After a quick “”intermission”” that involved a trip to the Garment District to spend a Groupon on a messenger bag, and a hot dog and ice cream at the conession stand, I came right back for The Illusionist. This is the third nominee for Animated Feature (shared with Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon). Short summation: Srsly? This is what beat out Tangled?
The film was only 90 minutes, but it felt waaaaay longer than the day’s previous film. It was silent (dialogue-wise)for the most part, and the majority of the minimal dialogue was gibberish. The AFI project proved that I dont do well with silent films. So that there was already a major point against it.
The animation itself was good, I’ll give it that. With all the computer animation clogging the theaters, hand drawn animation makes my heart go giddy. I liked some of the little touches, like the awkward hands behind the back stance that the magician often took. I didnt find the visual humor too funny (a common theme for me) but there were those in the audience who seemed to appreicate it.
I also just couldnt suspend disbelief enough to get into the storyline. Couple reasons for that. When it comes to magic (as in magicians, not genies or other such beings), the fun for me is in figuring out the puzzle of how its done. Animated movies cheat there. Then, I just couldnt understand how the magician let the little girl follow him across the country without so much as putting up a fight against it. From there it just got borderline pedofile creepy. On top of that, I liked the little girl at first, until she started making the poor magician buy her more and more shit. She’d ditch him as he’d work these odd jobs just to keep her happy. WTF?! Not what I’d expect in an (arguably) kiddie film.
I hate giving low ratings to critically acclaimed films, but as far as personal opinion, I feel I’m being generous. That half point is for the animation.
The Illusionist – \m/ \n”