The BEST Animated Film Is...

... in my opinion. Aladdin.



But I also enjoyed "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty And The Beast".

Aladdin's animation wasn't all that spectacular... but Robin Williams zaniness was definitely the best thing about the movie.

Okay, that covers "traditional" animation. Now for CG animation... my favorite film is (No... not "Chicken Run") it's "Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within"

Toy Story (I&II)
Monsters Inc.

etc..

I agree with your choice and the guy is a brilliant perfectionist who is as demanding of himself as everyone around him. :thumbsup:

YELLOW SUBMARINE is where its at. :hippie:

Freaking fantastic film. I just wish the fab four had actually done the voices. Great movie, though!

david

Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and Ghost in a shell.

Shrek and Monster Inc. for pure computer animation movies. Finding Nemo ain't bad either.

Final Fantasy had nice graphics but a horrible story - and the German translation was horrible aswell.

... but a great story.

-- Allen

really know how to do animation. It was an incredible story, too. And very erotic, as I remember. The French are okay at erotic, too, or so I've been told.

Fantastic Planet really showed how artistic animated movies can be, and with a very interesting and unique story as well. A definite first rate film!

david

Kucinich 2004

Exceptional. I sat there and blubbered like a baby at the end.

My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Naussica of the Valley of the Wind, are the best all ages animated films I've ever seen. His more mature stuff, Princess Mononoke and The Castle of Coglisotro are also masterpieces of animation for an older crowd.

Disney releases his stuff in the US.

definitely Totoro or Spirited Away.

Awesome movie. I can't believe Miyazaki marketed that as a kids film. I've never seen a kids flick with so many deep progressive themes. It's entertaining as hell and beautiful to look at too. A close second for me would be Princess Mononoke.

I'm not even an anime fan. Most of the stuff confuses the hell out of me, but I love those movies. Akira is great too.

unbelievably beautiful

difficult to grasp but for Japanese children it's fairly easy because a lot of the themes fall under Japanese lore.

*grumble* *grumble* *grumble*

It's called "Castle in the Sky" according to the new Disney release. One of my all time favorites.

david

Kucinich 2004

otherwise I have no doubt it would have been there.

I was a bit disappointed with the Disney dub and the revamping of the score, but it's still good. I think the "Castle in the Sky" DVD has the original audio track as well.

The film was released in theaters with a different dub in the US in 1990. I much prefered that one, though this one isn't bad either.

It's not quite as "fantastic" as Spirited Away, but he has some beautiful environmental themes as well as that feeling of industrial revolution mixed with folklore that is just wonderful. Ahhhhh...

The rescue scene from the military castle got people cheering in the theaters. Just phenominal.

david

Kucinich 2004

that just came out has the original Japanese soundtrack on it and it's perfect. If you do not speak Japanese you can always turn on the english subtitles.

since I was a little kid. Miyazaki-san has always produced fantastic stories and I was so happy when they released all the DVD's here in the states with the original Japanese Soundtrack there a lot of fun to watch with my daughter. I just wished they would release My Neighbor Totoro on DVD with the original Japanese Soundtrack the one I have was produced by fox and it sucks.

That Fox's claim to the licence is up in 04 and that Disney will attain the rights thereafter allowing Laputa, Totoro, and Nausicaa release under the Disney Label. Also, Disney would have to comply with existing licencing regs, i.e. no edits, for handling Ghibli products.

Central Park Media (I think) released a double disk special edition of Grave of the Fireflies in June. Although not a Ghibli, it's director and produver are Ghibli alum.

Last time I was in Japan I bought "Tonari no Totoro" but my DVD player does not support the region code so I can't watch it :(

You can select the region a few times in Win XP and Mac OS 9/X. It also handles NTSC/PAL conversion automatically.

If you have a DVDROM drive and don't use it for watching movies much (like on my spare Mac), then pop the Region 2 disk in and watch. I've dedicated the spare mac solely to Region 2 titles (of which I have one, Brass Eye, from England).

If you do watch movies often in a DVD Rom there are a whole bunch of different Firmware hacks to reset the region code limit too.

