Roger Ebert Raves about Sita Sings the Blues

Roger Ebert has discovered Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues and he’s written a lengthy piece raving about how wonderful it is. Among other things, he writes:

“I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord.”

and

“One remarkable thing about “Sita Sings the Blues” is how versatile the animation is. Paley works entirely in 2-D with strict rules, so that characters remain within their own plane, which overlaps with others. This sounds like a limitation. Actually, it is the source of much amusement. Comedy often depends on the device of establishing unbreakable rules and then finding ways to cheat on them and surprise you. The laughs Paley gets here with 2-D would be the envy of an animator in 3-D. She discovers dimensions where none exist.”

I think it also says a lot about Ebert’s passion and love for cinema that he’s written such a long piece about a film that nobody can currently see and which has no shot at commercial distribution because of copyright issues. Ebert is not only writing about how much he likes it but has also arranged for it to screen at his personal film festival in April 2009 at the University of Illinois. We’re delighted at Cartoon Brew that Ebert is putting his weight behind the film since both Jerry Beck and myself feel that it’s an incredible accomplishment within the animation art form.

Read Roger Ebert’s article here.

UPDATE: Nina Paley has just posted her distribution plan.