Animated films that aren’t made for children have never done it for me. They often come off as one that should have been live action, and often never fully deliver. That’s why I was worried going into Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, a film that was shot and later turned into an animated one in post production. However while watching it, you see that the animation serves a distinct purpose and the film would not be quite the same without.
Waking Life is about a nameless character going through his dreams discussing with other characters about their life experience, philosophy on life and dreams, and more. We constantly ponder if the character is dreaming or waiting for their passage into heaven.
Waking life is a film that is unlike anything else. There is no distinct plot, but rather a story, several of them. All have different characters explaining their interpretation of life and dreaming. It’s animated in order to give the film more of a dreamlike state, and so the characters and environment can react to what is going on in a way that live action cinema couldn’t. It is a film that will make you want to dream, not about anything, but just go trough the process of it and apply what these characters have told you about dreams. We can see what are dreams mean about us, and why they are important. Or maybe everything I’m saying is wrong and you hate it your first watch and never want to see it again. Either way I highly recommend you watch this film. Thanks for reading and make sure to come back next week for another installation of Jackson’s obscure film of the week.
