Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3233 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-02-24
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Animated, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Richard Linklater goes off-kilter with his sixth film, Waking Life. Without a linear plot line, stable images and offering the kind of conversations you normally only find in a University seminar, it's clear that Linklater--despite his commercial success with independent films--is determined not move into the mainstream. By taking Wiley Wiggins away from his Dazed and Confused life into a dream which has no structure, and flitting from one philosophical question to another, Linklater presents a filmic discussion into the nature of physical awareness, consciousness and unconsciousness that most surrealist artists would be proud of. However, Linklater goes one step further and removes all notions of the real world by filming the actors then transferring them into animation, employing 31 artists to input their vision onto the film.

The result is a startlingly honest portrayal of the confusion we all face about the difference between life and death, dreaming and awareness, and the unknown as a whole. All the characters Wiggins meets seem to have their own thesis on the unknown, just as in life we are all aware or feel differently about our own self. In addition there are discussions regarding film as a dream-like form, with theorists aligning the sensation of watching a film to that of dreaming, taking your own consciousness into the lives of others. This is what makes Waking Life such a brave and well-structured film. By breaking down the barriers of narrative and reality, Linklater has probably made one of the most realistic films in recent history.

On the DVD: Waking Life transfers well onto to DVD but disappointingly has no extra features. With just a language selection, scene selection and play all section the only real added advantage of the DVD format is the ability to play back the dream sequences to allow for greater understanding, something impossible to do in the "waking life". --Nikki Disney

DVD Description
Sound Quality: English 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles: English for the Hearing Impaired
Aspect Ratio: 16 x 9 1.85

Synopsis
Director Richard Linklater presents this computer-animated, dreamlike, meandering film about a college-age man (Wiley Wiggins) who floats in and out of a series of philosophical discussions and ethereal experiences, meeting an interesting cast of characters along the way. Each character that Wiley meets engages him in an existential discussion. Wiley listens, observes, and occasionally responds. Then he glumly shuffles off to his next encounter. At times, he wakes up in his bed and rubs his eyes, appearing to start a new day. But eventually viewers learn that Wiley is dreaming throughout the film, and is trying to learn to control his dreams--and accomplish lucid dreaming, or simply wake up.
Visually, WAKING LIFE is nothing short of fantastic. Linklater stays true to his indie style--jerky camera, drifting gaze, and steady head shots that allow non-actors to talk straight into the camera. To achieve the floating feeling of the dream sequences, he first tried taking aerial shots from a helicopter, then opted for the smoother effect of a hot air balloon. He shot the film on digital video, edited it, then called on 30 animators to finish it. The characters in the film move and gesticulate like live action, but they are animated with odd color schemes and surreal lines that make them cartoony caricatures. WAKING LIFE is a superb work that should be applauded for its atmospheric elements (lovely images of New York and Austin), its amusing bohemian dialogues, and its unique animation.

Customer Reviews

Too irritatingly difficult to take in
To be honest I found the whole film rather pretentious - its message wasn't very engaging. If you're going to make a film about philosophy at least use that medium to its full potential (some kind of plot and characterisation would have been nice!), otherwise write a book.
The rotoscoping technique created some sort of an atmosphere, at least, although I didn't find it quite as dissociating or effectively done as in 'A Scanner Darkly' (see it - it's much better).

Wake Up!
When I first saw this in the cinema, I thought: yes, it's visually appealling, yes it reminds me of discussions and lectures in my undergraduate years and yes I should like it, but I didn't really. I thought it was trying a bit too hard.

I was in fact missing the point. I watched it on DVD some years later on a hungover Saturday morning and I finally got it. I can only describe it like looking at the stars one night and thinking "oh look there are the stars" and then looking at them again another night and realising, those aren't just stars, that's the entire universe!

Linklater has a message in this film and it's subtle and very, very deep. It bravely tackles the huge questions; the ones that scientists are scared of and only philosophers and theologians properly engage with. And he suggests answers that are beautiful and positive (1. "Yes", 2 "Wake Up!"). Don't try to intellectualise while watching this film, it's about love and life and eternity.

I feel recharged every time I watch this film.

not quite as clever as it wants to be, but clever all the same
If nothing else, I'm sure that you'll never have seen a film quite like Waking Life before. Whether or not you'll *want* to watch another film like it is another matter; but never mind, at least it scores high on originality. It's a series of disconnected philosophical discussions between animated characters, none of whom seem able to decide whether or not they are living in a dream. Some are happy about this, others less so; some are simply looking to take whatever they can get from the experience of 'lucid dreaming'. The structure of the film is supposed to mirror the surreal, disconnected experience of dreamtime. There is no narrative to hold things together, and not really anything in the way of coherent characterisation. You just have to do the best you can to hang on to the dialogue as it whizzes past on its way to obscurity, and console yourself by enjoying the highly imaginative visual aspect of the film.

The animation is very clever indeed and superbly executed. The artwork is superimposed on top of real film footage -- I believe the technique is called 'rotoscoping'. The fact that it's animated means, of course, that visually there's a far freer rein to slip into 'surreal' mode -- but always there's the underpinning of the real-life film footage underneath it. So it's an interesting blend and it blurs reality in a way that fits very well with the general idea in the film that you can never quite know what reality is, whether or not you're awake, whether or not you even exist.

As far as the philosophy goes, I must say, there's not much here that would trouble anyone who's taken a few introductory evening classes in the subject. It's the kind of stuff teenagers come out with when they get high for the first time and start thinking they're a genius. There's a fair bit of guff about 'true creativity', 'infinite possibilities', 'reaching our real potential', and so forth; a lot of it sounds closer to a Sunday supplement lifestyle pullout than anything out of a philosophy seminar. Still, though, it got my mind working a little, and I'm always happy to watch a film that can do that.

I think of this film as a kind of 'prelude' to Linklater's recent A Scanner Darkly, another animated movie that also deals with similar 'reality / unreality' issues, but does so in a rather more engaging way in the form of a proper story with more well-rounded, believable characters. I give Waking Life four out of five for being a film that tries something different, and manages it quite well, even though it comes out looking a bit pretentious at times. No extra features whatsoever on the DVD means another star gets knocked off, so only 3 out of 5 in the end. Still worth a look, though.