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chasmmi

Top 100 Animated Countdown. Reveal begins in 10-12 hours. Just hanging on for that last minute rushed top 20 list that changes everything...

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1 hour ago, ElastiRoc said:

I'm gonna agree with Chas about Your Name. Well, sorta. I don't despise it, but I mostly find it just fine and little more. There are some cute scenes, some really good background animation, and the twist is pretty clever, but the plot resolution is pretty blah, and, as with pretty much all his films, Shinkai leans into melodrama like he's freebasing it. It's better than most of his films, but it's still not very good.

Your Name's plot resolution (especially with everything regarding the shrine in the woods) is pretty steeped in cultural influences though so I guess that's just subjective depending on how it personally resonates with each person. Though you have underlined one of the bigger reasons why a "Hollywoodized" remake would be even more pointless unless they keep the Japanese settings, people and cultural aspects.

 

Your Name though has shown that Shinkai is capable of growing as a storyteller, even if some of his peers are more effective than him (I haven't seen Yonebayashi's works yet, but Hosoda has a better handle on human emotionality and character development than Shinkai for sure). 

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35th - Howl's Moving Castle: 18 Votes, 1 First, 1 Top 5, 2 top 10  379 points

 

Previous List - 33rd

 

 

And it continues with the only Ghibli film worse than Totoro (I promise I start liking things again soon).

 

Both in live action and animation, I have watched many films that are based on books or source materials. Some have been faithful and some have shat upon the original from a great height. In general, being faithful to the original work isn't overly important to me (although there are things like Captain Corelli's Mandolin that can burn in hell), but with Howl, I just hated how much disrespect the film seemed to show the book. 

 

Everything at every turn is 'wrong' and it made me angry to watch. In one of my classes at work I had students read Howl's Moving Castle and then at the end we watched this film as an exercise in comparing different interpretations of a story, and the whole class was just watching it going 'what the fuck?' 'who is that?' why is this happening?'.  I just had issue with every creative decision this film made at every turn.  

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34th - The Prince of Egypt: 19 Votes, 2 First, 1 Top 5, 2 top 10  385 points

 

Previous List - 55th

 

 

 

The first film to receive multiple 1st place votes (and one of only 9 in total)

 

It's rare for a bible based film to be popular with both believers and non-believers, but this one seems to traverse that line really well. It gets away with having the obvious strong religious themes by being entertaining with great songs, and it gets away with subversions to the source material (such as Rameses being a good fun lad I believe), by using that to really emphasis and hammer home the power of the message later in the story. 

 

This is one of Dreamworks' earliest films, and is still among their best and most popular.  

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33rd - The Little Mermaid: 22 Votes, 3 top 10  385 points

 

Previous List - 26th

 

 

One of my go to karaoke numbers that is.

 

The renaissance film that is remembered enough to be remembered as part of the renaissance, but not quite held on the same pedestal as the three that were still to come. 

 

The Little Mermaid is a great film, it is a little raw around the edges from being the potential last breath of a dying studio, but what it achieves is a film that has songs which hold up to this day. A princess who has more to her character than just 'oh please help me handsome stranger' (She can't speak so has to use body language to say it).. and it has a wonderful villain.

 

This film has a strong legacy, and is still eminently rewatchable as I can attest to after having to watch it 5 times in 2 days a couple years back.  

 

 

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32nd - Moana: 23 Votes, 1 top 5, 2 top 10  394 points

 

Previous List - New

 

 

 

My number 4 or 5 film of 2016 period (and yet still only my number 3 animation of that year) 

 

Moana was a wonderful film in a year of wonderful animations. It has possibly Disney's best ever soundtrack from a consistently standpoint (I can't think of too many others with 5 truly great songs), it has brilliant voice performances, and then there is the animation: the water is beautiful, Maui's tattoos are really well done, and it is just so bright and fun to watch. 

 

This film also had a rollercoaster run in the list, it was nowhere for the opening 10 lists or so (including the odd baffling list that had like 40 Disney animations, yet left this one off completely). Then it had a mad strong middle run that saw it threatening the top 10 at one point, before leveling off in 32nd.  

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31st - Mulan: 24 Votes, 2 top 10  395 points

 

Previous List - 22nd

 

 

This was the hill I was prepared to fight @Morieris on if this interpretation of modern princesses went back far enough.

 

You are also welcome for the most infectious song Disney ever wrote. Mulan is another film I totally ignored until my Disney binge of 2013-14, and it is the one I am most disappointed in myself for missing as it is my absolute 4th favourite Disney animation and my clear favourite with a princess lead.

 

I remember watching this film and thinking to myself, "Wait a minute, what the hell were people talking about saying that Anna and Elsa are the first independent princesses that actually do things in their films? Mulan is saving the whole of fucking China!" 

 

I will go as far as to say, if this had been given the Pocahontas release spot, then we would be talking about a big 5 renaissance film list, not just 4. 

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6 minutes ago, chasmmi said:

This film also had a rollercoaster run in the list, it was nowhere for the opening 10 lists or so (including the odd baffling list that had like 40 Disney animations, yet left this one off completely). Then it had a mad strong middle run that saw it threatening the top 10 at one point, before leveling off in 32nd.  

There’s a film like this on the horror countdown. I haven’t done any scoring yet, but I think it only appeared on 2 of the first 10 lists. It probably finished in the upper half 🤔

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30th - Kung Fu Panda: 25 Votes, 2 top 5, 1 top 10  397 points

 

Previous List - 40th

 

 

And the original installment in the best animated trilogy of all time starts off our top 30. 

 

I have already said as much as I can about how good this series is. I am so happy to see this rise in the new list. Just the scene above shows how great this film is, the blend of slapstick, silliness, and yet also a strong reason for existing and great character progression is done really well. 

