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The Imaginary

The Imaginary

Animation · Adventure · Drama · 2023

Amanda and her imaginary friend Rudger go on thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger finds himself alone, he faces a mysterious threat.

Movie details

The Imaginary

“A boy no one can see, and the Imaginaries.”

2023 Animation · Adventure · Drama 1h 48m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.8 / 10

2.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

91 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

66 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.6 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Amanda and her imaginary friend Rudger go on thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger finds himself alone, he faces a mysterious threat.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Imaginary?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Yoshiyuki Momose

Written by

Yoshiaki Nishimura

Kokoro Terada

Kokoro Terada

Rudger (voice)

Rio Suzuki

Rio Suzuki

Amanda (voice)

Sakura Ando

Sakura Ando

Lizzie (voice)

Riisa Naka

Riisa Naka

Emily (voice)

Takayuki Yamada

Takayuki Yamada

Jinzan (voice)

Atsuko Takahata

Atsuko Takahata

Downbeat Grandma (voice)

Issey Ogata

Issey Ogata

Mr. Bunting (voice)

Court is in session

Put The Imaginary on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.