Because I have an Animation Reputation to maintain on here.
This is my post instead of the usual "Oscar Nom for Animateds Wrapup" bc I have seen only 1 of the will-be nominated films.
![]()
This is about animated movies. I could make one about animated shows but I admit, when it comes to that, me and ONTD are two ships passing in the night. You're on the adult animation ship. I'm on the 'Oh boy, Star vs., Steven Universe, and Amphibia' ship.
IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT DISNEY of course. Many (foreign, of course. Why would the US make a domestic hand drawn feature length film popular??) smaller, even hand-drawn animations got Western, Academy attention. Personal favorites include A CAT IN PARIS and PHANTOM BOY by French studio Folimage, THE BREADWINNER and THE SECRET OF KELLS by Cartoon Saloon.
"Paris" and "Breadwinner" are particularly interesting, talking about adult themes with a 2D, vibrant art style that often switches to truly flat and puppet papercraft respectively.
![]()
"The Breadwinner"
These segments with the art style shifts remind me a bit of "Sita Sings the Blues" from 2008.
Another film I believe you can still watch on Netflix is MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE (or, MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI), a Swiss-French animated film that was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, a stopmotion, almost clay-mation kind of movie that is horrendously sad and heartwarming.
First (second), Let's Look at theTOP ANIMATED FILMS BOX OFFICE WISE of the decade (Worldwide):
![]()
*I'm not talking about Illumination besides saying SING was a juggernaut and somehow didn't crack the top 20. Illumination is so damn irritating. My god.
YES, DISNEY IS HERE and they dragged their biggest cash cow into CGI - TANGLED is the first fully CGI Disney Princess film and finally adapted the story of Rapunzel, something the studio had wanted to do for ages. Look hard enough, you'll find the concept art of "Rapunzel Unbraided", a girl, her squabbling rival, somehow shoved into the story.
Rapunzel, sweetie, I'm sorry, that sounds like trash.
TANGLED is the 11th most expensive movie ever made, behind 9 other Disney films and 2 DCEU films. It still remains the best white Disney Princess movie. I am not accepting criticism at this time.
Of course, Disney didn't just give us Princesses, arguably giving us the first good video game movie in WRECK IT RALPH, and the best Disney character ever.
![]()
We love a Animator-Doll-Less Candy Princess
However,
Nobody:
Absolutely Nobody:
Was prepared for 2013 and MONSTERS UNIVERSITY.
Okay, with FROZEN.
![]()
I like Monsters University, one of the few Pixar movies to miss out on a Oscar nomination. It has a lot more heart than the original, which is still funny.
Several years removed from the film...I'm still not sure how it took the world by storm besides "People are really happy to see two sisters, no POC, a pitchy song, and pretty visuals", because the screenplay is a mess. Nevertheless, it has good qualities like making $1.276 BILLION worldwide and "In Summer" is the best song in the film.
It is also the first DP movie to get an official, "we put some effort into this', theatrical release with this year's FROZEN II. Which has way better music but somehow still isn't a better movie than #1. But they're both part of the Billion Dollar Club, so whatever. OP will just suck a lemon.
![]()
THERE IS A SURPRISNG TREND WITH DISNEY AND THE BEST ANIMATED FEATURE OSCAR - The best Disney Movie of The Year Hasn't Won in the Past 10 years*.** ***
*With the odd one out of BIG HERO 6, Disney's first animated superhero film, having no other Disney competition. Frankly, KAGUYA should have won that year.
**In years with more than one Mouse Movie in the running, besides COCO (Which had been mired by quite a lot of controversy, from Disney trying to copyright Day of the Dead, to John Lasseter being publicly outed and fired a few days before the release, and being compared even in early preproduction to Reel FX's THE BOOK OF LIFE), the worst one always won.
You're not gonna hear me say 'CARS 3 is underrated!'. Zootopia isn't awful, but it's very surface level, baby's first oppression allegory.
*** In a year with 2 Disney movies (Technically 3, if you count the Fox buyout), they all lost in 2018's batch..
The technically about 6th CGI princess (Not counting television princesses Elena and Sofia on Disney Channel) and first non-white CGI princess is MOANA, who is technically not a princess.
![]()
The cultural impact of this is probably the distant second to FROZEN - the film was translated into multiple languages, including te reo Māori and the Hawaiian language.
I don't see WIR toys. I don't see BRAVE or TANGLED toys (Sort of, I see "Tangled: The Series" toys). And OFC we don't see THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG toys.