It's a Sony from Japan so it's already preset but I only have a 15" monitor while I have a 51" Widsceen TV.

Buuuuuuuut... there are Region Free versions of all of Studio Ghibli's productions available on DVD from Hong Kong distributors. Chances are they're piracies, buuuuut, until they're available here, what are your options?

A full set, I think, on 6 or so DVDs runs under $100 on eBay.

Just a thought...

Laputa actually is licensed by Disney and is available now under the title "Castle in the Sky".

david

Kucinich 2004

Obscure Czech film from 1973. Primitive by our slick American standards but the allegory is in a league completely beyond the infantile, predictable story lines of Disney films.

BTW, what is Disney's facination with monarchy? The Little Mermaid, Alladin, The Lion King, The Emperor's New Groove.

I know the Czech's did the Jules Verne film.

Here is more information on it. The original version was in French (with French credits) and was produced in Czechoslovakia apparently. Info is sketchy at IMDB... but it's a start.

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0070544

Or does the green skin and shell ears turn you off?

might deter me.

Considering they breed via waltzing statues I think I'd have trouble competing.

>BTW, what is Disney's facination with monarchy? The Little Mermaid, Alladin, The Lion King, The Emperor's New Groove.

There was a book with the above title, published in Chile during the year Salvador Allende was in office. The idea was that there's a consistent subtext in Disney comics, promoting capitalist economics and authoritarian government. Donald Duck was the usual exemplar: he typically goes off the rails trying to do something well-intentioned but anarchistic, and Unka Scrooge has to rescue him with tough market-oriented love. There's also a bunch of psychological analysis about how there are virtually no complete families in Disney: Mickey and Donald have girlfriends, not wives, and the kids are nephews and nieces, and nobody has an actual father, and the fuhrerprinzip-style politics this promotes. The book also demonstrated that Disney comics were sold in Chile and other South American countries for way less than the cost of production, implying that somebody was subsidizing the dissemination of this point of view.

The book was lavishly illustrated with examples, so much so that when it was translated into English and distributed in this country, Disney sued on copyright-violation grounds. They didn't win every remedy they asked for, but they did manage to severely restrict the press run of the book to make it awfully hard to find.

From what I've heard, EPCOT center was supposed to be Disney's "model community" of authoritarian capitalism, a sort of libertarian utopia. Disney has some interesting arragements with the state of Florida and the county government as well. I've also heard that McDonaldland characters have a similar theme.

It creeps me out to think that rich industrialists are promoting stories for children to turn them into obedient little consumers.

http://www.fair.org/media-beat/990310.html

With Gen. Augusto Pinochet now under arrest for overseeing bloody violations of human rights, we might ponder the fact that his dictatorship went out of its way to burn copies of "How to Read Donald Duck" after seizing power from Chile's democratically elected government in September 1973.

By then, many Chileans had bought the book, written in mid-1971 by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart. Worldwide sales of "How to Read Donald Duck," translated into a dozen languages, reached 500,000 copies before the end of the 1970s.

But few of those books got inside the borders of the United States. Arguing that "How to Read Donald Duck" infringed on its copyrights, Disney kept putting up roadblocks. In 1975, the U.S. Customs Bureau seized a shipment of the English edition.

Has no one heard of Bruno Bozzetto, best known for "Allegro Non Troppo," which includes one of the funniest bits ever animated--"Self-Service," which treats stylized mosquitoes and human blood as if they were the Cosa Nostra in the oil economy?

Simple animation, but much imagination involved.

Cheers.

Thanks for remindnig me of it - haven't thought of it in years.

Pisney?



I still get sad thinking of the Sibelius La Valse Triste segment.

Not the greatest, but still worthy of mention.

Ice Age, but husband gets a charge out of Shreck (Eddie Murphy's work).

Totoro, just becuase Totoro is so damn cute.

I, too, am a HUGE fan of Aladdin: great music, great animation, and great acting. Beauty and the Beast - also beautiful animation and great music.

Toy Story movies are awesome. Same with Monsters, Inc.

