Rating: 
Summary: A good movie for masochists
Review: A wise person said:"If you have nothing nice to say, do not say anything at all." And about this film, I shall say nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Oh my gosh, what utter garbage!
Review: I'm sorry, I don't see the art in rotoscoping (drawing over filmed images), so calling this thing "animated" is giving it way too much credit. OK, there's nothing worth looking at, is there any salvation in the dialog? Only if you consider the typical Usenet exchange, or Internet chatroom conversation, to be the height of wit and wisdom. This film is a complete waste: no-talent slackers trying to masquerade as art. (Now, watch everyone say this review wasn't helpful--I'm trying to save you folks from wasting your time and money here!)
Rating: 
Summary: Just sit back and enjoy the ride
Review: I've seen a lot of reviews from people who hated this movie, This is a amazing film, regardless of what you think of the various philosophies espoused by the characters. This movie isn't about preaching these ideas, though I can certainly see how it may come across that way to some people. It's about creating something that looks and feels like a dream and letting it take you for a ride. The visuals, the music, the randomness of each character, its the sum of the parts that makes it great. For me, at least, it's far more emotionally stimulating than it is intellecutally, though I do find some of the conversation interesting. If you hated this movie becuase of trendy pseudo-intellectualism, you're thinking way to hard about it. Watch it again, and this time just sit back and allow yourself to experience the dream. I also must add that it was very cool seeing my dorm building and the Boat Car Guy.
Rating: 
Summary: "Waking Life" put me to sleep
Review: It's entirely possible I'm not hip enough for this movie. I fell for the hype and rented it and turned it off after 15 minutes. Why, you may ask? This is supposed to be a wonderfully animated film, great music, deep questions being asked...how _could_ I turn it off? It was easy, actually. The animation, while different, did not make any sense to me - it jumped from scene to scene, so you weren't sure whose point of view you were exploring. The music did sound interesting, however. But the questions, it just sounded like a bunch of friends sitting around drinking on a Friday night having a conversation. Or goofing off while you're working at the convienence store job, waiting for a customer to come in to make a purchase. having been there and done that, the movie wasn't that compelling to me. It reminded me of "Clerks" but not as interesting. But maybe you're interested in that type of talking head kind of movie - this is the film for you. For me, it wasn't.
Rating:
Summary: A life time of questions...
Review: Speaking just to the "story" and not the amazing animation, this movie is a 'dream come true' if you love to ponder life. It is for the people who are always asking why and why not and it is not for the quesy or mundane. It is like a great book that you have to read again and again (not for answers but for truth) and luckily the visual imagery and music of this film make it easy to do. It is not for the faint heart but for those who could talk poetry and philosophy all night and only begin to feel at dawn that they had begun to talk. If this is you... see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Cerebral Cinema
Review: Waking Life is a problematic and beautiful movie but not for the reasons that most people have with this film. I am relieved whenever I come across a movie that takes an interesting idea and allows itself as a film to become wrapped around its content. The challenging aspect of Waking Life though is that the content varies from the completely cerebral to the sophmoric. Which I suppose is the challenge of making a stream-of-conciousness take on the dreamstates of life, cinema, and art. The use of rotoscope throughout the film makes it seem like a dream-state of the movie 'Slacker'. For those who dismiss it simply as a hashing of 'Philosophy 101' concepts or a forum for Generation X rants, they are missing the point entirely. At its best, Waking Life is a compelling call to action for the re-awakening of the collective and individual senses of wonder and imagination that have been bastardized by the market-culture. If its guilty of being a little too gimmicky, its completely redeemed by providing a challenge to the audience, art, and the cinematic medium.
Rating:
Summary: Works on all levels
Review: I could write a lot about this movie, but that would be silly. This movie demonstrates how words can only express so much. A picture is worth a thousand, after all. Waking Life uses very cool painted on film animation to enhance some sophisticated talk on all kinds of subjects. The visuals are stunning and speak so much more profoundly than my lousy review ever could. More people should see this movie. It's really very good.
Rating:
Summary: a must for animation fans!
