Robot Dreams

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2023 will surely go down in infamy, depending on how you look at the animation scene. On the one hand, we got one of the highest-grossing foreign animated films with The Boy and the Heron. On the other hand, we also got Disney with one of their worst-performing years in history and their big 100-year celebration film Wish underperforming at the box office. It was a changing of the guards, a real case of the tides changing, and that needed to happen. Not one studio can or should be on top all the time, and with filmgoing becoming more expensive, large film releases feel less special than ever before. How nostalgia and IP are no longer safe bets, we are seeing a sudden rough shift and it’s going to get bumpy. With all that said, there are still going to be great movies made and released during this time. 2023 had a lot of fantastic animated movies, and I wish I could put them all in my top 10, but these were my favorites of last year. Honorary mentions go to The First Slam Dunk, The Inventor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Elemental.

10. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

The fact of the matter is while this will never be the first film, it doesn’t mean Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a bad film. It’s honestly one of the rare sequels to come out that matches the first film in tone, humor, heart, and enjoyment. The voice cast controversies aside, Aardman continues to revel in their strengths to be consistently appealing on a universal scale with their films, and this one is no different. It’s got great action set pieces, vibrant visuals, a likable cast both old and new, and is the funniest film I have seen in 2023. That’s saying something, since this was a rather crackerjack year for comedies and films with fantastically witty dialogue. It’s on Netflix, and while I don’t envy them partnering up with the service, since this is how more people see their films due to the cruel fact that no one was going to the theater to see them, I still wish folks were able to see this film in theaters like I was. Still, if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

9. Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Giberritia

While it would be tough to top the acclaim and impact left by the first film, A Trip to Gibberitia continues the fascinating journey of Ernest & Celestine by tackling the complicated theme of familial drama and finding the freedom to express yourself in a world that wants to limit those artistic voices. It’s a franchise that makes you feel good, and if you loved the previous film, then you will love this one. There is a reason why this film won the grand prize at the NYICFF 2023, because it’s just an incredible journey through the world of animation.

8. Blue Giant

It feels so rare that we get films like Blue Giant in animation. It is a bittersweet, enthralling musical drama about three friends who try to make it through the world of jazz. It feels special in a way that most films never truly earn that distinction. I like some films more than this one this year, but Blue GIant holds a special place in my heart in similar ways that Children of the Sea does, where it brings you into its world to let you swim along the spiritual stream that only jazz can give you. Its story isn’t anything groundbreaking and new, but if you love films like The Commitments, then you should get the Blu-ray of this film when it’s released. It’s a truly lovely experience.

7. Suzume

A stellar new film from Makoto Shinkai. A somber yet gorgeous experience of dealing with grief, broken relationships, remembering the people/memories of the past, and the connections and found family we make in our life. Honestly, Suzume is my new favorite Makoto Shinkai film experience. Seeing it on the big screen helped, but even on the smaller screen, this film feels the most focused on relationship dynamics between characters as they journey through the challenging world of relationships and find connections with those close to them. It helps that he has indeed moved away from what he has done in the past, and in interviews said he is done with making certain types of films that people love from him to branch out and craft new and exciting tales. It’s what’s fun when you journey through a director’s filmography to see how they change and grow as time goes on, from their art style to what kind of stories they like to tell. It’s why animation is such a fun medium of storytelling. You can do anything with animation, and the only limits you have are the ones you put on yourself.

6. Deep Sea

If you need an example of how incredible China’s animation scene has gotten, Deep Sea is right here. An animated feature that almost becomes too much in the visual overload department, it shows off a wholly unique visual style with some of the best CGI animation of all time. The dynamic sequences that truly illustrate where we can go with CGI animation show how animation is still growing and evolving with time and talent. It also helps that this film is also an emotional powerhouse in the story department, combining dream logic with a story about overcoming tough times and keeping moving forward. I have been so amazed at how the Chinese animation scene has blossomed into crafting some of the best films of recent years.

