Paprika Review

So I decided to take a break from the normal 2011 Summer Anime Reviews, today I will be looking at the 2006 animated movie Paprika. It really all started when a friend of mine on Voice Hollywood was talking to me about music and linked me to the Parade Song  from Paprika. It was weird and fanciful and strange, but lovely at the same time. After a bit I got into looking at some of the other songs and I was very happy with them. One of which I recgonized and I realized a friend had shown me the opening before but I didn't watch the movie as a result. Well now was my chance right? Well here is my reveiw on the movie - SOME SPOILERS BELOW !!

Paprika Movie Cover

Paprika

So let's get this show on the road! Paprika begins out interestingly enough, with a circus a strange chase scene leading to a guy awakening. We find that he is using the services of a woman named Paprika to help him understand his dreams and find psychological roots to them and diagnose a mental problem he might be having. He seems to be really into her and we soon cut to the opening credits which has a super catchy song!!!!! We see Paprika go through all sorts of things really hinting that this is not something reality based. In the end she returns back to her normal self Dr. Atsuko Chiba

Seriously this is interesting stuff

Paprika seems to be a livelier and more carefree person while Chiba seems to be more serious pairing the characters as foils and yet one in the same. We meet a whole cast of characters and plunge straight into the plot of the story where someone has stolen the DC Mini the device that allows the viewing of dreams and what Chiba was using with Paprika. it is up to Paprika, the Detective, Chiba and the others to get to the bottom of the mystery. The story then develops, blooms, and becomes an awesome not usual anime type of movie. This is a movie that holds ground with Princess Mononoke, and other Studio Ghibli films and more.

I really don't want to give away parts of the story and even if I did then I wouldn't be able to explain it properly. This movie is a giant ball of so many things that it can be hard to pinpoint it to one thing. And also it is one of those things that really shouldn't be spoiled.

VERDICT: OMG YESSSSS! 

This movie is a great one, it displays great animation with a integration between 3-D computer graphics and the 2-D animation style creating a world of it's own which even without the animation it would be able to deal. This futuristic world is well though-out and planned making references to dozens of things but still holding itself together. It has various subplots and some you don't even realize till the ending. This is a movie that I watched two times in the same night and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time.

The music is also wonderfully done bringing a futuristic twang, but keeping it fanticful and spritely or strange and alien when it calls for it. Susumu Hirasawa did a fantastic job with the music and I plan on buying the OST as soon as I can.

As for the storytelling, while odd at some places, the story did a great job telling itself and making you believe in it. It is no wonder how this movie help with the inspiration of Inception. It is wonderfully done and a movie that I feel mature audiences will enjoy. It is colorful and imaginative and no wonder that there is some talk of a new live action adaptation. However for me I think I will enjoy the original animated one for now.