
Waking Life is a live-action rotoscoped film that focuses on the nature of dreams and consciousness. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame.
The title, Waking Life, is a reference to the philosopher George Santayana’s maxim: Sanity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled. The film was Fox Searchlight Pictures' only production using this technique and released in 2001.
Waking Life is about an unnamed young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. He initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions of issues such as reality, free will, the relationship of the subject with others, and the meaning of life.
“Dreams. What are they? An escape from...