Worst to Best Animated Films of 2018 Part 3

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this editorial/list!)

I really need to get these out faster. Anyway, let’s get started with part 3 of the Worst to Best Animated Films of 2018! We are now diving into the films that I really enjoyed. Let’s get started!

23. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

While it might not be anything too special for a show based on a “controversial” show, they took advantage of being feature length, and had some of the biggest laughs out of any animated film from 2018. It was basically the same kind of film as 2019’s The Angry Birds Movie 2. It’s a light-weight story with good character chemistry and a lot of different kinds of jokes. It’s a fun time, even if it does fall back on a lot of juvenile jokes, and the mid-credit scene will be trolling fans of the franchise until the end of time.

22. Mindgame

While this may be a 2004 film, the US finally got an official release last year, and that means it counts for this list. This was Masaaki Yuasa’s first major film, and it is a wild ride with diverse visuals and a set of complex themes. It might not be told the best in terms of storytelling, but I’m so happy that we now have an official release for this flick. Just go in knowing little-to-nothing.

21. Batman Ninja

Man, the best DC-animated film was the one that went out of its way to be different. Gee, it’s like people love unexpected projects like this. While Batman Ninja is all style and little substance, who is going to really complain about a movie where Batman is transported to feudal-era Japan, and has to basically go all ninja on the Joker? Yeah I thought so. It might not have the best CGI animation, its visuals and action set-pieces are a delight to watch unfold. This is easily one of the most fun, and probably my favorite DC-animated feature so far.

20. Flavors of Youth

While this film may have been better if they didn’t try so hard to copy Makoto Shinkai’s style, I still admire the types of stories they wanted to tell about childhood, identity, and you get the idea. The animation doesn’t fully match Shinkai’s gorgeous art direction, but the fact we got a small-scale anthology film is nice, and something we wouldn’t really see in theaters.

19. Seder Masochism

Listen, I get why many are not on board with the director’s Nina Paley’s personal beliefs. I get why many would absolutely not want to check out her work, but I’m a critic, and I have to review stuff like this whether we agree or not with the beliefs. So, outside of that, I enjoyed Seder! I found it an interesting and quaint little film with some great visuals, fun music mixed into the scenes, the commentary about religious extremism was fascinating, and the recordings of her and her father talking about religion were easily the best parts about the film due to how personal they felt. While many may not like her personal opinions, I still recommend people check out the film.

18. Next Gen

While Netflix is still working its way into having a good animated film line-up, Next Gen is that, well, next step into the animation scene. While many called it a mix of Big Hero 6 and The Iron Giant, I found Next Gen to stand on its own. It has a fun female lead, commentary about the overreliance on technology, and a touching friendship between the girl and the robot in the film. It’s also one of the few animated mainstream films to have major action beats in it. It might not be perfect, but Next Gen is a fun little ride, and a hidden gem for animation fans.

17. Early Man

While this film absolutely did not deserve to bomb, and was wrongfully crushed under the incredible Black Panther, Early Man is still another feather in Aardman’s cap. It might not be the best written, and the third act is the film’s weakest part, it’s still full of that Aardman charm and wonderful animation that you have come to know from the studio. Sadly, it’s mostly forgotten, because audience members think stop-motion is dated. Oh well, I still enjoyed my time in the Stone Age.

16. Incredibles 2

After years of waiting, we finally got a sequel to Brad Bird’s The Incredibles. I mean, I could talk about why it took so long, but that’s for another time, and while I have plenty of issues with this film, I still did like it. It might have a weak villain and concepts that aren’t fully fleshed out, but the film has gorgeous animation, strong writing, more great family chemistry, and the action is fun. It’s definitely not Brad Bird’s best film, but it’s a great film, and I’m glad it did well.

15. Smallfoot

It’s a shame that Smallfoot was a victim to bad marketing that made out a rather ambitious film to be no more than a dumb comedy. The comedy aspects are themselves hit or miss, along with the musical numbers as well, but the main story and what it tackles about identity and what is the right thing to do, is so refreshing. It’s also a gorgeous film with a fun cast and likable characters.

14. White Fang

This is one of 2018’s biggest surprises and one of 2018’s most underrated gems. It has a gorgeous art style, a more mature and quiet atmosphere, and a solid voice cast. It might be a bit lightweight, but I still highly recommend watching this lovely film from Netflix.

