jal90's 50 favorite animated films

This stop-motion portrait of a child nightmare is among the greatest animated works of the latest years. Its director, Henry Selick, had a name as the director of a similarly dark fable, The nightmare before Christmas, but I believe that this one is his masterpiece, and the movie he should be remembered for.

I wouldn't define it as scary, but it still preserves an ability to be creepy and disturbing that is very rarely found nowadays in most of the movies for kids. It is a movie that not only doesn't treat its target audience as stupid, but actually presents its themes in a way that is appealing to a much wider public.

The imagery of this story is what drives it and makes it powerful. It has a special ability at creating scenarios and atmosphere, switching from the illusion to the nightmare and focusing on the misleading beauty of the parallel world that sucks Coraline into it. The scene of the garden for instance, is one of the most magical and fascinating I have seen in animation, a real visual delight.

On the other hand the story development is never left in a way that could end up being unsatisfactory; Coraline is an easily identifiable character who represents the moral lesson of the tale very well through her interaction with both worlds, and her decisions are always understandable from her viewpoint. It is an actually balanced portrayal and the story emphasizes on her being a perfectly normal girl, which is rather surprising considering the extremes it takes as a premise. This only helps to make the storyline and its development more relatable.

This extremely overlooked Disney masterpiece is often dismissed as belonging to its so-called Dark Age. This may be right to a point, because The great mouse detective is, comparatively, a very little and modest film, but this actually ends up playing in its advantage. Since it never tries to be more than it is, its simplicity and to the point narration is really refreshing, and the movie overall and above all is a lot of fun. It never has dense moments of forced emotional emphasis, the characters are focused on their conflicts and not any others (there is not a single love story in this atypical Disney, for instance). This movie is an adaptation -a free adaptation of course- of a typical Sherlock Holmes case and that is everything it brings. Basil is a rather quirky, funny and cartoonish version of the detective that works very well in the context, and the rest of the characters end up being equally endearing.

The movie also has some tones that are unusually dark for a Disney film. The beginning for example is surprisingly nightmarish and in general the depiction of the Victorian London is rather gloomy, in contrast with the usual efforts that come from the studio; one of the scenes for instance takes place in a sordid tavern. But above all what makes this story one of the darkest -maybe the darkest- in the studio, as well as explaining a huge part of its appeal, is the portrayal of the main villain, Professor Ratigan. He is one of my favorite Disney villains, and one with no qualms, the movie doesn't try to hide or soften his wickedness. In one scene, the typical introduction song ends up with him executing one of his companions in a really crude scene, for a very silly reason. And his manners and gestures emphasize the strength of the character, as a rather creepy and charismatic model of villain that makes the perfect antagonist for Basil.

The story of this movie is rather similar to the later The artist, in the sense that it deals with an artist who gets lost in the generational gap and suddenly finds that his art has lost its appeal for society. However, the tone of both movies is very different.

The illusionist explores the topic in a more sober way; while the other work was focused on depicting and emphasizing on the fatality of the situation, this one is more about the main character giving up and accepting his fate. The emotional depiction is more modest, very effective nonetheless. I guess the lack of dialogue may be a problem at some parts, but I think it adds a point of simplicity and even proximity to the main character, so it actually plays to its favor and helps on building the enveloping atmosphere of the story.

Overall what this story has for is its focus on nostalgia; this film above all is an homage to a way of understanding art that has been pushed into the background. Through the depiction of a magician whose tricks don't attract any more viewers, this movie forms a bitter, though very heartfelt view on the effects of trends in society and what happens when something is thrown out. Even with the enthusiastic support of Alice, it is too late for the illusionist.

The artwork is wonderful; I wasn't a fan of Chomet's previous The triplets of Belleville, but in this case I find the character designs less saturating while still covering their satirical purposes. The background design on the contrary is gorgeous, it makes a really beautiful portrait of both the French and Scottish environments and specially the first shot of Edinburgh is amazing.


By the way, this is based on a script by, and is supposedly a very blatant homage to Jacques Tati; however I have never seen anything about this director and his monsieur Hulot, therefore in this aspect the movie falls flat in my case. Even if I could point at it, I don't have an emotional bond to the original. Anyway, this is not necessary to enjoy this movie.

