The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a Netflix documentary about a young man with degenerative muscular disease who lived out a deep and meaningful life in World of Warcraft. The doc is clever in how it shows off his real world home movies, tracking his health as he moved from a wobbly kid, to a teen consigned to a wheelchair, to an adult unable to move much more than his hands. It ends with his death at 25 and then rewinds to show his rich life online through customized animations of his life in Azeroth.

This is a heartfelt, wonderful, and sad film no matter who you are. But I know the feelings welling up in me were due to my own experiences in World of Warcraft… and across various less gamified online interactions over the years. People unfamiliar with rich online communities may find this film a little odd, but hopefully informative. Those of us who know will find themselves nodding along with familiarity.

So, yeah, I was moved to tears on a number of occasions, partly for the warm, tragic story but also for my own personal nostalgic memories of when WoW was great. Maybe that’s a little unfair to the doc, but, then again, it’s the doc that moved me to such introspection. For the win.

One of the most wonderful parts of the film is when the parents discover this rich life their son had lived online. They didn’t know… but only when dozens and dozens of email pored into their inbox did it awaken them to what their son had really experienced in his final years.

The part of the doc about his life in WoW is told through machinima animations using assets from the game itself. Not exactly accurate animations or even true representations of how WoW actually works, but that’s the creative license used to portray thousands of hours of gaming transcripts. WoW fans will see the artifice and hopefully go with it. Everyone else will hopefully follow along as well. It’s the emotional intent more than the accuracy that matters.

This is a deeply moving documentary that’s about life lived online. It’s also about death and it will punch you in the gut. It will show you a deeper world for someone who couldn’t live a full life in the real one. And it might give you insight in how online lives and families can be formed and feel deeply meaningful. It’s a great dedication to a friend from friends about friends.

Score: 87