The Movie:

If one were to make a venn diagram with "animation" in one circle and "films that realistically deal with aging" in another circle, the end results might be Pixar's Up and the 2011 Spanish feature Arrugas. Released in the U.S. as Wrinkles, this heartwarming tale delves into the story of a sensible, elderly man who finds himself dumped into an assisted living facility. Sounds like a happy night at the movies, eh? While it does have a strong sense of pathos, this first feature from director Ignacio Ferreras takes on this touchy subject with a buoyant, mordant sense of humor and lots of sympathy for its greying, sagging main characters.

With a small cast and most of the plot confined to a sterile old folks' home, Wrinkles is another film which didn't necessarily need to be animated (a few flashbacks and fantasy sequences required more imaginative visuals). The fact that it is animated makes the story's unlikely blossoming friendship between the lead characters all the more magical, however. It begins with a tense domestic scene involving a forgetful old man, his short-tempered adult son and the patient daughter-in-law. Upset at the toll the retired banker Emilio is taking on his daily life, Juan and his wife make the decision to place him in a gleaming assisted care facility. Though the immaculate place disorients him at first, Emilio is welcomed by his chatty roommate, Miguel. While showing Emilio around the facility (including an solitary swimming pool built solely to look good in their advertising brochures), Miguel is revealed to be a sly manipulator who swindles bits of cash from the facility's less cogent residents. Despite Emilio's apprehension with Miguel, he eventually comes to rely on the more outgoing fellow to help guide him through this strange world of ritualized pill taking, bland meals, endless naps, and the mysterious second floor where the most critical residents are herded. With the residents in various stage of health, some deep in a fog of Alzheimer's, the formerly independent Emilio comes to realize why he was moved to this godforsaken place - thankful that he's got a guy like Miguel in his corner.

Adapted from a comic strip from Spanish cartoonist Paco Roca, Wrinkles addresses growing older with clarity, intelligence and a lack of sentiment. While the story's final third sags a bit (wait, maybe I shouldn't put it that way), the vividly drawn characters and enjoyable situations make it a hard-hitting delight. Many have accurately compared it with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, especially light-hearted sequences like the one where the facility's physical therapist is flustered by the male residents ogling her big breasts. There's also a lot of unexpected poignancy particularly when it comes to Antonia, the main pair's feisty friend and fellow resident, and Loli, a relatively able-bodied woman caring for her Alzheimer's-afflicted husband, Modesto. Visually, the bland, spare, one-point perspective vistas it uses for backgrounds are redolent of Chris Ware's work, while the rounded character designs call to mind the Hulu-exclusive series The Awesomes. Weird as it may seem, this is actually a beautiful movie to look at.

In addition to the original Spanish-language soundtrack, Gkids' DVD edition of Wrinkles includes a nicely produced dub made for the film's British and U.S. release, which includes the voice talents of Martin Sheen as Emilio, a fantastic George Coe as Miguel, and Matthew Modine as Juan. Between the two, the scripts have some interesting, minor variants (the dub contains a reference to Lawrence Welk not in the original, for instance). Either way it's heard, Wrinkles is an affecting, worthwhile effort.

The DVD:

Video:

The bad news… Gkids/Cinedigm's U.S. DVD edition of Wrinkles suffers from having an overly-compressed, pixelized picture. Although the 16:9 image sports vivid colors and a pleasing light/dark balance, the animation outlines have a distinct choppy texture with haloing effects around the edges. This probably wouldn't be as noticeable on a live action film, but here it sticks out like a sore thumb. The lesser picture quality was likely necessary to make room for a feature-length animatic on the disc's extras, although one has to wonder whether it was worth the sacrifice. If you're a stickler for picture quality, Anchor Bay's U.K. Blu Ray of the film would be a better choice.

Audio:

Wrinkles is provided with 5.1 Surround mixes in the default English and the original Spanish language. While surround effects are used sparingly, the tracks on the whole are pleasant listens with pristine sounding dialogue and effects seamlessly mixed in with a lush, excellent sounding score. Two English subtitles tracks are provided: one translating the Spanish track, the other supplying text for the deaf and hard of hearing (a larger-than-usual audience for this particular movie?).

Extras:

The main extra here is the Feature-Length Animatic, which plays a rough, sketched-out storyboard version of the film accompanied with an isolated dialogue and sound effects track in English. This is a fun way to watch the movie (keep the Spanish-translation subtitles on and spot the script differences, as well). Other features include a 2-1/2 minute Behind-The-Scenes montage of preliminary sketches and animators at work, and a Theatrical Trailer for the English-dubbed release. Trailers for other Gkids releases round out the extras.

Final Thoughts:

Fans of out-of-the-ordinary animation, take note: Wrinkles addresses the theme of "growing old isn't for sissies" with poignancy, humor, and a lovely visual palette. While a demerit goes to Gkids for the DVD's sub-standard picture quality, this thoughtfully done film itself comes recommended.

Matt Hinrichs is a designer, artist, film critic and jack-of-all-trades in Phoenix, Arizona. Since 2000, he has been blogging at Scrubbles.net. 4 Color Cowboy is his repository of Western-kitsch imagery, while other films he's experienced are logged at Letterboxd. He also welcomes friends on Twitter @4colorcowboy.