Top 10 Animation Genre Movies of All Time

I recently examined the 10 Top 10 Lists of Movies by the American Film Institute. These are lists compiled by a prestigious cinema organization and each list is split by a different genre, from romantic comedy to courtroom drama to epic and animation. After looking at some of the lists, I got inspired to create my own versions of them.

My goals are for these Top 10 lists are: to properly define and identify the genre in question, quickly examine the picks from the American Film Institute, and then present my own list to show my own take on the genre in question.

As per usual, my own personal list will be presented in descending order from 10 to 1 (least to greatest) and is just made up of movies I have personally seen all the way through, so chances are there may be some movies you think are missing from my list that deserve a spot. Feel free to let me know if that's the case. Anyway, without further ado, let's kick of these Top 10s with an examination of Animation.

Defining the Genre

The AFI's website broadly defined the Animation genre as movies where "the film’s images are primarily created by computer or hand and the characters are voiced by actors". The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition kind of further specified that by stating that an animated movie is "a motion picture that is made from a series of drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of inanimate objects (such as puppets) and that simulates movement by slight progressive changes in each frame".

So, as could be assumed, defining the genre for animation into a specific, finite definition is a challenge. This is mainly because animation is a form of art within a form of art, with various techniques and styles from around the world on display. Technology has also played a huge role in expanding the capabilities within the world of animation, making it tougher to narrow down.

Basically, what we really know is that "animation" means real-life actors are not the focal point of a movie's presentation and that some sort of series of handcrafted images are put together instead. It's basically like the cartoon found in the corners of a flipbook.

AFI's Top 10 Animation List

1. Snow White
2. Pinocchio
3. Bambi
4. Lion King
5. Fantasia
6. Toy Story
7. Beauty & The Beast
8. Shrek
9. Cinderella
10. Finding Nemo

Not too much to say here, other than Disney obviously dominates the genre selections. Which is expected since Disney has been the primary and dominate company creating movies in this genre. It looks like the AFI wanted to give a shoutout to computer-generated animation, though I'm somewhat surprised that movies like the first Shrek and Finding Nemo won over some of their counterparts in their respective studios. The list is also somewhat limited by the fact that, well, their selection was only from movies made in the U.S., which leaves out international companies like Studio Ghibli which could also dominate the list.

My Outline of My Genre List

This is basically the guidelines for how I'm going to select movies for this list. These are the standards by which I will hold the chosen animated movies to. The hope is that the movies on my personal Top 10 list will reflect the traits below and help us better understand what it means for a movie to be in the animated genre.

-Only 1 choice per studio (not a list full of Disney, Pixar, or Ghibli options)
-Still images coming to life through motion
-Variety of colors and hues
-Effective use of shadows and darkness
-Specially effective use of light
-Vivid textures
-Showcase the history of animation styles and artistic technological advances
-Show an improvement over time of a particular company or group's technique, if applicable.
-Timeless artwork

Honorable Mentions

The Thief & The Cobbler
Isle of Dogs
Titan A.E.
Fantasia
Bambi
Beauty & The Beast
Prince of Egypt
Toy Story
The Peanuts Movie

These are all movies that are high quality movies from within well-respected animation companies or they stand out as unique pieces of cinema. Basically, if I didn't have my option of watching the following 10 movies, these would be the backups I would happily watch again and again.

My Top 10 Animations List

10. Lord of the Rings-Ralph Bakshi

Hear me out. It's an example of doing animation with a miniscule budget. Infamous for its use of rotoscoping over live actors, especially in the second half of the movie. Lots of deep, painted backgrounds. Very dark and shadowy in the right moments. The hand-drawn characters on top of the landscapes really transports us to a fantasy setting.

9. Shaun the Sheep-Aardman

Exemplary stop motion animation using play-doh-esque material, a.k.a claymation. Stylish and improved art style by Aardman studios (Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit). Shiny and sleek appearance. Fluid movement yet malleable character designs for creative stop motion. It almost makes you think you really are seeing sheep walking about in a real life city.

8. Kubo and the Two Strings-Laika

A form of stop-motion, utilizing a combination of claymation and computer generated images.
Good use of Japanese-influenced artistry and scenery. Improved, definitive art style by Laika (Coraline, Paranorman). Proper atmosphere built between dark spooky moments and bright, lighthearted comedy. The designs and textures of our main characters really bring the animation to life.

