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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
#2 Ratatouille vs. #5 Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox - 4
Ratatouille - 3

Winner: #5 Fantastic Mr. Fox

Really tough match. I LOVE both these movies.

I'm not a big fan of Ratatouille, but it's a good movie, and it should have won this match.
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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
#1 Spirited Away vs. #3 The Incredibles

Spirited Away - 4
The Incredibles - 3

Winner: #1 Spirited Away

I liked Spirited Away, but I would have preferred to see The Incredibles win this match.

Hmm, first Ratatouille lost, then Up lost, and now The Incredibles lost. Maybe you just don't like Pixar.



#1 Spirited Away vs. #3 The Incredibles

Spirited Away - 4
The Incredibles - 3

Winner: #1 Spirited Away

I liked Spirited Away, but I would have preferred to see The Incredibles win this match.

Hmm, first Ratatouille lost, then Up lost, and now The Incredibles lost. Maybe you just don't like Pixar.
Pixar is my favorite animation studio . There are just some masterpieces that went up against it.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Pixar is my favorite animation studio . There are just some masterpieces that went up against it.

I was just joking. I can tell from your reviews how much you love Pixar. I just thought it was kind of funny that three Pixar movies were voted out in a row, and all by non-Pixar movies.



I was just joking. I can tell from your reviews how much you love Pixar. I just thought it was kind of funny that three Pixar movies were voted out in a row, and all by non-Pixar movies.
Yeah , I do love me some Wes Anderson/Weird Australian Clay-Mation/Hayao Miyazaki.



#1 Wall-E vs. #3 Beauty and the Beast

Originality - Wall-E
Script/Screenplay - Wall-E
Animation - Wall-E
Characters - Wall-E
Music/Sound - Beauty and the Beast
Themes/Values - Wall-E
Structure/Pacing - Beauty and the Beast

Wall-E - 5
Beauty and the Beast - 2

Winner: #1 Wall-E




Beauty and the Beast
Year: 1991
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Beauty and the Beast is the crowning jewel of the Disney Renaissance. It's the most beautiful looking, as the best music, and is the most fun to watch. It's one of the shorter movies of the Renaissance, at about 1 hour and 20 minutes. It doesn't have character and pacing issues like The Lion King, and it doesn't have obnoxious sidekick characters such as (once again) The Lion King and Aladdin. Instead, we get real characters with real conflicts and issues. Belle is a fantastic protagonist and the Beast is also a complex and interesting character that one could call a protagonist. Gaston is despicable, which makes him fun to hate. And of course all the townsfolk and servants of the beast are delightful and often hilarious.

Beauty and the Beast follows the classic tale of a selfish prince who is turned into a beast for not being compassionate towards others. He must find someone who can truly love him and give him true love's kiss, and then he will turn back into a prince. Belle, of course, is that beautiful girl, who switches her father with herself so her father doesn't have to be locked up forever. This sets off a series of events in which Belle and the Beast get closer and closer to each other. Meanwhile, Gaston, who also wants to marry Belle, plots to kill this Beast.

The story is fantastic, it builds on the original fairy tale yet doesn't detract from the simple relationship between Belle and the Beast. In this movie there are fantastic colors and drawings, we get a very mythical and awe-inspiring setting that reminds me of something like Princess Mononoke. When Belle is attacked by wolves, we sense that they are not normal wolves. There is something magical about this place. We're in France, of course, but it's not really France. It's some other-world, much like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Pinocchio.

Anyways, the music is fantastic. One of the best Disney soundtracks ever for sure, and easily the best Renaissance soundtrack. The Lion King always annoyed me with it's weird mix between pop and Broadway. The Little Mermaid I liked but didn't love, and Aladdin bored me. Beauty and the Beast has some of the most memorable songs of the entire decade, with songs like "Be My Guest," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Belle." In fact, basically every song in this musical is hummable and very good. They're so fun to watch too - the color of "Be My Guest" is awesome and the computerized images in "Beauty and the Beast" are breath-taking.

And of course, show this to any age, including young kids, and they will love it. It has a universal theme - true beauty lies within - that basically anyone can connect to and appreciate. It will probably be most memorable for kids of the '90s (which I wasn't, but I still love it). They probably grew up on these films and they've become ingrained in their childhood.

The film has some issues, but I'll just brush over them here. Of course there are some really annoying characters, such as Gaston's sidekick friend (I can't even remember his name, but I really hated him). Yeah, so gosh darn annoying, why does Disney include that? Thankfully he's only in small portions of the film (unlike Timon and Pumba or whatever their names are in The Lion King). Gaston is pretty obnoxious too, but I love it because I get to hate him more. And there are some plot elements like the Beast getting made that are pretty laughable.

