Fantasia Report: Mind Game Review

PERFECT TIMING on this review...Just watch the DVD tonite in my home-Theatre...

This movie FANTASTIC (expect a full review tomorrow...probably in the Forum and on my site.

Laugh out loud, poignant, spastic, creative, inventive, obvious, original, and ultimately satisfying piece of Cinema...

Showing a precis of the film at the beginning as a series of disconnected scenes (without context) and practically the same collage at the end, but now with context...BRILLIANT.

I had no idea what to expect from this movie and I was totally blown away!!
A cinematic orgasm, nothing less.

especially the last 15 minutes or so....

this movie is poised to EXPLODE in the U.S. --- as of today, July 17th, nobody has really seen it. i got a copy from a friend in japan last year and have waiting to hear about it screening somewhere, anywhere, in north america. hopefully this will blow the animation world wide open and destroy all the stereotypes. and once a scanner darkly comes out, the new film from the people who did waking life, animation for adults might finally earn some respect in this country!!!! MIND GAME is simply phenomenal.

I don't understand all this praise for Mind Game. I really don't.

I've seen lots of anime and what I like most about them are the beautiful graphics, the music, the stories, the interesting concepts and ideas. I noticed with joy how the visual style and graphics really improved with the passing of time while continuing to tell interesting stories.

Of course, not ALL anime is like that. There are also the crappy ones, but overall the visual style and the storytellling are really improving with time. I found some anime to be a real thing of beauty.

And then I came across Mind Game. Which I think has the UGLIEST visual style I've EVER seen in an anime. The graphics are absolutely HIDEOUS for most of the time. This seems to be intentional, as some other scenes look pretty good. In fact, the director seems just to be passing through all the visual styles he can imagine. The scenes where he inserts the faces of real live actors look just plain weird. What's the point of that? What is he trying to say? Maybe there is a purpose for everything - or maybe everything is so weird and wacky just for the sake of being weird. The story is indeed quite original - but not THAT good. Anyway, not good enough to counter the terrible visual style. So I gave up around the middle of the movie - I felt like I was wasting my time.

After reading some of the reviews, I felt like I was on the wrong planet. "Interfuckingspectacular"?!? "A cinematic orgasm"?!?... Good god!... Suffice to say, I STRONGLY disagree with you.

I've also seen "Waking Life" and like it. I didn't quite enjoy the visual style, but it was bearable and fit perfectly with the story, which was supposed to be a dream. The same technique was also used in some scenes from "Just a kiss" - also very effective, considering the story. But it starts to become overused. I don't really see the reasons for using it with "A Scanner Darkly". Maybe used only in some points of the movie it would have been effective. Not in the ENTIRE movie. And I would have really liked to see a live action movie with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder.

In conclusion, I really hope that the "Mind Game"-style animation or the "Waking Life" one won't replace the existing animation or try to differentiate "adult" animation from "kids" animation (which is a very stupid idea).

T-Jax: I think co-existance between the MANY styles of animation is as possible as the infinite live-action styles across the world.

Also, I think many (myself included) liked both the message/themes of the film and the particular coupling of those themes with the visual style of the film (To put it simply, life is beautiful, ugly, loud, quiet, varied, and quite often just inexplicible)...

Worked for me. Best animated film I've seen since Triplettes of Belleville, (Trumping both Howl's moving castle and The Incredibles)

Is that best ANIMATED or BEST animated?

I agree with T-Jax, All the jam for Mind Game let me down. I had higher hopes.

Man this film rocks the shit. Those who aren't used to the film because of it's visual style still have the chance to learn how a visually inventive movie can be great without the live action aid of aid of Keanu Reeves or Winnona Ryder.
I like the extreme perspective that is rarely seen in film. Mindgame has a use of cool tawdy character and environment design, and the use of colour ranging from musky black to bright neon. Animation wise, the movements are very lively without having to resort to a typical disney ethic of the 'illusion of life'. The collage look of some cuts were precise to the intended effect. Here are some very fine details as to what defines the visual style. I appreciate the opinion that someone cant handle this type of saturation, but at least tell us what of, or about the saturation you didn't like in detail. You leave me standing baffled as to why you dislike a movie, and then ridiculously end it with the 'in conclusion' note, which is totally like so high school.

life is great.
mindgame is life.
after watching it, i could'nt believe....wow!
the first ten minutes i thought "ok...hm...common...start...."
but with every minute more that film wandered straight into my heart and brain....
thats a new evolution of animation....with sooo many details, so much heart, so much soul....wow!
people, who don't like it....don't like their lifes.
poor peoples....