13. Tito and the Birds

It’s nice that we are getting some high quality animation from Brazil, and Tito and the Birds is a good first introduction to that country’s animation scene. It might be a bit familiar to those who are fans of 80s films, but its message of overcoming and not letting fear mongers get their way gels well with the beautiful animation.

12. Modest Heroes

It might suffer from being an anthology film where one of the shorts isn’t as good as the others, but the fact that Studio Ponoc was able to craft three different stories about being a hero with varying art styles, and giving some new voices in the animation industry a chance to tell a story is delightful.

11. Liz and the Blue Bird

This is easily one of Kyoto Animation’s best films. While it might be a spin-off of an anime series, you can watch it without knowing about the series on which it’s based. That’s because when you break it down, it’s a coming-of-age romance and friendship story between the two female leads. It’s a sweet little film that I think everyone should buy a copy of.

Next time, we will break down what I consider to be the 10 best animated films of 2018! Thank you for checking out this list, and if you want to help support my work, you can go to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. I will see you all next time!

The Other Side of Animation 135: White Fang Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

It’s not hard to see the many complaints about Netflix and their ways of picking up anything for their service, despite its quality or lack of. They want content for their service, but they don’t always get great stuff. Maybe out of every six or so films they pick up, only one and, if you are lucky, two of them will be really good. It doesn’t help either that companies use this to their advantage to slide their films that tested poorly or no one cared about, onto the service and take the loss. You know, how the cowardly spineless Weinsteins hid Guardian Brothers and Underdogs on the service. Luckily, that isn’t always the case, and while the upcoming Duck Duck Goose will be talked about, since it matches that notion I mentioned, let’s talk about a good Netflix animated film with White Fang. Based on the book of the same name written by Jack London, and directed by Alexandre Espigares, the director of the Oscar-winning short Mr. Hublot, White Fang is a CGI-animated feature that was picked up by Netflix, and was released on July 6th 2018 on the service. It was a film I was interested in when I saw the unique art direction and the English cast, including Rashida Jones, Nick Offerman, Paul Giamatti, and Eddie Spears. It seems to have gone under the radar for many people, and I want everyone to know that this is a good Netflix-animated feature. Let’s dive in.

The story is about a wolf cub that lived with his mother. It follows his life through meeting a Native American tribe, and becoming one of the sled dogs of the chief named Grey Beaver, dubbed by Eddie Spears. His eventual change of ownership is to a snarly evil individual named Beauty Smith, dubbed by Paul Giamatti, and a home with a husband and wife named Marshal Weedon Scott and Maggie Scott, dubbed by Nick Offerman and Rashida Jones.

I think a major concern for any animated film coming out is that since so many people find animation just a kid’s game, the studios won’t put effort into the film. They will try to do the minimal job to make it interesting, make the animation look nice, and push it out for the sake of making money, because animation is huge right now. Surprisingly, White Fang goes against a multitude of traditional kids’ film tropes. For one, White Fang is more episodic in its storytelling. It’s more about the life the wolf went through, and less of an overarching plot. The only real conflict of plot comes into play in the second half, when Paul Giamatti’s character comes into the story. It’s a slower-paced film. It takes its time with the story, and besides the humans, none of the animals talk. For the most part, it lets the visuals tell the story. It’s also a quiet film. It’s not loud, obnoxious, and there aren’t really any animal shenanigans. It’s like this film wanted to be everything anti-modern big Hollywood animation that isn’t Disney or Pixar. It’s a change of pace that might be jarring to many who are familiar with more fast-paced antics and storytelling. The humans aren’t even the main characters. They are there more to interact with White Fang, and don’t really have any major story arcs or challenges they need to face. I mean, you do see them more than once, but the story keeps White Fang as the main focus. It’s honestly nice to see an animated film that makes sure to treat the viewers as, well, humans. Not everything needs to be super loud, bouncy, and all that jazz. It doesn’t sugarcoat what life was like back in that time period and for certain individuals. Sure, Paul Giamatti’s character is a touch cheesy and obviously a villain, but he’s not a bumbling idiot like most bad villains from animated films. It’s a more grounded-experience, and while I’m not going to compare it to the darker animated films of the 80s, it gets close to that realm with certain scenes.