Those are really minor complaints, though. This film is pure magic. It will fill you with awe at the genius of Disney animation and leave you at the edge of your seat until the end. And that fight scene! Pretty damn good, maybe one of the best action scenes of the Renaissance. Gaston's death is also really memorable, and the transformation scene is like something out of a... I don't even know... Greek myth? It's like he's been transformed into a God, and Belle is witnessing it. Pretty powerful. Big thumbs up for Beauty and the Beast.




#1 Wall-E vs. #5 Fantastic Mr. Fox

Originality - Wall-E
Script/Screenplay - Fantastic Mr. Fox
Animation - Wall-E
Characters - Fantastic Mr. Fox
Music/Sound - Fantastic Mr. Fox
Themes/Values - Wall-E
Structure/Pacing - Wall-E

Wall-E - 4
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 2

Winner: #1 Wall-E




Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Director: Wes Anderson

This is the only Wes Anderson film I've seen to date (not counting the Squid and the Whale, which is kind of his brain child but wasn't directed by him), and I don't know why I haven't seen more of his stuff. Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of the greatest animated movies ever made, and easily the best animated movie of 2009 (sorry Mary and Max and Up), if not the best picture period. It's got everything you want from both a kid's movie and an adult movie. There are plenty of quirky and adult jokes as well as fun action and characters for kids. Literally anyone can enjoy this movie.

Mr. Fox was a poultry hunter, and he was very good at it. Until he began to have a family, and had his kid Ash. He promised to give up catching birds, as it was a dangerous, job, and in the twelve years since has become a newspaperman. However, he's not satisfied with his job. So when he buys a new house and sees that his "neighbors" are three of the most brutal farmers in the world (Boggis, Bunce, and Beans) he can't resist one last foray into his old job.

Mr. Fox is a likable character. He's also a very believable character, voiced impeccably by the great George Clooney (oh, and his wife is Meryl Streep, along with Bill Murray voicing a smaller role for Badger). He lives in a world in which animals are civilized and "human," but one of the major themes and conflicts of this movie is actually Fox's smaller conflict with himself about being wild and "true" or being civilized and "fake." This is made clear by his phobia of wolves. At the very end, when we finally see a wolf all out in the wilderness, we actually see him begin to cry. It's an incredibly profound moment in the midst of a story that's deceptively "fun" and "non-thematic." We never get a clear answer to Fox's problems with himself and the world, but at the end he's happy, so something must have worked.

Oh, and the soundtrack has got to be in my top ten film scores of all time. It might be in the top five, actually. I love it that much. Alexandre Desplat should have won the Oscar for this score, getting robbed once again by Up. I can understand it, honestly. Up is certainly in my top twenty film scores of all time. But Fantastic Mr. Fox has a totally unique flavor, mixed in with songs like "Heroes and the Villains" and "Davy Crockett" and some Rolling Stones song I can't remember, plus much, much more. It's just brilliant, and I wouldn't change a thing about this masterpiece of a soundtrack.

The visuals I think are often criticized for being ugly and mushy looking. I can understand that. In fact, that is the main reason that I had to choose Wall-E over Fantastic Mr. Fox. But I still really like the visuals of Fantastic Mr. Fox, they have impressive clay-motion design and a real color scheme (lots of browns, reds, and oranges - autumn colors). And when I think about it, this really is an autumnal movie. Right from the beginning we get pictures of corn fields in many different shades of brown and orange. It's beautiful, really. And Bean's apple cider cellar always reminds of Fall for some reason as well. So yeah. Watch this movie in Fall I guess?

There isn't a character in this movie that I find annoying, and for a comedy, that's pretty impressive. Almost every animated movie that goes for comedy I can find at least one character that I don't like in it. Fantastic Mr. Fox does have a comic relief character - Kylie - but come on, how can you not love Kylie? As Mr. Fox says, "Listen, you're Kylie. You're an unbelievably nice guy. Your job is really just to... be available, I think. I don't know your Latin name. I doubt they even had opossums in ancient Rome."

And speaking of that quote, the script is damn good. There are as many quotable moments as in The Incredibles (or Wall-E for that matter). Mrs. Fox: "If I think what's happening is happening... it better not be." The scene with Fox and Badger is very well written, as are Kristoffreson and Ash's encounters.

So, yeah. This is one of my top twenty movies of all time, and easily in my top ten animated movies of all time. If you like Wes Anderson and somehow haven't seen this yet, go see it. I doubt I will like a Wes Anderson film more than this, or maybe I will, I'll have to check out more of his stuff.




For sure, both are great but Wall-E has the more important message.
You talking about Fantastic Mr. Fox or Beauty and the Beast? (Wall-E went up against both).



#1 Spirited Away vs. #6 Mary and Max

Originality - Mary and Max
Script/Screenplay - Mary and Max
Animation - Spirited Away
Characters - Spirited Away
Music/Sound - Spirited Away
Themes/Values - Spirited Away
Structure/Pacing - Mary and Max

Spirited Away - 4
Mary and Max - 3

Winner: #1 Spirited Away