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30 Greatest CGI Movies of All Time Part 1/3
Remember how last year, I did a Top 30 Greatest CGI Movies of All Time countdown in honor of Toy Story's 20th anniversary? Well, I felt like it deserved a bit of an update where I fix the errors and typos and replace Avatar with Ratatouille. There will also be a bonus 5 honorable mentions at the end of this countdown. Without further ado, let's start the countdown!
30. Flushed Away (2006)
Flushed Away was Aardman's first computer animated feature, and their third and final movie to be released by DreamWorks. The story concerns a pet rat named Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman), who gets flushed down the toilet by another rat named Sid. In the sewers, Roddy encounters many characters, like singing slugs, a mercenary frog, and a love interest (another rat named Rita, voiced by Kate Winslet). He also encounters an evil toad who wants to flush out every rat in the sewers and repopulate it with tadpoles. Aardman chose to do the movie in CGI because they find water extremely difficult to animate in stop-motion. The characters, however, still retain the Aardman style, looking like how they would in a Wallace and Gromit adventure. The movie, unfortunately, bombed at the box-office, and DreamWorks and Aardman decided to abandon one another.
29. Happy Feet (2006)
This was George Miller's first shot at making an animated movie, rather than a live-action one like Mad Max or Babe. Happy Feet was also the first animated feature to come out of Animal Logic, the Australian equivalent of Industrial Lights and Magic. This is also the first and only motion-capture movie to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Anyway, in the movie, every emperor penguin has a song. When they have the right song, they have the right mate. Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), however, has an awful singing voice. Instead, he can tap-dance. The elder emperor penguins find this a disgrace to penguin-kind, and they blame Mumble for the fish famine. Mumble gets banished from his colony, and the only friends he has are a group of 5 Hispanic Adele penguins (the leader voiced by the late Robin Williams) and the all-knowing rock-hopper penguin, Lovelace (also voiced by Robin Williams). Together, they go on an epic adventure to find out where the fish really went. The movie has dazzling animation, but the story can be a bit confusing for younger kids. Happy Feet, however, is very special for me because it has a strong environmental warning from the perspective of not a human, but a penguin.
28. Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Despicable Me 2, along with Frozen for some people, are claimed to be the best animated movies released in 2013. In the sequel to the 2010 blockbuster hit, Gru is asked by the Anti-Villain League to track down a villain who's been storing a secret stash of a serum that turns people, animals, and Minions into dangerous purple, hairy monsters. Gru is also paired up with a new character, Lucy Wilde (voiced by Kristen Wigg), to track down this new villain. Also, the Minions have a bigger role, but I won't say what. Despicable Me 2 is safe to be considered Illumination Entertainment's equivalent to Shrek 2, as both movies are considered by fans "just as good as the original". Also, both movies grossed over 900 million dollars worldwide.
27. The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
In 1981, when Steven Spielberg was reading a Belgian review of his newest movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, he kept seeing the word "Tauntaun". Steven thought it was a French praise, but then he learned that "Tauntaun" means Tintin in French, and that Tintin was the name of a character in a popular book series. To top it all off, the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark is similar to one of the Tintin books! Sadly, Hergé, the creator of Tintin, passed away in 1983, when Steven was working on the second Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Many years later ,Spielberg asked Peter Jackson if his team at Weta Workshop would make a CGI dog for a live-action Tintin movie. Steven thought the dog looked very realistic and convincing, and he asked if Peter could make a feature-length adaptation in the style of the dog. The movie would eventually be animated at Weta Workshop in New Zealand and co-produced by Nickelodeon. The Adventures of Tintin premiered in late 2011 and grossed over 300 million dollars worldwide, becoming Nickelodeon's most successful movie to date.
26. Ice Age (2002)
Ice Age was originally intended to be Don Bluth's next movie after Titan AE, but because the movie bombed at the box-office, Fox Animation Studios closed their doors. However, that didn't stop Chris Wedge and his team at Blue Sky, the company who did the CG effects for 'Titan'. Ice Age is about a lone mammoth named Manfred (Ray Ramano) who saved a ground sloth named Sid (John Liguizamo) from a group of angry rhinos. After witnessing a female human holding a baby in the river, Sid decides that they should return the baby to its herd, much to Manfred's dismay. While trying to climb a rock wall, a saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary) snatches the baby from Sid. Diego tells them that he knows where the humans are, and Manny and Sid reluctantly agree. Little do they know that Diego was sent to bring the baby back so the other tigers can kill it. Ice Age did very well at the box-office, got great reviews, and spawned several sequels and a Christmas special.
25. Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
In 2004, shortly after the premiere of the atrocity known as The Cat in the Hat, Audrey Geisel, the widow of Ted Geisel (otherwise known as Dr. Seuss), banned any further live-action adaptations of her husband's books. However, she didn't say anything about animated adaptations. Horton Hears a Who!, based on the book of the same name, was Blue Sky's first movie to have the G-rating, and is considered their best film among fans. It concerns an elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey) who saves a speck of dust from drowning in a lake. He then learns that there's an entire species of microscopic mammals, known as Whos, living on that speck. A purple kangaroo, however, does not like this at all. She thinks it poisons the minds of the children of the jungle, including her own, so she asks a bird named Vlad to snatch the flower Horton placed the speck on and ditch it. The movie is different from previous theatrical Dr. Seuss adaptations because it stays true to the original story. They also expanded on some of the characters, like the mayor of Whoville and his son Jojo. 'Horton' is quite fast-paced and is very enjoyable.
24. The Book of Life (2014)
The best way to describe this movie is like a cross between Disney's Aladdin and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. It concerns three friends: Manolo, Joaquin, and Maria. La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, make a bet. If Manolo marries Maria, La Muerte will rule both lands. If Joaquin marries Maria, however, Xibalba will rule the Land of the Remembered. Xibalba sends a snake to kill Manolo, sending him to the colorful Land of the Remembered. It is now up to Manolo to get back to the Land of the Living and stop an invasion from a threat greater than Xibalba. The story may be a bit predictable and cliched, but the beautiful animation more than makes up for it.
23. Despicable Me (2010)
After working on Horton Hears a Who!, executive producer Chris Meledandri decided to form his own company: Illumination Entertainment. The result: Despicable Me, one of the most popular and successful animated movies of the decade. The story concerns a super-villain named Gru (Steve Carall), who has an army of yellow peanut-shaped creatures simply called Minions. The biggest thing he and his Minions ever stole was the Times Square Jumbotron, while a younger villain named Vector (Jason Segall) stole an entire pyramid from Egypt! Gru wants to top that by stealing the moon. Without the moon, things would go haywire, and the public would give Gru anything to bring it back, and then he would be the greatest villain of all time. However, the moon is quite large to steal, so first, they have to steal a shrink ray from an Asian laboratory. Gru and his Minions succeed, but it gets stolen by Vector, whose not-so-secret lair is heavily guarded. Gru then spots three orphan girls, who also happen to be cookies sellers, and they got in and out of Vector's lair with ease. Gru adopts these girls to secretly steal back the shrink ray, but slowly but surely, he gets attached to them. Despicable Me was Universal's most successful and most popular animated movie since The Land before Time in 1988, and the Minions became very popular, eventually getting their own movie in 2015.
22. Azur & Asmar: The Prince's Quest (2006)
This is the only CGI movie I chose that was made completely outside of the US (Azur and Asmar is French), but it made it to the America in 2008 by The Weinstein Company. The story is very complicated, but I'll try my best to summarize it. Azur and Asmar is an Arabian tale about two brothers: a light-skinned boy with blue eyes named Azur and a dark-skinned boy with brown eyes named Asmar. Azur would normally get Asmar in trouble as a kid; so much that Azur's father banishes Asmar and his mother. Azur, however, travels to Asmar's country to see his adoptive mother and win the magic Djinn fairy, who doesn't look much like a fairy. Azur and Asmar was visually different from other CGI movies at the time because the movie used restricted perspectives, characters in formal poses, and background decor of arabesque patterns. Also, the human characters were flat, only their faces and hand were 3D. The strengths of the movie come from its organic story that would rival Walt Disney's storytelling.