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox-Wes Anderson

Stop motion using puppetry/ doll-like models. Very textured appearance, with specific details in the fur of the animals as well as phenomena like water and smoke. Hues of yellow, orange, and brown match the appearance of the titular character. Beautiful glow to the lighting in sunsets and apple juice basement scene. There's even an interesting scene with an alternative art style involving a cartoon wolf.

6. Shrek 2-Dreamworks

While Prince of Egypt stands out as the exemplary 2-D animation by Dreamworks, and later movies like How to Train Your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda are more fluid in motion/ colorful in design, Shrek 2 to me stands out as the model CGI animation work by Dreamworks. It sharpens the CGI from original Shrek. The humans look like real life humans, not obvious cartoons like Dragon. The fantasy and realism blend together well here, and all the characters have unique textured designs. The realism in the CGI artwork is so effective, at one point I really did believe a giant ginger-bread man wreck havoc on a Starbucks knockoff Godzilla-style.

5. Secret of NIMH-Don Bluth

I was very close to putting Titan A.E. on this list for its blend of CGI and hand-drawn animation. However, Secret of NIMH really shows the hard hard work that Don Bluth and company went through to achieve success from the get-go. It's very stellar hand-drawn artistry that equals the skills of early Disney masterpieces. What especially stands out is the glowing lights that pop up in characters' eyes and in the backgrounds. The movement is very fluid and while the characters are cartoonish interpretations of real animals, they still feel and look like real mice, rats, crows, cats, etc.

4. Secret of Kells-Cartoon Saloon

Hand-drawn animation with trippy uses of flats character designs and fleshed-out, developed backgrounds. Takes inspiration from the Illumination techniques used in Biblical artwork (ex...The Book of Kells) and translates it into bright, explosive layers of colors and lights. Finely detailed line work. The fantasy elements are given some special designs and treatment, but the animation still gives grandeur and respect to the religious elements.

3. Inside Out-Pixar

You can see lots of fine details in the various textures of the characters, from Joy's skin to Disgust's hair to Anger's fire. Creative physical representations of words, ideas, and phrases. The humans are drawn and presented in a realistic way, not cartoony. Tons of different shades of color and glowing lights, though the momentary uses of darkness and shadows are effective. There's even enough time for a playful experiment in abstract CGI animation. This movie shows the continuing development in Pixar's mastery of the CGI animation style.

2. Pinocchio-Disney

It is a signature Disney art style. It doesn't have similar problems to Snow White where the animation truly shows its age. It also has a higher quality to the animation than some of my favorites like Robin Hood. I think when people think of Disney, people think of this kind of fantastical 2-D hand drawn animation. It has some dark, shadowy moments, but also some color and pizzazz. Pinocchio almost looks and moves like a real boy, and it's only when he transforms into the real thing in the end that you realize he was really wooden all along.

1. Princess Mononoke-Studio Ghibli

Exemplary of the anime style of animation, and a particularly timeless example of Studio Ghibli's artistry. Presents both bright, colorful, well-lit images as well as shadowy, grotesque, violent images. Humans are either realistic or cartoonish as necessary, but the creatures are all impressive and vivid. Mixes fantasy with realism. Miyazaki's appreciation for nature and distaste for industrial interference with nature is on display in the animation. The battle scenes are all paced well and move in a way that is flowing yet understandable visually.

Movies That May Replace Choices on My List Upon Future Viewing

Akira
Triplets of Belleville
Wolf Children
The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Music Series: International Disney

8/24/16: In the midst of life, I am trying to blog more. I have several posts in a series about Music in development, along with some random posts developing as well. I hope to get at least one out once a week for the next few weeks, but it may be more or less, who knows. Anyway, on with the blog!

J.R.R. Tolkien is famous for not only being the author of the stories about Middle Earth, but he is also well known as a professor of philology. He studied languages, their history, and what made words work. He was passionate about languages foreign to his own and found beauty in many of those foreign words, which influenced his creation of the different languages seen and heard in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Elvish languages can be heard featuring aspects of the Finnish and Icelandic languages for example.

What I imagine Tolkien was hoping Elvish songs would sound like.

