The MoFo Top 100 Animated Films - The Countdown

Waltz With Bashir is a film that I had put off watching for a long time. To say that an animated documentary about the traumas of war is outside my comfort zone is to make a gross understatement. But the film is strikingly beautiful, incredibly moving, and deeply disturbing. It is an experience that is not soon forgotten. I urge anyone who has not seen it to remedy that immediately.

That said, I really struggled with where to put Waltz With Bashir on my ballot. It's so unlike anything I've ever seen that I didn't know how to compare it to the rest. Ultimately I settled on giving it the number 12 position.



I've never cared for South Park - the show or the film.

My Ballot:
4. Wreck-It Ralph (#27)
6. Surf's Up (#99)
8. Over the Hedge (Near Miss)
9. Chicken Run (#51)
10. Charlotte's Web (#57)
11. Despicable Me (#61)
12. Waltz With Bashir (#26)
16. The Emporer's New Groove (#80)
21. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (#42)
22. Lilo & Stitch (#83)
24. Bambi (#50)

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Waltz with Bashir was one of few animated movies that I thought I would love, and did. It's a very cool movie and good for 10th place on my list.

Before I started watching new animations for this countdown, I wrote down every one I had already seen. South Park looked like a lock, and pretty high up, but after watching a whole lot more, it got squeezed out.

My list-

3. Rango
5. Persepolis
7. Animal Farm
8. Wreck-It Ralph
10. Waltz with Bashir
11. The Plague Dogs
13. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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'm sure some will look down on the inclusion of the South Park movie here, but the thing that makes it so great (well, one of the things) is that it's a legitimately good musical. Trey Parker studied music in school, which is why almost every one of his projects ends up utilizing it. The songs are funny, but they're really catchy, too.



All that said, it just made my list, at #25, for the reasons above. Which is kinda cool: it placed exactly where I had it placed.

It wasn't higher because the show was still at the point where it regularly confused crudeness for cleverness and shock for smarts, so it's not as funny as some of the better episodes they put out each year.

Ah, there is Waltz with Bashir...

Excellent flick. Very dark, so if you go to watch it, you have been warned! I had it at number FIFTEEN, but in retrospect, it should have been a few notches higher.

South Park has a couple of extremely funny scenes that crack me up every damn time, but overall, I am not a huge fan of the musical aspects and the comedy isn't as good as you approach the end. Terrance and Phillip are hilarious, though. The South Park Movie did not make my list.

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I'm honestly really surprised that the South Park movie made it on here at all. That's not to say that it's not good, because it is, but I wouldn't even call it the best South Park movie out there (but that's me really splitting some hairs). The music is great, the scope suitably epic for a feature-length installment to the series and the jokes are generally funny. I agree with Yoda about the film (and the show at the time) confusing crudeness for cleverness, which was enough to temper off its strengths for me. Good, but not great.

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The South Park movie was #3 on my list.

It is admittedly not as funny some of the show's better episodes (Christian Rock Hard, Trapped in the Closet, etc, feel free to debate with me on this), and focuses too much on toilet humour (the film came just before what can arguably be called South Park's golden period) but what Bigger, Longer and Uncut does very well, like most good South Park episodes, is the satirical aspects. From jokes such as Operation: Human Shield, to Stan's finding of a piece of female anatomy characterised as some kind of deity in this film, it's not afraid to pull it's punches.

All in all, it's one of the best animation films put out by anyone, anywhere.

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I had South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut at #11 which in hindsight may have been a little high, probably I was remembering a particularly funny bit just as I was compiling my final list. But it's a really funny movie. I get the complaints that it's sometimes more crude than funny, but that's true of the series as a whole and the movie certainly isn't the worst example of that. (It also doesn't do that nearly as often as Team America World Police, and I think it's a better satire too). It was an extremely popular film with people I knew at college when it was released so I ended up watching it (and hearing the soundtrack) more than I might otherwise have done, but when I saw it again years later it was still funny. Satan is my favourite character in it. Blame Canada!

You mean taking some of the multi-part episodes (like Adventureland) as if they were "movies"?

Happy to see Persepolis and Waltz With Bashir appearing. I had them at my number 6 and 10

Waltz With Bashir is a pretty good movie although I didn't like it enough to put it on my list. But perhaps this is not a movie that is supposed to be 'liked'. The animation style was interesting and the music used and its juxtaposition with the content of the images and events was inspired, I particularly liked the use of Enola Gay. I think there were some issues with it, though. One problem for me was not having any understanding of the context, I didn't really know anything about the Israeli-Lebanon war. Obviously as a film made by an Israeli presumably for an Israeli audience, they didn't feel the need to explain it for ignorant foreigners and perhaps it would have made it cheaper or dumbed down if they had. But it does require additional knowledge of its context in a way that not all documentaries do even if they are on a subject the audience knows nothing about. In fact, I'm not convinced this is a documentary so much as an animated dramatisation.

Actually even though I had recently rewatched it shortly before the countdown, Waltz with Bashir was the one film I forgot about when compiling my preliminary list!. I was bummed because I was pretty sure it would make the list, but then I noticed that Persepolis was just outside the Top 25. I admit that my list would be much more serious and world-representative if I'd included them because they're both damn good, but I still probably think my list is great the way it is. I've only had eight of my list show in the Top 100 (plus two more in the 101-110 places), but I fully expect all the rest to show up, except for one s.hort

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Had South Park at number 2. Love the show and the movie.