5. Nimona

While it has some predictable story beats that you can see coming a mile away, Nimona is a truly delightful experience that could have been lost to time, due to corporate greed and a lack of love for the medium of animation. Nimona is a beautiful bombastic punk rock fantasy journey through discrimination, broken relationships, and mending said dynamics with compassion and taking down the system. It’s truly a miracle this film was able to be revived and made, to be put out into the world, and as such, I hope everyone watches it. If you love animation with flair, and love a good comeback story in the world of animation production, then you need to check out this film. It makes me happy that a chunk of the people who worked on the original project were able to finish the project and see it blossom into a truly rockin’ journey.

4. Robot Dreams

Robot Dreams is a beautifully woven tale of friendships past, present, and future, where we gain and lose those bonds that we make along our journey through life. You might have lost friends or loved ones from past relationships, but that doesn’t mean you won’t move on to make new ones. With a dialogue-less script, almost cruelly placed bits of dark comedy, and a lot of pure unbridled beauty in the visual storytelling, Robot Dreams is one of those film festival flicks that is worth the hype from start to finish. I wish Neon was able to put the film out sooner than later in May of this year, but if you can find a way to watch it, please do. It’s such a splendid and perfect movie that shows you the power of not only filmmaking, but animation.

3. Titina

Titina is a brilliant globe-trotting wonder of animation. It’s a human journey of what can happen when one’s pride gets in the way of an experience that was meant to be a positive one for the world in which they live. Of course, we see all of this through the eyes of one of the cutest animals in history, Titina, and how what can get us through turbulent times is love, compassion, and connection.

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

There has been a talk about superhero fatigue that has also bled into the world of movies in other avenues, like other big tentpole franchises and even other major movies and some smaller releases. It’s not really fatigue towards superhero movies. It’s fatigue towards films that were either not given enough time to craft their stories or they came up with stories that weren’t great at investing you in the characters that are on screen. People like seeing flashy things and big names, but if the writing isn’t there, if the people in the audience aren’t getting something new or something that feels refreshing and original, then people won’t show up. Spider-Man: Across the Universe is a checklist of how to make not only a good sequel, a better sequel, but an amazing film. Miles and Gwen are put through the wringer as their worldviews are challenged, and these challenges are thrown at them through some of 2023’s best animation and visual storytelling. You have animation that is an awe-inspiring rollercoaster of sights and flair unlike anything else out there, characters that are complex to the core of the human experience of isolation and stress of living up to the way people see you, writing that is whip- smart and continually engaging, action set pieces that should give the animators, artists, and visual effects people all the raises in the world, and it’s only part one! Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a monumental web-slinging time at the films as 2023’s most exciting cinematic experience.

1. The Boy and the Heron

Whether this is the last film we will see of the acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki or not, The Boy and the Heron is a wonderful and heartfelt journey through animation. It is a tale of a boy overcoming loss, dealing with grief, and learning to move on with the world. There is a reason why it has been showing up in almost every single Best Films of 2023 list and won a massive amount of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It should have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Score, but I digress. If you have yet to see this film, as of right now, it’s going through a theatrical re-release, and if you feel a little confused by it, go watch it again. It is one of those films that gets better the more times you watch it, and it’s already amazing when you see it once.

When it comes to the festival circuit that takes place during the first three quarters of the year, so many films begin their salmon-like journey through the festival scene, and when normal folks finally get to see the film, you don’t quite know how anyone and everyone reacts. Reviewing films during a festival run at one of the major festivals sets you up with a different vibe than seeing the film in a normal theatrical viewing experience. You have high expectations that a lot of movies are going to be all classics and new masterpieces in the making. Well, while a lot of good movies come through the festival circuit, sometimes the hype isn’t worth it, and some films are, simply put, not good. It becomes this “tournament of champions” style elimination bracket of what film goes through the festival circuit and gets more and more hype or suffers the consequences of being released to the public and dying on the vine. Some films enter the theater scene after one festival release, and sometimes that works. It’s up in the air as to what is going to connect with critics and audience goers. Sometimes it is obvious, but when you get down to the finals of the film festival journey, you find something so special and distinct that it not only hits it out of the park, but hits you in the deepest part of your emotions and soul. That’s how I felt with Robot Dreams.