Now, obviously the title of this post tells you that this is about Disney and not Tolkien. I brought him up though because I feel like I have experienced the enjoyment and the passion for foreign languages that Professor Tolkien demonstrated. And that is because of Disney. Specifically, songs found in Disney movies, sung in foreign languages.

Disney animated features have been famous for their music, most especially during the Renaissance in the late 80s and early 90s. Most everyone around my age can still sing along to all of the songs from Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. There was just something catchy and attractive about the songs, kind of like combining the hooks of musical theatre with the hit power of pop radio (although the songs became more like pop radio in the last few years).

Exhibit A!

Why do I enjoy these songs in foreign languages? I think one of the elements involved is sound. These songs, while structured and pitched the same as in the English version, demonstrate how the sound of words change around the world. Words sound different because the mouth and the tongue is used differently depending on where you are. Another element is the beauty in mystery. I do not really understand what songs are saying in foreign languages, but I know they sound beautiful. I also know that translators attempt to match lyrics as best as possible, so I can still get the general idea of a song even if I do not really know what the characters are singing. I think there is also the fact that most of these sounds and words are new to me. Since I really only speak English, with some Spanish and Latin thrown in, all of these sung words sound new to me, and I think we all enjoy finding something new and mysterious.

Youtube is a fantastic site. One reason is because I can find videos of Disney songs in multiple languages. If Youtube was not around, I probably would not be able to hear an Icelandic or a French or a Japanese version of Disney tunes unless I came across a dubbed copy of those movies. The odd thing is, the best songs, or the most beautiful songs, to me are the princess songs. I am not sure if it's the allure of a pretty feminine voice or if the songs were just written very well or if there are just more songs for female singers in Disney than male singers.

Anywho, below are some samples of some of my favorite Disney songs sung in foreign languages. I chose to, for the most part, connect the language with the setting of the corresponding movie.

Arabic: Aladdin-A Whole New World

Mandarin (Chinese): Mulan-Reflection

French: Cinderella-So This is Love

Greek: Hercules-I Won't Say I'm in Love

Danish: The Aristocats-Thomas O'Malley 

Sure the movie is set in France, but I already picked one for that language. Anyways, this version sounds the closest to the cool vibe from the English.

A Strange Assortment of Disney Flicks

I want to try to do something more goofy and lighthearted in between putting out serious contemplative material. And, what's more and lighthearted than Disney? Granted, some of my movie choices, or the content within these movies, can be serious, and that is part of my reason for putting that movie on this list. However, when it comes down to it, I have just enjoyed watching Disney movies since my earliest childhood days and I wanted to share my reasons for why these 5 movies (in no particular order) are my favorites.

P.S.-Note that most, if not all of these choices, are not the most popular, not the most music oriented, and certainly contain a very minimal amount of princesses. So, this list will look a little different than what you might expect a Top Disney Movies list to look like.

Robin Hood

As the Nostalgia Critic noted in his Disneycember review of this movie, most kids were introduced to the legend of Robin Hood through this version. I count myself among that number who first heard of the legendary outlaw through Disney.

This is one of the those Disney movies that the boys can really dig without having to feel embarassed to admit they're watching Disney (unlike the princess movies). Naturally, there's plenty of archery , romance, and swordplay but maybe even moreso there's plenty of comedy. I get a kick out of just thinking of scenes like Robin Hood and Little John dressing as fortune tellers, or Little John pretending to be a Duke and befriending Prince John, or Hiss and Prince John arguing.

It was great fun seeing these animal characters move and act like normal humans, and yet are given moments and distinctions that correspond with their animal type (the elephants use their noses to trumpet, Prince John who is royalty is a lion, etc.). It didn't distract me that these were animals portraying people, in fact, I think that was what drew me in as a kid and remains part of the nostalgic appeal of this movie.

While Robin Hood is an enjoyable lead, Little John practically steals the show between the character's dialogue and its delivery from Phil Harris. Also, this is the one of the few movies I recall Disney actually showing a church and throwing moral theology into the storyline. Friar Tuck as a character, his reaction to the wickedness of the Sheriff and Prince John, and Robin Hood's charity are all positive examples of good morality fighting selfish greed (even including when Friar Tuck goes berserk on the Sheriff). In the end, even the songs are catchy and are nostalgic staples of my childhood. Robin Hood is just overall fun.

