An old childhood friend asked the seemingly innocuous question, "[W]hat's your favorite animated movie?" Little did she realize that a seemingly easy question like that was bound to receive a long, drawn out answer, most likely with a self-inflicted research project attached.
So I have spent the day compiling a list of my top 50 favorite animated films. This is one of the trickier lists I've taken on, because of the amount of variables involved. In addition to the question of how strictly I would limit the field (does stop motion count? puppetry? live action/animation?), age was also a huge factor in determining my feelings about a given film.
Not the film's age, mind you, but my own. There are many films that I loved as a child, which pop up regularly in my memories of growing as a person and a cinephile: the movie I was watching when I learned about cel animation, the first memory I have inside a theater, the cartoon my mother had to trick me into watching because I was a stubborn jackass...
This morning's epic sales meeting provided the perfect opportunity to jot down a quick list of every single animated film I've ever seen and enjoyed. With that in hand, I whittled it down to a manageable size by enforcing the following parameters:
- Film must be of feature length (60+ minutes). Remembering and tracking down the title of every cartoon short I've ever loved would simply be impossible. Also, this disqualified beloved TV specials like How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Special.
- Stop motion is included in this list; puppetry is not. Though it's tempting to lump the Muppets in with cartoon brethren, since they often share the same child-friendly subject matter and are both synthetic media being manipulated by unseen hands, the fact is that they are inherently different art forms. Animation - be it cel, CGI or stop motion - is the product of an artist creating a model, capturing an image, then manipulating the model into another pose and re-capturing to imply motion. Puppetry, on the other hand, is the creation of a moving, tactile model and filming it actually in motion; equally relevant, but totally different. Plus, disqualifying Team America and Muppet Treasure Island again made the list easier to boil down to a nice, round 50.
- Perhaps flying in the face of my puppet argument, I decided to include live action/animation hybrids, but only in cases where the animated segments are the actual feature of the film. Raiders of the Lost Ark may have hand-drawn elements, but they are not integral components of the entire film's mis-en-scene. Still, as a matter of good form, I would not allow such a film to top this list.
- Finally, the question that plagues every film list came up: is this a list of "bests" or "favorites"? In the end, I decided to refer to the original question, which asked me for my FAVORITE animated film. While overall quality and artistry are always a factor in my enjoyment, this list is primarily a nostalgia trip. These are the 50 films, loosely ranked, which not only gave me an appreciation for the art of animation, but a love for cinema as a whole. Beyond that, I would contend that great animated films - with their inherently fantastic nature, complex archetypical characters, and capacity for multi-sensory engagement - will often say more about the nature of human growth and development than films featuring real people who are obviously pretending to be someone else.
Without further ado...
DR. MAGNIFICO'S 50 FAVORITE ANIMATED FILMS
1. Toy Story (1995 | John Lasseter | Pixar)
2. The Little Mermaid (1989 | Ron Clements, John Musker | Disney)
3. Mary Poppins (1964 | Robert Stevenson | Disney)
4. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999 | Trey Parker | Comedy Central Films)
5. Alice in Wonderland (1951 | Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske | Disney)
6. Yellow Submarine (1968 | George Dunning | Apple Films)
7. Finding Nemo (2003 | Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich | Pixar)
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993 | Henry Selick | Touchstone)
9. Beauty and the Beast (1991 | Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Disney)
10. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988 | Robert Zemeckis | Amblin)
11. The Lion King (1994 | Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff | Disney)
12. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977 | John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman | Disney)
13. Ratatouille (2007 | Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava | Pixar)
14. The Jungle Book (1967 | Wolfgang Reitherman | Disney)
15. Up (2009 | Pete Docter, Bob Peterson | Pixar)
16. Wall-E (2008 | Andrew Stanton | Pixar)
17. The Brave Little Toaster (1987 | Jerry Rees | Hyperion)
18. Toy Story 3 (2010 | Lee Unkrich | Pixar)
19. Sword in the Stone (1963 | Wolfgang Reitherman | Disney)
20. Toy Story 2 (1999 | John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich | Pixar)
21. Cinderella (1950 | Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske | Disney)
22. The Incredibles (1989 | Ron Clements, John Musker | Disney)
23. Chicken Run (2000 | Peter Lord, Nick Park | Aardman)
24. The Great Mouse Detective (1986 | Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, David Michener, John Musker | Disney)
25. Robin Hood (1973 | Wolfgang Reitherman | Disney)
26. How to Train Your Dragon (2010 | Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders | Dreamworks)
27. Pinocchio (1940 | Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen | Disney)
28. Shrek 2 (2004 | Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon | Dreamworks)
29. The Aristocats (1970 | Wolfgang Reitherman | Disney)
30. Peter Pan (1953 | Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske | Disney)
31. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937 | David Hand | Disney)
32. Princess Mononoke (1997 | Hayao Miyazaki | Studio Ghibli)
33. 101 Dalmations (1961 | Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman | Disney)
34. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009 | Wes Anderson | Fox Animation)
35. Aladdin (1992 | Ron Clements, John Musker | Disney)
36. Dumbo (1941 | Ben Sharpsteen | Disney)
37. The Hobbit (1977 | Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr. | Rankin/Bass)
38. American Pop (1981 | Ralph Bakshi | Columbia)
39. Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005 | Steve Box, Nick Park | Aardman)
40. The Prince of Egypt (1998 | Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells | Dreamworks)
41. Spirited Away (2002 | Hayao Miyazaki | Studio Ghibli)
42. Monsters, Inc. (2001 | Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich | Pixar)
43. Shrek (2001 | Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson | Dreamworks)
44. Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005 | Tim Burton, Mike Johnson | Warner Bros.)
45. My Neighbor Totoro (1988 | Hayao Miyazaki | Studio Ghibli)
46. Cars (2006 | John Lasseter, Joe Ranft | Pixar)
47. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971 | Robert Stevenson | Disney)
48. Cyrano (1974 | Charles A. Nichols | Hanna-Barbera)
49. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991 | Phil Nibbelink, Simon Wells | Amblin)
50. Charlotte’s Web (1973 | Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto | Hanna-Barbera)
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