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THE IMAGINARY
Director: Yoshiyuki Momose Cast: Kokoro Terada, Rio Suzuki, Sakura Ando, Issey Ogata, Riisa Naka, Takayuki Yamada, Atsuko Takahata, Hana Sugisaki MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:45 Release Date: 6/28/24 (limited); 7/5/24 (Netflix) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 4, 2024 The Imaginary opens with a high-flying, ever-evolving trip through a child's imagination—a place of splendid landscapes and mythical creatures and the endless possibility of adventure. It's a wonderful scene, animated by the artists of Studio Ponoc, a relative newcomer to the field, using traditional, hand-drawn animation techniques. One must be assured of the process, because there's a level of depth to even the faces of the characters here that almost makes them look three-dimensional. Either no or very limited computer technology was used in bringing this story to life, though, which makes one admire the effort, as well as a little disconcerted that some believe even traditional animation must have the illusion of the polish of digital techniques nowadays. Anyway, the movie is an impressive feat of old-fashioned tactics, made to look like newer ones, and design. For all of the creativity put forward to create this movie, though, its story isn't nearly as imaginative as the realms these characters occasionally visit. Adapted from a children's novel (written by A.F. Harrold and illustrated by Emily Gravett), it becomes bogged down by too much formula and familiarity, especially by the presence of a villain whose hunt for imaginary friends comes to define the plot and overshadow the emotional core of a story about grief, loss, and mortality. Until the bad guy arrives, the story is nicely loose, introducing us to Amanda (voice of Rio Suzuki), who is being raised by her mother Lizzie (voice of Sakura Ando) in the shadow of a terrible loss, and, more importantly, Rudger (voice of Kokoro Terada). Rudger—not "Roger," he and his friend have to constantly assert—is the girl's imaginary friend, who has been part of Amanda's life for a bit more than three months. Staying in the attic of the apartment above the bookshop Lizzie now owns and runs, Rudger waits for Amanda to come home from school so that two can have adventures with a rock giant and in a wintry world with little creatures decorating a giant Christmas tree, threatened by a massive yeti-like monster. The mother doesn't know about the imaginary friend, because she can't see Rudger, of course, and is so busy keeping the shop afloat while raising a daughter on her own. Pretty quickly into this little tale of a family slightly torn apart by and trying to move forward from loss, that villain enters the store. He's Mr. Bunting (voice of Issey Ogata), a mustachioed man in a bright a Hawaiian shirt that belies his darker nature. Claiming to be doing surveys of the local children in town (a creepy notion that nobody seems to think twice about), he's actually looking for imaginary friends in the area. These Imaginaries—as the people aware of their existence call them, without, ironically, much imagination—are the key to his longevity. With the aid of his own Imaginary (a dark-haired girl who would look at home in a derelict Gothic manor), Mr. Bunting finds Imaginaries and consumes them, and Rudger looks and smells like an appetizing meal for the dastardly figure. The rest of the plot has Rudger and Amanda separated (by an event that kind of makes the entire notion of a secret world of imaginary friends feel a bit trivial by comparison). With the risk of disappearing because he has been forgotten, Rudger luckily discovers a group of abandoned Imaginaries living in the local library, where the intrinsic imagination of all books on the shelves keeps them alive. Rudger becomes determined to find Amanda, all while evading the gaping maw of Mr. Bunting. Between the scenes of the plotting, writer/director Yoshiyuki Momose (who has worked in Japanese animation for almost 40 years) touches upon some intriguing ideas, such as a town of Imaginaries that forms from the contents of the books every night and changes form each evening, and a few surprisingly melancholy ones. There's the loss at the heart of the real characters' story, which birthed Rudger, but at a fairly profound level is the notion of loss beyond death. Imaginaries, for example, don't die but fade into nothingness upon being forgotten by their real-world friends. A mysterious cat named Zinzan (voice of Takayuki Yamada) tells Rudger that this is the fate for everything and everyone, and there's a rather despairing scene, after one of Rudger's imaginary allies suffers that fate, in which he's horrified to learn that the Imaginary's disappearance has resulted in everyone forgetting her very existence. One could argue this is pretty heavy stuff for a movie aimed at children, which is fair. On the other hand, though, there's an argument that the requirements of this easy story, which eventually becomes a pursuit plot with Mr. Bunting and a race against the clock to find Amanda, restricts what's going on just beneath that tale. Considering how much actual and possible and metaphorical death is going on within the story, it's odd that so much of it comes down to the rules of Imaginary life and work, as well as a climactic standoff in which the real world and the imaginary one mesh with various obstacles to overcome and some sentimental payoffs to be had. Still, the movie is a visual treat, particularly in its depiction of the limitless possibilities of the imagination. The story of The Imaginary, though, doesn't come close to matching that potential. Copyright © 2024 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for scary images, peril, thematic elements and some violence)
