Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2014

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2014

Note: Pixar nor Illumination released a new movie this year.

The year unfortunately kicked off with The Nut Job in January. The film quickly became one of the worst CGI movies in recent years, yet it managed to generate a sequel.

February saw the release of the hugely successful The LEGO Movie. It became so successful that two spinoff films were released, as well as a sequel and a TV series starring UniKitty.

Also released in February was the US release of The Wind Rises, which was the final film from Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli. The film was actually shown at a local theater in November 2013 so it could be nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but ultimately lost to Frozen.

In March, DreamWorks released their 25th animated feature Mr. Peabody and Sherman, based on the beloved cartoon characters created by Jay Ward. Unfortunately, the film tanked at the box-office, and is somewhat underrated.

In April, Blu and Jewel returned in Rio 2. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film managed to gross 500 million dollars worldwide at the box-office.

May saw the release of another poorly reviewed CGI movie, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return. It was a disgrace to its original source material and tanked at the box-office. Legends of Oz also won the Razzi Award for Worst Supporting Actor, the first animated movie in 20 years to win a Razzi.

In June, Hiccup and Toothless returned for an all-new adventure in How To Train Your Dragon 2. The film got great reviews, earned over 621 million dollars at the box-office, and got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. However, it would lose to Big Hero 6.

July saw the release of Planes: Fire and Rescue. It actually got better reviews than the first Planes, with 43% on Rotten Tomatoes (The first Planes has 25%). Unfortunately, it didn’t meet box-office expectations, and would end up being one of DisneyToons’ final films before they closed in 2018.

August saw the release of the rather underrated Henry and Me, which I personally recommend. Surprisingly, it wouldn't premiere on DVD until 2016, two years after it was shown in New York.

There were two animated movies released in September. The first was The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. It was the final film to be directed by Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli. The film got great reviews when it premiered, with a rare score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Unfortunately, it would lose to Big Hero 6. Takahata passed away in 2018, but his work still lives on.

The second was Laika's third feature film The Boxtrolls. Despite receiving weaker reviews than Coraline and ParaNorman, the film got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

In October, computer animation reached new lows with The Hero of Color City. The film got poor reviews and grossed only 32,000 dollars on an unknown budget. My guess is 10 million.

Also released in October was the far superior The Book of Life, Reel FX’s second film. The best way to describe this movie is like a cross between Disney's Aladdin and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. The story may be clichéd and predictable, but the beautiful animation and likable characters make up for it.

There were two animated movies released in November. The first was Disney's blockbuster of a hit Big Hero 6. The film did very well at the box-office, earning over 657 million dollars worldwide, got good reviews, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

The second was DreamWorks' third feature that year, The Penguins of Madagascar. In this movie, the fan-favorite spy penguins have to stop Dave the Octopus from turning all the penguins in the world into mutants. Home was originally going to be released during this time, but when DreamWorks found out it would have to compete against Big Hero 6, they swapped it with The Penguins of Madagascar (which was going to be released in March). Unfortunately, 'Penguins' was yet another flop for DreamWorks, and PDI closed their doors in January 2015.

And finally, in December, from the creators of The Secret of Kells came Song of the Sea, which premiered in New York City at the time. The film got great reviews, with an impressive rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, and got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Like the other nominees that year, it would lose to Big Hero 6. That's all I have to say for this week's Animated Movies Throughout the Years! Tune
in next week when we talk about animated movies from 2015, in which Pixar released two different films with contrasting successes, the banana-loving Twinkies made their feature film debut with the overrated Minions, Blue Sky released their best-reviewed film with The Peanuts Movie, and the popular stop-motion Sheep appeared in his first movie with Shaun the Sheep: The Movie.

Story Announcement #10

Remember how in my review of Hoot, I briefly mentioned the Cartoon Network series Craig of the Creek? Well, my next story will be a fanfic (fan fiction) centered around the series, called 'Born to be Wild'. In case you're unfamiliar with the show, Craig of the Creek is about African-American boy Craig Williams. He, along with his friends Kelsey Bern, JP Mercer, and Mortimer, Kelsey's pet parakeet, explore the kid utopia known as the Creek, located in their backyard forest.

'Born to be Wild' will center around the gang helping Wildernessa, the self-proclaimed Guardian of Nature, go on an adventure to free some animals from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, since the show takes place in Maryland. Wildernessa, inspired by San from Princess Mononoke, is a girl, presumably around Craig's age, who wanders the Creek on her Tibetan Mastiff Cheesesticks helping animals in distress. However, she hates humans, even though she's human herself.
As I am typing this, she has only appeared in two episodes: 'Wildernessa' and 'The Great Fossil Rush'. I wanted to write a story that would flesh out her personality into a three-dimensional character, even though there's a good chance we'll see more of here in the future.
As with my other stories, 'Born to be Wild' will have a good amount of Easter Eggs and Author's Notes in every chapter.
Chapter 1 of 'Born to be Wild' will be posted on May 2nd.

