Paprika (2006)

There’s no way to write a review here.

Satoshi Kon blows it out of the water. A singularly awesome film. Every background, scene, character, and frame is a genuine work of art. It’s a labor of love — a love of film, art, science, and storytelling.

It took me three seperate viewings over the course of eight years to really “get” Paprika all the way down to the roots. I ain’t saying anyone who didn’t understand and/or enjoy it is “stupid”.

I’m just saying if you love movies and you didn’t absolutely fall in love with Paprika (as a film, by its own rights, not just “pretty good for an animated flick”) you might’ve been me, four years ago, barely an adult, when I thought nothing could feasibly top Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Those films are comparable and also incomparable.
2D animation will always be able to do something more than even the best CG will accomplish. Where advanced CG strives to mimic the world we experience with our bodies, 2D animation (especially the exemplary Paprika) fully embraces the nature of our wildest imagination. Crazy dreams that feel so real until we try to explain them to our friends and realize the whole thing was going backwards and “how didn’t I realize I was dreaming?”
Well, because the plot really didn’t call for it.