Amen to that.
i share a deep passion for animated films… in the cgi aspect of film making the first movie that comes to mind is “final fantacy, and the spirt within” the only reason i think this is a pivotal film is because it was the first film that was totally made in cgi and in some parts you cant even tell its animated… another that would have to be mentioned is “Titan A.E” a perfect blend of animation and cgi… totally jaw dropping scenery and concept
Aikido
Aikido: The first fully computer-animated movie was Toy Story. Final Fantasy: TSW is still the best-looking one, though. Still pisses me off that it was beaten at the box office by Legally Blonde.
Most recently: The bit in The Incredibles where the entire family (sans Jack-Jack) are on Nomanisan Island, facing a horde of incoming baddies on those flying scythe-saucer-thingits. As everyone stands in a line, the camera pans in close as they all adopt various “time to kick ass” poses – that is the pure, 100%, unadulterated money shot of the entire movie.
(I notice that my Disney Store catalog, which came the other day, offers a limited-numbered giclee reproduction of this exact shot. I’d be sorely tempted to get it, but the $495 price tag is a tad much for my budget…)
There’s a scene in Millenium Actress where the main character is running. Yes, I know that sounds boring. But they compile a lot of shots together–most used earlier in the movie–of her at different ages and as all the characters she played during her career as an actress. It’s probably the most moving scene in the entire movie.
Wings of Honneamise is just a beautifully animated film, so I’ll go with all of that one.
It’s nice to see Rock and Rule getting some recognition (Mok rocks). I thought I was the only person on the planet that remembered that movie.
Most of the action sequences in Akira are amazing. My favorite scene is the battle between Tetsuo, Kaneda, and SOL. 
The Ghibli films are all wonderfu. Totoro is one of my favorites.
The Emperor’s New Groove because I always wanted to see a movie about a talking llama.
I’d like to second this one. What a great sequence. I also thought that the scene in episode 10 (I think) when Shinji’s EVA went berserk was pretty damn cool. But for all out EVA crazyness I’d have to say that the scene where the newest production EVA turns out to be an Angel and Shinji is forced to destroy it (along with the pilot, who is his friend and completely innocent) was totally freaking intense. My jaw was on the floor through most of that. Not just great animation but very emotionally intense.
I think Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron is stunning throughout.
The part in Monsters, Inc. where Sully is in the snow. The way his fur moves against the wind is amazing.
Almost every scene involving cartoon characters and humans in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
This dates me a bit, but I loved the Flying Corvette sequence from Heavy Metal. You see something come out of the bottom of a Space Shuttle(?), and as you realize it’s a vintage vette, the music starts, and it starts down towards the planet. Always gives me goodebumps.
Two scenes from Lord of The Rings
In Fellowship of the Ring, the Balrog.
In Return of The King, the scene where the heroes are in the Halls of The Dead surrounded by the Dead and Aragorn parries the sword-strike with Anduril.
The Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’ sequence from Fantasia 2000.
When the whales left the water and flew in the sky just made my jaw drop.
You and Ranchoth do know the name of the artist who did that animation, yes?
It doesn’t get a lot of love, but I thought Dreamwork’s Sinbad was pretty damned good. The animation on Eris, shapeshifting goddess of chaos, was particularly striking.
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Nobody liked the animated sequence in Kill Bill? For me, about 70% of the jaw-droppingness can be attributed to the music. But the scene in which the little girl is laying under the bed, with her mother’s blood showering over her face, and the one where she finally gets her revenge are absolutely goreous to me.
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Ghost in the Shell: there are several good ones. The cyborg creation scene, the opening sequence with the nude swandive off a building, and the invisible (leg-twisting! ouch!) fight in a puddle of water are my top three.
-Ghost in the Shell II: most of it didn’t impress me so much, but the Chinatown sequence had me drooling. So beautiful, I think I’m going to wind up buyng the DVD just for that.
Of course, as soon as I posted that I remembered-
Perfect Blue: the whole thing was goreous and smooth as hell, and there you go.
I can’t believe this thread got to its second page without anyone mentioning The Triplets of Belleville.
I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but I think you’ve hit on the perfect word to describe it.
This is the first scene that came to mind when I read this title. I remember how the shadows behind the people at the station moved as we changed perspective. And how the bell ringing was all doppler-y. Also, the music was one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever heard.
Oh,** the Iron Giant** is a masterpiece. Not just in regards to character development and storytelling, but in design and direction as well. It’s Brad Bird’s first feature length animated film, and if you’ve seen it, you can probably understand why Pixar took such a huge gamble and handed over complete creative control to him for the Incredibles.
Anyway, the scene you described was created by a fairly conventional process – the background scenery of the forest was painted twice – once in dark monotone for the shadows and once in vivid, detailed, color for the light. Every time the beam of Hogarth’s flashlight passes over a piece of scenery, the background fades between the two versions. It’s a really cool effect, especially when used with multiple layers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done before.
As I recall from the commentary track, Brad had a hell of time selling the scene to the Warner Bros. execs because they thought it was a waste of valuable screen time. If you think about it, the scene is difficult to describe without making it sound boring – “a kid wanders through a forest at night for three minutes and shines his flashlight on stuff”. I’m glad Brad stuck to his guns, because the sequence is haunting and beautiful.
Anyway, I thought of the Iron Giant too when I saw this thread, but the scene that came to mind was
the battle sequence in the end which pays homage to War of the Worlds (and just about every anime involving giant robots). Anyway, toward the end of the film we learn that the giant is actually a weapon that reacts defensively in the presence of other weapons, but he attempts to repress this mechanism even when he’s being pounded by machine guns, howitzers, and missiles, because he’s learned from Hogarth that killing is bad. But when Hogarth is knocked unconscious, the giant thinks he’s dead, so he gets pissed, transforms into kickass mode, and starts wiping out the military.
Despite how heartbreaking the transformation is, I still get a kick out of all the cool weapons he suddenly sprouts. He’s got three retractable lasers over his head, a huge plasma cannon in his chest, some kind of energy rifle on one arm and a claw on the other arm that produces these weird disintegration balls. On top of all that, he’s got this other weapon on one of his shoulders that defies description; it’s kind of a spinning disk that emits sparks which he uses to take out a whole row of tanks. Totally awesome.
The animated sequence in “Kill Bill, volume 1” is the first animated violence that I saw that was just as disturbing as a live actor sequence. Of course, I wasn’t quite as impressed watching it for the second time.