And "The Man Who Planted Trees", with Christopher Plummer narrating. Gorgeous!!

And of course, one of the ultimates: Akira!!

This was the zenith of Disney Studios animation. Everything else they've done since is crap by comparison.

Also in the running are Yellow Submarine and The South Park Movie.

For CGI, I would have to say the Jimmy Neutron movie.

Great film about the battle between good and evil= Chimpy .vs. good


DDQM

Funny and deep and frigtening at the same time. Glad you reminded me...I think it's about time my teenager niece saw that flick.

Gotta put in a shout-out for Heavy Metal too though.

Darth Velma

I love Bakshi. I found the ending a little unsatisfying, though. I love his use of rotoscoping, particularly when he doesn't do full draw overs, e.g. the horse charge, and the use of the NAZI films in Wizards.

His "LotR" is, IMO, a great piece of art which Peter Jackson's films are just a cruel mockery of.

I'm a nut.

david

Kucinich 2004

Although this guy



is a very close second!

very good movies and both kids & adults can appreciate them too.

:evilgrin:

I agree with you.

film I haven't seen yet. I'll definitely try to asap. It certainly was a groundbreaking work.

The 7 Lives of Fritz the Cat (not done by Bakshi) was on one of the Showtimes the other night and I caught a few minutes of it. Looked good.

david

I know that computer graphics make animation easier, but there is nothing like the quality of Disney's old hand-drawn animation. "Sleeping Beauty" also has really well-done animation for it's time.

Of newer animation, I like "Mulan" and "Hercules". Both involved capturing a particular ethnic art style and did a good job of it. I also think that WB's "Anastasia" has some really great scenery, especially the winter scenes in St. Petersburg and the scenes of Paris that looked like paintings. The story was way inappropriate for little kids, however, much like Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". (Too much violence for the under 7 crowd)

I do wish that WB would do an animated opera for kids-do an animated movie of "The Barber of Seville", use the Bugs version as the pre-show feature and dedicate the whole thing to Chuck Jones. They could get some great voices for it, people who bridge the gap between serious opera and musicals, like Sarah Brightman or Andrea Bocelli.

It has some unexpected turns..

If you haven't seen it, run out and rent it. I enjoy all of Miyazaki's work but this one is just so cool. It's dark and intelligent and funny and absolutely breathtakinly beautiful.

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/miyazaki/index2.html

I'm so glad that I've seen almost all of these. I'm something of an Aminmation fan.

I adored the sequence where they recount what happened with the gassing. Horrific, and beautful.

And his rabbits were perfect.

*sigh*

david

Kucinich 2004

i need to see it again, i just remember how much I thought the pastels used were just so beautiful and differant, and I remember I cried, which I do not often do for anything.

... the whole "The Little Mermaid" revolution. It's all been crap (minus *maybe* "Beauty and the Beast") since then.

Best animated movie ever? Probably Bambi followed by Fantasia, but I agree with Ghibli!

Laputa is probably my all time favorite, but Spirited Away was an absolutely glorious film. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as spectacular in a film as when the scales fell off the dragon. Just gorgeous.

On the other hand, I *adore* Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings" too, so my opinion might not be valid.

david

But then again, anything he does is ok by me.

But yeah, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop:Movie, The Second Renaissance PT1+2, the Ghibli line-up (the latest one to come out here in Korea was The Cat Returns, which is very cute) all are classy movies.

i like the toy Story/Shrek stuff, but it doesn't grab me the same way the Japanese cartoons do.


PS:Ghost in the Shell fans might be interested to know that the trailer for the second movie has been released...:)

I thought I was the only one!!!

To me it is really the pinicle of animation art, while animation could still be for adults. I love the rotoscoping. So many people complain about it. My only complaint (well maybe not the *only* one) is that a Part II was never made. I would give almost anything to see what he would do with the rest of the story.

