Animated movies

[Travelman6]

Hello folks!

What animated movies do you guys like?

I have seen a TON of animated movies in my life but right now I am looking for movies that cover more heavy stuff.

Examples of that, and some of my favorite in general, are:

3. Coraline - I love stop motion animation. I respect it a lot and this one is kind of dark too.

2. Iron Giant - Very moving movie, with some interesting twists.

1. Grave of the Fireflies - Probably the only animated movie I know of that can make (at least people I know of) cry. Beautiful movie.

In my immediate que of movies I currently have the following movies that seem SUPER promising compared to what I like: From up on Poppy Hill, The Red Turtle, 5 Centimeters per second, A Cat in Paris, Persepolis, Song of the Sea and The Cat returns.

What else would you recommend? Especially similar to 1 or 2 in my first list.

 

[nwhoopfan]

It's been years since I've seen it, but Watership Down is a surprisingly serious and dramatic animated film about a rabbit warren from the late 70's.

Long before the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy, there were several animated films based on Tolkien's writings. Several of them were campy/silly, but Ralph Bakshi directed a very serious rendition of Lord of the Rings. I think reactions to it were/are very mixed. It's an interesting animation style--rotoscoping. That is animating over the top of live action footage (the adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" also uses this technique, also another animated film that is a drama).

Since you mentioned Coraline and stop motion animation, Laika Studios has produced several films in the same vein. I haven't seen ParaNorman, between "The Boxtrolls" and "Kubo and the Two Strings" I liked Boxtrolls more.

Another stop motion animation w/ some darker themes is "The Nightmare Before Christmas" directed by Tim Burton.

 

[nwhoopfan]

There is tons of serious animation produced in Japan, often referred to as anime. I've barely dabbled in it, I'm sure someone else can give good recommendations in that genre.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Of course there is "Heavy Metal," probably the only R rated animated film I've ever seen.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Another stop motion animation w/ some darker themes is "The Nightmare Before Christmas" directed by Tim Burton.

I was waiting for it and thought you were about to miss this but yeah, Tim Burton is a safe bet

I thought it was stupid but apparently a lot of people liked “Sausage Party”

South Park (and would Team America count?)

And I’m gonna bend the rules and add “Heart of Archness” from Archer Season 3 because Archer was amazing back then. It’s over an hour of content as a three-parter, and kinda sorta stands alone from the rest of the series. Watch “White Nights” and “Double Trouble” right before if you have to watch something for over 90 minutes

 

[Waquoit]

It's been years since I've seen it, but Watership Down is a surprisingly serious and dramatic animated film about a rabbit warren from the late 70's.

Haven't seen it since it came out but parts of it still stick with me. Like when they run into those pallid rabbits that decide to stay where they are.

Fantastic Mr. Fox for stop-motion.
Have you seen the first one - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? I love "Heigh-Ho"

 

[nwhoopfan]

Haven't seen it since it came out but parts of it still stick with me.

When it first came out I was a kid. That movie actually scared me! General Woundwort was terrifying. I've seen it once or twice since then. As an adult I thought it was fairly decent.

 

[Mano]

I'd be all for a dedicated animated movie thread. Hand drawn animation especially is something I've long loved and will truly lament once its gone for good. In the west that day is probably already come and gone so thank goodness for the Japanese! Since you listed Grave I take it you're open to Japanese Anime in general. Studio Ghibli is the natural starting point and I'm sure you've heard of some/many of their films (Grave being one of them). Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Porco Rosso, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind -- all being beautifully animated, well done and well told stories. Some more whimsical than others, and all of them really having some mature themes within. Really, Ghibli and Miyazaki's films are the preeminent examples of Japanese animation excellence.

Still a great many other films to consider too:

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Akira
Wings of Honneamise
Armitage III
Steamboy
Ninja Scroll
Vampire Hunter D
Ghost in the Shell (and it's sequels)
Millenium Actress
Metropolis
Paprika
Summer Wars
5 Centimeter per Second
Tekkonkinkreet
Patlabor
Tokyo Godfathers
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
....and a million more I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Out of these above Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Wings of Honneamise had huge impacts on me as a kid watching them. I count Paprika among my favorite movies ever as well, just incredible and a terrible shame that Satoshi Kon died so young.

