Animate This! My Favorite 2-D Animated Movies

0   7.7   7.7 

Also known as Belleville Rendez-vous.
Speaking as someone who has worked the majority of his life as an illustrator & cartoonist, I was surprised at how close this flick was to the specific style of drawing that got me interested in the field to begin with. Gritty yet beautifully rendered, cartoonishly exaggerated yet realistically animated. I could look at artwork like this all day.
Plus, even though it is a foreign film, it has no dialogue in it, at all. And therefore, no need for sub-titles. So if some bizarre accident occurs (heaven forbid, of course) whereby that part of your brain that's responsible for reading becomes inexplicably cancelled out, you'll still be able to watch & enjoy this flick.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7.1   7.9 

Just when I thought that my hairy pimp-ass had finally reached a point in life that was hardcore enough that even the idea that I could get misty over a movie-ending was, for me, about as far on the otherside of the street, that it was in anudder 'hood, dawg.
Then comes along the Iron Giant, & proves me wrong.
And it's not just that it's a movie,
but even worse, it's an animated movie.
A cartoon.



Whenever I watch the scene with the line " ....Suuperrmann...",
I always find it quite difficult to refrain from repeatingly dabbing at that "something in my eye" that starts to become annoyingly persistent.
Damn.

This movie makes life hard out here for a pimp.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7   7.5 

Many years earlier, I watched a movie called Heavy Metal. And though it lacked the technical & story skills required to make it something really worth mentioning, I did see in it a potential for an interesting anthology series whose rock'roll/sci-fi/animated integrated format was bound by neither PC rules or those that result from the kid-targeted genre.
Then came the Animatrix & showed us (well...me, at least) what that potential could look like.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.5   6.9 

Katsuhiro Ōtomo's follow-up to his landmark feature, Akira.
Some of the tightest integration between CGI & 2-D animation on film.
The detail in this movie is just about about perfect, and it's English language version was treated exceptionally well, so that the dialogue flows alot more smoothly than the translations that are found in most other anime films.
Multiple viewings are required to just capture & appreciate all the beautifully intricate designs.
Plus, one of my favorite things about Steamboy, is the way that, even though the human figures are still drawn in the typical manga style, there's still a strong more western "realism" to the caricature element to their design, that it adds alot more weight to their forms. The end result is that it allows them to integrate into the multi-dimensional visuals so that their simplicity is not so overwhelmed by the deeply designed backgrounds.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   8.4   8 

A simple story of a simple girl who discovers that she can simply leap thru time. But instead of using her powers for good, or even for evil for that matter, she uses it in a manner that we all wish we could if we were so magically endowed (especially if we were her age): to make up time when we were late, to retake exams we didn't study for, to get to our favorite snacks in the fridge before our annoying little siblings got the chance to polished 'em off, etc..
Which all leads up to a simple coming of age story that is as simply & beautifully told as it is simply & beautifully animated.
Simply put, simply beautiful.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7.7   7.9 

My first look at anime. Well, kick @ss anime that is.
When I first saw this, I realized that, if I didn't have to work, I would spend all of my time lookin' up at what those crazy asians were concocting on the animation tip, yo.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.8   7.4 

It might become obvious from this list, that when it comes to 2-D animated films, I'm not that big of a fan of Disney. While I don't hate 'em, the musical numbers combined with the saccharine quality that usually accompanies them usually makes it difficult for me to sit thru their entirety. I tend to prefer a little more bite or edge to my cartooninized cinematic-fare.
Sleeping Beauty is a bit of an exception because of the memory I have associated with it.
I remember watching this movie as a very young child, and the kickassery of the animation, particulary of the Witch & her dragon, is what caused my little mouth, probably for the first time ever, to uttered the words
"Holy sh#t....!".

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.3   6.3 

You know, whenever I watch this movie today, and I cannot imagine today's generation being impressed with it at all. However, when it was first realeased, movies of it's kind had never been seen before. At least not by me, that is. This was the first adult animated flick I had ever seen & to my virgin eyes, I found the the movements be very realistic & flowing. It really opened up my eyes to the potential of new horizons that could be ( & eventually would be ) done not just with animation, but also with it's integration into storylines that engage as well as entertain even those of us who grew out of this stuff a long time ago.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7   7.6 

