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Traditional and digital animation

One key creative decision for the film-makers was the animation style: how real; how graphic. Explains Errando: “We had to investigate what quality of movement we needed for the film. Live action is very precise. Animation needs to invent another reality. You move a character using other ways, it’s another quality of movement. You have all these feelings that an actor is giving you, on the other hand we want the poetry that animation can provide. We spent about six months discovering the right balance.”

    

 

Assembling a team of animators capable of animating Mariscal’s designs was also a challenge. Says Errando: “In a film you need great casting, and in animation the actors are the animators. We chose some of the best animators we could find, all of them had a lot of experience. But then we had to ask them, ‘Hey guys, forget everything that you have done in your life. Here you’re not going to use all the tools that you’re used to. Forget about stretch, squash, anticipation, and start animating in a very different way, in a very new way.’ Some of them reacted very well, and they found it fascinating, and some of them couldn’t do it, it was very frustrating. For us it was hard to tell a great professional, ‘I’m sorry, this is not what we need.’”

  • "A brilliant homage to the cinema, to music and to love stories"

    Luis Martínez / El Mundo

  • "A stunning series of images, a genuine visual feast."

    Llàtzer Moix / La Vanguardia

  • "One is left with the sensation of having seen something familiar, warm and, let’s confess, beautiful"

    Luis Martínez / El Mundo

  • "The architecture of Havana and New York filtered by Mariscal’s particular iconography. "

    Federico Simón / El País

  • "Riddled with movie references as well as musical ones. It is a tribute that is full of sensuality."

    N. S. / El Periódico

  • "Mariscal and Trueba’s creative torrent flows through a city with wide open balconies. "

    C. Jiménez / Ine.es

  • "One of the best films ever made about jazz, I can’t think of any other that is truer and more moving."

    Gary Giddins / Film Comment

  • "Mariscal has captured the essence of Havana in the 40s and 50s with impressive beauty, detail and colour. "

    Rebeca Mauleón

  • "An intense and sexy yet turbulent love story"

    telegraph.co.uk

  • "It transports you to the vibrant, violent, sensual world of Havana in the 40s."

    Laura Snoad  / designweek.co.uk

  • "Visually hypnotic, musically electric "

    Stephen Farber / Film Review

  • "The elegant Central Park winter scene is memorable"

    Stephen Farber / Film Review

  • "The best musical of the year"

    Philip French / The Observer

  • "Mariscal has created the sexiest cartoon female since Jessica Rabbit. "

    Paul Whitington / Independent

  • "For all the romantics out there"

    Helen O'Hara / Empire

  • "Absolutely unique"

    Chris Sullivan / Metropoli

  • "The golden age of cartoons continues"

    Pam Grady / Movies.Yahoo.

  • "Pure pleasure"

    Meredith Brody / ThompsonOnHollywood

  • "A feast for one’s sight and hearing, These are easily the best 90 minutes I’ve spent in the cinema this year."

    Joseph Fahim /Daily News Egypt

  • "Impeccable work of art"

    David Jenkins / Time Out

  • "The virtuosity does not decline in this visually impressive and musically rich film"

    Lisa Mullen / Sight and Sound

  • "I have fallen in love with a film full of so much life, warmth and love and it reminded me what style in the movies is about"

    Shane McNeil / Toronto Film Scene

  • "This is a classical Hollywood film and truly a work of art"

    Shane McNeil / Toronto Film Scene

  • "Mariscal's drawings are magical"

    Jenny McCartney / Seven The Sunday

  • "The best jazz soundtrack in decades"

    Chris Sullivan / Metropoli

  • "One of the 10 best films of the year"

    Mark Kermode (BBC)

  • "Almost unimaginably rich and resonant!. Sexy, sweet … an animated valentine to Cuba and its music"

    AO Scott  / NY Times

  • "A swooningly beautiful, adults-only drama!. Evokes a bygone era as well as, or maybe even better than, The Artist!"

    Lou Lumenick / New York Post

  • "Chico & Rita is the first big serendipitous surprise of 2012! A dazzling and delightful work of modernist animation!"

    Andrew O-Hehir / Salon

  • "The grown-up choice to win this year’s oscar for animated feature!"

    Marshall Fine / Huffington Post

  • "Beautiful! a swaying, sexy, dream of a movie! The year's best musical, and one of the year's finest animated films!"

    The Observer