The animation is another high point. While you can definitely tell that this did not have a massive Hollywood budget, a good studio and director can take a small budget and run with it. The painted look on the characters gives the film its own visual flair. The humans and animals all move very realistically, but they never felt robotic in their movements. It gives the film this painting-in-motion look that I love. Another fine addition to the good animation is the music. Like a lot of the film, the music is quiet and in the background, and only gets loud and orchestrated during integral scenes and intense moments. Bruno Coulais, the same composer behind Coraline, Mune: Guardian of the Moon, The Secret of Kells, and Song of the Sea, brought a lot of those same elements to this film with its European folk-sounding music.

If I had to complain about something with the film, it’s definitely the fact that while it  is definitely aimed at a slightly older audience, you can tell what’s going to happen, and what kind of character each human is. I mean, are you really going to look at someone like Paul Giamatti’s character and say he’s a good guy? I’m sure some of these characters and their personalities come from the book, but you won’t be seeing anything new here. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with that, because what matters to me is how you execute the story, but don’t be expecting some brand new variation on the original story. I’ll say that it feels more complete as a story than Incredibles 2 does.

While it might not reinvent the wheel into some kind of fancy future wheel, White Fang is a really good animated feature. I’m actually kind of shocked Netflix got a good one, but then again, when they find films through festival circuits, they tend to do better than with this week’s Duck Duck Goose release. I definitely recommend checking it out. I honestly found myself surprised by how good it is. If you are looking for an animated film that’s going to be slower in its pace, and offers something different than other animated films in theaters, definitely check it out! While the summer might be ending soon, the animation is going to keep coming. Next time, we are going to look at Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. Thanks for reading the review! I hope you enjoyed it, and see you next time!

Rating: Go See It!

Animation Tidbits #9: Annecy 2018 Part 4

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this editorial/list!)

Welcome back to the unexpectedly amazing Annecy 2018 breakdown! This will be the final editorial about this festival before the June viewing of the event. This will include films that are being shown either fully made, or are in the final stages of completion. It will include both big budget films and smaller films. If you haven’t seen part 1, part 2, and part 3, then you should definitely go to those and see what the world is doing in animation.

Other Films

Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet: While I enjoyed the first film, despite it losing steam in the third act, I found it to be one of the more interesting Disney-animated features, that revolves around a technology-based setting. It’s definitely a bit disappointing that they are moving to the internet to make fun of that, rather than going from arcade games to console games. Granted, the bit about click bait, Ebay, and the mobile game were funny, but since the original film skimped on the video game stuff, you kind of felt like you were deprived of what the film was advertising. Still, I am excited to see how this film turns out.

Hotel Transylvania 3: It’s not a perfect franchise, and there are definitely really crummy things about it, but I’ll admit, I do like watching these films. I don’t crave them all year long, but Genndy Tartakovsky has brought a lot of life and personality to animated features, that I hope he can bring more to in the future. While the plot for this film seems a tad clichéd, since now Dracula is going on a cruise to relax and maybe find a new love interest, I still hope it can be good.

The Incredibles 2: While many really love the original, it was interesting to see how people reacted to the sequel’s trailer. There are talks that it might have major sequelitis problems, where the roles have been reversed with Helen Parr being the superhero that goes around saving the day, while Bob helps the kids. I don’t fully agree with the negative backlash or concerns, but I get where they are coming from. It still has some interesting ideas that I hope are more fleshed out in the film. The animation is beautiful, and I love the addition of Bob Odenkirk as a new character in the film.

White Fang: Probably the most anticipated animated feature that will be distributed by Netflix this year. It’s by the director who did the award-winning short Mr. Hublot.  It’s an adaptation of the 1906 novel of the same name, but this time, with a rather vibrant art style. Sure, you can kind of tell there is something weird with the human movements, but the colors are what really bring this film up to another level. I love how everything looks painted, and it definitely gives the film a lush and identifiable identity among the animated films this year.

Another Day of Life: This is yet another mature animated feature, telling the story of what happened during the 1973 civil war in Angola. The story is told in a vibrant and beautiful underground comic book art style. It might look like a lot of rotoscoping was used, but you can’t deny that its colors and advantages with animation will make this story of a horrific event interesting to watch. It will also supposedly have a few moments of live-action sequences thrown in by the person that documented this incident. It reminds me of 25 April and Waltz with Bashir. I can’t wait.