The film was entirely rotoscoped, although it was shot using digital video of live actors with a team of artists drawing stylized lines and colors over each frame with computers, rather than being filmed and traced onto cels on a lightbox. The film contains several parallels to Linklater's 1991 film "Slacker". Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters from "Before Sunrise" in one scene. "Waking Life" premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Despite being a modest commercial success, grossing $3.2 million against a budget of $2 million, the film received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with praise going to the animation style, plot, screenplay, and cast performances.