2017 Year End Report: Best Animated Films

This year, 26 films were submitted for the animated film Oscar. I have seen 12 of those – as well as four others that were released in theaters this year, but are not among the 26 films submitted – two of those because they were eligible last year (one was nominated), and two who, I guess, didn’t bother to submit. The film that I “missed” (I put that in quotes, because for the most part, these films don’t release – at least not widely – during the year – hoping to sneak into the Oscar race to help its box office) were The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, Cinderella the Cat, Ethel & Ernest, The Girl without Hands, In This Corner of the World, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Moomins and the Winter Wonderland, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, Napping Princess, A Silent Voice, Sword Art Online: The Movie - Ordinal Scale and Window Horses The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming. I could have seen several of these films in theaters in Toronto – I think – or some perhaps on VOD – but for whatever reason I didn’t – they are smaller releases, and it’s tougher to see them (if my math and memory is correct, I think I could have seen three of these –In This Corner of the World, A Silent Voice and Window Horses- but not the other 10. The 1 mainstream films I missed and The Star – I have less of an excuse for, except that I didn’t want to. I’m not going to complain too much about that – the reality is the reality of non-studio, perhaps non-kids animated fare – I love them, and try to see what I can, but’s it’s not always easy.

 

Anyway, onto what I did see – starting in the dregs, and getting up to the pretty good. This wasn’t exactly a banner year for animation – and many will probably think I cheated on my number 1 – so be it.

 

The Emoji Movie (Tony Leondis) is slickly produced, cynical crap – the type of film that gives kids animation a bad name – horrible by any standards.

 

Ballerina aka Leap (Eric Summer & Eric Wairn) is an inspiring tale about a young girl following her dreams – my young daughter loved it, but it’s being a lower budgeted film certainly shows. The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (Cal Bruckner) is as forgettable as the original – and a little less fun. Smurfs: The Lost Village (Kelly Asbury) continues a very uninspired cinematic series – that needs to die, or go back to the drawing board once again (hopefully after a long hiatus).

 

The Boss Baby (Tom McGrath) has a great central idea, and fine vocal work to be sure – I just don’t think it ever quite raises to the level that it probably should have been. Despicable Me 3 (Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balba & Eric Guillon) has too many characters, which makes everything – even the few things that work very well – seem rushed – it’s time for this series to end. The Lego Ninjago Movie (Charlie Bean & Paul Fisher & Bob Logan) is fun in fits and starts, but doesn’t come together like the other Lego movies does – it copies the franchise model far too closely. My Little Pony: The Movie (Jayson Thieseen) is candy colored garbage, aimed at young children – who eat it up – but also a little more clever and funny than it needs to be.

 

Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman) is utterly and completely gorgeous – as befits the first ever oil painting animated film, and one dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh – the story doesn’t come close to living up to it though.

 

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (David Soren) really shouldn’t be as fun as it is – since it is essentially a 90 minute fart joke, but it’s a funny 90 minute fart joke. Cars 3 (Brian Fee) is probably my favorite of the Cars movies – which, true, are still lesser Pixar – but this one isn’t quite as lesser as some think. Ferdinand (Carlos Saldanha) is a charming, funny, sweet film about a bull who wants nothing more than to smell the flowers. Your Name. (Makoto Shinkai) was a holdover from last year’s Oscar race (it didn’t get nominated) and was a phenomenon in Japan – and is the best anime film of the film – even if I thought it kind went off the rails near the end, no matter how gorgeous the film looked.

 

Top 5

 

 

5. The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)

Cartoon Saloon’s third feature – following The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea – is just as charming as their first two. This one is about a little girl in Kabul, living under Taliban rule, who has little choice but to disguise herself as a boy, in order to support her family, and hopefully, help get her father out of jail. The film is at times a thrilling adventure, but is also clever and funny – good for older, mature children – but with enough darkness to give it more weight. It is also among the most beautiful animated films of the year. Yes, the narrative is clunky at times – but the film is also a delight to look at, and gets the big things right. Cartoon Saloon is a studio whose every film I look forward to more and more.

 

4. My Life as a Zucchini (Claude Barras)

Nominated at last year’s Oscars (but not released until this year), Claude Barras’ My Life as a Zucchini is a quietly touching film, about a year in the life of a young boy who becomes an orphan. This is a largely plotless, 67 minute film that drifts from one incident to another – and yet oddly, builds an emotional power all its own. The stop motion animation is truly remarkable – I love this style of animation in general, but it’s still excellent. The film is simple and straight forward in many ways – which is one of the reasons why it works so well. A quietly moving film.

 

3. The Lego Batman Movie (Chris McKay)

The Lego Batman Movie would always have been funny – it’s one of those movies that is chalked full of visual gags from start to finish, and has more jokes than you can possibly listen to on one viewing – but it’s even better this year, given just how prevalent superhero movies remain in our film culture. Having this Batman be made of Lego, and essentially be a parody of the self-serious Batman that has become pretty much ridiculous at this point, makes it even better. The film lacks the originality of The Lego Movie (and the third film in the franchise – The Lego Ninjago Movie tries very hard to repeat what works about this film, with far inferior results) – but it’s a model of how this film can work. Will it work for any character other than Batman? I don’t know – but it works wonderfully for him.

 

2. Coco (Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina)

Pixar’s latest film Coco, is a funny, entertaining, delightful film – full of great music, and is also clearly the most beautiful animated film to hit screens in 2017. The story of a young boy, who gets cursed, and has until sundown to get back to the Land of the Living is full of great visuals, and songs. The film is steeped in, and respectful of, Mexican culture. The Land of the Dead is one of the best, most visually dense environments that Pixar has ever created. The characters are almost all skeletons – but amusing, and funny skeletons, so as not to scare kids. Coco is not quite up with the very best of Pixar films – if it were, it would also be on my regular top 10 list – but it’s close, and it is easily the best animated film of this rather lackluster year in animation. If that feels like a backhanded compliment – it isn’t meant to be. Coco is a must see.

 

1. World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts (Don Hertzfeldt)

Don Hertzfeldt’s 16 minute 2015 short World of Tomorrow is one of the greatest animated shorts of all time, and one of the best sci fi films of the century. It was perfect and didn’t require a sequel. And yet, here we are two years later, and Hertzfeldt has made a truly great sequel. I don’t think this one is quite as good as the first one – the shock of Hertzfeldt’s stick figures with the beautiful digital backgrounds helped make the film so good, and this time we expect it. What you may not expect is that while the last film looked outward at the world, this one dives deeper into the individual mind – and the need to get out of your head, and live in the present. It’s a beautiful, 23 minute film that is also hilarious, and quietly profound. It was the best animated film I saw this year – even if it was a short.