Directed and written by Pablo Berger, this film is based on the comic of the same name by Sara Varon. We follow the life of a dog living in New York City in the 80s. Feeling alone in his life, he sees an ad on the TV for a robot buddy. He orders it, builds him, and the robot comes to life, with the two becoming the best of friends. The question is though how long will they stay friends? Will they be able to overcome everything in their way?

With this film, you will notice that there is no spoken dialogue and no voice cast. If you are not familiar with animated films with no or limited dialogue, you should check out The Triplets of Belleville and/or The Illusionist to get an idea of what you will be watching. Everything is relayed through visual storytelling and the reactions and actions made by the characters we follow. This was one of the films that rose to the top of the festival hype circuit when it showed up at Cannes, Annecy, and Animation is Film. It gained acclaim, won film prizes, and then was picked up by the distributor Neon. It’s a real shame that Neon decided to questionably release this film two months after the Oscars and not before or at the very least, in April, due to how very few animated films and family films there are this year and will probably be the same next year, with the upcoming animation strike that we should all support. So, what made this film stand out? Despite its cutesy art style and how it looks like it would be a typical family film, this is anything but typical. What we get here is a film all about friendships. It ventures through every avenue about them.

It starts us off with how lonely our main character is and how everyone yearns for the need for friendship and connection. Once we see the friendship form between the robot and the dog, we watch how connected they become. When we get to the middle part of the film, we start to see the reality of how many friendships unfold as our two leads are separated from one another. While that bond may be there, the distance with which they are separated becomes bigger. They start to grow disconnected, and move on to new friendships and bonds. For a film with such an unassuming art style that many will probably find “childish” and “simple”, it is anything but that. With no dialogue and a 102-minute runtime, we have a movie that is more in-depth and complex than most live-action films that come out of the film industry. It hones in on the most important details about relationships, and uses those bits to bring in some emotionally powerful moments. The moment you pick up that something has changed in the vibe of the relationships is truly when the film shines, and how sad yet poetic and beautiful the journey of connection can be. That’s a good way to describe this film, it’s sad, but it’s also beautifully poetic. It might be more art-driven with how it tells its story and will have some very abstract and heartbreaking moments, but it is by far and away one of the most recent films that talks about a highly universal and incredibly relatable part of life. Most films wish they could capture the emotional depth this film has with its story about a dog and robot’s friendship.

The animation is quite pleasant to look at. It has a case of more modern animation approaches with the round designs, but that doesn’t really matter. Animation fans need to indulge and embrace different art styles, and cease wanting everyone to do what Richard Williams did with his work in animation. The art style doesn’t hold back the tone or mood for which the film is going. It is playful and it is fluid in its animation. It has personality in each of the designs. A goal to keep in mind with character design is that you can tell what the character is doing or what their character is all about through their design and movements. Luckily, this film passes with flying colors in that department, due to how it isn’t held back by dialogue and voice work. You get everything you need to know about our two leads, and even the background characters are full of life and personality in their designs. The music is fantastic with a wonderful score by Alfonso De Villaonga that captures New York in such stunning accuracy with its composition. With all that said, the way the film uses Earth Wind and Fire’s September in two very different points makes the emotional core of this film even more effective. It can be such an upbeat song, but you then listen to the lyrics, and how it’s used at the end makes for one of the most perfect scenes from any film from last year. If you can find any interviews with the director, he talked about this when I saw this film at Animation is Film and he was such a swell guy.

Rating: Essential.

The Other Side of Animation

Reviews of the lesser known animated classics and flops!

My Favorite Films of 2023

The Other Side of Animation 316: Robot Dreams Review