I love animated film. Now that I have kids I am watching them even more often than before. I am trying to find out some other good movies I should buy. I have all of the Pixar movies on DVD. I made a list of my favourite kids animated films -
1 Toy Story
2 Incredibles
3 Cars
4 Ice Age
5 Snow White
6 How to train your Dragon
7 Monsters Inc
8 Peter Pan
9 Shrek
10 Spirited Away.
I highly rate the other two Toy Story movies. I loved Shrek but I hated the second and third movies. I have no desire to see the fourth. The second Ice Age movie was average and I have not seen the third.
Those are all cute, but for me the pinnacle of Disney and feature length animated movies will always be th stretch Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Alladin, Little Mermaid (I know it was in a different order).
I think Chicken Run and Up are gigantic omissions in your top 10. I think my list would be heavily leaning toward recent releases, too. The past twenty years have been the biggest golden age animation has ever seen.
Aw, what the heck. Here’s my shot at a “top 10” animated feature length films:
Chicken Run
Lion King
Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Lady and the Tramp
Up
Shrek
Tangled
Ice Age
Iron Giant
If you’re talking about kids movies for adults, then Spirited Away is okay. If you’re talking about kids movies for kids, then I’d sub My Neighbor Totoro for Spirited Away. I’d also put Kiki’s Messenger Service and Howl’s Moving Castle ahead of it.
Kung Fu Panda – Beautifully animated, beautifully acted, touching without being saccharine, fun without being obnoxious. It’s hard to believe this subtle little jewel of a movie came from the same studio that made Shrek.
Pom Poko – Insanely inventive, funny and deeply moving. I always tear up at the end when the tanuki show the humans exactly what they’ve lost by destroying Tama Hills. Plus, it has magic scrotums!
The Incredibles – The best kid’s movie about a mid-life crisis ever made. Every character is fascinatingly deep, particularly Syndrome, the villain. No capes!
The Emperor’s New Groove – A perfect example of exactly how good Disney can be when they shrug off the straightjacket of formula. In a just world, this movie would have kicked off a new golden age at the Mouse.
My Neighbor Totoro – Perhaps the sweetest movie ever made. Gentle and dreamlike, it captures the wonder of childhood better than any other piece of cinema.
My next five are a little more arbitrary. On a different day I can imagine making different picks:
**Coraline **-- In the list mostly because of the Other Mother, one of the juiciest villains ever to menace a small child.
Mulan– The best of the Disney princess movies. A plucky unconventional heroine, great songs, and climax that demonstrates the power of cross-dressing. When the Emperor bows to Mulan at the end, I dare you not to have chills.
Castle in the Sky – Probably Miyazaki’s most epic adventure. The stunning grandeur of the visuals is kept grounded by the touching human story at its heart. And Dola and her family of sky pirates are some of the most charming rogues to ever appear on film.
Spirited Away – Magical and strange. The fantasy world it creates is utterly original and surprising.
Watership Down – I’m relying on memory for this one. I remember being fascinated with it as a kid, although I haven’t seen it in years.
Number one is All Dogs Go To Heaven. I don’t know what the rest are, but that one is definitely number one. There is absolutely no kids animated film ever produced that is equal in depth, ambition, and sheer surreal craziness. Disney movies always paled in comparison to Don Bluth. Beauty and the Beast isn’t bad, though. Gaston is one of the best characters ever.
Why is the word “Kids” in the title? Just because a movie is animated doesn’t mean it’s only for kids. That’s one of the great things about Pixar - adults find just as many (if not more) enjoyable moments in their movies as kids do, and on some level kids won’t be able to understand them because they deal with very adult issues (Toy Story 3, for example).
Anyway, it’s hard to come up with a list, because there are more than 10 Pixar movies, but leave off Cars, Cars 2 and A Bug’s Life, maybe you’ve made space for Shrek or The Lion King.
Fantasia 2000 was not a “redo”, it is a new movie with the same concept - all of the scenes (except the Sorcerer’s Apprentice) are original and most of them are just as good as any from the 1940 version.
Pinocchio
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Toy Story
The Jungle Book
The Iron Giant
Coralline
The Incredibles
My Neighbor Totoro
Sleeping Beauty
Batman: Mask of the Phantom
I always forget about Sleeping Beauty, odd, because it is really special in my heart!
Disney movies are most certainly not just for kids. I’m planning to see The Lion King ( again for the fifth time, only this time in 3-D. I know plenty of adults who have every Disney movie, and not necessarily because they have kids or grandkids. My father loved Pinocchio and it was the first movie he bought when home video came along.