Best Animated Films - Not from the Big 5

I love animated films. I love the worlds people can create, the larger than life characters, the fun of it all. With the right imagination, an animated film can take you anywhere. So, I thought it would be a good idea to write a list. But not your ordinary list, if I just did an ordinary list of animated movies then it would be dominated by Pixar, Disney, and Dream Works. So instead, I went out of my way to put films on here that are not a part of the five biggest animated studios in the hope that it would expand peoples horizons or something like that.

First things first, the studios I've identified as the five biggest animated studios are:
Disney
Pixar
Dream Works
Ghibli
and Aardman.

So, no Miyazaki, no Wallace and Gromit, a lot of films I'm sure most of you haven't heard of, and now I'm just blabbering. Let's begin!

10. The Princess and the Cobbler (1993)

I took a long time agonising over whether or not I should put this one on the list, since it was released through Miramax, which is owned by Disney. But in the end, my nostalgia won me over. This is one of the first films I remember watching, and after re-discovering it years later I can see that it is not the best movie ever made. The plot is odd, the characters a little one note, and the songs are pretty awful. and don't get me started on the troubled production history. I could go into a lot of detail about the back-story to this film (it did take 28 years to get finished and released), but I'm not going to. Instead, all I will say is what makes it stand out is the animation. It is one of the most beautiful messes you will ever see, with one of the best chase scenes I have ever seen in cinema, let alone animated. So yeah, this one is a little indulgent. But I don't really care. I love this film and its animation, and I don't think I will ever stop.

9. Despicable Me (2010)

If adorable was a film, this would be it. What makes this film work so well is the way it combines slapstick and physical comedy with a really good script and characters. Plus, it's refreshing to see an animated film about parenting and fatherly love rather than romantic love (though that's thrown out the roof in the sequel, but the sequel is still good). And then there are the minions. I love these guys, they overstay their welcome slightly in the sequel, but here there is just the right amount of silly. This is a pretty perfect film for any family, no matter how old. I even managed to persuade my mum to watch it with me. Now that is incredible.

8. Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

I love how the poster calls this the greatest break-up story ever told, cause it really is. So, putting it simply, this is a retelling of the Ramayana using the songs of Annette Hanshaw intercut with the directors own disintegrating marriage and subsequent divorce. And it's free, the whole thing, on youtube. Go see it. You will not see anything like it. The animation here is really well done, with three distinct styles for each of the segments; cutouts for the telling and discussion of the Ramayana, this really cool vector-like artwork for the musical numbers, and a rougher, sketchier style for the modern day parts. It's possibly the second weirdest film on this list, but if you have any interest in Indian mythology, then it is definitely worth a watch. Plus the musical numbers are really fun.

7. Persepolis (2007)

So, I'm sure a few of you have heard of this one. It made quite a splash when it first came out, and despite only watching this recently I can see why. For starters, it happens to be an autobiographical animated film, directed by the original graphic novel's author, Marjane Satrapi. That in itself is unique enough. But then it also happens to be a coming of age story set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. This is not an easy, popcorn film. But it is excellent. The animation style is really fluid and the designs are fairly simple, but that works in its favour since more flashy designs would get in the way of the story. If you want something a little more serious, that looks at recent history from a personal view-point, then I would definitely recommend this.

6. The Secret of Kells (2009)

I wish there were more historical, fantasy animated movies like this, because this film is beautiful! It's so gorgeous! The animation style takes inspiration from not only other animated films like The Princess and the Cobbler, but also from those big, old, Latin books that were held in monasteries and written out by hand and had gold leaf covering the borders! The story itself draws on both Celtic and Christian mythologies, centering around the book of Kells, which is an illuminated gospel book. It's really interesting the way Christian and Celtic ideas interact in 8th century Ireland, and you come away from the film with the feeling that both worlds need to co-exist and continue through the ages. It really is a fascinating film, with excellent characters that I love coming back to. And I haven't even gotten to the music! Definitely one to check out!

