UNLOCKING THE WORLD OF IMAGINATION: A JOURNEY THROUGH “THE IMAGINARY”

With the thread of reality and imagination intertwined, The Imaginary is a live-action film that rides in a fantasy realm where only the limitless possibilities of dreams are possible. The latest project from Studio Ponoc, Japan’s premiere animation company, it will be released on Netflix worldwide, after a world premiere at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The Internet is rife with anticipation – with fans and novices alike wondering if it can satisfy the world’s desire for the same heart-pounding, nail-biting, wonder-filled ethos that made Studio Ghibli’s works an enduring global favourite.

A LEGACY CONTINUED WITH A SENSE OF WONDER

Filmmakers Studio Ponoc, which consists of some members of the start-up that once was Studio Ghibli, certainly tugs at the heartstrings. Their first two features, Mary and the Witch’s Flower (2017) and an anthology film named Modest Heroes (2018), have earned critical praise while hearkening back to familiar animation aesthetics and storytelling cadences. The Imaginary teases the calendar with a glimpse into a world where one’s subjective reality – the imagined and the felt – becomes as real as anything that we see.

THE HEART OF THE STORY: SENSE, SENSIBILITY, AND SURREALISM

On the surface, this is a fairy-tale coming-of-age story about a girl named Amanda who has a friend called Rudger who’s not really there. But the film ranges deeper, into themes of growing up, and growing apart. Ducommun and Linares meld all of these feelings into a balanced beginning that’s moving without being mawkish, but eventually it gets sucked into a maelstrom that blows everything to pieces.

A MOSAIC OF IMAGINATION

Storywise, The Imaginary was a risky project. Nonetheless, the film boasts a formidable sense of artistic craftsmanship, as the animators at Studio Ponoc flex their creative muscles and concoct some dazzling dreamscape landscapes that make no sense whatsoever, yet feel inherently right. Such scenes, exploring the unconscious via the mind of the animators, yet coming alive through a ‘wow’ factor that only animation can generate, give us a sense of wonderment that only a child’s mind can conjure. The merging of reality with fantasy opens up a new playground, where anything goes, following the rules of childhood fantasy.

THE TECHNICAL MARVEL AND ITS QUIRKS

Along with its fable, The Imaginary dabbles in technical invention: there are computer-generated shots of fantasy elements that stand out from the film’s 2D artistry, and some of them are thrilling in execution, if also occasionally revealing of the challenges of blending the two formats (and occasionally breaking the willing suspension of disbelief that the film works hard to establish).

A TALE OF TWO HALVES: ANALYZING THE SHIFT

Though The Imaginary begins with a solid footing in mundane reality, as it propels itself further on the ricocheting machinations of its universe, it loses the gentle sense of narrative coherence that gave it a dramatic edge. The shift between a deeply personal story and a wider, slightly disjointed adventure points to the tension between world building and the emotional stakes of the characters.

THE SENSE BEHIND "THE IMAGINARY"

But as an argument about the art and purpose of animated storytelling, The Imaginary is an indelible document of the potential of cinema, even if it sometimes struggles to find its way. The glory of the movie, beyond its spectacular visuals or its halo of nostalgia for the Studio Ghibli legacy, is its ambitious attempts to express the sense of wonder that we feel when our imaginations are freed from the tyranny of perspective. As the film circulates around the globe, it invites us all to reflect on the seams that lie between the world we see and the worlds we imagine, a sense of magic inscribed within each of us.

And for better or for worse, ‘The Imaginary’ captures what occurs when we dream, and imagine, and sense the many worlds that are possible with story. When the film premieres on Netflix this summer, it will be a trip through an interactive wonderland, but it will also be a love letter to the sense of possibility that the best kind of storytelling can spark inside us.