 

I am so glad to see this series get the respect that it deserves on this list and maybe, just maybe, we'll get a 4th some day.

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I rewatched Moana and it looks gorgeous on a BluRay set up. I was stunned, just four years later it looked better than WIR. Technology is amazing.

 

& yay @ KFP being 30. I don't like the sequels all that much though.

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Prince Of Egypt is easily the best of today's films, such a great adaptation and great songs. The little Mermaid is quite good, although I wouldn't put it this high. Howl Moana and KFP are just average, and Mulan is mostly bad (that song is nice but outside of that it spends far too long on unfunny jokes about being amongst men).

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22 hours ago, Spidey Freak said:

Your Name's plot resolution (especially with everything regarding the shrine in the woods) is pretty steeped in cultural influences though so I guess that's just subjective depending on how it personally resonates with each person. Though you have underlined one of the bigger reasons why a "Hollywoodized" remake would be even more pointless unless they keep the Japanese settings, people and cultural aspects.

 

There are plenty of films that are steeped in the culture, though. Spirited Away is. The Boy and the Beast is. Paprika is. Your Name isn't particularly unique in that regard, and the cultural aspect of the resolution doesn't make it particularly good. It's ultimately a cute film with a clever premise that's undermined by an overly melodramatic conclusion. 

 

22 hours ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

Your Name though has shown that Shinkai is capable of growing as a storyteller, even if some of his peers are more effective than him (I haven't seen Yonebayashi's works yet, but Hosoda has a better handle on human emotionality and character development than Shinkai for sure). 

Yeah, it's better than most of his films. I'd argue that A Place Promised in Our Early Days is better... and possibly Voices of a Distant Star, but he's still pretty one-note for emotional resonance, even in those. It could be far, far worse, though. Children Who Chase Lost Voices is extremely bad.

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29th - Lilo and Stitch: 23 Votes, 1 Top 5, 1 top 10  402 points

 

Previous List - 27th

 

 

Weird to think this film has to be reanimated quite dramatically because of 9/11.

 

Yeah if you look up the original 3rd act, it is really unfortunate how inappropriate it suddenly became. As for the film, I think along with Emperor's NEw Groove, it was the one I was least enthused about giving a chance to. And while it isn't the top 5 greatness of Groove, it is still a really really good film that surprised me a lot in the directions is took and how it got there. 

 

Essentially an adaptation of The Ugly Duckling, this film achieves a lot of unexpected feats. It has a child character who is actually great and not an annoyance to the whole film. It has a cute alien thing that is able to do both slapstick and emotional scenes easily, and it has an overall story that manages to juggle being emotive and preposterous at the same time. 

 

This film is great, and I really next expected Lilo to turn out to be one of my favourite Disney characters.   

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28th - Shrek: 24 Votes, 1 Top 5, 1 top 10  407 points

 

Previous List - 23rd

 

 

I also never expected a petty attack on Disney studios by a bitter exec that wanted to take out his anger on Lord Fuckwad would ever be one of my favourite animated films.

 

But here we are. Shrek. A franchise with 2 of the best films out there and one of the worst, but let's not mention that again. Shrek is a fun quasi-princess parody and also good standalone story. It has Mike Myers' best character as well as Eddie Murphy's... definitely top 5, maybe top 3 performances to boot. 

 

This was the film that put Dreamworks on the map as the only real competition to Pixar and Disney, and if it wasn't for Pixar being unholy levels of great from 2000 - 2010, they could have potentially ended up being THE animation studio in the US. It's a shame that they are where they are right now as when Dreamworks is on form, they still provide thematically and stylistically different alternatives to the Disney/Pixar formula that Universal, Blue Sky et still can only dream of pulling off. 

 

Hell, even bloody trolls and Captain Underpants ended up being good. How did that happen? 

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27th - Wreck IT Ralph: 24 Votes, 2 top 10  409 points

 

Previous List - 21st

 

 

 

I was always going to like a video game film though.

 

Wreck it Ralph is a film fully deserving of its sequel, and is a nice little film in between all the Big Musicals and barrier breaking down stories of the past 10 years. SOme even considering this Disney's best CG film and while I don't quite agree (I place it 5th or 6th), I can see where people are coming from and this was probably the film that signalled the moment that Disney became more consistent in quality than PIxar.  

 

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26th - Akira: 16 Votes, 1 First, 3 Top 5, 1 top 10  411 points

 

Previous List - 53rd

 

 

Pretty much the only thing I know about Akira is that the bike is in Ready Player One.

 

YEp this is the final film on the list that I have not seen and you do not win a cookie for guessing beforehand where it was from. This film has had a dramatic rise since the last list, one of the biggest anywhere on the list in fact. It is also the penultimate film on the list to receive less than 20 votes and as such must be very high on the average points per vote table. 

 

It is also the first film to receive 4 top 5 votes, and only two over films outside the top 15 will equal or surpass this acheivement. I suppose the one question I have to those fans is, has it aged well enough for new viewers to enjoy it, or will it feel dated in the same way that watching the Original Halloween these days is pretty dull as everything it innovated has been done to death since its release and done in shinier flashier colours to boot.

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25th - The Nightmare Before Christmas: 24 Votes, 4 top 10  416 points

 

Previous List - 30th

 

 

The highest placed film with no top 5 placement.

 

I only watched this for the first time in the lead up to the previous installment of this list and I liked it. Not top 25 liked it (I think I have it about 70th) but I liked it all the same. It has good songs, a fun story, and it's a fun theme. Even though it makes it very hard to find the perfect time to watch it. 

 

It does feel like this could have easily been a Burton directed, Depp starring film if history had brought this into existence a decade later. I am okay with that not happening though (Although The Corpse Bride was the penultimate good Depp/Burton collaboration so who knows...) 

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