This isn't even counting any animated series'. Tons of good ones to choose from there too. My faves: Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Last Exile, Paranoia Agent, Samurai Champloo, Fooly Cooly (FLCL), and finally The Big O. That there barely scratches the surface of the thousands upon thousands that are out there both good and bad, but I generally find it harder to get into watching too many different series'. Who has the time?

Ok, so that's Japan. Other countries do the animated thing too:

Heavy Metal
Persepolis
Waltz with Bashir
The Triplets of Belleville
The Secret of Kells
The Illusionist
A Cat in Paris
Song of the Sea

My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
(I've yet to see these last two, but I'm including them as I've read they are very poignant)

Only thing I would add to these, and since you listed Coraline earlier, would be a few clay or model animated films, mostly from Nick Park and the people at Aardman Animations. All of the Wallace and Gromit shorts are great and the feature Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is tremendous as well. I know you said more "heavy stuff" but really they are quite awesome. Chicken Run was pretty good too, and Early Man looks to be hilarious coming soon. The folks over at Laika (which is run by Phil Knight's son) having been pretty solid too, with Coraline, The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings.

I'm quoting myself from the other thread, but really if you try any of them please make sure it's Paprika. Just a great film.

 

[Travelman6]

I could not get into Paprika and I do not know why. Maybe because my wife was being a pain the entire movie, she did not much care for it.

 

[Husky25]

The Incredibles
Shrek
Wreck it Ralph
Alladin
Cars
Planes
Ted
The Fox & the Hound
Robin Hood
The Secret of NIMH
Iron Giant
Inside Out
Beavis and Butthead Do America
South Park
The Lego Movie
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (though the book is better)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

 

[Mano]

I could not get into Paprika and I do not know why. Maybe because my wife was being a pain the entire movie, she did not much care for it.

Well that's too bad. Maybe you'll get a chance again some time. Or not, no matter, the subjectivity of film makes a lot of it so interesting to discuss. Glad you at least gave it a whirl.

 

[Waquoit]

Loving Vincent has been playing at Real Art Ways for months. I think I might stop by on Sunday. Colleagues have said it's very good.

 

[Waquoit]

Of course there is "Heavy Metal," probably the only R rated animated film I've ever seen.

Y'know, considering the way the MBB team is playing, we could all use some Nyborg.

 

[dbmill]

@Mano quoted himself from another thread into this one, I may as well too.

This might be a repeat of what has been written earlier, but I enjoy seeing animated feature films as well. Many of these have been nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, although they invariably end up losing to the more the mainstream and well known productions put out by Pixar and company. In my mind, these more off the beaten track films win just by getting nominated. Anyway, here is a small list of films that I would recommend.

Wallace & Gromit – I love all their shorts and their feature film, “Curse of the Were-Rabbit”. Another recent Aardman production that I have no qualms in recommending is the “Shaun the Sheep Movie”. It’s another very good model based animated film.

My two favorite animated films in recent years are “The Secret of Kells” and “Song of the Sea”. Both these films have big doses of Celtic mythology entwined in the stories that they tell. While I think “The Secret of Kells” is the slightly better of the two movies, both are top notch. Animated filmmaking doesn’t get much better than these two movies.

Here’s a few other animated films that I thought were quite good:

The Triplets of Belleville - a particular favorite of my wife.
Kubo and the Two Strings
The Red Turtle

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" got a mention earlier in this thread, I'll second the motion. It's another enjoyable Wes Anderson movie, and it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature film. After thinking about it, I'm not surprised Anderson could make a quality animated film, as his regular feature films have a certain cartoony quality to them. That is most certainly true of my favorite Anderson film, "Moonrise Kingdom". By the way, Anderson has another animated feature film coming out this spring, "Isle of Dogs".

Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" also got mentioned earlier in this thread. In my mind it would be hard to go terribly wrong with almost any Disney animated films from the 30's and 40's.

While not a great film, another solid animated movie from not too long ago is "The Adventures of Tin Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn". Of course, coming from Steven Spielberg it could hardly be classified as a small unknown animated flick, but still, I did enjoy it. At this point, I'm probably hoping in vain for a sequel.

 

[B1GEast]

Watership Down

 

[G0UCONN]

Lion King

all the Toy Storys

Aladdin

Hercules

 

[Travelman6]

Well that's too bad. Maybe you'll get a chance again some time. Or not, no matter, the subjectivity of film makes a lot of it so interesting to discuss. Glad you at least gave it a whirl.

