The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet, 2010): UK / France

Reviewed By Nick Hincapie at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011.

In a year filled with CGI animated films it was good to finally see a film that was hand drawn and reaching back to the early days of animation. I was looking forward to seeing Sylvain Chomet’s film The Illusionist because his last film was The Triplets of Belleville which was a wonderful film. However I went into the film wanting to love it but in the end I was bit disappointed by the whole story of the film while I still admired the animation.

The Illusionist  tells the story of a French magician who is out of work and travels to Scotland, where he meets meets a young woman who changes his life. The film contains several rich colors and great looking scenery which brilliantly depicts Scotland.  The film was based of an unproduced script  by Jacques Tati and you can certainly see his influence in the film.

Sylvain Chomet is one of the most interesting animators working today and he’s one of the few who chooses to hand draw his films, which you have too admire. The film is very well drawn and contains several fantastic set pieces. The problem with the film is that it’s to quiet and contains very little dialogue. Half way into the film I became bored because I was never involved with the story.

Recently the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and deserved to be because it well made, but I can’t imagine it winning. Compared to film like “Toy Story 3” it doesn’t have a strong story line like that film, nor does it have any characters who you can really connect with. It’s hard to really care about anything that happens in the film because there is nothing in the film that I found to be emotionally involving. While some may say that this film is more visually impressive than “Toy Story 3” in the end these films always depend on how good the story is.

While I do believe the overall story is weak I do believe people should see this film because it is well made and better than most of animated films  we’ve seen this year. I wish that I could have enjoyed the film more because we see so few hand drawn animated films today  and because I loved the look of the film. I doubt The Illusionist will hold well on repeated viewings because it is a very quiet and slow film.