Every year, I get on my high horse, complaining about how most of the
films eligible for the Animated Film Oscar aren’t available to watch – and
every year, it doesn’t change. So screw it – let’s just get to what I have
seen.
Even if the top films of the year in this category were excellent – it
does feel like the bottom films were worse than normal. This included: The Angry Birds Movie 2 (Thurop Van Orman) which
was so lazy and cynical it made be irrationally angry to sit through. The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Chris Renaud) tried
to do absolutely nothing original with the characters or situations from the
fun original film. Ugly Dolls (Kelly
Asbury) is a cynical ploy to sell more dolls – and a lazy one to boot) Wonder Park (No Director Credited) is a cheapie
film, scheduled during a lull to make some quick bucks – and that’s basically
all it was.
I was completely and totally unoffended – but also completely forgot – The Addams Family (Conrad Vernon & Greg
Tiernan) – which makes it better than the ones above.
Better than all of those was: Abominable
(Jill Culton) which certainly didn’t reinvent anything, and was basically a
safe, mainstream film for kids – was still enjoyable and well animated. Spies in Disguise (Troy Quane & Nick
Bruno) is a fun action/comedy with a slightly different – anti-violence
message, I admired.
And finally, some runners-up: Buñuel
in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (Salvador Simó Busom) is a film I admire –
would that Hollywood think of making an animated film about Luis Bunuel making
his 1933 satirical documentary Las Hurdes – even if the animation itself is
just passable, and it simplifies things too much. Frozen II (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee) was a very good Disney
film, with some okay music, but it just cannot match the original. Klaus (Sergio Pablos) is charming, old
school animated Christmas film that looks better than the story – but it’s a
charming film just the same. The Lego
Movie 2: The Second Part (Mike Mitchell) is a very fun sequel – but doesn’t
come close to hitting the heights of the great original.
5. Missing Link (Chris
Butler)
Laika has become one of the best studios for animated family fare around
– and it’s sad that audiences have not caught on yet as Coraline, Kubo and the
Two Strings and particularly Missing Link didn’t quite find the theatrical
audience they deserved. No, I don’t think Missing Link quite lives up to what
Laika has done before it is still very fun. It is the story of a yeti
travelling across the world with an explorer to meet his relatives. The film is
fast paced and funny, and beautifully animated, with a kind of melancholy
undercurrent to it. Laika deserves better from audiences – so get on that
people!
4. I Lost My Body
(Jeremy Clapin)
Perhaps the year’s most original animated film – this one is about a
severed hand, who escapes from a medical lab, and tries to find its way back to
its owner across the streets of Paris. Intercut with that is the story of the
owner of that hand in the weeks before he loses it. When the film is
concentrated on the hand itself, it is magical – brilliantly animated, funny,
expressive and with a great score. I also loved the hand-centric flashbacks –
as if the severed hand is slowly regaining its consciousness. Less successful
is the story of the owner himself – who is perhaps a little creepier than the
filmmakers realized. Still, those scenes are still fine – but if the entire
film had been as good as the ones with the hand itself, this would easily have
been the year’s best animated film.
3. Ruben Brandt,
Collector (Milorad Krstic)
A holdover from last year’s animated film race (that didn’t make the
cut) but didn’t really get released until this year, Ruben Brandt, Collector is
one of the most original and best looking animated film of the year. It is a
film aimed at adults – as a psychiatrist used his patients, with various skill
sets, to steal world famous art work from around the world, as a cop tries to
piece together what happens. The animation is based on these famous painting –
melding together with the terrific backgrounds and a fast moving plot. No, I
don’t think the film is particularly deep – but it’s so much fun, so beautiful
to look at, that it hardly matters. We need more animated film aimed at adult’s
audiences like this.
2. How to Train Your
Dragon: Hidden World (Dean Deblois)
Dreamworks has struggled somewhat with animation – making rather crude
imitations of great animated films, film built for the moment, that don’t age
well (like Shrek). The one exception has been the How to Train Your Dragon
series, which has been beautiful and heartfelt throughout. The films have always
been clever and funny, without being crash and cheap, have wonderful action
sequences, without it becoming fast moving, loud, colorful crap. And the films
have always been emotionally grounded as well – they have real emotional
stakes. The Hidden World is the final chapter of this saga, and its beautiful
and exiting throughout, with a brilliant, emotional final scene that leaves you
filled. This has been a great series – and this is a wonderful final chapter.
1. Toy Story 4 (Josh
Cooley)
Put me down as one of those people who didn’t really think we needed a
fourth Toy Story film – the third installment ended things perfectly. And yet,
even if Toy Story 4 kind of plays like afterward to the series as a whole, it’s
such a good one that I didn’t really care. The film, which focuses on Woody
figuring out that he will never be the favorite toy again, and having to find
happiness and fulfillment elsewhere. It is perhaps the saddest, most melancholy
of the Toy Story movies – which has always had that streak in it of course –
and ends the series on the absolute perfect note. It probably is a step down
from the best of this series (which is still Toy Story 3 for me) – but it does
show that Pixar can do sequels, and do them well – if only in this series. But
please, we don’t really need a Toy Story 5 – this one ends on the right note.
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