The MoFo Top 100 Animated Films - The Countdown

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Daria is the superior show, no doubt
Dream on. Daria was good and I liked it, but Beavis & Butthead ruled and were far superior. Did Daria get a movie? No.



I haven't watched Beavis & Butthead do America. Never seen the series either.

When the wind blows
on the other hand is an interesting movie with potential but I'm not very fond of it. The reasons may look stupid but my suspension of disbelief was completely broken by the depictions of the characters; the couple is naive to the point that it turns ridiculous, they have been and lived through two World Wars, and it's not like the movie forgets that this exists or tries to deny it, but their acts and thoughts don't match their life experiences... It seems to me that the movie tries to be various different things at the same time through its characters, and that seems absurd to me. In the end, what is the point? A tale about the devastating effects of nuclear war? A tale about naivety and simple-mindedness? A tale about old age and experience? Damn, pick one. Or at least pick two that don't contradict each other.



Rudolph was on my list, probably should have rewatched it before placing it there, but nostalgia is a powerful thing. c

Millenium Actress and The Wind Blows were both on my watchlist and now I feel bad for not getting to them. Especially The Wind Blows. Also, I am so sorry Yoda, I Prince of Egypt didn't even cross my mind when I made my list. I am an atheist and I still love that movie as much as I did when I was little. Great songs, in fact I have "Playing With the Big Boys Now" and "All I Ever Wanted" on my ipod.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
When the wind blows[/i] on the other hand is an interesting movie with potential but I'm not very fond of it. The reasons may look stupid but my suspension of disbelief was completely broken by the depictions of the characters; the couple is naive to the point that it turns ridiculous, they have been and lived through two World Wars, and it's not like the movie forgets that this exists or tries to deny it, but their acts and thoughts don't match their life experiences... It seems to me that the movie tries to be various different things at the same time through its characters, and that seems absurd to me. In the end, what is the point? A tale about the devastating effects of nuclear war? A tale about naivety and simple-mindedness? A tale about old age and experience? Damn, pick one. Or at least pick two that don't contradict each other.
I think it's about all of those things to an extent, and I don't think they necessarily contradict each other. I think it's about how completely unready people of any age are for a nuclear war, how completely unlike all other kinds of war that have gone before it would be.

It's true that there are some inconsistencies in the time line of the film and the characters' knowledge and actions - although as the film progresses they do begin to lose their memory, and fear and isolation as well as sickness probably exacerbate this.

I think you could also look at it as being about how unready for old age people are - the forgetfulness, illness, loss of dignity, isolation, all the while not quite understanding the world they are living in now and how it isn't quite the one they lived in when they were younger, all of these things can happen to people without the nuclear war.


I had it on my list at #13



You also have to remember the advice which was given in the 80's in Britain to survive a nuclear attack.


Protect & Survive


Roger Waters interview for When The Wind Blows 1987


BBC radio play version of When The Wind Blows
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64. Kung Fu Panda - Voting Stats

Total Points: 95
Part of a Numeric Tie? No.
9 Votes: 3rd Place (23 pts.), 8th Place (18 pts.), 9th Place (17 pts.), 14th Place (12 pts.), 16th Place (10 pts.), 19th Place (7 pts.), 21st Place (5 pts.), 24th Place (2 pts.), 25th Place (1 pt.)

* * *



63. The Plague Dogs - Voting Stats

Total Points: 97
Part of a Numeric Tie? No.
7 Votes: 1st Place (25 pts.), 6th Place (20 pts.), 11th Place (15 pts.), 13th Place (13 pts.), 15th Place (11 pts.), Two 20th Place (6 pts. each)



I've seen Kung Fu Panda three times. The first time was in the the theater. I wasn't overly keen on the premise and I don't like Jack Black but I trusted DreamWorks to put out a quality movie. I didn't like it. At all. Which struck me as a strange anomaly so after it had been out on DVD for awhile and the price came down, I bought it and watched it again - thinking that perhaps I just hadn't been in the right mood for it the first time. Nope. I still didn't like it. So it sat on my DVD shelf for awhile and sometime last year, I think, I was bored and thought "Well, maybe the third time's the charm." Nope. It's official. I don't like this movie.

I find Po to be annoying and not at all funny (like Mr. Black himself), the characters are not cute and my near complete lack of interest in martial arts means the actions scenes hold little excitement for me.

I haven't seen The Plague Dogs, but will eventually get to it.



Saw the second Panda movie before the first. Didn't like it, but it needs a rewatch. Especially since I quite enjoyed the first one, but not enough to make my list.

Glad to see Plague Dogs make it, although Watership Down was closer to making my list. Like both though for the raw and disturbing animation and atmosphere!



I voted for both of these movies so I'm very happy as I wasn't completely certain they would make it.

I watched The Plague Dogs on recommendation from Hello101, and of course I loved it. It combines something I love(animals), with a tone that's right for me(upsetting).

I watched Kung Fu Panda on recommendation from JayDee I don't normally like Jack Black but I thought he was the right fit for this. The movie is a lot of fun and I loved the panda.

