Paprika
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 25, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
It is an intelligently written piece that only falters during the finale. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The intersections between sleep and waking, memory, cinema, and the Internet lead to a spectacular battle of titans who spring from the mind's darkest recesses. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Fantasy leaks into reality. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerGianni Truzzi
Despite the jumble, Kon's eye-popping, surreal mastery of the Japanese dream is awakening. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
It happens to be one of the most wildly (and disturbingly) inventive animated films I've seen. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The brilliant Paprika, directed by Satoshi Kon--a masterly example of Japanese anime, intended for adults--is partly hand drawn, and features multiple areas of visual activity layered at different distances from the picture plane. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A gorgeous riot of future-shock ideas and brightly animated imagery, the doors of perception never close. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJohn Anderson
Kon's best work yet. Read full review
88
PremiereAaron Hillis
Paprika ain't no kiddie 'toon, even if its thumpin' techno-pop and bubble-gum thrills have the same splashy palette as an episode of "Pokémon" or "Dragon Ball Z." Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
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. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Someone walking cold into a movie theater showing Paprika might be excused for thinking the screen was having a Technicolor seizure. Fans of Japanese anime and filmmaker Satoshi Kon will simply feel dazzlingly at home. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
While I liked the film's aesthetics and its futurist imaginings, its most important attraction is how it engages. Some movies massage you; others tickle you. This one jacks you into cyberspace, involving you psychically and physically. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
A film so joyfully insane that it feels like Kon is overcompensating. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Satoshi Kon, whose previous film was the remarkable "Tokyo Godfathers," uses the complex plot as a pretext for joyous psychedelia. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Schizophrenia never looked so good or so mesmerizing as it does here, and 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. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Fiercely provocative, Paprika shames Hollywood’s use of animation as a kiddie pacifier. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's a great place to visit, even if you wouldn't want to live there. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
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. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
We've gotten perhaps too used to the computerized wizardry of our own cartoon features; Kon, like Miyazaki shows us some older ways that can still transfix us. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's not a film for children, and it's not even something children would like. It's challenging and disturbing and uncanny in the ways it captures the nature of dreams -- their odd logic, mutability and capacity to hint at deepest terrors. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Paprika is a creatively dizzying and visually dazzling allegory about alternative realities. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie Felperin
With its brainy scientist heroine, and surreal, super-kitsch imagery, above-average Japanese anime sci-fi pic Paprika has a better chance than most Nipponese toons of breaking out of the specialty ghetto by appealing to femme auds as well as the genre's core constituency of fanboys. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRob Nelson
Paprika, based on a serialized novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, isn't a movie that's meant to be understood so much as simply experienced--or maybe dreamed. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
One thing is for sure: The über-dream is both gorgeously animated, in Kon's shimmering, hyperreal style, and sickeningly scary. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyStaff (Not credited)
This loopy anime from director Satoshi Kon ("Millennium Actress") isn't a movie that's meant to be understood so much as simply experienced -- or maybe dreamed. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It's best appreciated by assuming something of a dream state ourselves and enjoying the giddy flow. Read full review
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