An Introduction to 'Mind Game' (2004)

When Walt Disney bestowed Mickey with his first uproar of "HOTDOG!", and Winsor McCay orchestrated the jovial jaunt of Gertie the Dinosaur, I doubt that interdimensional love-making, bamboo-phallus-based-jump-rope and ass-clench disarmament moves ever crossed their musings of what the medium could behold - sheer spectacle of such epic psychedelia would send the lads into cardiac arrest; the mouse fried and the dino extinct. Using every inch of what cinematic invention and filmic limitlessness can accomplish, the animation landscape still reels in whiplash from the perplexing, life-affirming and just plain brilliant masterpiece known as Mind Game.

Based on the manga by Robin Nishi and helmed for the screen by the maestro of cheeky, anime infamy Masaaki Yuasa, Mind Game showcases the auteur at his most experimental, spiritual and unrestrained. Best known for the kaleidoscopically kinky series Devilman Crybaby, and more recent ventures such as musical fantasy INU-OH and plucky romance The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, Yuasa (literally) paints the portrait of a slacker cartoonist attempting to rekindle a young love with a childhood friend, unfortunately being disrupted by a run-in with the Yakuza, a brief trip to the afterlife and an unlikely entanglement with a giant whale. We've all been there.

Spanning a brain-bending gamut of 2D, 3D, live action and analogue techniques, Mind Game's theming of the life's tumultuous randomness and domino-effect philosophies is crafted directly into the gargantuan menagerie of its remarkable visuals, only fitting that a film as audaciously existentialist as this should deserve a galaxy's worth of playful innovation.

An unrelenting treat for the eyes and replenishment for the soul, parallels have been drawn between the ethereal ruminations of Terrence Malick and the ramblings of Douglas Adams, just with a heaping dose of Tex Avery thrown in for good measure. Characters bend and contort with a slapstick rubberhose, flowing as freely and unpredictably as the jazz-like narrative structure, providing a sense of humanist viscera through their wildly emotive outbursts; tears stream, limbs stretch and stomachs distend, suggesting a volatile exterior to compliment the quieter moments of introspection, when Yuasa leads us from the literal corners of nirvana, into the intimate depths of their dreams, psyches and deep-seated desires: a Russian doll of worldbuilding, the scope on display is simply staggering.

Now regarded as a midnight cult-classic and hailed by The Village Voice's Ed Halter as "...a superflat cousin to the grown-up cartoon head trips of the 60s and 70s like Yellow Submarine, Fritz the Cat and Fantastic Planet", the influence of Yuasa and Mind Game can be felt within the new wave of scrappy, cerebral indie animation spearheaded by the works of Vewn and Jonni Peppers, to mainstream television icons such as Pen Ward's Adventure Time (in which Yuasa himself directed the trippy 'Food Chain' episode). And more recently The Daniels, citing the film as a direct inspiration to their maternal time-hopper Everything Everywhere All at Once, resulting in Oscar gold.

But even after 20 years, Mind Game still remains a timeless, transcendent odyssey, still retaining its awesome shockwaves to inspire, charm, amuse and bewilder. It is, for my money, one of the greatest achievements the animation medium has to offer. You may have seen the protégés, but now try the real thing...