Paprika, while certainly not suitable for kids, manages to capture the childlike, helter-skelter chaos and curiosity of the human mind better than any other animated film.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 20, 2007

You could sit through the film two or three times to nail down the details of the story, but the film isn't interesting enough to warrant a second look.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 13, 2007

Is it sci-fi? Fantasy? Idiocy? Mostly it's a droning mess -- pretty to look at but confounding to the point where you just don't care any more.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 22, 2007

Especially for fans who understand how movies are put together, Paprika grabs you from the get-go in a series of flowing images and transitions that follow the skewed logic of a dream, jumping from a three-ring circus to a swinging jungle vine.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 22, 2007

As a showcase of the limitless power of the imagination, Paprika never fails to delight the eye and engage the mind. We are never sure exactly whom we should be cheering for, or even if we're rooting for real characters or their avatars.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 15, 2007

We're so used to current cautious commercial formulas, it comes as an enjoyable shock to see something like Satoshi Kon's Japanese film, Paprika, which reminds us that with animation, almost anything you can imagine can be represented.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 15, 2007

This one jacks you into cyberspace, involving you psychically and physically.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 15, 2007

The movie bombards us with so many overlapping fantasies, it's hard -- and in many ways, beside the point -- to keep up with the plot. It's best appreciated by assuming something of a dream state ourselves and enjoying the giddy flow.

| Jun 14, 2007

What keeps the picture percolating is the stream of hallucinatory images, both nightmarish and oddly alluring, that Kon conjures.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 8, 2007

This is without question a unique and superior achievement.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 8, 2007

My advice? Enter your own dream state, and surrender your brain.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 8, 2007

[A] dizzying, ambitious excursion into the subconscious.

| Jun 7, 2007

Kon rarely cares about the stagnant old real world that his films so frequently transcend. His characters fuss endlessly about fantasy's gripping, consuming power, but he himself seems blissfully unconcerned with where his gorgeous illusions take them.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jun 7, 2007

The movie keeps flooding us with strange, scary imagery.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 7, 2007

You stagger out of this one both grateful and ready for a deep and dreamless nap.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 1, 2007

That the supposed bad guys are actually intent in preserving the sanctity of dreams adds to the disorienting exhilaration of Kon's best work yet.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 1, 2007

For an alternate set of exciting alter egos, see Satoshi Kon's Paprika, a brilliant anime feature.

| May 31, 2007

[Satoshi] Kon mixes visual beauty with disorienting perspectives for a cautionary tale about machine-influenced soullessness and the persistent Japanese popular love of the cute.

| Original Score: A- | May 30, 2007

I can't claim to have followed the story line of Paprika any better than I did Pirates of the Caribbean, but this mind-blowing, adult animated adventure from Japan is half the length and maybe five times as much fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 25, 2007

Whatever it is you're looking for -- comedy, horror, parades of singing frogs and dancing kitchen appliances -- you'll find it in Satoshi Kon's anime adventure, a jaw-dropping feat of imagination.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 25, 2007