I watched "A cat in paris" last night and my wife and I LOVED it. I really enjoyed the style, how the story flowed (nothing felt tacked on) and both the antagonists (so dumb, haha) and protagonist, plus the little twist in regards to one of the characters.

I also watched "The cat returns" and, yes, I am a studio ghibli fan but this one felt a little weird (though not as odd as My Neighbor Totoro) BUT just the same, it was an enjoyable film.

In both cases I liked how concise the movies felt (and, well, they WERE concise, at just 60 minutes for a Cat in Paris and 70 for The cat returns).

I am fascinated by Iran so I want to give Persepolis a try, but my wife is not too interested in that region of the world. Plus I love the French language.

Red turtle and the triplets of belleville seems interesting too, but the silence of the movie scares, well, not so much me, but not sure my wife would enjoy as she likes a lot of communication...But any way will try!...

 

[8893]

It's been years since I've seen it, but Watership Down is a surprisingly serious and dramatic animated film about a rabbit warren from the late 70's.

Haven't seen it since it came out but parts of it still stick with me. Like when they run into those pallid rabbits that decide to stay where they are.

When it first came out I was a kid. That movie actually scared me! General Woundwort was terrifying. I've seen it once or twice since then. As an adult I thought it was fairly decent.

Read the book in fourth grade and was totally captivated by it and eagerly anticipated the movie, which I thought was very good but omitted several sub-plots. Haven't seen it in decades but would like to see it again. Would actually love to read the book again. It was a very formative book for me.

 

[8893]

The Point

 

[CL82]

The Incredibles
Shrek
Wreck it Ralph
Alladin
Cars
Planes
Ted
The Fox & the Hound
Robin Hood
The Secret of NIMH
Iron Giant
Inside Out
Beavis and Butthead Do America
South Park
The Lego Movie
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (though the book is better)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Love The Incredibles. They are finally making a sequel to it.

Shrek was good back in the day.

Megamind is a very funny movie. I also like the Batman Lego movie.

 

[Mano]

I watched "A cat in paris" last night and my wife and I LOVED it. I really enjoyed the style, how the story flowed (nothing felt tacked on) and both the antagonists (so dumb, haha) and protagonist, plus the little twist in regards to one of the characters.

I also watched "The cat returns" and, yes, I am a studio ghibli fan but this one felt a little weird (though not as odd as My Neighbor Totoro) BUT just the same, it was an enjoyable film.

In both cases I liked how concise the movies felt (and, well, they WERE concise, at just 60 minutes for a Cat in Paris and 70 for The cat returns).

I am fascinated by Iran so I want to give Persepolis a try, but my wife is not too interested in that region of the world. Plus I love the French language.

Red turtle and the triplets of belleville seems interesting too, but the silence of the movie scares, well, not so much me, but not sure my wife would enjoy as she likes a lot of communication...But any way will try!...

Yea, Ghibli's films are really all quite good. Whether they are the light hearted ones or the more war oriented, conflict driven ones. I love the fantasy and mythology they create in their worlds.

Persepolis is a really solid little film from what I remember. It portrays the goings on in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran in as accessible a way as anything you could read.

I haven't seen The Red Turtle yet, but do stick with The Triplets of Belleville. It starts off a bit slow from what I remember, but really gets going about halfway through.

 

[dbmill]

Red turtle and the triplets of belleville seems interesting too, but the silence of the movie scares, well, not so much me, but not sure my wife would enjoy as she likes a lot of communication...But any way will try!...

I haven't seen The Red Turtle yet, but do stick with The Triplets of Belleville. It starts off a bit slow from what I remember, but really gets going about halfway through.

There's plenty of communication in both The Red Turtle and The Triplets of Belleville, it's just not in the verbal talky sense. Plus you have some great singing in Belleville as well. Belleville is just a real hoot to watch and see it unfold. Meanwhile, Red Turtle has a good mythological tale going on in the same way that Song of the Sea did. If you are into off the beaten track feature animation, you can't go wrong with either of them.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Spirited Away

 

[HuskyHawk]

The Point

Me and my Arrow....

 

[HuskyHawk]

I’ll throw out a few I didn’t see mentioned. There are many good ones.

Chicken Run
Up!
Despicable Me 1&2
How to Train Your Dragon
Big Hero 6
The Frog Princess
The Polar Express
The Hobbit