A spellbinding film that charms with its quirkiness in almost every sequence.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 26, 2012

This is the kind of personal filmmaking that could only have come together through a chance set of inspirations. Maybe you could call it fate.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 15, 2012

The more love changes the more it stays the same. History itself falls prey to love in this delightful retelling of the Ramayana.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 3, 2010

... beautiful and often densely detailed images ...

| Apr 28, 2010

The brilliance of Paley's achievement is both graphic and structural-she has not only given Sita the visual specificity of a museum-grade gallery painting but also the intricate and inimitable voice of a classic Modernist novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 23, 2010

A very creative and poignant animated film about the heartbreaks experienced by a Hindu goddess and a contemporary woman who share the universal pain and sadness that accompany the end of an intimate relationship.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 22, 2010

It's akin to watching creativity just explode onscreen -- part abstract, part musical, part improvisation-style comedy, and, most compellingly, all inspired by real-life pain.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Apr 15, 2010

The story makes little sense to those unfamiliar with Indian culture and literary traditions, but it is made accessible for westerners by the use of a kind of Greek Chorus of shadow puppets who help interpret the story.

| Original Score: B | Jan 4, 2010

[Filmmaker Nina] Paley adapts the original 1922 story, The Ramayana, by Valmiki and, wearing many hats, produces a work that is fun, entertaining, educational, colorful and imaginative.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 3, 2010

Charming indie animated film that doesn't insult anyone's intelligence.

Full Review | Dec 31, 2009

And the ingenuity of Sita -- which evokes painting, collage, underground comic books, Mumbai musicals and "Yellow Submarine" (for starters) - is dazzling. Not busy, or overwhelming, or eye-popping. Just affecting, surprising and a lot of fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2009

Paley's beguiling, consistently inventive visuals and sly yet melancholy tone are about as warm and winning as heartbreak-fueled empowerment gets.

| Dec 23, 2009

Romantic breakups have provided inspiration to artists through the ages, but never have lemons been made into such a sparkling lemonade as Paley's done here.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 14, 2009

The story shifts effortlessly between the two-dimensional collage style of the narrator segments, the classical artistic design of the Rama-Sita story, the pencil sketch style of the modern story, and finally Hanshaw's musical numbers in a two-dimensional

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 6, 2009

An infectious, dazzling and poignant story about love and loyalty in both mythical India and modern America, and perfect proof that animation can work for adults.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 12, 2009

Even if its audience will be about 0.01 percent of that of Coraline and Up, Nina Paley's hilarious, effortlessly cross-cultural and utterly original animated feature should be considered with the same lofty regard.

| Jul 17, 2009

Nina Paley's animated marvel mixes a personal tale of romantic woe with a fabulous, often hilarious, recounting of the Sanskrit epic fable The Ramayana.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 26, 2009

Captivating, mesmerizing, spellbinding -- I'll throw everything in the movie-critic book at this animated feature by Nina Paley

| Jun 26, 2009

Nina Paley's delicious Sita Sings the Blues finds solace in autobiography and an animated gold mine in the caverns of an ancient Sanskrit epic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 29, 2009

Sita Sings the Blues uses the supposed 'handicap' and 'limitations' of traditional animation to its advantage.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 28, 2009