1. Frozen
2. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
3. The Little Mermaid
4. Sleeping Beauty
5. Heavy Metal
11. Fantastic Planet
13. Bevis and Butthead Do America
17. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
18. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
19. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
21. Bambi
23. The Lady and the Tramp

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Yes and no. I consider multiple episodes of a tv show, re-edited together as a continuous narrative and released seperately from the rest of the series, to count in this regard. Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story and Imagionationland both count in this regard (although whereas the former was somehow less than the sum of its parts, the latter was improved by the re-edit). This is actually how I first saw Imagionationland.

And like I said, it's really splitting hairs to say it, but that's where I currently stand on the matter.

I'm going to do what Guap does.

100. All Dogs Go To Heaven
99. Surf's Up Can't rate do to no memory of the story.
98. A Bug's Life
97. Tarzan
96. It's Such A Beautiful Day
95. Frankenweenie
94. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
93. Garden of Words
92. The Fox and the Hound
91. Shrek 2
90. Anastasia
89. Animal Farm
88. The Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie
87. 101 Dalmatians
86. Paprika
85. 5 Centimeters Per Second
84. The Wind Rises
83. Mulan
82. Lilo & Stitch
81. Ponyo
80. The Emperor's New Groove
79. Lady and the Tramp
78. A Charlie Brown Christmas
77. Bolero/Evolution (from Allegro Non Troppo)
76. A Town Called Panic
75. Watership Down
74. Heavy Metal
73. Hercules
72. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
71. Wolf Children
70. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
69. Corpse Bride
68. Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Eternal
67. Millennium Actress
66. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
65. When the Wind Blows
64. Kung Fu Panda
63. The Plague Dogs
62. Yellow Submarine Number 17
61. Despicable Me
60. The Illusionist
59. The Jungle Book
58. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
57. Charlotte's Web See Surf's Up
56. Castle in the Sky Number 3
55. Duck Amuck Really should have voted for this.
54. Sleeping Beauty
53. Tale Of Tales Saw after I turned in list. Would have made it though if saw before hand.
52. The Simpsons Movie
51. Chicken Run
50. Bambi
49. Dumbo
48. Ghost in the Shell
47. A Scanner Darkly
46. Whisper of the Heart Number 22
45. Fantastic Planet
44. Perfect Blue
43. Porco Rosso Number 8
42. How the Grinch Stole Christmas Number 4
41. Waking Life
40. Frozen Number 25
39. Howl's Moving Castle
38. Kiki's Delivery Service Number 9
37. The Little Mermaid
36. Coraline
35. Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers
34. Rango
33. Alice in Wonderland
32. The Lego Movie Number 15
31. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
30. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Number 23
29. Akira
28. Persepolis
27. Wreck-It Ralph Number 18
26. Waltz With Bashir
25. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

3. Castle in the Sky
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
8. Porco Rosso
9. Kiki's Delivery Service
15. Lego Movie
16. Secret of NIMH (Near Miss)
17. Yellow Submarine
18. Wreck it Ralph
20. From up on Poppy Hill (Near Miss)
22. Whisper of the Heart
23. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
25. Frozen

South Park and its hysterical irreverence made my list, but the powerful tone poem about memory and war and regret that is the brilliant Waltz with Bashir was my number one. I was hoping against hope it'd crack the top ten, but twenty-six ain't too shabby.

1. Waltz with Bashir (#26)
4. The Wrong Trousers (#35)
5. A Town Called Panic (#76)
6. The Lego Movie (#32)
7. The Illusionist (#60)
8. Alice in Wonderland (#33)
9. Persepolis (#28)
10 Akira (#29)
12. Coraline (#36)
13. Animal Farm (#89)
15. Yellow Submarine (#62)
19. Watership Down (#75)
20. Waking Life (#41)
21. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (#25)
23. Sleeping Beauty (#54)
24. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (#42)
25. Hugo the Hippo (DNP)

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I loved Waltz with Bashir, but ultimately it didn't make my list, though I was actually considering it at one point. Great unique animation and a different but effective use of a dream-like storytelling method, that helps provide great visuals for the real story told in this documentary.

Like Miss Vicky, I never cared for the movie or the show of South Park and therefore did not vote for it..,

I'm on FIRE.

Both of those were on my list.

Waltz with Bashir -- #22

South Park Movie -- #16

ON MY LIST

1. Alice in Wonderland
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
4. The Little Mermaid
5. A Scanner Darkly
6. Yellow Submarine
8. All Dogs Go To Heaven
9. 101 Dalmatians
10. The Jungle Book
13. Lady and the Tramp
16. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
18. Kiki's Delivery Service
20. Wreck-It Ralph
22. Waltz with Bashir
24. Bambi
25. Grace (one pointer)

30. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ++
29. Akira
28. Persepolis
27. Wreck-It Ralph (not watched)
26. Waltz With Bashir
25. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Finally we're getting to the juicy ones!

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was my 5th.



I found this movie during the period where I started to fall in love with my favorite genre (satire/parody). While searching for a good satire I ended up with this. Before this I never knew what South Park was, mainly because of my foreign status. Not realizing what is really what is I said to myself "Hey, its an animation... what could be so harmful?" and started watching.

What arrived to my senses was foul-mouthed, offensive and violent cartoon miles away from Nickelodeon... and I love every foul-mouthed, offensive, and violent moment of it. I started binge watching South Park and fell into its world, which I am still currently doing today, since there are a hell lot of episodes. It may be a stretch to say this but the movie helped me reach out to films like MASH and Dr. Strangelove.

Even if you're not that much of a South Park fan there is plenty you can salvage from it. As Yoda pointed out, its a decent musical, actually even better than ones I've heard these days. And beneath the violence and cursing you can find good food for thought. South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut has nearly all the requirements of a perfect satire.