The Latest
Though not a Disney film, “IF” (2024) employed this technology to portray a story about how childhood magic comes back into a cynical girl’s life.“IF” was written, directed, and co-produced by John Krasinski, an actor and filmmaker, who also plays the heroine’s father. Krasinski and actor Ryan Reynolds, who plays a prominent role in the film, developed the concept together and shopped it to several major studios. It bears a resemblance to a sequence in Pixar’s “Inside Out” (2015) involving Riley’s forgotten imaginary friend, Bing Bong. British animation studio Framestore created the animated characters and sequences. A-list actors voice most of the animated Imaginary Friends (IFs).
Bea (Cailey Fleming) is a sad 12-year-old who lives with her grandmother in New York City. Her father (Krasinski) receives treatment for a serious heart condition at the same hospital where her mother died of cancer years ago. In her grandmother’s apartment building, she encounters a butterfly-like creature named Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), a giant purple monster named Blue (Steve Carrell), and a mysterious man named Cal (Reynolds).
Cal explains that it’s his job to find new homes for IFs, whose original children have outgrown them. Bea reluctantly agrees to help him, so he takes her to the Memory Lane Retirement Home for forgotten IFs on Coney Island. There, she meets the aged teddy bear Lewis (Louis Gossett Jr.), who runs the facility. After unsuccessfully trying to place an IF with a little boy (Alan Kim) in the hospital, Bea realizes with Lewis’s help that the IFs need their old children, not new ones. She helps each IF find its special person to share a moment of recollection. Along the way, she rediscovers the wonder she’s been missing in her own life.
The Greatest
A classic film about a man who has a beloved friend that nobody else can see is “Harvey” (1950). Starring James Stewart, the film was based on a popular 1944 play of the same name by Mary Chase. Although Elwood P. Dowd was one of his quirkier characters, he remains one of Stewart’s defining roles. The movie was very successful. It performed well at the box office and received recognition at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.Elwood P. Dowd (Stewart) lives in a small town with his widowed sister, Veta Louise Simmons (Josephine Hull), and her spinster daughter, Myrtle Mae (Victoria Horne). Although a confirmed bachelor, Dowd isn’t without companionship. He regularly invites old friends and new acquaintances over to dinner.
His constant companion is Harvey. This causes great distress for Veta Louise and Myrtle Mae because Harvey is a pooka, a Celtic animal fairy, in the form of a 6-foot, 3 1/2-inch tall white rabbit. Harvey is invisible to almost everyone except Dowd. Naturally, most people who meet Dowd share Veta Louise’s conviction that he’s either a drunk or a crackpot.
With the help of her friend Judge Gaffney (William H. Lynn), Veta Louise commits Dowd to a sanitarium. There, his gentleness and whimsy touch the hearts of a romantic nurse (Peggy Dow), a cynical psychologist (Charles Drake), and the sanitarium’s middle-aged founder, Dr. Chumley (Cecil Kellaway).
“Harvey” and “IF” are both about whimsical creatures that only one character can see, making onlookers doubt that person’s sanity. While Dowd sees only one otherworldly creature, Bea sees dozens. Calling the IFs imaginary friends is a bit misleading, since that term implies that they’re mere figments of children’s imaginations. The story rests on the idea that they are guiding spirits of hope, like whimsical guardian angels that exist beyond their imaginers’ daydreams. One could argue that Harvey is Dowd’s IF. We never actually see Harvey on screen. There’s some evidence of his existence at the end of the movie, and we see his likeness in a painting.
Make Believe Versus Blasphemy
Throughout Western history, young and old alike have been entertained with fanciful tales of magic, fairies, talking animals, and hordes of other mythical creatures. In the modern world, there’s just as much fantasy in entertainment, yet it takes on a simpler form. Trolls and nymphs have been replaced with superheroes, and pookas have been replaced with imaginary friends.Besides the profanity, the CGI, and the modern setting, “IF” is similar to “Harvey” in its worldview. Both films end with a commitment to whimsy and imagination as well as a bonding with real-life family members.
In one way, however, “IF” goes too far. Near the film’s end, the message is that each person’s IF is a lifelong friend to call on for guidance, support, and love; he need only call for the IF and keep love in his heart. These so-called “Imaginary Friends” take the place of God as the guide who never leaves or forsakes you.
“Harvey” is a much better example of an imaginary friend. To Dowd, that’s all what he is: a best friend whom no one else can see. I prefer that to a heavy-handed depiction of secular guardian angels. Movies don’t have to be religious, but they need to respect the traditional faith on which our civilization is based.