The Flight to the Ford sequence is one of my favorite scenes of all time. I just got an LCD projector and I have a huge wall in my house (maybe 20' diagonal). I was only 7 when the film came out in the theaters, so I didn't get to see it. I can't tell you how cool it is to actually see this movie projected on a sizeable screen, after being confined to a TV set for 20 years. Bummer that the DVD release wasn't taken more seriously - almost no features (though thankfully letterboxed), and the new overdub they added at the end just sounds so stupid.

It makes other attempts *ahem* at adapting these books look just plain silly.

*dodges tomatoes*

david

Kucinich 2004

I just rented the animated version, and I have to disagree with your take on the "other attempts *ahem* at..." I love the new adaptation, and was surprised at how at times they resemble each other.

2 or 3 people who actually agree with me that Bakshi's version is glorious and the Jackson films are utter tripe, so I expect a lot of splats. :)

I have to admit that I've watched the Bakshi movie maybe 150 times in the last 20 years, so I'm biased, and it has certainly shaped a lot of what I "see" in the books.

My main problem with the Jackson films is that for 25 years Tolkien fans have been dissing Bakshi, and then Jackson comes along and takes far more liberties than Bakshi ever dreamed of taking, and everyone just goes ga-ga over him. I thought Fellowship was good overall (Great in places (Balrog, Hobbiton, Moria), horrible in others (Flight to the Ford, Council of Elrond, Weathertop, Lurtz, Lothlorien, Galadriel)) but the Two Towers was pretty much awful after the first 5 minutes (which were brilliant) from Jar-Jar-Gollum to the suicide bomber (the absolute WORST point) to the dumbass Nazgul, to Arargorn over a cliff, to the silly Faramir to the absurd denial of Tolkien's perfect gimme-a-cliffhanger ending!

"Frodo was alive, but taken by the enemy."

Best-cliffhanger-ever!

Anyway, I know, I know... at least I like tomatoes!!

david

Kucinich 2004

I love the Iron Giant too

Just a list of potent films animated in Japan

Grave of the Fireflies (anyone not in tears at the end of this is not human)

Spirited Away and Princess Mononokie (Two stunning movies)

Akira (a postapocolyptic distopia realised on screen)

Ghost in the Shell (exploring identity and just what it is to live)

Metropolis (animated retelling of the early classic)

Although American animation can be entertaining, compared to these heavy hitters we produce fluff. Like our fast food empires we make huge productions of empty ideas.

(although I think The Secret of Nimh was a great film)

But don't forget the more independent animators of the past like Ralph Bakshi, Martin Rosen and others.

Though I agree, "Spirited Away" made most American animated features (and most American features in general!) look pretty stupid.

david

Kucinich 2004

That was an amazing piece of cinema! My partner and I think it should be made into a stage musical! Kyle's Mom's a Bitch (the extended version) just cracks me up everytime I see it. Sure the animation is all crappy, but quality of the writing and the music is Brilliant...just MHO.

My #1 before I saw Battle Angel was Ghost in the Shell, before that it was THE LAST UNICORN!!!

Excellent animated movie....Check it out.

with foxy maid marian, and that great soundtrack, and the crazy southern accents, and the poor-robbing-from-the-rich subversive theme

it's pretty wild compared to everything else disney has done

let me use this space instead to note that bakshi's lord of the rings was a work of genius, and that peter jackson's version stole shots, costumes, and possibly entire scenes from bakshi-- typical i guess

depressing as fuck. But the graphics on the last episode are wonderful. I love it.

most anime rocks (even the tentacle porn stuff)

With soundtrack from the Limelighters!

I watched Tresure Planet the other day and i was very very impressed with it..But im sorry nothing can beat Walt's work of art Fantasia..Even though computer animation movies are very good you have to totaly admire the hand drawn beauty of fantasia.There will never be another like it EVER!
Akria is another classic that turned me on to Anime in a darken hotelroom in a comic book convention 15 years ago..Since then I have fallen in total love with Japaneese animation..
Animation classics
Princess Monaoke
Snow White
Iron Giant
Superman Shorts
Cowboy Bebop
Anything by Pixar
The Lion King
The MGM Tex Avery shorts
Many more....

First full feature animation, made in the 30s (?).
Hi Ho. Hi Ho. It's off to work we go.