5. Yellow Submarine (1968)

This wasn't my first introduction to the Beatles (we'll get to that another day), but this certainly helped cement my love for the band. I think as a six year-old though, a lot of psychedelic imagery went over my head. Now, of course, I can watch this and love all the techniques that they used to create an incredibly different animated film, especially for 1968. There isn't that much plot, the film sort of jumps from song sequence to song sequence, showing off as many Beatles songs as they can. Which is completely fine with me. I think each of the song sequences work well for the songs they are put with. The one that stands out the most for me is 'Eleanor Rigby', I think this film matched the melancholy of the song just right. If you're a Beatles fan then you have to see this. And if you're not a fan, see it anyway! It may change your mind!

4. Coraline (2009)

If I didn't make it abundantly clear in my ParaNorman review, Laika is my new favourite animation studio. Their first film is dark, foreboding, tense, and a lot safer for kids that its source material, in all honesty. (Seriously, the book is so much freakier, but what do you expect from Neil Gaiman.) Coraline Jones is an excellent heroine, and her adventure is at turns spine-tingling and hilarious. I really love French and Saunders doing the voices for Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. And the design of both worlds created here is really stunning. Stop-motion animation at its most impressive. This is why I love animated films, because you get glimpses of worlds that couldn't be created in any other way.

3. Mary and Max (2009)

Wow, 2009 really was the year for excellent animation! Especially stop-motion. This is the first feature film from Adam Elliot, who created the incredible short Harvey Krumpet. Both use very exaggerated, almost grotesque character designs, and both mix deep pathos with witty humour. It's very dry, and very Australian. You will cry during this film. I know I did, and so did my mum. The story is fairly simple. It's a retelling of a correspondence between lonely Australian girl, Mary, and even lonelier American, Max, who has Asperger syndrome. Again, not an altogether easy film to watch due to heavy subject matter, but there are frequent moments of humour that lighten it, and the relationship between these two misfits is so compelling. One of the best Australian films ever made, in my opinion.

2. The Iron Giant (1999)

Yep, the film that made everyone in the 90s cry while simultaneously destroying Warner Bros. animation studio. I'm glad that nowadays it is seen as a classic. This film, it's just so nearly perfect. (No film is perfect, perfection is a myth. Nearly perfect is the next best thing.) The giant robot is awesome, the voice acting is excellent, the animation is beautifully created. I really can't fault it, except it's so darn sad! It's also a really smart film, and has themes and scenarios that might go over a lot of really little kids heads. Which is probably why it failed on its first release. But now, all those kids are grown up and they love it. Me included.

1. The Triplets of Belleville (2003)

I honestly don't know how to explain this movie. I could tell you the plot, but the film has a greater impact if you don't know what's going to happen. I will say that bikes are involved. And the most bad-ass grandmother that ever lived. Seriously, see it for the grandmother. She paddle-boats all the way to New York. She is that amazing. The animation is, once again, kinda grotesque. But absolutely incredible. It's so fluid and quick, and given some of the sequences, it's really astounding how quick the animation turned out. Yeah, I know I'm not really selling this film. And you're probably thinking 'Why should this be number one?' Well, this is the most interesting, different, uniquely animated, insane film, with amazing characters, and a plot that must've been thought up whilst on some kind of substance. It's ... it's leaving me wordless. That is how brilliant this is! See it! See it now!!

So, there's that list. I'm sure some of them you would've guessed. I hope a couple were a bit of a surprise. I hope to get another one out during the break, but I'm not making any promises. Until next time, readers.

Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Epic

Okay, so over the past two weeks or so, I've managed to see all 3 of the new big animated features that have recently come to Australia, mainly because there is nothing else at the cinema (at least the cinema closest to me) that I want to see. So, I've stuck to animation, because at least the visuals should be nice, and at least the jokes might be funny. Instead of giving these films their own reviews, I've bundled them together in the hopes of comparing for my own weird pleasure. Anyway, I just want to say firstly that all of these films are quite good. Really good, actually. Maybe even great. But let's get into them each individually, starting with Pixar's latest.

