Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4708 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

A brave new step for animation`
Who says animation should just be for kids? Well, according to recent evidence, not many people actually do. There have been animated adult movies for a while (and I ain't talking Fritz The Cat), but none of them really made a huge impact. So when, exactly, did animation for adults and children take-off, big time?

Anime has been around for a while, but only really has a cult following. Arguably, it was with The Simpsons that animators realised that animation could be for adults and children too. Then came South Park and Beavis & Butthead, two teenage animated series that spun off decent movies. Disney incorporated more mature jokes into Aladdin and Toy Story, and Dreamworks did the same with Antz and Shrek.

And now comes an animated film mainly for adults; one that does not play for gags; and one that not only transcends the animated label, but transcends film itself.

Richard Linklater's Waking Life was first filmed, on a pretty tight budget, with regular digital cameras, and then injected with animation via computers before being transferred to film. This gives the animators the ability to add real movement and detail to the movie. I felt, in fact, that although this does not look realistic in the way that, say, Toy Story 2 looked realistic, it is probably the most REAL animated film I have ever seen. By making the film animated it gave it a unique feel and also gave the filmmakers the ability to play with special effects without spending millions (for instance the main character flying, which he does a few times).

The main character in question is played by Wiley Wiggins, whom you may recognise from Linklater's Dazed And Confused. He remains nameless, and the film follows him on what may or may not be a lucid dream (a dream that can be controlled, for those of you who did not see Vanilla Sky), listening to and making conversations with a host of interesting characters. These are the same people that you pass every time you go anywhere; the same ones you will never see again or learn anything about. So why don't we talk to people like that? Why don't we learn their opinions and theories? Wouldn't that make humans fill their full potential, rather than just mumbling about the weather and how late the buses are? Waking Life puts this down to one of two things: either fear or laziness.

We never learn which parts of this are real and which are in the head of the nameless dreamer. Perhaps he is, as Ethan Hawke brings up in his scene, dying and the whole film is set in the few minutes between when his body dies and when his mind dies. Remember a "second of dream consciousness is infinitely longer than a waking second". Maybe this is all in his head after he is hit, near the start of the film, by a car and he has slipped into a coma. Or maybe the whole film is a dream.

It was in the same moment that I realised that it did not matter whether he is dreaming or not that another question popped into my mind: what really is the difference between dreams and reality? The Matrix touched upon this subject and I wish it went deeper into it. Often in dreams you do something irrational or something inexplicable happens which leads you to think "hey, am I dreaming?" But how often do you think that when you are actually awake?

The film plays like a dream, yes, but no more like a dream than any movie. Dreams and movies are similar, they are both escapism and in both cases we are looking on at something that is not actually happening. As an audience we are staring at a white screen with light shone onto it in such a way images are formed. When we dream we are lying asleep, with our eyes closed, yet images form in our heads.

The movie, though, is about much more than merely dreams. It is about everything Richard Linklater thought about as he wrote the screenplay. It is like sitting down next to a stranger at a bus stop and, instead of discussing how late the buses are, discussing the meaning of life. Not rushing so as you can cover everything, just moving, as conversations do, from one subject to another and taking time on the things that are interesting. Not all of the people in the movie agree entirely (which is to say, they do not exactly disagree) but they care about everyone else's opinions.

Some may call the movie pretentious. Maybe so, you could say the same about 2001: A Space Odyssey or Apocalypse Now. To call the movie "quirky" would probably be a bigger insult to Linklater, as it not only tells nothing about the movie, but it labels it when it really should not be labelled at all.

I found myself actually thinking in a different way about things as I left the cinema after seeing this movie (or perhaps "experiencing" would be a better word), and that is about the highest praise I can give a movie. The film would throw a point at me that would start me down a train of thought, and before I knew it I had missed a few minutes - I wanted to watch parts again, and I am sure I will. I feel this movie has a genuinely mind-expanding effect, and it will make you talk, think and, in some cases, change. The cinema screen becomes a window to a world that may have immediately appeared different to our world, but on closer inspection resembled ours in greater detail than many live feature films do. I walked out of the cinema feeling both refreshed and intrigued, thinking about things that had never crossed my mind before. This reminded me why I love the movies.

pop-philosophy with outstandingly original animation
Less like watching a film, and more like eavesdropping on a selection of philosophical conversations, Waking Life is a mind-blowing piece of pop-art cartooning, both provocative and inspirational. In this groundbreaking film, Linklater plays with the notions of dreaming, conceptually and visually, in what becomes a form of lucid dream (where the dreamer knows they are dreaming and are thus able to control some aspects of the dream without waking from it). Using new animation styles to reflect this, he has crafted something unique in both content and style.

The central character is a teenage boy [Wiley Wiggins] who is never named. We see him meandering aimlessly through a dream he is unable to wake up from, meeting a series of characters who engage him in amateur philosophical discussion, or simply rant in frantic, and occassionally profound, monlogues. He is often very detatched from the proceedings, seeming as much an observer as the audience themselves.

While playing with deep concepts, the film itself remains vibrantly alive, partly through the bright animation palette, but also through its quirky characters. While they are of hugely varied ages, they all come across like students in their passionate attempts to vocalise their ideas, beliefs and viewpoints. Indeed, perhaps the aim of Waking Life, at least in part, is to stir up such passion in its viewers, since it seems to have left the modern world outside of universities. Rarely does a film seem so passionate about its own ideas.

The animation style may at first seem like a poor gimmick with a varied quality of appearance. However, the results match the Waking Life's core perfectly, lending fluidity and intensity as an extension of the film's own notions. It resembles reality, yet also breaks its boundaries with freely-floating elements laid over a backdrop. There is a constant state of flux about the universe presented, something is always changing, growing. The technique utilised is to shoot the entire film live-action and then overlay computer-aided inking in an almost watercolour style. The result is animation that is sometimes super-realistic and others utterly surreal. The variety of styles (over 30 animators were involved, sometimes working on different shots in a single scene) represents the freedom of this dream state, while the most intriguing result of this animation technique is actually the incredible realism of the motion. Watching the subtle manerisms of the speakers perfectly portrayed by a cartoon is intriguing.

The abstract intellectual concepts come thick and fast, and on the first watching it is only possible to engage with half the dialogue. Not all of this dialogue is actual as deeply meaningful as might first appear, much as with those who consistantly spout philosophical arguements in the real world. It is for the viewer to extract the useful ideas from the barrage of concepts displayed in the film. The discussions on the dream state are easier to follow, since the structure of the film seems to follow the boy's discovery of his own lucid dream state. One of the film's best moments is as he flicks a light switch while leaving a room in which he has just been told the easiest way to tell if he is dreaming is that he will find himself unable to turn lights on and off. When he hits the switch, of course, nothing happens.

There is an irritating disjointedness to the proceedings, not enough to seriously mar the quality of the film, but means its intriguing concepts are not always delivered in a logical fashion. However, it will undoubtedly be remember for its unique visual style rather than its content, and in this it is undoubtedly a huge achievement.

superb
My favourite film of all time- exhiirating, challenging, powerful and extremely repeatable. The art is symbolic on its own, and the thickness of the philosphy is enough to bowl you over for many viewings.
Linklater draws on his influences (PK Dick, Lorca etc) and becomes himself an influence on the way you think after you've watched this. THe thing is, there is no plot- and there are no major character conflicts. It just makes you think about what our waking life is and whether we're dead or alive. It's simply superb. The soundtrack is unique too.