I haven't seen anything by Tati either, and I enjoyed The Illusionist immensely as well. It's certainly one of the best animated features of this short decade.

Mary and Max is, hands down, one of the best stories about friendship that have ever been told in a movie. It is certainly among the most emotional and despite the extremes that their characters represent, it is also one that feels really close, it even hits home very often.

I think this effect is perfectly conveyed by something I read long ago about this movie, in a review: this is a story about people who are alone in their world, left behind by everyone that was ever close to them, and who are actually afraid of loneliness; this explains the effort both Mary and Max put at keeping their relationship through the years and how important their friendship actually is in their lives.

Even with the dark tones and the macabre and disenchanted comedy, this is above all a profoundly humanistic story. One that captures and explains rather perfectly not only the development of a friendship but why are these characters tied to it.

The content is, as well, perfectly tied to the form. Mary and Max are not perfect in any way; they are ugly and unappealing, and that is how they are depicted by their design. But still, they keep a touch of tenderness and humanity. The dull colors in the case of Mary's child life, and the impersonal black and white coloring of the New York where Max lives, help to translate the individuality of these characters as well as depicting their environment according to their experience.

Surprised to see many movies higher than Miyazaki's and Mind Game so high as well. I have many of these same movies in my top 50 (The Illusionist, Ratatuille and Mind Game at ca. 40th place, Fantasia at 50th place), but with a different ordering: Miyazaki's are a bit higher relatively to the others.

I think I need to watch much more before I can have an opinion on that. But it's my top animated film from 2010 and in my top 5 for this decade.

I noticed some similarities in tone between The Illusionist and The Triplets of Belleville and Tati's Playtime, both movies also don't have almost any character development through dialogue, for instance.

I didn't watch this movie but I found the tv series to be one of the weakest among the popular anime of recent years. I don't know why but it didn't have any high level emotional firepower being much more low key. But the movie is generally considered to be superior so I am interested.

I watched another movie from the same director, the K-ON movie, also very impressive visually.

It's an extremely complex movie (specially considering the expectations people place on animation). I don't think there is any other movie I have watched that puts so much plot related information into less than 120 minutes. Some other films are very complex but significantly longer (David Lynch's Dune, is nearly 3 hours long at the director's cut, which is another very complex film plotwise, also the adaptation of a science fiction epic novel).

It's this complexity that makes it a movie that I like to rewatch again and again. Most films are just too simplistic to be watched more than once and become boring on a second watch. My top 3 movies are the ones that I find more durable to rewatches and that's why they are the top 3 (I broke my "law" that I would put only 1 movie per director in the top 10 as to include 2 Miyazaki's titles).

Indeed. Still is my favorite screen character ever. Shimamoto voice acting is also stellar certainly one of the best works of voice acting ever.

Indeed. The number of very moving scenes in this movie in proportion to the running time is the greatest of all movies I ever watched. I previously said that I got teary eyed about 10 times when I watched it one time.

I think that the final parts of the film are very well explained and everything that happens makes perfect sense. It's extremely fast paced storytelling but it fits perfectly to me, given that I am paying full attention to every line of dialogue. In fact, it is what makes it great. Miyazaki didn't want to be that rushed but given the budget for a 120 minute movie he had to deliver enormous amounts of information in the last 30 minutes and this accident that makes it a top 10 movie for me.

I find it his second most visually impressive after Princess Mononoke, another movie with fewer colors than his other ones (this one is mostly yellow and blue while PM is mostly brown and green).

The scenes inside the forest do, however, have a very strange and appealing sense of beauty.[/quote]

The opening scences are favorites for me. The way they are executed is just extremely impressive and I find this movie to be the one with the second best opening scenes of Miyazaki's filmography.

Well, compared to the rest of Japanese animation I find Miyazaki's work to be stadandard in it's relative focus on the west and on Japan. There is a huge amount of stuff set in Japan and a huge amount of stuff set in Europe or an in European style science fiction or fantasy world (such as the science fiction world of Castle in the Sky).