Monsters University is a prequel to quite possibly my favourite Pixar film ever, Monsters Inc. In this enstalment, we get to see how Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) met at university. After both of them being kicked out of the Scarer Program at the university, they team up together to try and win the Scare Games, along with the underdog fraternity Oozma Kappa. There are other things that happen, of course, but I don't really want to spoil it, because I alway find that Pixar films work better when you just know the basic premise, then you can discover all the messages and meanings for yourself as you watch it.

Okay, I'm gonna say this now. When I first heard that they were making a prequel to Monsters Inc., my first reaction was "Oh crap." I thought it was unnecessary to make anything else to do with that universe, especially since the original film came out over ten years ago. And you know what, after seeing it, I still think it is unnecessary. That doesn't mean I think this is a bad film, far from it, but the ending to Monsters Inc. is for me one of those endings where you don't need anything else. The film was resolved perfectly, and for me, this prequel is just a way to cash in on a franchise. But like I said, that doesn't mean I don't think this is a bad film, and I did enjoy watching it. I just don't think it needed to be made.

Well, now that that's out of the way, what makes this film good? The same thing that held the first film together, the relationship between Mike and Sulley. It is nice to watch them build up their friendship and get to know each other in a fairly believable way, and the other characters in the Oozma Kappa fraternity are all interesting in their own way, especially the designs. But Mike and Sulley really steal the show, especially in the last 20 minutes or so of the film. In fact, the last 20 minutes of the film saved it for me. Up until then, the plot was essentially your typical underdog sports movie type plot, and the end happened and everything changed. I'm not saying what happened, but it is almost as good as the ending in the first one. Almost.

So, if I had one complaint, it would be that Randall's character doesn't get enough screen time. It's pretty much just tagged on as an after thought, which leaves his character really thin. The other thing is that animation is very childish. There are a lot of primary colours used, whereas the first one was more natural looking and dark, but that's just me being a nitpick. The actual animation on the characters is superb as always, I just don't like the colour scheme. Randy Newman returns to do the score, and it is really good this time! There are a few pieces from the first film used here and there, but there are also some really excellent new pieces that use a marching band instrumentation to bring out to university feel. It works really well.

I think that's it for Monsters University. If you liked the first one, then you will probably like this. If you love the first one, like me, then you may come out of this like me feeling a little bit... confused. Not really thinking it should exist, but liking it anyway sort of thing. But it is a good film, it's funny, the characters are great and kids will more than definitely like it.

Moving on to our next film, and I can pretty much guarantee that every kid will like something in this movie. I saw this film about 3 weeks after it had come out at the cinemas and there was not a single seat left in the house. Mind you, it was school holidays, but still. Despicable Me 2 follows the adventures of Gru (Steve Carrell), ex-villain and now proud father, as he is roped into helping the Anti Villain League, run by Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan). He is given a mission to discover a villain in a shopping centre, and also a new partner, Lucy (Kristen Wiig). But that doesn't matter. The whole plot doesn't matter, and doesn't make much sense. This film is basically Minions and other people who are also doing stuff... but mainly MINIONS! They are getting their own film as well.

Yeah, if you didn't like the minions from the first film, then you won't like this film at all. There are whole segments where the plot takes a back seat because the minions are doing something funny. Whereas in the first film they comedic background noise, in this film they take over the whole thing. And to be honest, if you're willing to just sit back and have fun and let the silliness wash over you, then it's not that bad. The minions are funny, so much so that other companies are now copying them terribly (looking at you, Lorax) and even though they draw so much away from the plot, I found my self not caring too much. Basically because this isn't a serious film. It doesn't care if the plot staggers to a rather anti-climatic conclusion, it just wants it's audience to have fun. And have fun I did!

Voice acting-wise, everyone here is good. Steve Carrell is excellent again, as Gru. Kristen Wiig is fun and Lucy is probably my favourite character from the film, if only because she moves from professional to fangirly in a matter of seconds. Both Ken Jeong and Steve Coogan are underused, with there really being no point for Jeong to be in the film except as an obvious red herring. Russell Brand seems to me to be one of those actors, like Seth Rogan, who would be better off as a voice actor, if only because he seems to put more effort into his voice roles than his live action work, though unfortunately in this film his character, Dr Nefario, was sadly not in it that much.

