note that the characters play out one-dimensionally, and are thus forgettable, writing "[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."
DVD Verdict
praised the film and made special note of its animation sequences when writing "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."
Courtney Ferguson of The Hollywood Reporter
considered the musical score and the animation to be "one of the...reasons to continue watching" and "interesting and surreal". However, she felt overall that "it's nearly impossible to get past Imagination's bad storyline and artsy drudgery".
2007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
avante garde animated/live action
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, and the first feature length
Feature length
Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...
project directed by Eric Leiser
Eric Leiser
Eric Leiser is a Christian filmmaker and animator who also creates holographic art.Born in California, Leiser earned a bachelor's degree in animation at the California Institute of the Arts while developing the stop-motion series Twilight Park. During its conception, Leiser worked props on...
, about young twin sisters who are suffering from Asperger syndrome
Asperger syndrome
Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
.
Production and release
The project was shot on locations in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
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
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
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. It was also featured at the International Animated Film Festival
Istanbul International Film Festival
The Istanbul International Film Festival is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts , a non-profit organisation. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Turkey...
in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in December 2007.
Synopsis
Redheaded twins Anna (Nikki Haddad) and Sarah (Jessi Haddad) Woodruff, roughly 10 or 11 years old, suffer from Asperger's, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sarah, as well, 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 LoveceFrank Lovece
Frank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996....
of Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
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."
Joe Leydon
Joe Leydon
Joseph Patrick Michael "Joe" Leydon is an American film critic and historian. A critic and correspondent for Variety and a contributing writer for MovieMaker Magazine, he is the author of Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See and a contributing critic for Leonard Maltin's Movie...
of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
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
Manos: The Hands of Fate
Manos: The Hands of Fate is an American horror film written, directed, produced by, and starring Harold P. Warren. It is widely recognized to be one of the worst films ever made...
." He did grant that "its flashes of imaginative animation might be enough to tempt exceptionally hardy festgoers."
Douglas Perry of The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
in speaking toward the animation work of the film wrote "Eric and Jeffrey Leiser's semi-animated film has 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." But Perry was less impressed with the live action sequences, offering "the live-action scenes in Imagination are visually dull and amateurishly acted, weighed down by a ponderous, confusing plot concerning bizarre, quasi-spiritual visions".
DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
praised the film because of how the subject matter was handled by the director, writing "[t]his is 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
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
, especially when it comes to mixing the beautiful with the disturbing, but there are also snippets of Ken Russell
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
and Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
in his style and approach." The reviewer makes note that the characters play out one-dimensionally, and are thus forgettable, writing "[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."
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict is a judicial themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. Current editor in chief is Michael Stailey, who also reviews for Rotten Tomatoes...
praised the film and made special note of its animation sequences when writing "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."
Courtney Ferguson of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
considered the musical score and the animation to be "one of the...reasons to continue watching" and "interesting and surreal". However, she felt overall that "it's nearly impossible to get past Imagination's bad storyline and artsy drudgery".
Partial cast
- Ed K. Gildersleeve as Dr. Reineger
- Nikki Haddad as Anna Woodruff
- Jessi Haddad as Sarah Woodruff
- Courtney Sanford as Janice Woodruff
- Travis Poelle as Roland Woodruff
- Anthony Caraday as Young Doctor Reineger
- Bob Gerlach as Pastor Bob
- Kevin Le as Kevin
- John Le as John