Bolt was Disney's (Walt Disney Animation Studios') first CGI movie to fully involve John Lasseter, co-founder of Pixar. It was also their first CGI movie to feel like a true Disney movie, compared to previous efforts like Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. Bolt tells the story of a dog named Bolt (John Travolta) who stars in a very popular , big budget TV show with his owner Penny (Miley Cyrus). The only problem is that he thinks it's all real. When Penny gets kidnapped in Part 1 of a 2-part episode, Bolt gets anxious and runs frantically throughout the studio, eventually getting mailed to New York City. Eventually, Bolt learns that he is a normal dog with no superpowers, but learns being a real dog is just as special. Bolt also befriends a cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino, who happens to be his biggest fan. Bolt got really good reviews when it premiered, and was the first animated Disney movie to get nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature since Brother Bear.
19. Shrek 2 (2004)
In the sequel to the first Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature, Shrek and Fiona and happily married. After hearing their daughter is free from her prison, the king (John Cleese) and queen (Julie Andrews) invite the two ogres and Donkey to a party at their kingdom, Far Far Away. When they arrive, however, the king and queen were very surprised. Feeling like Fiona isn't happy with being ugly, Shrek, along with Donkey, go on a quest to find a potion that would turn him (Shrek) and Fiona human. The movie's plot is more complicated and slower than the original, but it does have its moments. The popularity and success of Shrek 2 lead to two more sequels, though they got weaker reviews, despite being box-office successes. Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderez, became quite popular, and even got his own movie in 2011.
18. Big Hero 6 (2014)
Big Hero 6 was Disney's first animated movie based on a Marvel comic, since they purchased the rights to Marvel in 2009. The story takes place in San Fransokyo, a highly stylized San Francisco, and tells the story of a child prodigy named Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) who gets a special present from his older brother, Tadashi: an inflatable robot named Baymax, who is designed to take care of Hiro. After a fire incident inside the science fair convention building, Hiro is devastated when he sees Tadashi jump into the fray to save his teacher, but didn't succeed. Hiro also discovers that his microbots, which he used in the science fair, were stolen by a man in a Kabuki mask, who also killed Tadashi! With the help of his new friends and Baymax, Hiro sets on an adventure to save San Fransokyo from certain destruction. Big Hero 6 easily became the highest grossing animated movie of the year and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature (though some people think How To Train Your Dragon 2 should've won that award). This was probably because of the humongous success of Frozen from the previous year, and it's currently debatable on which movie was better.
17. Wreck-it Ralph (2012)
Wreck-it Ralph is about a video game baddie named Ralph (John C Reily). He is the antagonist of the Nintendo-inspired arcade game, Fix-it Felix Jr. The player plays a carpenter named Felix (Jack McBryer) and he has to fix the building Ralph wrecks, while avoiding falling bricks. Whenever a level is completed, Felix earns a medal. But are there medals for wrecking stuff really well? No, there aren't. For 30 years, Ralph had to be thrown off the building repeatedly by the nice-landers. After saying that he'd earn himself his own medal, Ralph heads off to an intense first-person shooter game called Hero's Duty. Upon receiving a medal he stole, he steps on an egg that hatches an evil creature, a Cy-Bug. After blindly stumbling into an escape pod that sends Ralph and the Cy-Bug to a Mario Kart-inspired race game called Sugar Rush, Ralph meets a rejected racer named Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), and the fate of the entire arcade is in his big hands. Wreck-it Ralph is considered by fans, myself included, the Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Toy Story of video games. There are cameos from many different games, like Pac-Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bowser (from the Mario games), some Street Fighter characters, and even Q*Bert. Surprisingly, Wreck-it Ralph did NOT win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Instead, Brave, one of Pixar's lesser projects (but not their worst) won the award that year. Thankfully, Wreck-it Ralph won both the Annie Award and the KCA (Kids Choice Award) for Best Animated Feature.
16. Antz (1998)
Ever since both movies were announced, people have been debating whether or not Pixar's next movie, A Bug's Life, is a rip-off of DreamWorks' first animated feature, Antz. Jeffery Katzenberg, the co-founder of DreamWorks, stated that the idea for Antz came from director Tim Johnson, an independent of Disney/Pixar . The reason for two simultaneous insect films should also be seen, however, in the context of the computer technology at the time. Like toys, insects were suitable subjects, as it was too difficult to animate humans and furry animals effectively with computer animation. Anyway, Antz is about a neurotic and thoughtful ant named Z (Woody Allen), who questions the lack of individual freedom in the underground, soviet-style society he inhabits. Destined to become a soldier ant, Z unintentionally participates in a war with termites where all the other ants get killed. He survives by not fighting and running away, but to his dismay is hailed as a war hero. Z falls in love with Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) and has to rescue his colony from destruction by the evil General Mandible. More will be discussed in entry #13.