The Sword in the Stone

While the animation style and the overall story are not high on the epic quality scale by Disney standards, it's the characters that make this movie. The character of Merlin as a grumpy, clutzy, yet wizened wizard is hilarious, as is his interaction with his talking owl Archimedes. I can overlook the constant changes in Wart's (i.e. young King Arthur's) voice because he is the most identifiable character in the movie. I identify with Wart not just because I'm a boy but, because of his adventures with Merlin, Wart is learning many things and his reactions often reflect my reactions (especially when I was little).

I like Merlin's little references here and there to what the future (which is our present or past history) will be like and how it blows Wart's mind. The wizards duel between Merlin and Mim is great fun and it's cool to see Merlin win using wit and brains to overcome Mim's cheating ways. The different moments when Merlin changes himself and Wart into animals are wonderful because they are educational as well as entertaining (though the biggest lessons I learned were that a big fish likes to eat little fish and girls can be annoying when they flirt with their crush). It's the humor and character interactions that make The Sword in the Stone so good to me.

Fantasia

I already explained why I like this movie in my Top 23 movies series, so I'll just note why it's one of my Top 5 Disney movies. This feels like one of Disney's most mature and artsy releases. It feels like watching high art, between the professional classical orchestra and the top notch drawings in each of the vignettes. Fantasia goes through a wide variety of tones and emotions, from dark to light, scary to peaceful, funny to serious.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

As for the first half of the movie, The Wind in the Willows, it's enjoyable enough. The side characters, like Mole and Rat and the Horse, are very funny and given some great lines. The climactic scene in Toad Hall is thrilling too. It's the second half about Sleepy Hollow that I enjoy most in this movie.

First, Bing Crosby's narration is superb, as are his singing bits. He has a great voice for storytelling, especially when the story is as outlandish, charming, and terrifying as this one. Second, this story makes the main cast of characters simultaneously likable and despicable, making it confusing as to who to root for. Ichabod is a victim yet incredibly greedy, Brom is the town hero yet arrogant, and Katrina is pretty but vain. I like that complexity.

Not to mention, Ichabod's trip through Sleepy Hollow and the encounter with the Headless Horsemen is very horrifying. It's one of those classic childhood moments of fright that stick with me even today. The tone for this climactic encounter is set even before Ichabod arrives in the hollow, back when Brom sings the song about the Horseman. From that song onward, the goofy love triangle quickly becomes a faded memory, due to the atmosphere that the filmmakers, from the artists to the sound effects to the musicians, create. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has a lot of emotional range and complexity for a kid's movie.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Where to begin with this movie? This movie utilizes several elements that I liked about previous movies on this list. This is one of Disney's most mature and dark releases, one of its major settings is a church, and it includes ideas of moral theology. I think the songs are some of the best parts of the movie. Not just because of how well they are sung (the music is beautiful), but also because the lyrics reflect incredible ideas and character conflict.

At the end of Bells of Notre Dame, Clopin asks "Who is the monster and who is the man?", which really translates to "Is a person a monstrosity because of their appearance or because of their actions?". In Out There, Quasimodo sings "If I was in their skin, I'd treasure every instant out there" and "Just one day, and then I swear I'd be content with my share", telling the audience to appreciate the beautiful things in the world and to not take our freedom and our surroundings for granted. In God Help the Outcast, we hear Esmarelda sing a humble prayer to beg for aid for her people while others, like Biblical Pharisees, pretend to be pious while selfishly asking for things of vanity. Esmeralda even sings "I thought we all were children of God", marking that all of us are creations from God and that even the poorest and most desperate humans have the same dignity as non-outcasts. In Hellfire, we see Judge Frollo struggle between his pious devotion to God and the sexual temptations he feels towards Esmarelda. Even though Frollo, the symbol of religious piety, is the villain, we still get good characters like the Archdeacon, Quasimodo, and even Esmarelda as a counterbalance so that the audience can see what the dangers are of extremist-type devotion and how a person can truly live out a life of charity.

The artistry is beautiful. Not just the Cathedral of Notre Dame (which is gorgeous to see in such intricate detail), but the whole town of Paris and its citizenry provide a wonderful look back in time. This movie has stuff for both adults and kids, which should be how a family friendly movie is done (I didn't even realize the names of the male gargoyles were references to the author of the Hunchback of Notre Dame book until rewatching it a couple years ago). The Hunchback of Notre Dame is an underrated gem, especially because of the great music.