Region: One
Genre:
Art Film
Stars:
Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Nicky Katt,
Adam Goldberg, and Julie Delpy
Writers:
Richard Linklater
Director:
Richard Linklater
Feature length: 99 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary By Writer and Director Richard Linklater, Art Director Bob
Sabiston, Producer Tommy Pallotta, Star and Animator Wiley Wiggins, Animator’s
Commentary, Text Commentary, Deleted Animated Scenes, Selected Takes From The
Live Action Version, Shorts By Bob Sabiston, Featurette, Animated Software
Tutorial, Theatrical Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Stereo
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 20
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2001/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Waking Life” is an animated thesis using advanced rotoscoping and digital technology to literally paint over the digitally videotaped image to compliment the various philosophical and existential conversations discussing the nature of consciousness. This is not the traditional filmed narrative and is not a traditional animated film. Aspiring animators and those interested in something more experimental and artistic will appreciate this film though it might take a little getting used to because the film has a freaky jittery quality almost illusionary or dreamlike.
Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment’s DVD edition of “Waking Life” is top
shelf. The image is presented in a reference quality anamorphic widescreen
(1.85:1) aspect ratio. The film was shot and edited completely on digital video
down to a final cut and then a team of twenty-five animators, who also
participated in a technical audio commentary track on this DVD, rotoscoped the
footage using various styles and this direct DVD transfer benefits from the
clarity of the source materials. A very good English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack mix manages to capture the dialogue and orchestral soundtrack quite
well through the 5.1 channels. A Spanish Language Stereo Soundtrack is also
included along with English Captions and Closed Captions and French Language
Subtitles encoded on to the dual layered DVD.
Writer
and Director Richard Linklater, Art Director Bob Sabiston, Producer Tommy
Pallotta, Star and Animator Wiley Wiggins participate in a feature length audio
commentary track that is consistently screen specific and Linklater is
particularly a very articulate speaker on the track and does a great job
elaborating on his feelings behind the film and the motivations and collectively
all involved are very natural and comfortable behind the microphone, which
always makes it more enjoyable for the listener. There is text commentary that
can be activated while watching the film with the subtitle button on the remote
control. The text commentary points out the various philosophical writers and so
on mentioned including book recommendations, websites, and so on. The only
problem with the text commentary, particularly in the beginning, is that the
text often flies by faster than one can read requiring one to freeze frame,
which is not a problem except that I found in reading the text unfreezing the
frame, and then freezing again spoiled the combined synchronistic effect the
text commentary should have to enhance the film. Freezing and unfreezing after
awhile makes the text seem out of context of the film and ultimately hurts the
feature on the DVD rather than helps it.
Other
extra features include a short behind-the-scenes (1.85:1) featurette that runs a
bit over 4-minutes and 19 deleted animated scenes that can be viewed
individually or collectively and equal 7 and a half minutes in total. There are
12-minutes of live action footage from the film before the animation and a
20-minute tutorial with Art Director Bob Sabiston as well his 3 and a half
minute short “Snack And Dinner” in a (1.33:1) aspect ratio as well as nearly
3-minutes of animation passes.
Biographies
as well as a (1.85:1) trailer for “Waking Life” and a (2.35:1) trailer for
the Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon comedy “The Banger Sisters” wrap up the
extra features on this DVD. The interactive menus are animated in the same
fashion of the film with animated transitions between the menus and all are easy
to navigate.
“Waking
Life” is a great animated and quite literally an art film and well worth
checking out on DVD when it debuts on DVD-Video from Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment on Tuesday, May 7, 2002.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.