That depends. He said this movie was made for tired middle aged men. While Nausicaa and Mononoke, for instance, were not made for people under 12 but not for "tired middle aged men" either, these two are his most serious movies that he put the most effort into. He also said that Howl's Moving Castle was made for "80 year old girls", making fun of his previous habit of saying stuff like that.

Hard to say, Nausicaa has all his ideological obsessions while Totoro is his childhood (he used girls as main characters to not identify with the main characters too much, actually).

One of the best ones indeed.

I loved these rushed endings. It makes the movie more powerful for me in a way.

It's more of a non-ending as if the movie was cut in the middle. It's very artsy and something really poignant but I personally find the rushed endings of Nausicaa and Totoro to be even better.

I think that's pretty obvious when one looks at it: it's a quite complex western animation, something extremely rare. Just compare it to Toy Story, a very simplistic movie by comparison (well executed but still weak in my opinion given it's lack of depth), Ratatouille has some subtlety (not that much, though, but when compared to other Disney/Pixar stuff the difference is quite large) and characters with real psychological depth, which something extremely rare in western animation. In fact, Ratatoille was made more like a (really good) live action hollywood movie script that was animated rather than filmed instead of a typical western animation. Too bad Pixar returned to the standard simplistic stuff after Up. To this day, Wall-E, Up and Ratatoille remain above all other Pixar films (with The Incredibles a bit lower, it is still quite weaker than these 3 due to it's lack of subtle drama).

I wouldn't call the Toy Story series "very simplistic". The main idea of the whole trilogy is finding your true purpose in life and questioning your own existence. There's certainly not a lack of depth in them, considering that the films are made for children.

__________________
Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

I thought they were made just as much for the children's parents. I guess we're less sophisticated than Guap though.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

God, damn, Guaporense. You really did make up for the long time you haven't been here

Well, first on the presence of Miyazaki in the list. As said he is probably my favorite director overall, but I don't only enjoy the work of this director; take in mind that this is a list of favorites, everything in this list is something I really, largely enjoy and the order in many cases is arbitrary. What made me prefer Toy Story to Nausicäa? Probably the same thing that could make me think otherwise in rewatch. They are pretty different movies that aim for different objectives. Anyway, keep on this because there are still 12 entries and I'm far from being finished with Miyazaki.

I don't believe that Ratatouille has actual depth in the sense of exploring its themes thoroughly; it has its themes of course, but the narrative is the typical of a moralizing fable and it takes a lot of advantage from it. Similarly goes to Toy Story. I think saying one is deeper than the other is sort of arbitrary. It depends on personal experience more than anything. Because the style, the presentation of the themes and their gravity is similar in both cases. Anyway saying something has "psychological depth" is the same as saying nothing. I could also say that Toy Story has psychological depth in the portrayals of both Buzz and Woody, specially on the second one. His acts in the first part of the movie are erratic, and he eventually goes through a very clear character development that makes him accept things he wasn't ready to and changes his way of dealing with them.

On Haruhi. I guess this is not surprising if I consider how polarizing the reception is. There are many people who adore this series, and there are many people who hate it. While this is not among my favorite anime series, I still pay a lot of respect to it and think that some of its biggest values are underappreciated. For instance, there are actually very few series that can be considered as wildly experimental as this one is. It is almost as if it had fun on twisting its plot, it has very risky decisions (the chronological order of the first season airing, the Endless Eight) as well as some nerve dealing with them and balancing every genre it puts in the blender. It's also a great quality that it doesn't take itself as seriously as others.

I will answer the rest later, because it's a whole lot of stuff :P

Answering Guaporense before:

Yeah, the main problem I have -or should have- is the fast pace. The fast pace and the general view of the world; it feels incomplete. The story only gives a few lines of information about the conflict between the two countries, for instance. Something that I would actually expect to be further developed in the manga. Anyway what it chooses to narrate, to me, is satisfying.


Don't take me wrong. It is beautiful but in a very different way. Princess Mononoke represents life in the forest, and Nausicäa represents death and agony. The colour palette is duller in this case; and what in one movie gives me a feel of magnificence is an image of devastation in the other. This, of course, is later contradicted in the story (which becomes a very relevant point), but the first impression is exactly that. The environment is a typical post-apocalyptic one.