15. Shrek (2001)
Based on the obscure children's book by William Steig, Shrek is about an ogre named Shrek (Mike Myers) who thinks fairy tales are a load of *flush*. But when his swamp gets crowded with fairy tale creatures and characters, he sets on a quest with a donkey named Donkey (Eddie Murphy) to rescue a princess for Lord Farquad (John Lithglow) in order to get his swamp back. Shrek eventually saves and meets the Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and eventually they fall in love. Shrek was very successful, earning over 400 million dollars at the box-office, got really good reviews, spawned a multimedia franchise, and won the very first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
14. Arthur Christmas (2011)
Aardman's first movie since Flushed Away, and their second CGI movie, tells the story of Santa's youngest son, Arthur, who noticed that Santa forgot to deliver one present: a bicycle for a young girl in England! Now it's up to Arthur, Grandsanta, and a stowaway elf, to deliver the present to her by Christmas morning. Arthur Christmas is notable for featuring characters that aren't in the usual Aardman style. I personally think that was a good idea because, just imagine what the human characters would look like in the style of Wallace and Gromit in CGI form! Arthur Christmas got good reviews, but unfortunately bombed at the box-office. It had to compete against The Muppets (that 2011 movie about getting the Muppets back together again in order to stop an evil oil baron from destroying the old studio) as well as The Adventures of Tintin.
13. A Bug's Life (1998)
Pixar's follow-up to the hugely successful Toy Story, A Bug's Life is about a worker ant named Flik (Dave Foley), who accidentally drops all the food they prepared for the greedy grasshoppers, into the river. This causes tension between the ants and Hopper (Kevin Spacey), the leader of the grasshoppers. He makes a deal with Princess Adda, who is becoming queen soon, that the ants will harvest double the amount of food that was lost in the river by the end of the summer, or else. Flik, the one responsible for this whole mess, insists that they should find bigger bugs to fight the grasshoppers. He then goes to the city to find some tough bugs, but discovers they were just a bunch of clowns. Literally. They were run-aways from the circus after their boss fired them. A Bug's Life may not be as good as Toy Story, but it has dazzling animation and rememberable characters. A Bug's Life won the box-office battle with Antz, but Antz got slightly better reviews. I personally prefer A Bug's Life because Antz can't decide if it's a kids movie or an adult movie, while Pixar knows their target audiences for the next decade.
12. Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille tells the story of a French rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt), who has a good sense of smell and a passion for food. He follows in the footsteps of the deceased, but legendary Chef Gusteu, the greatest chef in Paris. When he finds himself in the restaurant of Gusteu’s itself, Remy befriends a nincompoop named Linguini. He has no idea how to cook, but Remy does. Remy teaches Linguini how to cook by hiding under his hat and pulling his hairs, but the devious Chef Skinner is aware of Linguini’s secret. Ratatouille may not be Pixar’s best compared to previous movies like Toy Story, Monsters Inc, or Finding Nemo, but more than makes up for Pixar’s previous effort, which was Cars. Ratatouille got really good reviews when it premiered and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
11.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
In the sequel to the groundbreaking DreamWorks movie How To Train Your Dragon, everyone is now five years older than in the original film. Hiccup and Toothless discover an evil man named Drago Bloodfist, who wants to capture all the dragons to build an army with them. Stoick, Hiccup's dad, is pressuring him to become chief, while Hiccup just wants to make peace with Drago. Hiccup then discovers an island covered with ice that holds a secret to his past: his long-lost mother, Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett). Valka loves dragons, and the island she lives on has tons of them. The only problem I personally have with 'Dragons 2' is that the atmosphere is quite dark for a kid's film. To top it all off, one of the characters the audience gets attached to gets killed, which I haven't seen in a DreamWorks movie since The Prince of Egypt. Nevertheless, ‘Dragons 2’ is an enjoyable film, and probably deserved the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. If you ask me, however, I think Song of the Sea should've won the Award that year.
In the sequel to the groundbreaking DreamWorks movie How To Train Your Dragon, everyone is now five years older than in the original film. Hiccup and Toothless discover an evil man named Drago Bloodfist, who wants to capture all the dragons to build an army with them. Stoick, Hiccup's dad, is pressuring him to become chief, while Hiccup just wants to make peace with Drago. Hiccup then discovers an island covered with ice that holds a secret to his past: his long-lost mother, Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett). Valka loves dragons, and the island she lives on has tons of them. The only problem I personally have with 'Dragons 2' is that the atmosphere is quite dark for a kid's film. To top it all off, one of the characters the audience gets attached to gets killed, which I haven't seen in a DreamWorks movie since The Prince of Egypt. Nevertheless, ‘Dragons 2’ is an enjoyable film, and probably deserved the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. If you ask me, however, I think Song of the Sea should've won the Award that year.
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