2010 - The greatest year for mainstream animated films?

[JBDuke]

Now that I'm married and have two step-children, my movie-watching choices have drastically changed in recent years. I was watching "How to Train Your Dragon" on HBO with my step-daugher earlier this week, and it struck me how many good animated movies were released last year. My favorites would include "Toy Story 3" "How to Train Your Dragon" "Despicable Me" "Tangled" and "Megamind" with "Shrek: Forever After" a distant sixth and falling into the "not worthy of DVD purchase" in my opinion.

So, I got to wondering - has there ever been a better year for mainstream animated films than 2010? I'm not talking about obscure foreign films or R-rated animation or other such things - I mean the mainstream animated family film.

2009 was no slouch year - my favorites were "Up" "Monsters vs Aliens" "The Princess and the Frog" with "A Christmas Carol" "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Coraline" falling below my "want to have in my collection" standard.

From 2008, "WALL-E" "Kung Fu Panda" "Bolt" and "Ponyo" are in our collection. "Madagascar 2" and "Horton Hears a Who" don't bear repeated watching IMO.

You can go back further and find a few good examples, but there's been a boom in the animated movie business in the last decade, and I really think we're seeing the largest selection of quality films in the past several years.

I know lots of others here love animated family movies. Your thoughts?

[JasonEvans]

Yup, 2010 rocked.

Look, Toy Story 3 is probably one of the 5 or so best animated films of all-time. Well, it is at least in the conversation. It is probably more like top 8-10. Still, pretty darn good film!

How To Train Your Dragon is another real high-quality film. It is exceedingly rare for a film to surprise me with the direction it takes and this one did that with the introduction of a whole new storyline/antagonist in the final 3rd of the film. I hadn't seen that coming at all and it turned the entire plot on its ear. Extremely strong animated film.

I liked Despicable Me and Megamind, but neither was all that special. I never saw Tangled, but people said wonderful things about it. Shrek 4 was well below average and should have never been made, IMO.

If you want a year to compare to 2010, how about 2004--

• Shrek 2 (the highest grossing animated film of all-time)
• The Incredibles (one my my top 5 animated of all-time)
• The Polar Express (not great, but a real breakthrough in motion cap animation)
• Shark Tale (ummm, just ok, but still better than Shrek 4)
• Spongebob Squarepants movie (actually kinda decent)
• Home on the Range (Roseanne Barr as a cow... talk about your perfect casting!)

2001 had Shrek and Monsters, Inc., probably as good a combo in one year as you can find, but there was nothing else that year.
1999 had Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and Tarzan.
2005 was also pretty good - Madagascar, Wallace and Grommit, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Chicken Little... of course, it also brought us Hoodwinked and Robots, both of which sucked a lot.

--Jason "you knew I would respond!" Evans

[davekay1971]

Interesting how so many of these great years are within the last decade or so. Is that an effect of the increasing number of animated titles released, the increasing budgets as studios realize just how profitable these movies can be, or Pixar throwing down the gauntlet and basically forcing everyone to up their game?

I'm agreeing with 2010 as being the best year I can remember...but I'd add Spirited Away to 2001's claim to fame. Miyazaki's releases are as reliable as Pixar's for being among any year's best.

Maybe someone else can comment on 2004's Miyazaki entry, "Howl's Moving Castle"...I haven't seen it, but if it's up to the level of Ponyo, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, it would make 2004 an even stronger year!

[theAlaskanBear]

Interesting how so many of these great years are within the last decade or so. Is that an effect of the increasing number of animated titles released, the increasing budgets as studios realize just how profitable these movies can be, or Pixar throwing down the gauntlet and basically forcing everyone to up their game?

I'm agreeing with 2010 as being the best year I can remember...but I'd add Spirited Away to 2001's claim to fame. Miyazaki's releases are as reliable as Pixar's for being among any year's best.

Maybe someone else can comment on 2004's Miyazaki entry, "Howl's Moving Castle"...I haven't seen it, but if it's up to the level of Ponyo, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, it would make 2004 an even stronger year!

The digitalization of animation makes it much, much easier for studios to produce animated films. I think this is the real reason...

[JasonEvans]

The digitalization of animation makes it much, much easier for studios to produce animated films. I think this is the real reason...

Well... it makes it easier but it also makes it more expensive. Those computers cost a lot of money and it is not like they have stopped employing artists. The big difference is that the artists use computers instead of drawing by hand.

The reason there are so many more today than there were years ago is that Pixar and Dreamworks have proven that Disney does not have a monopoly on animation. When everyone started believing that anyone could do it, everyone started doing it.

-Jason "Plus, Pixar made soooo much money from Toy Story and other early animated films, everyone had to get into the business" Evans

[JBDuke]

Well... it makes it easier but it also makes it more expensive. Those computers cost a lot of money and it is not like they have stopped employing artists. The big difference is that the artists use computers instead of drawing by hand.

