Jensen adds, "We're not tied to any software, whether it's Bob's program or AfterEffects, or another animation software program. It's about pushing the limits of these tools."

Archer continues, "Anyone can use the software, anyone can create this animation, but it's the people behind it that really make it interesting. [The artists] are so creative, they take the viewer into this realm they have never seen before."

It's All About Story
This is precisely the efficacy and success of Waking Life, and the motivation for Linklater to animate the film. For years, Linklater had the general idea of the story in his mind, but there was never any clear way to depict the notion on film, of walking through life in a dream. Waking Life emerges as a larger philosophical and peripatetic conversation, wherein the audience participates in the fragmentary and fluid reality of the dream state.

As Linklater explains, Waking Life was really "two films in one -- a double creative collaboration" that called for a full live-action feature and then a fully animated feature. Linklater explains, "I don't really divorce the processes. To me, there's this inherent overlap between the content of the film and the look of it."

For some people, the "look" of the film ranges anywhere between hypnotic to dizzying; and its disjointed story structure is received either as mildly bewildering, or as a welcomed intellectual relief from the typical formulaic plot.

Steve Brown, for one, was excited to see Waking Life, because it was something he had not seen before, visually, in a theatrical film. In clarifying his appreciation, Brown says, "Even though there is this goal [within schools] of trying to encourage new innovation and vision and approaches in animation, ... there is also this recognition that, no matter what developments may occur within the visual aspects of the medium, for it to connect with an audience, there still have to be almost 'traditional' elements of narrative and character."

In any storytelling, audiences need a way to relate to the characters on some level. Waking Life represents a kind of dichotomy for Brown, "Because on first glance, it seems to be somewhat non-narrative, or at least not a traditional narrative. But there is still an 'identification character' ... someone who took us through this journey, through this world; and that was important in terms of being able to experience and identify with the film. There was even sort of a classic conflict, which in a sense was introduced in the second act, where it became clear that the identification character was trapped within the dream state; there became this quest or goal to discover the way out of the dream state."

In all, unlike some moviegoers, Brown was a fan of the non-traditional nature of the film. "No matter how visually innovative or interesting something is, its real justification is in how well it supports the story ... how well it seems to 'plus' or work with whatever the basic narrative idea was. And, in this sense, the whole visual approach of the film was very effective in suggesting the idea of being within the dream state."

Animation as Myth
This, then, speaks to the real reason for animating anything, and serves as a rebuttal to those naysayers who believe that if a narrative can be filmed in live-action, then there is no purpose or justification in wanting to animate it.

"There are some holy moments, and then there are all the other moments that are not holy, right?"

Within Waking Life, there is a brief discussion of the "ontology of film" -- this notion of trying to capture moments of so-called reality; and our subsequent relationship, as an audience, with this effort. Indulging in a "holy moment," with thunderbolts, electricity and clouds surrounding the discussion on screen, we glimpse through the window of what animation uniquely allows for, in communicating ideas, experiences and understanding. Whereas live-action filmmaking oftentimes must depict a specific character with a specific look, in a specific environment, animation suggests, visually, a realm of absolute possibility. Animation retains an inexactness of feeling and representation, an "imaginative aspect," that we more usually associate or experience through literature.

The animation of Waking Life, without having to slavishly maintain continuity of line or character, echoes the dialogical contemplation of dreams, consciousness, identity and reality. The visuals of the film contribute thematically, suggesting that we are all, maybe, characters in a larger story, in a bigger dream, continually becoming and unbecoming.