PROS
A lot of people seem to be familiar with Sataoshi Kon's work in animation, as he has done other anime in the past. I, for one, have never heard of him until now. I think, for the most part, the visuals of this film are splendid and intriguing. Unfortunately, at times, they seem to be a bit of a mess. There will be times when there are so many things happening on screen that certain objects in the film will look better than others. It's very odd. I've never seen anything like it. But this does not take away much from the film. As a whole, the film looks very similar to any of Miyazaki's works.
The originality of this story is very nicely written. It is no wonder that this film inspired similar films, like Inception, to be made. I have to pre-warn anyone who plans to watch this that it is a very complex storyline. You have to pay close attention to everything that is happening. If you miss even the slightest of events, you could completely lose control of what the film is about. This happened to me and I was forced to re-watch the film because of it.
CONS
Although I was rooting for certain characters in the film, they weren't anything special or too interesting ether. They get the job done, which is what I want in any film or anime I watch, but I do expect more.
OVERALL
Paprika does many unique things and goes places where other films have never been to. It isn't layered in character development and relies on the viewer to pay close attention to every detail of the story. If you are up for that, you'll probably enjoy this film.