A trio of animated shorts that I like basically for the same reasons that I stated for Heavy Metal & The Animatrix.
I really enjoy the format of an anthology, because, as it is demonstrated here in Memories, it allows for a wider choice ideas of stories that probably wouldn't be big enough to fill up an entire movie.
It also allows for a bit more risk in the creativity of the plot, without having to commit all the time of work that it would take to make a full length feature that is dependent on the tastes of a wider audience.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7.5   7.8 

For a long time, I used to think that I was the King of Sinful Sots.
Then I saw this.
And I realized that compared to this guy, I'm just a moldy purple spot
on the dead tomato splot that is his heart.
You are the true rotter,
Mr. Grinch.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7   7.6 

These types of animated movies that're spun-off of equally animated TV series, are usually ones that I don't hold much hope for.
Therefore, I was quite surprised at not only how much I enjoyed this big screen adaption the Bruce Timm little screen episodes, but also, at how I found it's story to be better than many of those of the TV program. Walking out at the end of Phantasm, I actually found myself feeling like the giant comicbook nerd that I truly am, but for years, had denied myself of truly being.

0   8.3   8.5 

Really cool childlike fairytale visuals with a level of creativity that reminds us why mythic tales fascinated us so much during our young ages, yet with enough of a few dark undertones to keep the interest of that part of our spirits that were crushed by the reality of becoming an adult. Fantasy fun with a slight twist of macabre for the whole family.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   8.2   8.2 

To be honest, I was never a big fan of animation that told stories that could've told as a live action film. To me, it always felt like if you had the unlimited tools of animation at your disposal,not using it to go into realms of the "too fantastic" for the real world (like a sci-fi, the talking animals genre or what have you) or use it to distort features or creatively caricature it's charaters and/or elements of the story to enhance the plot's premise. Therefore, even though I heard alot good things about Fireflies, I held off on it for a while before I finally got around to watching it. As it started, I felt the same blase feeling that I usually get from such a feature. But as the movie progressed, I did find myself eventually surrendered into a story that untraditionally seemed more to center on victims of war that it does on the basic heroic (& according to formula, usually triumphant) struggles of war.
Though there have been countless tales of the human effects of this period in human history, this movie is reminder that for those lives that eventually become reduced to numbers in the tolls of such conflicts, each one of those numbers is an individual story that essentially, at best will be forgotten, or more typically, will never even be told.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.1   6.4 

This movie showed us where the big-budget animated features were going not just commercially but artistlcally, also. And even tho you can notice some clunkiness to some of the computer-generated areas & the way there were fitted into the story (especially compared to today's films), the drawn parts are of the highest quality (for it's time) &, for me, still come off as quite visually impressive.
One of those moments that I'll always remember being in the theatre & just being totally visually amazed by what was on the screen.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   5.8   6.3 

Again, Atlantis is one of the few Disney films I can stomach mostly because it came along near the end of the their 2-D run, & at a time when the company seemed to decided to add a bit edge to their house style with some inspiration from comicbook illustrator Mike Mignola. And just when they had me stating to warm to their stuff, they finally pull the plug to the hand-drawn animation.

0   8.1   8.3 

Eastern folklore & environmental symbolism meet head on, anime style, in this richly textured & complicated fairy tale.
Even though I enjoyed this as a movie that features mythological beasts & forest gods, gremlins & spirits, that focuses more on the adult sensibilities of it's viewers, I probably would've liked it a bit more had I not been so distracted by the heavy accented (& IMO, the miscast) voices of Billy Bob Thornton & Minnie Driver in the English dubbed version.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.6   7.1 

Take E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,
make Elliot more ethnic & change him into a girl,
then take E.T. himself and make him alot more bad-@ss, but still cute,
& then transform the whole thing into a cartoon,
& there you go.
You've got this movie.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.8   7.2 

Princess Diana as a female bad-ass.
While it may seem that she should be a staple in any conversation dealing with femme fatale butt-kickers, IMO, she had never been fully depicted as the bad-ass at the level which she had the potential to be.
Then, I picked up this recent straight to DVD feature, & came to the conclusion, that even though it may not yet be at the point that I'd like to see her at, it is a huge step in the right direction.
The Double W may still be in the form of a cartoon,
but in this latest interpretation of the Amazonian wunder, she is finally approaching the bad-ass broad with balls that she should've always been.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   7.2   7.8 

A cartoon about a bunch of bunnies that creeped the heck out of me as a kid.
Cool....

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

0   6.8   7.6 

Probably the last of the few Disney movies that I can admit to liking.
This screen version of the classical Jungle Book had just enough of the bare necessities to barely make it on this list of animated favorites.


....ahem.

The Mighty Celestial's rating: