This is the year of imaginary friends I guess. I’ve seen three films centered around them, and this is my review of the second. Netflix has an animated adventure about an imaginary friend, who becomes worried that he’s being forgotten, and gets some help from other imaginary friends on how to stay alive. It’s actually kind of interesting how this film handles imaginary friends, with them disappearing if forgotten, but they find safe havens, like libraries, that radiate with enough imagination to keep them alive. However, when our main imaginary friend suspects that something might be wrong with his human, he takes a big risk on traveling to her in her time of need.
This cute film for kids features some interesting casting choices, from Hayley Atwell to Kal Penn and levar burton. I would say that Penn really seemed disengaged with his acting, to the point where I’m not entirely sure he knew what he was doing. None of the voice acting here is good, it’s either underacted and dull, or over the top.
But, the mechanics of how the world works is interesting enough, and imaginary friends keep the film fun through the mid section as the world is opened up and explored, that the movie is likely enough for a one time watch by kids, and maybe parents. The ending is sweet, and even if this film is a bit clunky, it seems to want to send a good message to its kids. It’s listed as anime, so it’s hard to put too much weight on what might be a secondary American cast, not originally intended. yes, Netflix could seek out and try to not make the cast sound like they’re either on ambien or caffeine.
What I look For In The Audio Description: well, this is called The Imaginary, so the central focus is the imaginary friends in the film, and the differences as each kid would have imagined something different. The film also works on this way that the imaginary friends disappear, which does happen in the film at least once, so that would be important. Otherwise, the human characters need description, as much as is relevant for them, and there are various events that happen in terms of action advancing plot that draw focus.While the film is listed as anime, it is incredibly hard to capture what that would be, because it was once used to represent the style of Japanese animation, but seems to be used now for product drawn in the style of, but not necessarily Japanese. And, films like Your Name have really pushed the boundaries of what anime is, and it would be near impossible to find a way to translate that. Any animation almost always allows for some whimsical action that wouldn’t happen in a live action film, and that’s what you can capture: the “why’ of a filmmaker’s choice to do animation for this script.
What it Actually Does: I wasn’t thrilled about the audio quality, but other than that, the track isn’t bad. the imaginary friends are well described, with some of the less-human ones getting mentioned as to what makes them different, but specifically one who looks human being mentioned as such. The action pieces that matter are done well enough. I think maybe the only thing we could do differently, is just that initial audio quality so it just sounds better. It reminded me a bit of how Parasite: The gray utilized a similar, almost mono sounding description.
Final Thoughts: I think kids will be able to watch this, but I’m more concerned that Netflix thinks this is their Animated Feature contender. This is the same window that got them two consecutive Oscar nominations, and that’s just not likely. This is a far cry from those two previous films, and really is just about as serviceable as Thelma The unicorn. I’m not sure these animated features will be remembered a year or two from now. However, I would say the audio description is at least fine if you want to watch it.
Final Grade: B-