Again, the music was also excellent, with some fun songs written Pharrell Williams, and one of them is even sung by Cee Lo Green. But the tune that steals the show is the Minions version of the YMCA. I think my friend died of laughter at the end of the film when they started singing that. The girls in this sequel aren't in it as much, but Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) does get a cute little romantic subplot that also adds to Gru's frustrations as a father. In fact, everything in this film that isn't minion related, adds to both plot and character, but since the minions are at the centre of it all they take centre stage. It's a tricky conundrum to pull off, and to the films credit, it does this very well. If you want to see something fun and not too complicated or anything, then I'd recommend this.

And finally, we move onto Epic. M.K (Amanda Seyfried) moves back in with her estranged father (Jason Sudeikis) after her mother dies. Her father is obsessed with finding the Leafmen who live in the woods near their house, and obsession that led to his wife leaving him before the events of the film. M.K at first doesn't believe him, until she is shrunk down by the Queen (Beyonce Knowles) and told to guard a pod that contains the Light of the Forest from the evil Boggans, led by Mandrake (Christoph Waltz). Helping her is the leader of the Leafmen, Ronin (Collin Farrel), a young warrior named Nod (Josh Hutcherson) and Mub and Grub (Aziz Ansari and Chris O'Dowd), a slug and snail respectively who are the caretakers of the pods.

When I first saw the trailer, I thought this was a gender-swapped Ferngully, and I'm sure a lot of other people thought that as well. There are countless films that are so similar to this, whether through style or story or design or character, it would be pointless to name them all, but some of the ones I came up with were Avatar, Arthur and the Invisibles, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. But let me tell you something, this is better than all of them. The biggest problem with this film was that it came out too late. If this had come out ten or even five years ago, then I think people wouldn't dismiss this film as easily as they are doing now, and as I did. That isn't to say it's perfect, but out of all the out-of-body/walk-in-someone-elses-shoes/shrinking-humans with a possible environmental message films that are out there (and there are more than you'd think), this one is at the top.

And I think the reason for that is because there is no real environmental message. In fact, you want the message of the movie? Watch the rainforest speech from The IT Crowd. That is the message. Everyone is connected, and relies upon and helps each other. The animation in this is also glorious, and some of the designs for the leafmen and the forest inhabitants are very beautiful. The characters are also fun, but my favourite would have to be Queen Tara, mainly because she doesn't let being in a life threatening situation ruin her day. She still has fun! And then when she is in immediate danger, she helps all her subjects as she is helping herself. And she's Queen, not Princess, fucking Queen! Oh my god, it is refreshing to not have an authority figure that is female that isn't a Princess for once.

The voice acting is generally good, with the Chris O'Down and Aziz Ansari stealing many of the scenes they're in. Pitbull makes a cameo appearance as a toad (he he), but I think the real thing that makes this film my favourite of the three (and it is my favourite, and I'll get into more detail as to why in a minute) is that it has Steve Tyler playing a glowworm named Nim Galuu. Let me repeat that. Steve Tyler, yes that Steve Tyler, play a glowworm named Nim Galuu. Nothing can beat that.

So, apart from Steve Tyler, why is this my favourite? I think it might be because, even though the story was old 20 years ago, it isn't part of an existing franchise. Yeah, it was based on a book, from the same author who wrote books that Meet the Robinsons, and The Rise of the Guardians would be based on, but it isn't a sequel or prequel. In the film world, it is an original. The story may not be new, but all the little details are, and it stands out against a world dominated by tired franchises that need to be put down (looking at you, Fast and Furious 6). So yeah, if you haven't seen any of these movies, I would recommend all of them. They all cater to different tastes, so you're bound to find something you like in one of them. I think my next blog will be a list. Not sure yet. Anyway, until next time, readers.