The Boy and the Heron (3.5*)
Robot Dreams (3.5*)
Nimona (3.5*)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse (3*)
Elemental (3*)
The Animated Feature Films are always a fun genre to watch. The selection of movies usually reflects a range of animation styles and with very different stories to tell. This year’s entries were generally OK, although I ended up recommending only three of them.
The Boy and the Heron, from Japan’s Ghibli Studios, won the Oscar this year. While the hand-drawn animation is rich in details, the story is, at best, difficult to understand as it loosely stitches together dream-like worlds all involving a huge collection of birds. Considered Miyazaki’s swan song, it seems he is exploring what might be in store for him after death. This film won’t appeal to everyone.
Robot Dreams involves a fantasy world without humans where a dog finds his best friend in a mail-order robot. However, their relationship is severely tested when they are forced to separate and both have dreams about the other. The animation is fairly simple and two-dimensional, but has several intriguing but largely unconnected vignettes. As a story about relationships, the film works well with kids and adults.
Nimona is going to be somewhat controversial. Done originally as a graphic novel, the title character, is pretty clearly non-binary. Nimona’s animation seems a little primitive compared to the other films, but does a very good job in talking about gender identity. Some families will be just fine with that, others maybe not so much.
The last two films did not make my recommended list. I had high hopes for Disney/Pixar’s Elemental, as I really enjoyed Inside Out and Coco. And the animation is stunning as it paints four different worlds where the characters are literally made out of the basic elements, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. As an example of the rich world-making, the fire people cart their babies around in portable grills, not baby-carriages. Details like that are so much fun. Unfortunately, the story-line is just plain old vanilla. Nonetheless, the film will definitely work well for a family viewing – kids will enjoy the story and everyone will love the animated world-building.
Finally, the movie rated by nearly everyone as not only the best animated feature film, but also one of the top two films of all this year’s Oscar nominees, was one I ended up not caring for – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse. Although it is a direct descendant of the similarly named winner of the 2019 Animation Oscar, it doesn’t work as well in my opinion. In the first one, there were six different Spider-men/women and each was portrayed in a different animation style which made the film a lot of fun. But in this one, there are literally thousands (infinity?) of them and with at least 240 different characters in the film, the story quickly becomes lost and difficult to track. I suppose if you are really into comic books then the story about self-determination will be fun. But it left me kind of cold and empty.
I recommended three of the films in this genre from last year’s Oscar race. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (4*) is a delightful tale about relationships told intriguingly by layering animation on top of a live action movie. In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (4*), Puss is faced with some critical mortality issues as he is on his ninth life. It also brings a fresh perspective on several old nursery tales. And, almost as good, is The Sea Beast (3.5*), with a large cast of characters, thick plot lines, and great computer-animation water scenes. All three of these work well with both kids and adults.
That gives you six recommended animated films, reflecting multiple animation techniques. Some of them, however, won’t work for everyone so pick carefully. Enjoy the holiday season.
