The MoFo Top 100 Animated Films - The Countdown

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Anyway... The Wrong Trousers was my number...

6

I rewatched The Wrong Trousers myself, as it had been a while since I saw it, and it was even better than I remembered it. It might even be my favourite animation of all time. An absolute masterpiece in terms of control, the effects, sounds and visual delights of the film are unlimited. It makes full use of its environment for a lot of fun. I mentioned how Chuck Jones is sometimes referred to the Buster Keaton of animation with his control and visual stunts in his animations, but this film is like Buster Keaton in stop motion. The penguin is one of the greatest villains of all time, so simple yet so menacing, it's great how from the start the film is able to create a sense of doom around him through his body language and sound effects. There are many great individual scenes too, the robbery is great, and filled with suspense, and then of course there is the famous chase scene which is an absolute delight to watch.



A loving heart is the truest wisdom.
Frozen is way too high in my opinion but at least it didn't make it into the top 10 like I was expecting. I'm kind of surprised at Howl's Moving Castle's placement too. After we got to the top 70's or so I didn't think it had a chance at making the list. I didn't vote for it since it's the only Miyazaki film I actually dislike but since it placed this high maybe I'm due for a rewatch.
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The Wrong Trousers is brilliant. I'm smiling all the way through whenever I watch it.
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I love the Wallace and Gromit shorts, although I didn't vote for any (I consciously chose only feature length films). And although I have not rewatched any of them recently (since childhood, really), my favorite was always the one where they went to the moon because they needed cheese.

Coraline is a great film, but far from a favorite of mine. It's visually fantasgic, and I love how dark it ends up be oming, but ultimately didn't resonate with me the way that I had assumed that it would (largely, I think, stemming from poorly written characters - or at least more poorly written than they should have been). Still, I can't argue with the overall quality of the final production, even if I would have preferred it much lower on the list.
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The Wrong Trousers is genius. Easily the best of the Wallace and Gromit films. I had it at #4.

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34. Rango - Voting Stats

Total Points: 215
Part of a Numeric Tie? No.
21 Votes: 1st Place (25 pts.), 3rd Place (23 pts.), 8th Place (18 pts.), Two 9th Place (17 pts. each), Two 12th Place (14 pts. each), 13th Place (13 pts.), 15th Place (11 pts.), Two 16th Place (10 pts. each), Two 19th Place (7 pts. each), Three 21st Place (5 pts. each), 22nd Place (4 pts.), Two 23rd Place (3 pts. each), Two 24th Place (2 pts. each)

* * *



33. Alice In Wonderland - Voting Stats

Total Points: 223
Part of a Numeric Tie? No.
18 Votes: Two 1st Place (25 pts. each), 3rd Place (23 pts.), 4th Place (22 pts.), 8th Place (18 pts.), 11th Place (15 pts.), Two 12th Place (14 pts. each), Two 14th Place (12 pts. each), Four 19th Place (7 pts. each), 20th Place (6 pts.), 21st Place (5 pts.), 23rd Place (3 pts.), 25th Place (1 pt.)



Rango? Really? I thought you guys were movie buffs


Alice was my 1 pointer... I'm getting a few coming out now


01.
02.
03.
04.
05. Dumbo (1941) - 49th
06.
07. Coraline (2009) - 36th
08. Beavis And Butt-Head Do America (1996) - 66th
09.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. The Simpsons Movie (2007) - 51st
17. Watership Down (1978) - 75th
18.
19.
20.
21. A Scanner Darkly (2006) - 47th
22.
23.
24.
25. Alice In Wonderland (1951) - 33rd



Chappie doesn't like the real world
Of course Rango was on my list. It's zany, hilarious and infused with moments of sheer brilliance. There is not much out there like it.

I'm glad to see Coraline make the list, but it wasn't on mine. I like Selick's other two animated features better.



That's surprising. I would've have guessed you'd love Rango. Or did you, but just not enough to find room?
I've watched it three times and can't decide if I like it or not. I'll have to give it another try at some point and actually make a decision.

But in previous watches I found myself being not at all fond of some of the character designs and I hated Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, so the homage to that doesn't appeal to me so much.



Rango? Really? I thought you guys were movie buffs
It's a film made for movie buffs.

Rango was my number 8!

Read Daniel's review of it if you want to know why certain people love it so much. It's a beautifully made and unique film with some very peculiar elements and insightful edges, while also being hugely entertaining and engaging during the whole ride.



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I also like Alice in Wonderland, but it's been too long since I've seen it as a whole, so I didn't vote for it. I'm a big fan of its weird, psychedelic tone, though.



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I liked Rango, but not enough to make my list. I'm not surprised to see it this high in the countdown.

Alice in Wonderland is a childhood favorite that easily would have made my list if I had a little bit more room for it. It's one of those Disney movies that just got pushed off so I didn't submit a list full of Disney movies. I'm very glad to see that it made the list anyway without my help.



Rango was my #3. I loved it; great humor, movie references, lots of action, and visually amazing. It wasn't even on my radar to watch until I saw it in Daniel's thread.

Love Alice in Wonderland, but didn't end up voting for it.

My list-

3. Rango
7. Animal Farm
11. The Plague Dogs
16. The Wind Rises
18. Charlotte's Web
19. Kung Fu Panda
20. A Town Called Panic
21. Fantastic Planet
24. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Near miss)
25. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

I think my #2 is in serious trouble. I thought it was a sure thing, but maybe it's too new.



That's okay. Nobody's perfect!
My list so far*** [/COLOR************ Its Place in the Countdown

1.
2.
3.
4. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit-Wallace and Grommit *58
5.
6.
7. Bambi**50
8.
9.
10. Le Planete Sauvage *45
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. Coraline**36
17.
18.
19.
20. Corpse Bride *69
21. Ice Age**Missed the Cut
22.
23. Alice in Wonderland**33
24.
25.
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Woooo, I love you guys. Great to see this quite high up and especially good to see that a few of those votes seem to have come from my own constant mentioning of the film.

It was my #1 if you hadn't guessed. I'm gonna pimp my review once again, Cobpyth already linked it, I think it's the longest I have ever wrote, and it should hopefully show just why I (and others love the film).

Rango (Gore Verbinski, 2011)




Rango
is a delightful film that can be enjoyed not only by young children as wonderful visual treat but also as a fantastic piece of work that draws inspiration and pays homage to numerous films, as a result rewarding and pleasing more intelligent and experienced film watchers.

If you were to show this film to your child and expect to share a family experience similar to a Disney Pixar delight such as Toy Story or Wall-E then you may be disappointed. The strength of Rango lies not with its soul and charm, the main protagonist is in fact rather ugly and the film uses a landscape that we associate with gritty spaghetti westerns – a strong contrast to the vibrant colours in films such as Up And Brave. Instead the Rango relies on its style and intelligence; it’s wholly fresh and original, like no animation you have ever seen before.

Compare Rango with one of Disney Pixar’s most recent film franchise, Cars. One is a film that takes a classic genre, its environment, characters and characteristics that we associate it with and combine it with various other plot elements from other films, without feeling derivative but instead keeping its work fresh, creative and unpredictable, the other is a film about talking cars.

The film’s eponymous protagonist is voiced by Johnny Depp who works with Gore Verbinski once again following their partnership in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Whilst I am not a particularly big fan of the film franchise you can not criticise Verbinski’s winning formula that has been extremely successful at putting a fresh, creative and exuberant spin on classic topic. I feel though that Verbinski’s first ever feature film Mousehunt can be better compared to Rango, a family comedy about a pesty rodent who refuses to leave a house in a Home Alone style comedy of errors from those attempting to get rid of the mouse, like Rango it can be categorised as a family film however it is similar in the fact that parents may feel uneasy at times letting their kids watch two films that both contain more darker elements, although Rango is a Western so I think it would be more disappointing if we did not see smoking, bad language and a little bit of violence.



Rango overlooks the town of ‘Dirt’ from the Mayor’s Balcony.