Yes, there are an amount of anime shows with European influences, but Miyazaki in Porco Rosso and Castle in the sky describes a society as well as an environment, and its history, and the specific issues. That's what I mean. There are other anime set in Europe (I have just finished Monster), and despite they are far from being a majority, I have seen this element quite a few times. But in the level of these and specially Porco Rosso, where this environment comes to life in a way that feels totally idiosyncratic, is hardly that frequent. I can't think of many different examples that aren't adaptations of Western books/source (Anne of Green Gables and Dog of Flanders, for instance).

Really? His most serious movie may be very perfectly My neighbor Totoro. As you said, it's his childhood . Anyway, I'll have to check that, thanks for the information.

Every movie and show he's made has his ideological obsessions; Nausicäa is probably his most personal work in manga form, according to the amount of time and effort he spent with it. However I would doubt it in the movie case. My neighbor Totoro is as well very personal. But I don't really think it is as much as Porco Rosso because to me it is very clear that he directly identifies himself with the main character.


And now, on the next movie:


Loosely inspired by the real story of the Japanese star Setsuko Hara, this movie follows the life story of a retired actress in retrospective, as her memories take form when, after a long reclusion, she finally accepts to participate in an interview about her life. Through Chiyoko's bursts of memory, we see the different periods of her career, and the evolution of the Japanese cinema industry as well as her own personal development.

The greatest quality of Millennium Actress lies in its various levels of storytelling. This, for instance, is a very creative take on the Japanese cinema through the 20th century, the many changes it suffered, the trends, the effects of the historical events on the industry. It is, as well, the story of deep admiration that Genya, the documentarist, feels about Chiyoko, the amount of hours he's spent watching her movies again and again, and the emotion of looking into her experience. And it is, more importantly, the personal story of a girl in an eternal search that gives a meaning to her life, the key that symbolizes her ultimate objective. These three levels are merged together in a wonderful narration that mixes reality with fiction, and past with present. The structure of the film and the way it moves through and puts these different layers together is fascinating.

On the other hand, the other reason why I love this movie is simply because it displays a romanticist view of life that is very rarely shown and makes this story specially poignant. In this aspect, the journey of Chiyoko in search of the man who gave her the key turned out to be a very powerful concept, delivered perfectly and concluded with a truly cathartic ending that is among my favorites in any film.

The only issue I really have with it is that I wasn't a fan of the quirks shown by the documentarists at first, and in that sense they make the movie become a sort of acquired taste. Anyway, I don't blame it for that, because the fact even that ended up working so well is more of a merit than anything.

Well, this case is a little difficult to talk about because, as much as I loved this story on my first time in 2010, I haven't had a chance for a rewatch since then, and for some reason this one in special, among other Pixar works, hasn't stayed as fresh in my memories. I remember fragments rather than an overall story, and I think the main reason comes with its structure. It's not that I am blaming the story for it, but the fact this movie changes the focus so abruptly in its half may have helped to make the whole less memorable because it was made of two parts that weren't clearly tied together.

Anyway. Many people blamed this movie for this change; I however ended up loving each of the two parts that coul be treated as separated (to an extent).

I remember being specially fascinated by the first half. The depiction of the post-apocalyptic scenario was probably my favorite part of the movie, the way this immensity was set to describe the loneliness of WALL-E made this experience surprisingly haunting, and I consider it the most purely adult moment of my Pixar experience. The introduction of EVA and the little instances of approach by WALL-E turned this into a very atypical love story, everything of this transmitted through very little dialogue and a more effective use of gestures and glances. This was a rather risky concept in Pixar and they brought it rather perfectly.

For that reason, the second half was a little bit of a letdown... at first. Rather fastly, this new environment brought a different viewpoint to the story that I enjoyed as well. This one is more of a standard rescue mission, and the elements are less original; however the execution made this part equally enjoyable and very effective as well. The depiction of the human characters was anyway a great addition of imagery, and I loved the satiric take that it brought as well. The ending is another point I ended up adoring. I couldn't help but compare it with the credit scenes of Nausicäa, that are among my favorites as well. It gave very similar vibes and is also, probably, the closest Pixar has been to Ghibli in terms of both themes and mood.

