Even for the greatest, things can change enough that what was once popular is now ignored, what was once appreciated is now neglected, and things eventually lose their spark. Originally written by iconic French filmmaker Jacques Tati for one of his daughters, the screenplay for The Illusionist landed in the hands of Sylvain Chomet, who turned Tati’s live-action script into a devastating animated father-daughter drama, where the titular Tatischeff meets Alice, whose childlike belief sparks inspiration again in his own art, whether it be straightforward vaudeville acts or advertisements he resorts to in order to sustain their living. While the hand-drawn animation enables the physical comedy, it does conceal the tragic reality behind Tati’s script, but even as it does so, it somehow mirrors how both Tati and Chomet’s genre created magic, however ephemeral it may be.

Like Jacques Tati’s films, dialogue is minimal here and the sounds are mostly relegated to background noise. However, instead of the lack of sound emphasizing Tati’s movements, it instead now emphasizes the stunning animation of Sylvain Chomet. The Illusionist doesn’t quite match Tati’s own mannerisms, but it does feel like a sweet farewell to both Tati and the traditional western animation genre as a whole.