The story begins when Rango – as he later becomes known – tells us of the acting dreams he has, he is nothing more than a small pet chameleon but is then thrown into the fantasy world of his dreams, although this world is not how he quite imagined it with the town of Dirt clearly not thriving as it should be in the good old West.

Rango’s arrival into the town of Dirt is almost identical to the character of Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s first film of the Dollars Trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars. We see Rango standing with the Mayor on a balcony that overlooks the town, almost parallel to one of the opening scenes in A Fistful of Dollars where we see the Man with No Name taking in his new surroundings, a town he is completely new to and a town he can use to his advantage as an experienced bounty hunter. Rango’s story is almost the opposite, although also without a name, he is also without a reputation or any type of experience that would aid him in solving the town’s main issue. In A Fistful of Dollars we see a capable bounty hunter play off rival factions of the town through his gun wielding skills. In the town of Dirt the problem is that that the water town has dried up, they are in need of a new sheriff, a hero to rescue them of their problems. Rango is not equipped to deal with any of such issues, but as you may expect ends up self volunteering for all three in a fantastic bar scene – that also draws some parallels to the gritty bar scene at the beginning of Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West in terms of visual style and atmosphere – where through improvisation introduces himself as the tough and experienced drifter who famously killed seven brothers with one bullet, naming himself ‘Rango’.

What follows is a storyline almost identical to Roman Polanski’s masterpiece Chinatown, with Rango fulfilling the role played by Jack Nicholson, a private detective that finds himself drawn into a conspiracy involving a powerful organisation attempting to control the future through means of the water supply. The villain in Rango is the Mayor (voiced by Ned Beatty), an old aged turtle who is suspiciously unaffected by the lack of water and is able to enjoy the many luxuries of the west, such as golf. He is happy to allow the visibly out of depth Rango continue his role as Sheriff, not expecting the dim-witted chameleon to find much in his quest to get to the bottom of the water mystery. This character has two clear inspirations; one is the prospector Morton from Once Upon a Time in the West, and the other more noticeable is Noah Cross from Chinatown, a greedy and powerful old man who is portrayed by the great John Huston.

The film’s story combines a number of Western elements and the result is a very enjoyable story that is full of life, resulting in an enjoyable climax as a result of the inevitable Western style face off. The film’s central part is sandwiched between the two more serious parts and is focussed on the hunt for water, with Rango forming a traditional Western style posse to hunt down the men who he unknowingly led to the water bank, only further emphasising how incapable he really is in the role of Sheriff. This results in one of the films most memorable and exciting action scenes where Rango and his posse face off against an army of moles whom he discovers that to his surprise did not steal the town’s water. What occurs next is a scene that pays homage to one of my all time favourite film scenes, the helicopter attack from Apocalypse Now.



Rattlesnake Jake’s character is a direct reference to one of the West’s most memorable actors, Lee Van Cleef

** Slight spoilers in the following two paragraph - if you are interested in the film you should probably skip **

After returning to town with more questions and answers the Mayor becomes increasingly concerned at how eager Rango is to uncover the truth, so calls in the dreaded Rattlesnake Jake, a vicious creature that ‘never leaves without taking a soul’ having only previously stayed out of Dirt because of a hawk, that is now dead thanks to Rango. Jake, who the town people believe is in fact Rango’s brother reveals that their favourite Sheriff is nothing more than your average pet, exposing him to be a liar in a scene where the Sheriff’s sign is shot down by Jake. This scene reminded me of the great The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and perhaps even greater parallels can be drawn from the two films overall. In the James Stewart and John Wayne classic, Stewart’s character is a young lawyer named Ransom who attempts to protect the town through means of legal measures, he puts up his own sign for his office with John Wayne warning that it will only be shot down by the ruthless Liberty Valance who will come back and terrorise the town with his violent ways. In both films the protagonists are thrown in to uncomfortable environments where they are way out of their own depth however both men finally provide the inspiration to fight against these men, to stand up to them when the rest of the town’s people wont, a familiar theme in other Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven and Rio Bravo. The snake itself is certainly inspired by one of the greatest villains associated with Spaghetti Westerns, Lee Van Cleef, with the snake bringing the same haunting presence, striking eyes and even his famous hat and moustache.

