About this movie
- Genres:
- Animation, Foreign Film
- Language:
- English
- Running time:
- 1:21:32
- Partner rating:
- Released:
- 2008
- Quality:
- 480 (DVD equivalent)
Cast & Crew
Cast
- Aseem Chhabra
- Bhavana Nagulapally
- Manish Acharya
- Annette Hanshaw
- Debargo Sanyal
- Sanjiv Jhaveri
- Reena Shah
Directors
- Nina Paley
Producers
- Nina Paley
Sita Sings the Blues
Two women having troubles with their men, separated by several centuries, find their stories coming together in this animated comedy-drama from artist and animator Nina Paley. A female cartoonist moves from the United States when her husband gets a new job in India. While acclimating to her new life in India, the cartoonist becomes fascinated with the Hindu folk tale "the Ramayana," in which a beautiful woman named Sita, who was created spontaneously from the Earth, is adopted by King Janaka, pledged to a brave warrior named Rama, and is kidnapped by the demonic leader Ravana. Sita's story is given two visual interpretations at once -- a visually striking abstract version and another which employs a whimsical, cartoony approach and uses vintage recordings of jazz singer Annette Hanshaw for Sita's voice. As the film jumps back and forth between two adaptations of the Ramayana, the cartoonist discovers that her sojourn in India has taken a turn for the worse when her husband falls in love with another woman. Sita Sings The Blues was an official entry at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.
Reviews by Rotten Tomatoes
100%
percent positive reviews
-
Frank Scheck, Hollywood ReporterCharming indie animated film that doesn't insult anyone's intelligence.
-
A.O. Scott, New York Times
And the ingenuity of Sita -- which evokes painting, collage, underground comic books, Mumbai musicals and "Yellow Submarine" (for starters) - is dazzling. Not busy, or overwhelming, or eye-popping....
– Full review
-
Michelle Orange, Village Voice
Paley's beguiling, consistently inventive visuals and sly yet melancholy tone are about as warm and winning as heartbreak-fueled empowerment gets.
– Full review
-
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Nina Paley's animated marvel mixes a personal tale of romantic woe with a fabulous, often hilarious, recounting of the Sanskrit epic fable The Ramayana.
– Full review
-
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Captivating, mesmerizing, spellbinding -- I'll throw everything in the movie-critic book at this animated feature by Nina Paley
– Full review
-
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Nina Paley's delicious Sita Sings the Blues finds solace in autobiography and an animated gold mine in the caverns of an ancient Sanskrit epic.
– Full review
You might also like...
-
BaaBaa the Sheep
59:05 1977A naïve guy from a small village in Israel, assembles a sheep out of a sponge lump, plasticine for a head and 4 nails for legs. Seemingly an unsophisticated creature, nothing to take notice of. And there at one single moment it makes its break out to the realms of the village, the global village, the world. The movie follows the way of the spong...
-
Krishna
1:39:02 2006This lively animated musical tells the story of the Hindu god Krishna, including his birth and many of his celebrated adventures. The film follows the young Krishna through his childhood exploits battling the demons Pootna and Trinavarat, as well as the funnier stories about his playful and naughty side. Other important stories about Krishna are...
Alisha Chinai, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rajendra Shiv, Kumar Sanu, Sukhvinder Singh, ...
-
How to Train Your Dragon
1:37:50 2010The son of a Viking chief must capture a dragon in order to mark his passage into manhood and prove his worthiness to the tribe in directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois' adaptation of Cressida Cowell's popular children's book. Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse provide voices for the DreamWo...
Gerard Butler [Stoick the Vast Voice], Jonah Hill [Snotlout Voice], America F...
98%
$2.99
-
Phineas And Ferb: Across The Second Dimension
1:18:10 2011This full length feature film from the animated series Phineas and Ferb follows the titular heroes on an inter-dimensional adventure, as they follow Dr. Doofenschmirtz through his Ortherdimensionator - and into a bizarro world where Dr. Doof is the ruler, and an army of robots obey his every command. Can Perry make a daring rescue and save the d...
Vincent Martella, Ashley Tisdale, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Caroline Rhea, Rich...
-
Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare
1:12:31 2010This animated release from Scooby-Doo follows the gang from Mystery Inc. on a summer camp adventure, as they find themselves solving a caper at Camp Little Moose, where there are too many ghost stories to keep track of. Together, Daphne, Velma, Fred, Shaggy, and of course, Scooby separate fact from fiction and figure out whether the camper's spo...
Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle
-
Leapfrog: Phonics Farm
34:47 2011Scout, Violet, Eli, and Penny learn all about animals when Axle, their magical toy car, takes them to a very unique farm. From an athletic alligator to a sad seal, Scout and his pals leave the farm with an entirely new perspective on both animals and the alphabet.
Jeannie Elias, Kat Feller, Sandy Fox
Staff Picks
-
I Wish
Twelve-year-old Koichi lives with his mother and retired grandparents in the southern region of Japan. His younger brother Ryunosuke lives with their father ...
I Wish
2:08:30 2012Twelve-year-old Koichi lives with his mother and retired grandparents in the southern region of Japan. His younger brother Ryunosuke lives with their father in the northern region of Japan. The brothers have been separated by their parents' divorce, and Koichi's only wish is for his family to be reunited. When he learns that a new bullet train l...
Maeda Koki, Maeda Ohshiro, Ryan Donowho
-
Jim
Being steadily crushed under the weight of debt, unemployment, and increasing isolation, Jim reaches a breaking point. Over a game of solitary Russian roulet...
Jim
1:45:14 2010Being steadily crushed under the weight of debt, unemployment, and increasing isolation, Jim reaches a breaking point. Over a game of solitary Russian roulette he contemplates an unspeakable act of violence as a way of leaving his mark. He is stopped short by a vision of his deceased wife who convinces him that he should instead focus his remain...
Dan Illian, Vanessa Morris-Burke, Abigail Savage
-
The Amazing Spider-Man
Typical teenager Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) embraces his incredible destiny after uncovering one of his father's most carefully guarded secrets as Columb...
The Amazing Spider-Man
2:16:17 2012Typical teenager Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) embraces his incredible destiny after uncovering one of his father's most carefully guarded secrets as Columbia Pictures reboots the Spider-Man franchise with the help of director Mark Webb ((500) Days of Summer) and screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Zodiac). Sally Field, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Mart...
Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan ...
73%
$14.99