Movie Review: Missing Link

Movie Review: Missing Link                                                                                                             4-20-19

Explorer Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is determined to be accepted into British society by discovering mythical creatures. He makes a deal with Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry), that if he finds a Sasquatch, he will be part of the 'Great Men'. Frost travels to a forest in Oregon and finds a Sasquatch named Susan (Zach Galifianakis), he tells Frost that he is the last of his kind. With the help of Frost's ex-girlfriend Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), he and Susan go on an international journey to Shangri-La, where Susan's cousins the Yetis live. Little do they know that Piggot-Dunceby has hired an assassin to kill Frost and Susan!

Missing Link is the first Laika film not to be distributed by Focus Features, a division of Universal. Instead, it was distributed by Annapurna Pictures. Instead of being scary like Coraline or ParaNorman, gross like The Boxtrolls, or violent like Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link has a lighter and more kid-friendly tone. Another notable difference is that instead of having a kid as a protagonist like previous Laika films, Missing Link has an almost all grown-up cast.

Now, what do I think of Missing Link? I think it's one of Laika's funniest movies to date with painstaking animation, likable characters, and some really funny jokes.

Like Laika's other films, Missing Link has gorgeous backgrounds and life-like camera movements. However, the story can be a little cliched and predictable at times.

In conclusion, while not as good as Coraline or Kubo, Missing Link is a film that I would personally pick over the upcoming Detective Pikachu or the live-action Aladdin.

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5.

My DVD Collection 8.0

Hi, everybody! Sorry for the delay. I have been busy recently. Anyway, here is my updated DVD/Blu-Ray collection!

These are movies that I plan on watching/have watched between April 8th and April 24th. From top to bottom: Ralph Breaks the Internet: Finding Dory, Incredibles 2, Hugo the Hippo (a strange Hungarian animated film), Rio, Seuss Celebration (which contains 7 half-hour 2D animated Dr. Seuss TV specials broadcast between 1971 and 1982), Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, and Bambi.

From top to bottom: Mickey's Christmas Carol, Teacher's Pet, Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Ed, Edd n Eddy: Edifying Ed-Ventures, Ed Edd n Eddy: Fools Day Par-Ed-Ise, and The Brave Little Toaster.

From top to bottom: Seven Best of The Muppet Show DVDs, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy, and Muppets Magic From The Ed Sullivan Show.

From top to bottom: A rare Walt Disney Treasures DVD, Peanuts Holiday Collection, Horton Hears a Who! (the 1970 TV special from toon legend Chuck Jones), Toy Story That Time Forgot, Balto double feature, Toy Story of Terror!, Ghostbusters (the 1984 film), and Short Circuit.

From top to bottom: Brother Bear, Splash, Fantasia, Fantasia 2000, The Iron Giant, a rare Walt Disney Treasures DVD, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (a 1978 TV special), Prep and Landing, and Freaky Friday.
As I said before, I have two Walt Disney Treasures DVDs in my collection. The first is Silly Symphonies: Historic Musical Animated Classics. This set contains 31 uncensored Silly Symphony cartoons, including the Oscar-winning Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Ugly Duckling, and The Old Mill. Only 150,000 copies were produced.

The other tin is Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios: A Glimpse Behind the Studio Magic. This set contains the behind-the-scenes film The Reluctant Dragon, as well as three episodes of Walt Disney's TV show: The Story of the Animated Drawing, The Plausible Impossible, and Tricks of Our Trade. Only 125,000 copies of this rare DVD were produced.


From left to right: Fraggle Rock Seasons 1-4, Sesame Street Old School Volumes 1 and 2, The Muppet Show Seasons 1-3, Best of The Muppet Show Volume 2 (Mark Hamill, Paul Simon, Raquel Welch), The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper/Muppet Treasure Island double feature, The Muppets Take Manhattan/Muppets From Space double feature, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and The Muppets 2011. Top to bottom: More Best of The Muppet Show DVDs plus A Muppet Family Christmas sandwiched in.

From left to right: The Princess Bride, 101 Dalmatians, Groundhog Day, The Jungle Book, Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 1, Robots, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Chicken Run, Mary Poppins, A Bug's Life, and Seasons 1 through 5 of The Simpsons. Top to bottom: Seasons 6 through 8 of The Simpsons.

From top to bottom: Hercules, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, The Land before Time, Song of the Sea, Dumbo, Antz, Mulan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the black one with no title on its spine), The Princess and the Frog, The Prince of Egypt, Cinderella, Frozen, Sleeping Beauty, April and the Extraordinary World  Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Book of Life, Coco, Aladdin, The Secret of NIMH, and The Emperor's New Groove.