Rango is forced to leave town, ashamed of the lies he has told. He ventures back across the desert to the busy road where he came from. Like in many other films, we know Rango will inevitably meet encouragement that will drive him on to redeem himself with the town people by helping them. I have seen people say that the film although impressive in technical terms is soulless; hence why parents would rather watch their children watch a Disney Pixar film, unfairly overlooking Rango. I would disagree, although Rango is perhaps not an instantly loveable character in the same bracket as the likes of Wall-E or Nemo, we come to equally love him and even feel sorry for him, an animal with big ambitions who wanted to be somebody but is ultimately useless. Key to the film is the element of adaptation, Rango is not cut out for the town of Dirt and everything he has dreamed of is not as easy and simple as he has dreamt it to be. During Rango’s exile we finally see the personified form of the Spirit of the West who takes the appearance of the legendary Western actor Clint Eastwood, and we get a scene that will likely go over the head of most children, the majority wont know who Eastwood is. Although this scene takes place in a dreamlike sequence for Rango, he recalls his own interpretations of the Spirit of the West, countless times we have watched films where the protagonist refuses to walk out on his own story and in good spirit Rango does the same here, heading back to Dirt for the inevitable showdown between good and evil, with his return much like his opening in the fact it parallels Eastwood’s very own from A Fistful of Dollars.



The Spirit of the West appears to give encouragement to Rango, in the image of Clint Eastwood.

The animated film is the first animated feature from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), was Gore Verbinski’s first animated feature and was produced by Verbinski’s production company Blind Wink, Graham King (GK) Films and Nickelodeon, although this does not in anyway undermine the individuality of the film that you may have expected to be tailored more strongly towards the audience of children. The film’s composer Hans Zimmer is a more familiar name for audiences and Verbinski himself, with the prestigious composer (Nolan’s Batman Trilogy) having previously worked with Verbinski on The Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Ring and The Weather Man, his score is wacky and delightful, perfectly suiting the film and combining the more traditional sounds of the West such as the work of Ennio Morricone with more fast-paced and energetic sounds that along with the visuals remind us of the Coen Brother’s comedy Raising Arizona.

Rango is like nothing you have ever seen before, and that is what makes it so great. A fresh and innovative attempt at creating an animation that will please a variety of different audiences, as stated in the opening paragraph Verbinski is able to draw inspiration and pay homage to numerous classic films including many from the film’s genre of choice – Westerns. You can not compare Rango to a single Pixar film; it is so unique in its approach although equally as successful with a screenplay that follows an enjoyable formula for children but is filled with a number of surprises and fantastic scenes to make it creative and unpredictable. Rango might just be my personal favourite animated feature film, it is certainly the one I have seen the most, and although I love the delightful films of Pixar that include Wall-E, Up, and Toy Story, there is just something about Rango and its unconventional approach to the genre that makes me admire it that little bit more.

Note - I already posted this in my original thread but it did not really get much attention so I hope you do not mind me posting it here, it is not because I want more people to notice it but because I honestly feel this is one of my best and most accurate reviews and in terms of what I achieve with it its in fitting with my new thread. It is a film that I really do love and one of my very favourites.
Alice in Wonderland was my #20, a great film that I watched a lot when I was younger, but I haven't seen it in a while.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I had Alice in Wonderland at #3 and Rango at #23. I even consider Alice the best film of the '50s. From the mafo MoFo Top 100:

15. Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wifred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951)

Disney's greatest traditional animated film (along with Dumbo) is still just about the most surreal movie ever made (take that, Buñuel ). It's also Disney's funniest, even though the humor is incredibly dark. There are so many crazy characters to choose from: the White Rabbit, the Doorknob, the Walrus, the Carpenter, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Bill (my fave, "Well, there goes Bill!"), the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen and King of Hearts, etc. The animators let their minds run wild and created a trip of a movie, that's for sure.
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I will have to give Rango another watch sometime. I saw it in the theater and it did not just appeal to me very much. It has been years since I have watched Alice In Wonderland, not one that stuck with me.
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