The Essentials: Paprika (2006)

"[A] dizzying, ambitious excursion into the subconscious."

— Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader

"This is without question a unique and superior achievement."

— Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

"The über-dream is both gorgeously animated, in Kon's shimmering, hyperreal style, and sickeningly scary."

— Dana Stevens, Slate

"In Paprika, a gorgeous riot of future-shock ideas and brightly animated imagery, the doors of perception never close."

— Manohla Dargis, New York Times

"Paprika expands your notion of what animation can achieve. You wake from it as if from a dream: spooked, provoked and exhilarated."

— David Ansen, Newsweek

"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."

— Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

"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."

— Peter Howell, Toronto Star

"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."

— John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press