But 3 years later, there is still a healthy Moana section at our Target. There's also going to be an attraction at one of the many Disney theme parks around the world. Good for her! Nothing but respect for my Wayfinder of Montonui!
MAINICHI FILM AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION FILM. Because a lot of Eastern animation gets paid dust inthe American Award Race. I'm not going to be one of them! The Mainichi Film Awards are sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun, one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan
One that made a big splash in the US was Kimi no Na wa / YOUR NAME, about a boy and girl who begin to swap bodies at random.
Heck, it should have been nominated on Score for this alone:
One that did get far enough to be nominated at the 2017 Annie Awards as MISS HOKUSAI, which is a very interesting and culturally-rich story. It's a movie where you have to be okay with not knowing all the cultural nuances. I think it still may be on Netflix, so check it out.
![]()
Two films: CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (2017, Dreamworks) and THE LEGO MOVIE (2014, Warner Animated Group) -
![]()
Answer: They were better reviewed than their studio contemporaries ("The Lego Movie" > Every other WAG movie, "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" > "The Boss Baby") and were paid dust at the Academy Awards in their respective years.
(Though, to be fair, Dreamworks' MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN also did not score a nomination, bc it was terrible. The show is SO much better.)
The case of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS and THE BOSS BABY was particular egregious to film fans. How did something with a variety of art styles and a story that did not depend on the sheer wackyness of its somewhat demented premise miss a nomination?
A popular theory (by me) is that LEGO and UNDERPANTS both had live action segments, the latter for a few seconds and the former for a few minutes. The rules for Animated Feature for this year are as follows:
In an animated film, animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time. In addition, a narrative animated film must have a significant number of the major characters animated. If the picture is created in a cinematic style that could be mistaken for live action, the filmmaker(s) must also submit information supporting how and why the picture is substantially a work of animation rather than live action.
LEGO certainly had more than 75% of the movie technically animated. LEGO 2 still does, but I'm not expecting a nomination.
Or maybe the Academy voters were just #turnt when they selected from the shortlist. Or Alec Baldwin sent them goodie bags.
![]()
Director Dean Deblois said shortly after the release of DRAGONS 2 what the final endgame of the series would be theatrically. There's an article in like 2014. I posted it here. That's a big reason of why I didn't bother with 3.
Back to 2018.
The showstopper wasn't INCREDIBLES.
Or RALPH.
Or ISLE OF DOGS.
But instead....
![]()
I have talked about SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE at length because it is probably the best mainstream animated American movie of the decade. Featuring a poppy, comicbook style that Sony has even gone as far to trademark the technology
It is the first non Disney animated movie since RANGO in 2011 to win the covered award:
![]()
src: uh, binging 'best animated feature'
A movie made by a bunch of people who were fired, had their movies ostracized, and ignored (Dreamworks' RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, Ramsey was the director for that, IIRC, the FIRST black man to direct a CGI animated feature) became the little film that could. This even had better legs than Aquaman. Can you say VINDICATION!
![]()
C'mon, how did KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS not win against Disney's JUNGLE BOOK (Which was also 90% animated?) for Best Visual Effects?
They're also really good at having white people voice a bunch of non white characters.
RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU REMEMBER STUDIO GHIBLI because their last film, WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE, was in 2014 (Which I did not realize until![]()
pantherlike told me).
THE RED TURTLE was a co-production between Studio Ghibli and Wild Bunch studios, not soley SG.
There's a lot of uncertainty and randomness surrounding Ghibli in the latter half of the decade, mainly behind the"Will He or Won't He?" of Hayao Miyazaki's retirement. Currently, he is not retired.
The next venture by the studio, Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka / HOW DO YOU LIVE?, is expected to be released in 2020, but who knows.
(What happened to BORO THE CATERPILLAR?)
![]()
As I was researching this, I learned that Aardman's ARTHUR CHRISTMAS wasn't nominated for BAF. SHAUN THE SHEEP THE MOVIE was nominated though, and it's actually adorable and funny.
Phew, well, that's a lot, and there's still about 83% left. But let's leave it at this for now. What were your favorite animated films of the decade, no matter their country of origin?
srces are throughout the post. I made the banner and purple text images.
music
This is my post instead of the usual "Oscar Nom for Animateds Wrapup" bc I have seen only 1 of the will-be nominated films.
This is about animated movies. I could make one about animated shows but I admit, when it comes to that, me and ONTD are two ships passing in the night. You're on the adult animation ship. I'm on the 'Oh boy, Star vs., Steven Universe, and Amphibia' ship.
IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT DISNEY of course. Many (foreign, of course. Why would the US make a domestic hand drawn feature length film popular??) smaller, even hand-drawn animations got Western, Academy attention. Personal favorites include A CAT IN PARIS and PHANTOM BOY by French studio Folimage, THE BREADWINNER and THE SECRET OF KELLS by Cartoon Saloon.
"Paris" and "Breadwinner" are particularly interesting, talking about adult themes with a 2D, vibrant art style that often switches to truly flat and puppet papercraft respectively.
"The Breadwinner"
These segments with the art style shifts remind me a bit of "Sita Sings the Blues" from 2008.
Another film I believe you can still watch on Netflix is MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE (or, MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI), a Swiss-French animated film that was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, a stopmotion, almost clay-mation kind of movie that is horrendously sad and heartwarming.
First (second), Let's Look at theTOP ANIMATED FILMS BOX OFFICE WISE of the decade (Worldwide):
*I'm not talking about Illumination besides saying SING was a juggernaut and somehow didn't crack the top 20. Illumination is so damn irritating. My god.
YES, DISNEY IS HERE and they dragged their biggest cash cow into CGI - TANGLED is the first fully CGI Disney Princess film and finally adapted the story of Rapunzel, something the studio had wanted to do for ages. Look hard enough, you'll find the concept art of "Rapunzel Unbraided", a girl, her squabbling rival, somehow shoved into the story.
Rapunzel, sweetie, I'm sorry, that sounds like trash.
TANGLED is the 11th most expensive movie ever made, behind 9 other Disney films and 2 DCEU films. It still remains the best white Disney Princess movie. I am not accepting criticism at this time.
Of course, Disney didn't just give us Princesses, arguably giving us the first good video game movie in WRECK IT RALPH, and the best Disney character ever.
We love a Animator-Doll-Less Candy Princess
However,
Nobody:
Absolutely Nobody:
Was prepared for 2013 and MONSTERS UNIVERSITY.
Okay, with FROZEN.
Several years removed from the film...I'm still not sure how it took the world by storm besides "People are really happy to see two sisters, no POC, a pitchy song, and pretty visuals", because the screenplay is a mess. Nevertheless, it has good qualities like making $1.276 BILLION worldwide and "In Summer" is the best song in the film.
It is also the first DP movie to get an official, "we put some effort into this', theatrical release with this year's FROZEN II. Which has way better music but somehow still isn't a better movie than #1. But they're both part of the Billion Dollar Club, so whatever. OP will just suck a lemon.
THERE IS A SURPRISNG TREND WITH DISNEY AND THE BEST ANIMATED FEATURE OSCAR - The best Disney Movie of The Year Hasn't Won in the Past 10 years*.** ***
*With the odd one out of BIG HERO 6, Disney's first animated superhero film, having no other Disney competition. Frankly, KAGUYA should have won that year.
**In years with more than one Mouse Movie in the running, besides COCO (Which had been mired by quite a lot of controversy, from Disney trying to copyright Day of the Dead, to John Lasseter being publicly outed and fired a few days before the release, and being compared even in early preproduction to Reel FX's THE BOOK OF LIFE), the worst one always won.
You're not gonna hear me say 'CARS 3 is underrated!'. Zootopia isn't awful, but it's very surface level, baby's first oppression allegory.
*** In a year with 2 Disney movies (Technically 3, if you count the Fox buyout), they all lost in 2018's batch..
The technically about 6th CGI princess (Not counting television princesses Elena and Sofia on Disney Channel) and first non-white CGI princess is MOANA, who is technically not a princess.
The cultural impact of this is probably the distant second to FROZEN - the film was translated into multiple languages, including te reo Māori and the Hawaiian language.
I don't see WIR toys. I don't see BRAVE or TANGLED toys (Sort of, I see "Tangled: The Series" toys). And OFC we don't see THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG toys.
But 3 years later, there is still a healthy Moana section at our Target. There's also going to be an attraction at one of the many Disney theme parks around the world. Good for her! Nothing but respect for my Wayfinder of Montonui!
MAINICHI FILM AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION FILM. Because a lot of Eastern animation gets paid dust inthe American Award Race. I'm not going to be one of them! The Mainichi Film Awards are sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun, one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan
One that made a big splash in the US was Kimi no Na wa / YOUR NAME, about a boy and girl who begin to swap bodies at random.
