It's much more light-hearted and far easier to stomach than the other fantastic film I've seen from Majidi, the wrenching (yet wonderful, in its own way) The Color of Paradise, yet it displays the same immersive "fly-on-the-wall" approach, the same extraordinary social and cultural nuances, and an absolutely astonishing set of child actors.

Before you take this too negatively, today's recommendation is most of all a reminder that Shane Acker needs to make another feature, because he's a visual genius. The fact that his only feature film to date isn't as good as the astonishing short that inspired it says more about the original than it does about the full-blown version.

"I watched them carry him the final fifteen yards. I felt that as long as he was still moving, he was somehow still alive. When they put him down in his grave, he'd stopped moving. I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died. But today, I miss him."

The story itself wasn't particularly revolutionary (though using that particular medium to tell it was certainly unusual). For me, the most revelatory part was the subtlety with which the characters and the story were allowed to unfold.

Turning to the animation itself, the opening is a spectacular on that score—especially in the way it compresses the openings of the story into a visually-engaging yet easily-digestible prologue. The Red Sea sequence is powerful stuff, as well (for which I must reiterate that Zimmer shoulders much of the blame), and the last plague remains one of the most creatively imaginative and stunning, deeply unsettling, and profoundly sorrowful things I've ever seen.

I don't think I appreciated the precision (and power) of Kon's manipulations the first time I saw this one...And I surely did not recognize just how emotionally resonant it was, or that its resonance (and relevance) would increase over the years. That's true of all his works, really, since the question(s) of how we live out our "multiplicity of lives" grow(s) keener as technology progresses(?)

The voice casting is perfect, and the famously-troubled script somehow managed to not only survive the turmoil, but to come out all the better for it. Which doubtless helps to explain its position as far-and-away the most-quoted Disney film in the Susanka household.

I was amazed at the confidence (even brashness) of its direction. ...or at least I would have been amazed if I hadn't stopped for a second and realized that confidence (even brashness) has been M. Night's greatest gift (and curse) for some time now.