My list-

7. Animal Farm
11. The Plague Dogs
16. The Wind Rises
19. Kung Fu Panda
20. A Town Called Panic
24. The Adventures of Prince Achmed(near miss).



Madoka is my third favorite anime series (and I put it #9 for the TV list). I have never seen any of the films, but it's incredibly reassuring that they're well received (at least around here).
The first two movies are the TV series edited. I voted on the 2nd movie as it is one of my favorite TV series (no, I don't think now it's the "best thing ever" as I said ca. 18 months ago). Though I think the changes they made to the movies made the whole thing weaker, as it became a tad bit melodramatic in parts where in the original series was more subtle.

What I loved about PMMM overall is it's combination of entertaining and art. While there are more artistically sophisticated anime series like Haibane Renmei, Kaiba, Tatami Galaxy, RahXephon, Evangelion (to a certain extent), etc, PMMM manages to be more entertaining than all of them (though Ping Pong also manages to combine entertainment and art). While entertaining series like Attack on Titan manage to glue the viewer on the screen they are not very fulfilling and a bit cliche (the last episodes of Attack on Titan were full of typical shounen manga cliches). PMMM is as entertaining as Attack on Titan and as powerful as Haibane Renmei.

I haven't seen Milennium Actress, but added it to my watchlist after seeing the ridiculously awesome Perfect Blue.
I liked Millennium Actress more but they are in different genres, Perfect Blue is like an animated Hitchcock film, Millennium Actress references the life of Setsuko Hara. I rated it as 5/5 stars on my old animated films review thread.

Satoshi Kon is a really skilled director. I think all his movies except Magnetic Rose will make it. He is one of the most popular Japanese anime directors in the west. Though IMO he is not among the best, like Oshii, Miyazaki, Takahata, Yuasa, Sato and Anno. He is in the second league with the likes of Hosoda, Shinkai, Shimbo, Hara, etc.



My ratings:

74. Heavy Metal
+ Great "musical". A collection of over the top short juvenile stories spiced with hard rock music soundtrack.
73. Hercules
(I love animation but I don't like Disney)
72. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (wtf is this?)
71. Wolf Children
(Very good Hosoda movie but not his best work.)
70. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(slightly better but still not a fan)
69. Corpse Bride (Been meaning to watch this one for years.)
68. Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Eternal
(I had it on 1st place but thinking about it now I might have switched with a couple of Miyazaki movies which are more elegant in execution if not as heavy. Well, it's doesn't really matter anyway.)
67. Millennium Actress
(Kon's best movie IMO and very near my top 25 list.)
66. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (I watched the TV series, nothing really remarkable though)
65. When the Wind Blows (I have been meaning to watch this for a couple of years now)
64. Kung Fu Panda (Also interested in watching it a some point. Looks like fun.)
63. The Plague Dogs
+ (slightly too heavy handed and a bit simplistic but still powerful experience)

So far 2 from my top 25 list. About half of it consists of obscure stuff which nobody else here has watched though but the other half probably will make it through.



The Madoka Magica movie isn't much less wonderful. It ended up missing my list, but I'm quite fond of it nonetheless; I consider it the best standalone entry in the PMMM franchise. Of course, this comes from somebody who loved the series and this movie is nothing more or less than 4-5 episodes wrapped together with minor differences, but this was the part that I enjoyed the most when I watched the TV version, and seeing it again was a powerful experience, it even served me to appreciate some aspects I hadn't taken too much into consideration before (the conversation the mother and the teacher have, that is probably my favorite scene in the whole PMMM story) and helped me to understand aspects that maybe due to the overload of events I didn't fully assimilate in my first viewing. Its merit as a standalone movie is difficult to set but it's a really moving and absorbing experience by itself.
I disliked the changes they made in the movie though. They had 96 minutes of "footage" from the last 4 episodes of the TV series and inserted a ton of scenes of nothing but dramatic music and "pillow shoots" to make it into 110 minutes. One of the common problems of sequels: trying to make it "bigger and better" which actually kills the elegance of the original. As result the whole thing became a bit less impactful compared to the series. For instance, I was just watching the first 10 minutes of the movie right now:


(the English dubb is so awful...)

From the first minutes one can easily notice that the colors are darker and the music is more pronounced and the visuals have greater amount of detail (unnecessary IMO). The whole atmosphere tries to be denser than in the TV series. And the quality of the animation is certainly not movie level as they just reused the frames from the TV series and added some digital effects on them.

Notice also how much more dramatic and serious in tone it is compared to western animation in general and to most other anime as well. While appearing on the surface to be a kids stuff given the little girls in ludicrous costumes posters, it's firmly in the tradition of adult psychological thriller manga. It's appeal derives from implementing the tropes of a genre originally aimed at 12 year old girls into a sadistic psychological thriller.

Edit: A scene that I specially dislike in the movie version is 27 minute mark above. It's several minutes of melodramatic operatic music and red/black frames. Just a bit tad too much IMO. In the TV version the same scene lasted 10 seconds.



Lord High Filmquisitor
Kung Fu Panda is alright, I guess. There's nothing glaringly wrong with it, it's just so thoroughly average, like Cars.
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