The reason there are so many more today than there were years ago is that Pixar and Dreamworks have proven that Disney does not have a monopoly on animation. When everyone started believing that anyone could do it, everyone started doing it.

-Jason "Plus, Pixar made soooo much money from Toy Story and other early animated films, everyone had to get into the business" Evans

I'd also give a little credit of the revival of the animated feature to the Disney team that revamped their approach and started generating really superior films with "The Little Mermaid" in 1989, followed shortly by "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Lion King". The Pixar came along with "Toy Story" in 1995 to open the door for other companies, then Dreamworks released "Shrek" in 2001.

[JBDuke]

Interesting how so many of these great years are within the last decade or so. Is that an effect of the increasing number of animated titles released, the increasing budgets as studios realize just how profitable these movies can be, or Pixar throwing down the gauntlet and basically forcing everyone to up their game?

I'm agreeing with 2010 as being the best year I can remember...but I'd add Spirited Away to 2001's claim to fame. Miyazaki's releases are as reliable as Pixar's for being among any year's best.

Maybe someone else can comment on 2004's Miyazaki entry, "Howl's Moving Castle"...I haven't seen it, but if it's up to the level of Ponyo, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, it would make 2004 an even stronger year!

I would add Miyazaki's films since "Spirited Away" to the conversation. IIRC, that was the first one under Miyazaki's deal with Disney for distribution, which gave the films much wider exposure and release into mainstream theaters, not just art houses. IMO, "Spirited Away" is the best of the bunch. "Ponyo" was very good, and aimed at younger audiences, like "Totoro". "Howl's Moving Castle" was, IMO, a small step below "Ponyo", which was a big step below "Spirited Away". (FYI, I rated "Spirited Away" as a 10/10 on IMDB, with HMC and "Ponyo" at 8/10.)

[moonpie23]

just as it is in music, where it's all about the singer and the song. In movies, it's all about the story and the characters. Yes, technology helps on both, but those top 5 animated films could have be produced with different technology and still be great films..

don't get me wrong, i'm not knocking the tech side if it, but really, those stories and characters were the amazing part...

[JBDuke]

...
If you want a year to compare to 2010, how about 2004--

• Shrek 2 (the highest grossing animated film of all-time)
• The Incredibles (one my my top 5 animated of all-time)
• The Polar Express (not great, but a real breakthrough in motion cap animation)
• Shark Tale (ummm, just ok, but still better than Shrek 4)
• Spongebob Squarepants movie (actually kinda decent)
• Home on the Range (Roseanne Barr as a cow... talk about your perfect casting!)

2001 had Shrek and Monsters, Inc., probably as good a combo in one year as you can find, but there was nothing else that year.
1999 had Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and Tarzan.
2005 was also pretty good - Madagascar, Wallace and Grommit, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Chicken Little... of course, it also brought us Hoodwinked and Robots, both of which sucked a lot.

--Jason "you knew I would respond!" Evans

So, if I rank the mainstream 2004 animated flicks, I put them in this order:

• The Incredibles - agree with Jason that this is near the top of my all-time animated faves (10/10 on IMDB)
• Shrek 2 - a worthy sequel and quality film - not amazing, but very good (8/10)
• Howl's Moving Castle - a good Miyazaki film - typical of him, it's visually amazing, but the plot is more routine (8/10)
• The Polar Express - IMO, just a good film. Visually interesting, but slow and weird at times. (6/10)
• The Spongebob Squarepants Movie - visually, it's just a mediocre TV cartoon, but the strength of Spongebob is in the cleverness of the scripts. IMO, the movie isn't as clever as many of the cartoons, but it's harder to sustain that level over a 90 minute movie vice a 10 minute cartoon. (6/10)

Other less noteworthy animated features from 2004: "Shark Tale" and "Home on the Range".

Compare this to my ranking of the 2010 films:

• Toy Story 3 - an excellent film - not quite to the level of "The Incredibles" for me, but close (9/10)
• How to Train Your Dragon - another excellent entry - very entertaining for a large age range, with some fun plot elements (9/10)
• Despicable Me - lots of fun, visually clever, and surprisingly emotional - very good film (8/10)
• Tangled - a very good entry from Disney with some good music and fun twists (8/10)
• Megamind - very funny, visually interesting, and a twist near the end that I certainly didn't see coming (8/10)

Other 2010 films not coming up to these standards: "Shrek Forever After", "The Owls of Ga'Hoole".

Pretty close, but I'll give the edge to 2010 for the depth of selections.

[rsvman]

For me, the best animated films of the past decade have been Attack of the WereRabbit and Ratatouille. Loved them both, and both bear re-watching. I also loved The Incredibles.

Guilty pleasure? Over the Hedge.

[Reisen]

Wow, was it really 11 years between Toy Story 2 and 3? Crazy. I had no idea...