Review: This movie is a must for animation fans, and anyone who has ever wondered about the meaning of existance!But while this film could have been strictly eye candy it is wonderful in the topic it follows!This is mainly centered between dreams and reality,and the animation technique on this makes it feel like a dream!I highly recomend this to anyone!You may even learn something without getting bored a quarter of the way through!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting concept. but it gets boring quick
Review: I feel somewhere in between of giving this film 2 or 3 stars. It's a commendable experiment, a very original movie, and for that I would give it 3 stars. But for all of that, it is ultimately a movie I didn't enjoy much. So that's why I gave it 2 stars. Read on for further thoughts... First, the animation. It's amazing. It's interesting to see how it changes from scene to scene, giving it different moods for different characters. The extreme distortions in one, for example, are very engaging. Yet I have a little but. The truth is the different parts (backgrounds, characters, objects) bounce around a little bit throughout the whole film. This is certainly interesting and goes well with what the movie is trying to convey, but I can't help getting a little bit dizzy about it all, and I think it would have been much better if this 'bounziness' (for lack of a better word) would have been used sporadically. That would have been much more effective. The same goes, for example, for the extreme distortions previously mentioned. They are repeated throughout a long dialogue where all we see is that face being contorted and distorted over and over again. But despite all the minor complaints, animation is excelent, and will have you glued into the screen for some time. Then, the plot or, better said, the dialogues. The idea of the movie was promising, and I really wanted to like this movie. But the fact that it has no plot whatsoever puts the whole of the importance on the dialogues. And the truth is that some really succeed in making you think, whilst most are simply... boring. They start repeating themselves and going off to places that don't make any sense at all (unless you're high, I guess). It's just so many 'profound' reflections that don't actually have any meaning, any substance behind them. There's mainly questions asked in this movie. Don't expect any anwers. And although I think that could be a good thing, after the first 30 minutes, it all gets boring and repetitive. And it goes on way too long after that. The other thing I didn't really like was the 'plot developments'. They were waaaaay too predictable. Like when Wiggins is told 'You can tell you're in a dream when you try to switch off a light and the light stays on'. I expected this would occur sometime later in the movie. It would have a bit of expectation. But it happens right after they finish speaking. One way or another, I figured they would show us this whole film was a dream, but I though it would have been interesting to give some suspense to this, or to give the feeling that maybe some of it was dream while some might have been reality. The ending was very predictable as well. When I saw him starting to fly off and reach for the car again (and because of the time I knew the end was near), I automatically knew he would fly off and the movie would end. The music, however, is something entirely different. Glover Gill composed a poignant and engaging score. The tango music fits perfectly the film and the questioning it's trying to get through, and I thought the music scenes were some of the best parts of the movie itself (especially the one in the Ritz in Austin, where they are dancing tango, towards the end). In the end, Waking Life is a worthy experiment, but the end result is not as good as I would've liked it to be. I think this could have worked much better as a short, but I guess it wouldn't have had so much attention and success. The animation and music are top-notch, but the film becomes quite boring after the first half-hour, except for a few interesting dialogues.
Rating:
Summary: "Super perfundo on the early eve of your day..."
Review: A bona fide landmark achievement in the field of animated movies, 'Waking Life' is a film destined for cult status. The unconventional animation technique used here is hypnotic and serves to energize what would otherwise be a wearisome movie. There is a coherent storyline present but it's periodically overwhelmed by the frequent metaphysical diversions that the lead character engages in with a variety of philosophically minded individuals. These vignettes are purposely designed to be enlightening, outrageous, trivial, astonishing, dignified and even boring. Unequaled in form, function, style or substance by any film in recent memory, you will likely find 'Waking Life' either an invigorating experience or a stultifying and tedious 100 minutes. Fans of the director, Richard Linklater, will have a head start on this challenging and offbeat movie that is not without rewards. A rare film that actually benefits from repeated viewings. The DVD presentation is a great package, containing many entertaining extras that provide insight into the story and explain the unique animation technique; wisely, the movie is presented in a widescreen format. There is the usual requisite deleted scenes and theatrical trailer, but best of all are the animated film shorts by Bob Sabiston, who designed the animation for the film.
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