And now, my favorite among the Disney Classics:


I know, I know. My tastes on the Disney renaissance are kind of weird. Usually, it's The lion king or in some cases Beauty and the beast the movie that is brought as the overall favorite and the symbol of the artistic heights of the studio in the early 90s. However I am way more personally attached to this one, and for an amount of reasons.

First, and while not definitive, this movie played a huge part in my childhood. It is the Disney I have watched more times through my child and even teen years, and seeing it was always a pleasure. I think it also helped a lot on keeping me in touch with animation when I was a teen; therefore when I got an actual interest on the medium as a whole, years later, I had a consistant basis.

Second, I find the characters in this movie specially endearing. And I am probably not able to specify why. The fact is that Aladdin, to me, is a very rare case of a typical handsome prince that comes as genuinely funny, quirky and relatable through the whole story. Jasmine, as well as a really beautiful version of the standard Disney princess, has some interesting traits. Their love story is one of the few in Disney that care about displaying chemistry, and the movie really makes me root for them. On the other hand, Jafar is also among my favorite villains, and I only ended up growing fond of them as I rewatched the movie, his sarcastic remarks are hilarious. The comedic elements by the Sultan, Abu and Iago worked as well greatly.

But, to me, the greatest element of this story is the Genie. Displaying a kind of anachronism-based, but surprisingly fresh comedy, he made every scene with him extremely entertaining. I think it's the best in terms of pure comedy this studio has brought. And it worked specially well in my case because I consider the Spanish dub of this character to be among the greatest I have heard, it is an outstanding adaptation. It's not that the dub is any worse in the rest of the cases (it is a great work overall), but on the Genie it was specially impressive.

Leaving the story and character elements apart, there is still a fascinating work in terms of the setting. The portrait of the Arabian environment, with the mysteries, the alleys and the street markets, the idiosyncrasy of the citizens; and on the other hand the richness and sumptuosity of the royal palace. These elements make the movie a real sensorial feast, with a huge focus on visuals. And if that wasn't enough, I have to add some of the best character songs, a wonderful soundtrack overall that is at times funny, at times emotional, and always incredibly atmospheric.

Considering I was 36 when this came out, I was absolutely giddy with the opening of the film: the contrasting dark blues and purples and bright golds and the gliding camera and sense of flight, replicated even more intensely when later the flying carpet appears. The Rescuers Down Under expressed an exhilarating feeling of flying too, but this seemed to use the color pallete better, especially in a dark theatre.

I heard the Aladdin is considered to be a controversial movie.Why is that?
Anyway,interesting list even if I didn't like most of the animated movies I've seen.I'm definitely watching Animal Farm sooner or later because I think the book is perfect and I don't know,I should see Nausicaa and Aladdin at some point as well.

__________________
"Anything less than immortality is a complete waste of time."

I enjoy other movies but not as much (enjoy other movies doesn't imply in ranking them in similar places). I personally find the discrepancy in quality between other feature length animations and Miyazaki's to be extreme. My top 10 animated features is now Miyazaki's 1984-2001 films, Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday and PMMM, which I find significantly above other animated features.

The main problem is subtlety, since John Lasseter appears to lack talent for portraying subtlety (though Toy Story is also simplistic this is a rather smaller flaw, most movies, live action included, are quite simplistic). The Pixar movies directed by others are more subtle than his movies. Also, John Lasseter claimed that Toy Story is an adult movie.

Personally, I watched UP and Toy Story early this year and I found the former to be much more complex and subtle than the latter (even though it wasn't very subtle, it was average in subtlety compared to the particularly unsubtle movies directed by Lasseter).

Great list so far! I definitely agree with what you said on Nausicäa. I saw it at my local library years ago and didn't really care for it but gave it another shot recently and fell in love with it. It's not really a movie you can just watch and expect understand all of it without repeated viewings.

When it was first released Aladdin’s opening song had a line that was considered racist towards Arabs; something like “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like a face, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home”. It was later changed to “where it's flat and immense, and the heat is intense”.

__________________
You will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.
Iroh