From top to bottom: Enchanted, Zootopia, Tangled, Moana, The Peanuts Movie, Inside Out, Finding Nemo, Shrek, Ratatouille, Lilo & Stitch, Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition, The Great Mouse Detective, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lion King, Bolt, WALL-E, Up, and The Little Mermaid.

From top to bottom: Toy Story, Toy Story 2 (2-Disc DVD), Toy Story 3, Anastasia, Kung Fu Panda, Babe, Lady and the Tramp, Monsters Inc, Big Hero 6, Tarzan, Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection, The Incredibles, Ice Age (the first one), An American Tail, How To Train Your Dragon, Wreck-it Ralph, and Pinocchio.

Here are four of my favorite books that I keep in my bedroom. From top to bottom: Hey Arnold! The Complete Series, The Wild Thornberrys: The Complete Series, The World History of Animation by Stephen Cavalier, The Art of DreamWorks Animation by Ramin Zahed, Jim Henson: The Works by Christopher Finch, and The Art of Walt Disney (also by Christopher Finch).

These are DVDs that I keep at my Salisbury house. From left to right: Pocahontas, The Good Dinosaur, Frankenweenie, Arthur Christmas, How The Grinch Stole Christmas! Muppets Tonight, The Nightmare before Christmas, Happy Feet, Treasure Planet, Schoolhouse Rock! 30th Anniversary Edition, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Best of The Muppet Show Volume 7 (George Burns, Dom DeLuise, Bob Hope, Banjo the Woodp[ile Cat, Shrek 2, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Rescuers, Beauty and the Beast: Platinum Edition, Jim Henson's The Storyteller, Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Toy Story 2 (1-Disc DVD), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The LEGO Movie, and Cartoon Vault.
Well, that wraps up my DVD/Blu-Ray collection for the time being! Tomorrow or so, I will review Laika's latest endeaver, Missing Link! I will also post an announcement for an upcoming Craig of the Creek fanfic that I'll post in May.

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2013

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2013

 

In February, there was Escape From Planet Earth, which is Planet 51 in reverse with character designs we have all seen before.

 

In March, there was DreamWorks' The Croods. It's best described as a cross between Disney•Pixar's Brave and Don Bluth's The Land before Time. While one of DreamWorks’ weaker films, The Croods got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Frozen.

In May, there was Blue Sky Studios' Epic. It's not a horrible film, but it's very clichéd. In fact, one critic described it as a cross between The Dark Crystal, Fergully: The Last Rainforest, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, and The Secret of NIMH.

In June, there was Pixar's 14th feature film, Monsters University. It got mixed reviews, but it earned over 744 million dollars at the box-office. However, by this point, some people, myself included, felt like Pixar lost their magic touch. It wouldn't be until 2015, the year Inside Out premiered, got glowing reviews, and gave Pixar their spark back.

There were two animated features released in July. The first was Despicable Me 2, which earned over 970 million dollars worldwide at the box-office. DM2 also got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Frozen.

The second was DreamWorks' Turbo, which was a bit like Disney•Pixar's Cars but with snails. Unfortunately, Turbo would be another box-office flop for DreamWorks.

In August, there was Disney's Planes, a spinoff of Cars. However, it got rather negative reviews, with a rating of only 25% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In September, there was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. It's basically Jurassic Park with food animals instead of dinosaurs. Plus, the names for the animals sound like they were copied from Cartoon Network's Chowder, while some of the designs look like they came from Adventure Time.

In November, there was Free Birds, which is basically a cross between Chicken Run and Back to the Future. It was the first movie from Texas-based animation studio Reel FX, but got rather negative reviews.

Also released in November, Disney released their 53rd animated feature, Frozen, and if you're counting, their seventh CGI film, and we all know seven is a lucky number. It became the highest-grossing animated movie of it's time, and was Disney’s first movie to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, as well as Best Original Song.

And finally, in December, there was Walking With Dinosaurs, a hybrid film similar to Disney's Dinosaur (not to be confused with The Good Dinosaur). The animation house behind this film was Australia-based Animal Logic, who also did Happy Feet and Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. While the film had breathtaking CG dinosaurs interacting fruitfully with live-action landscapes, it suffered from a clumsy script with potty humor all over it. That's all I have to say for this week's Animated Movies Throughout the Years! Tune
in next week when we talk about animated movies from 2014, in which Disney satisfied us with our care with Big Hero 6, DreamWorks soared to new heights with How To Train Your Dragon 2, Laika decided to release a more light-hearted film with The Boxtrolls, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller brought the world-famous plastic brick toys to life with The LEGO Movie.