Heck, it should have been nominated on Score for this alone:
One that did get far enough to be nominated at the 2017 Annie Awards as MISS HOKUSAI, which is a very interesting and culturally-rich story. It's a movie where you have to be okay with not knowing all the cultural nuances. I think it still may be on Netflix, so check it out.
Two films: CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (2017, Dreamworks) and THE LEGO MOVIE (2014, Warner Animated Group) -
Answer: They were better reviewed than their studio contemporaries ("The Lego Movie" > Every other WAG movie, "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" > "The Boss Baby") and were paid dust at the Academy Awards in their respective years.
(Though, to be fair, Dreamworks' MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN also did not score a nomination, bc it was terrible. The show is SO much better.)
The case of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS and THE BOSS BABY was particular egregious to film fans. How did something with a variety of art styles and a story that did not depend on the sheer wackyness of its somewhat demented premise miss a nomination?
A popular theory (by me) is that LEGO and UNDERPANTS both had live action segments, the latter for a few seconds and the former for a few minutes. The rules for Animated Feature for this year are as follows:
In an animated film, animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time. In addition, a narrative animated film must have a significant number of the major characters animated. If the picture is created in a cinematic style that could be mistaken for live action, the filmmaker(s) must also submit information supporting how and why the picture is substantially a work of animation rather than live action.
LEGO certainly had more than 75% of the movie technically animated. LEGO 2 still does, but I'm not expecting a nomination.
Or maybe the Academy voters were just #turnt when they selected from the shortlist. Or Alec Baldwin sent them goodie bags.
2018 WAS PRETTY DAMN PECULIAR as we finally had the return of THE INCREDIBLES with INCREDIBLES 2 and WRECK IT RALPH: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET.
2019 would be even more prevalent with sequels, like THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART, TOY STORY 4, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3, and the aforemention FROZEN 2.
2019 would be even more prevalent with sequels, like THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART, TOY STORY 4, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3, and the aforemention FROZEN 2.
Director Dean Deblois said shortly after the release of DRAGONS 2 what the final endgame of the series would be theatrically. There's an article in like 2014. I posted it here. That's a big reason of why I didn't bother with 3.
Back to 2018.
The showstopper wasn't INCREDIBLES.
Or RALPH.
Or ISLE OF DOGS.
But instead....
I have talked about SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE at length because it is probably the best mainstream animated American movie of the decade. Featuring a poppy, comicbook style that Sony has even gone as far to trademark the technology
It is the first non Disney animated movie since RANGO in 2011 to win the covered award:
src: uh, binging 'best animated feature'
A movie made by a bunch of people who were fired, had their movies ostracized, and ignored (Dreamworks' RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, Ramsey was the director for that, IIRC, the FIRST black man to direct a CGI animated feature) became the little film that could. This even had better legs than Aquaman. Can you say VINDICATION!
BUT IT ISN'T JUST DISNEY AND PIXAR'S WORLD, BUT LAIKA'S AS WELL. Laika, the scrappy stop motion studio run by one Chilly-T that is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. They are dealing with a bit of diminising returns - even I did not care enough to see MISSING LINK.
The studio has the only picture this decade to be nominated for both Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects in the same year -
The studio has the only picture this decade to be nominated for both Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects in the same year -
C'mon, how did KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS not win against Disney's JUNGLE BOOK (Which was also 90% animated?) for Best Visual Effects?
They're also really good at having white people voice a bunch of non white characters.
RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU REMEMBER STUDIO GHIBLI because their last film, WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE, was in 2014 (Which I did not realize until
pantherlike told me).THE RED TURTLE was a co-production between Studio Ghibli and Wild Bunch studios, not soley SG.
There's a lot of uncertainty and randomness surrounding Ghibli in the latter half of the decade, mainly behind the"Will He or Won't He?" of Hayao Miyazaki's retirement. Currently, he is not retired.
The next venture by the studio, Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka / HOW DO YOU LIVE?, is expected to be released in 2020, but who knows.
(What happened to BORO THE CATERPILLAR?)
As I was researching this, I learned that Aardman's ARTHUR CHRISTMAS wasn't nominated for BAF. SHAUN THE SHEEP THE MOVIE was nominated though, and it's actually adorable and funny.
Phew, well, that's a lot, and there's still about 83% left. But let's leave it at this for now. What were your favorite animated films of the decade, no matter their country of origin?
srces are throughout the post. I made the banner and purple text images.
music