This film is only 1hr 20min long but it felt like I'd been sat watching it all day. Talk about dull. Yes, the animation is pretty and it's nice to look at but that's just about the only thing going for it.It moves at a tediously slow pace, taking an eternity for any kind of development in the storyline. Perhaps this is because they needed to pad out such a shallow story to make it into a movie? It could have been over and done with in 15 minutes, instead the viewer is made to sit through one pointless scene after another and then another...I found myself dozing off 2 or 3 times during the film, and as soon as it finished I was out like a light. Anybody who can stay awake after watching this can consider it an achievement.

This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Feature, losing to Toy Story 3. There will be spoilers ahead:This film uses a script written by Jacques Tati and adapted by Sylvain Chomet. The film displays the strengths/weaknesses of Chomet's other works (Exactly what constitutes a strength or a weakness is variable, depending on the eye of the beholder). The plot is minimal, with just the barest sketch of a story. A stage magician, practicing a craft which is dying out in the late 1950s, finds himself reduced to playing backwater towns and smaller venues, meeting a very naive young girl named Alice in one inn in Scotland. When he leaves, she follows him without his knowledge, popping up on a train, where the magician decides on the spur of the moment to take the girl under his wing.They take a room at a rundown boarding house for lower rung stage acts. The magician sees his opportunities to be a stage act dry up and takes other, less appealing and more degrading work to support them until the girl meets a young man and the two part company and begin separate chapters in their life story. That's the story.Doesn't sound like much, does it? Except that Chomet makes up for the sketchy plot here by his attention to detail in the visual look of the film and the magnificent characterizations of even the most minor characters. The magician's rabbit is enormous and rather ill-tempered, the magician himself (modeled after Tati) is stiff and formal, charming and distant. The girl is industrious and calculating, full of dreams and desires and at the start of her life, filled with hope.Various characters pop up and drop out of the film. The drunken host in a kilt shows up a few times, a popular, noisy and rather silly rock band crosses paths with the magician a couple of times in the film and the down and out stage acts, particularly a trio of acrobats constantly in motion, provide some humor and pathos here and there.The film is visually gorgeous and shows a lot of attention to detail. A train crosses a river on a bridge and you see it's reflection in the water as a waterfowl takes flight. Lights shining through windows cast light and shadow on the interior of rooms and characters. The colors are striking and lush when they should be or dingy and washed out when it's appropriate. It's an animator's film in some ways. It's beautifully executed. The character designs are the type Chomet characteristically uses. Watch through the end of the credits, as there's a nice little scene at the end.This film is available on DVD and Blu Ray and both look very good, with Blu Ray getting a slight edge. This film is most definitely worth seeing. Most Recommended.

A reoccurring theme of my negative reviews is my attack on novelty. Just because a movie has unique, brilliant aspects doesn't make it a great film. It needs to use its assets and ideas to build its plot, world, and characters. It shouldn't go halfway. Yet so many times I've seen films declared as masterpieces when I felt they were hollow. The Illusionist is the best film to display my point. The Illusionist's animation is beautiful, detailed, colorful, and stylized. But when you judge it on writing, The Illusionist is garbage.Yes, The Illusionist lacks dialog, but that doesn't mean elements of plot and character aren't present. These are people, and there is a story to be told. The main character suffers from the problem of the starving artist, following his dream even when the world barely cares. He has an interesting, noble motivation...until he decides to adopt a daughter. I'm sorry, but this character is a complete ditz. She looks like she should be in her tweens or early teens, but has no understanding of the world around her. She believes in the magic of cheap parlor tricks. She seems to have no idea of the illusionist's poverty. Yet he showers her with gifts he could never afford, with no awareness on her part. She's immature, and he only acts as an enabler.The illusionist could have provided her a humble home, with simple pleasures any child can enjoy. He even gets a solid job! After working hours upon hours on odd jobs, he finally finds one where his skills at magic earn him a decent living. Happy ending? Wrong! He finds the job demeaning, and quits! And without enough money to lavish the young girl like she's a princess, he just leaves her with her boyfriend. Hope they don't break up!This is a sacrifice? BS. This is giving up on someone you supposedly love. Its shameless. Its refusing to grow up, and take responsibility for your actions. In real life, he'd be a deadbeat dad. But we are emotional creatures. And with the right visuals, the right music, and the right angle, we can be believe he's some misunderstood genius, who only wants best for his little girl. I could not care, or even respect, these two characters. It doesn't help this film is horribly paced. Its too slow. There's too little plot. There's not enough personality. And I don't hate silent films! Heck, The Triplets of Belleville was fun, and it was by the same directer! It feels like a 2 hour plus sit...and its only 79 minutes long.I love animation. I'm even giving this movie a star for its wonderful beauty. I can't fall for this film's illusion. It sucks.

I must admit my cinematic prejudice up front: I prefer the faster pace of most American films. Having seen 'Belleville,' I was prepared for a) a visual masterpiece of hand-made animation, and b) the glacial tempo and somber mood of 'The Illutionist.' The characters mumble their way through a plot stretched so thin it becomes tedious. The minute details of travel, hotel rooms, and the streets of Scotland's capital are rendered so beautifully it almost makes up for the melancholy and ultimately deflating story. And I have to add, in all honesty, that many French films I've seen do not seem to know how to complete themselves, with awkward and abrupt endings that leave me dissatisfied. So it is with this film: lovely to look at, but little happens to engage my yearning for robust storytelling.