Amanda A Dream | Come True Cartoon By Steve Strange

Tragically, Amanda: A Dream Come True never received a wide theatrical release. Distributors were baffled. "Is it for children?" they asked. Strange famously replied, "Children know more about anxiety than adults do. This is for anyone who has ever been lonely."

After shopping the film around for two years, Strange struck a deal with a small European home video label. In 1993, the cartoon was released on VHS in Germany and France under the title Amanda – Ein Traum Wird Wahr. It sold approximately 15,000 copies.

Critics who saw it at the 1992 Annecy International Animated Film Festival were divided. Variety called it "a beautiful, incoherent nightmare." The UK’s Sight & Sound praised its "uncompromising visual poetry" but admitted the pacing was "agonizingly slow." Audiences who stumbled upon it, however, formed a fierce cult following. They praised the raw emotion of the scene where Amanda holds a conversation with her own shadow. Amanda A Dream Come True Cartoon By Steve Strange

Strange’s visual signature is immediately recognizable. He employs:

Animation critics have described the look of Amanda: A Dream Come True as “Studio Ghibli meets One Thousand and One Nights, directed by Spike Jonze. ” It is nostalgic and futuristic simultaneously. Tragically, Amanda: A Dream Come True never received

In 2004, a decade after the film’s quiet release, a French-Canadian animation studio bought the rights to Amanda: A Dream Come True and repackaged it as a 26-episode Saturday morning cartoon. This version sanded down the sharp edges. The Static King became a cackling, non-threatening villain. Amanda’s mother was revived in episode two. The haunting synth score was replaced by bubblegum pop.

Steve Strange was not involved. In a blistering 2005 interview, he called the TV show "a lobotomy of the soul." He told NME, "They turned my meditation on grief into a cereal commercial. That Amanda is not my Amanda." Animation critics have described the look of Amanda:

Despite Strange’s displeasure, the TV series introduced the basic concept to a new generation. Many fans of the show grew up, sought out the original 1992 film on grainy YouTube uploads, and were shocked by its darkness. For these fans, discovering the original Amanda was, ironically, "a dream come true" in the Strange sense: beautiful, painful, and entirely their own.