30. Flushed Away (2006)
Flushed Away was Aardman's first computer animated feature, and their third and final movie to be released by DreamWorks. The story concerns a pet rat named Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman), who gets flushed down the toilet by another rat named Sid. In the sewers, Roddy encounters many characters, like singing slugs, a mercenary frog, and a love interest (another rat named Rita, voiced by Kate Winslet). He also encounters an evil toad who wants to flush out every rat in the sewers and repopulate it with tadpoles. Aardman chose to do the movie in CGI because they find water extremely difficult to animate in stop-motion. The characters, however, still retain the Aardman style, looking like how they would in a Wallace and Gromit adventure. The movie, unfortunately, bombed at the box-office, and DreamWorks and Aardman decided to abandon one another.
29. Happy Feet (2006)
This was George Miller's first shot at making an animated movie, rather than a live-action one like Mad Max or Babe. Happy Feet was also the first animated feature to come out of Animal Logic, the Australian equivalent of Industrial Lights and Magic. This is also the first and only motion-capture movie to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Anyway, in the movie, every emperor penguin has a song. When they have the right song, they have the right mate. Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), however, has an awful singing voice. Instead, he can tap-dance. The elder emperor penguins find this a disgrace to penguin-kind, and they blame Mumble for the fish famine. Mumble gets banished from his colony, and the only friends he has are a group of 5 Hispanic Adele penguins (the leader voiced by the late Robin Williams) and the all-knowing rock-hopper penguin, Lovelace (also voiced by Robin Williams). Together, they go on an epic adventure to find out where the fish really went. The movie has dazzling animation, but the story can be a bit confusing for younger kids. Happy Feet, however, is very special for me because it has a strong environmental warning from the perspective of not a human, but a penguin.
28. Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Despicable Me 2, along with Frozen for some people, are claimed to be the best animated movies released in 2013. In the sequel to the 2010 blockbuster hit, Gru is asked by the Anti-Villain League to track down a villain who's been storing a secret stash of a serum that turns people, animals, and Minions into dangerous purple, hairy monsters. Gru is also paired up with a new character, Lucy Wilde (voiced by Kristen Wigg), to track down this new villain. Also, the Minions have a bigger role, but I won't say what. Despicable Me 2 is safe to be considered Illumination Entertainment's equivalent to Shrek 2, as both movies are considered by fans "just as good as the original". Also, both movies grossed over 900 million dollars worldwide.
27. The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
In 1981, when Steven Spielberg was reading a Belgian review of his newest movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, he kept seeing the word "Tauntaun". Steven thought it was a French praise, but then he learned that "Tauntaun" means Tintin in French, and that Tintin was the name of a character in a popular book series. To top it all off, the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark is similar to one of the Tintin books! Sadly, Hergé, the creator of Tintin, passed away in 1983, when Steven was working on the second Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Many years later ,Spielberg asked Peter Jackson if his team at Weta Workshop would make a CGI dog for a live-action Tintin movie. Steven thought the dog looked very realistic and convincing, and he asked if Peter could make a feature-length adaptation in the style of the dog. The movie would eventually be animated at Weta Workshop in New Zealand and co-produced by Nickelodeon. The Adventures of Tintin premiered in late 2011 and grossed over 300 million dollars worldwide, becoming Nickelodeon's most successful movie to date.
26. Ice Age (2002)
Ice Age was originally intended to be Don Bluth's next movie after Titan AE, but because the movie bombed at the box-office, Fox Animation Studios closed their doors. However, that didn't stop Chris Wedge and his team at Blue Sky, the company who did the CG effects for 'Titan'. Ice Age is about a lone mammoth named Manfred (Ray Ramano) who saved a ground sloth named Sid (John Liguizamo) from a group of angry rhinos. After witnessing a female human holding a baby in the river, Sid decides that they should return the baby to its herd, much to Manfred's dismay. While trying to climb a rock wall, a saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary) snatches the baby from Sid. Diego tells them that he knows where the humans are, and Manny and Sid reluctantly agree. Little do they know that Diego was sent to bring the baby back so the other tigers can kill it. Ice Age did very well at the box-office, got great reviews, and spawned several sequels and a Christmas special.
25. Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
In 2004, shortly after the premiere of the atrocity known as The Cat in the Hat, Audrey Geisel, the widow of Ted Geisel (otherwise known as Dr. Seuss), banned any further live-action adaptations of her husband's books. However, she didn't say anything about animated adaptations. Horton Hears a Who!, based on the book of the same name, was Blue Sky's first movie to have the G-rating, and is considered their best film among fans. It concerns an elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey) who saves a speck of dust from drowning in a lake. He then learns that there's an entire species of microscopic mammals, known as Whos, living on that speck. A purple kangaroo, however, does not like this at all. She thinks it poisons the minds of the children of the jungle, including her own, so she asks a bird named Vlad to snatch the flower Horton placed the speck on and ditch it. The movie is different from previous theatrical Dr. Seuss adaptations because it stays true to the original story. They also expanded on some of the characters, like the mayor of Whoville and his son Jojo. 'Horton' is quite fast-paced and is very enjoyable.
24. The Book of Life (2014)
The best way to describe this movie is like a cross between Disney's Aladdin and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. It concerns three friends: Manolo, Joaquin, and Maria. La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, make a bet. If Manolo marries Maria, La Muerte will rule both lands. If Joaquin marries Maria, however, Xibalba will rule the Land of the Remembered. Xibalba sends a snake to kill Manolo, sending him to the colorful Land of the Remembered. It is now up to Manolo to get back to the Land of the Living and stop an invasion from a threat greater than Xibalba. The story may be a bit predictable and cliched, but the beautiful animation more than makes up for it.
23. Despicable Me (2010)
After working on Horton Hears a Who!, executive producer Chris Meledandri decided to form his own company: Illumination Entertainment. The result: Despicable Me, one of the most popular and successful animated movies of the decade. The story concerns a super-villain named Gru (Steve Carall), who has an army of yellow peanut-shaped creatures simply called Minions. The biggest thing he and his Minions ever stole was the Times Square Jumbotron, while a younger villain named Vector (Jason Segall) stole an entire pyramid from Egypt! Gru wants to top that by stealing the moon. Without the moon, things would go haywire, and the public would give Gru anything to bring it back, and then he would be the greatest villain of all time. However, the moon is quite large to steal, so first, they have to steal a shrink ray from an Asian laboratory. Gru and his Minions succeed, but it gets stolen by Vector, whose not-so-secret lair is heavily guarded. Gru then spots three orphan girls, who also happen to be cookies sellers, and they got in and out of Vector's lair with ease. Gru adopts these girls to secretly steal back the shrink ray, but slowly but surely, he gets attached to them. Despicable Me was Universal's most successful and most popular animated movie since The Land before Time in 1988, and the Minions became very popular, eventually getting their own movie in 2015.
22. Azur & Asmar: The Prince's Quest (2006)
This is the only CGI movie I chose that was made completely outside of the US (Azur and Asmar is French), but it made it to the America in 2008 by The Weinstein Company. The story is very complicated, but I'll try my best to summarize it. Azur and Asmar is an Arabian tale about two brothers: a light-skinned boy with blue eyes named Azur and a dark-skinned boy with brown eyes named Asmar. Azur would normally get Asmar in trouble as a kid; so much that Azur's father banishes Asmar and his mother. Azur, however, travels to Asmar's country to see his adoptive mother and win the magic Djinn fairy, who doesn't look much like a fairy. Azur and Asmar was visually different from other CGI movies at the time because the movie used restricted perspectives, characters in formal poses, and background decor of arabesque patterns. Also, the human characters were flat, only their faces and hand were 3D. The strengths of the movie come from its organic story that would rival Walt Disney's storytelling.
21.
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Kung Fu Panda is about a panda bear named Po (Jack Black), who is a big fan of the Furious Five: the heroes of China. After a few failed attempts to break into the palace, Po finally makes it in and earns the nickname "the Dragon Warrior" by the wise tortoise Oogway. Much to his dismay, Shi-Fu (Dustin Hoffman), trainer of the Furious Five, now must train Po so he can defeat an evil snow leopard named Tai-Lung (Ian McShane.) Kung Fu Panda was a big challenge for DreamWorks because there had to be absolutely no pop-culture references. That was a problem because pop-culture references are part of DreamWorks' trademark. If there were pop-culture references, the movie would feel more like a parody. Kung Fu Panda eventually became another cash cow for DreamWorks and got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Kung Fu Panda is about a panda bear named Po (Jack Black), who is a big fan of the Furious Five: the heroes of China. After a few failed attempts to break into the palace, Po finally makes it in and earns the nickname "the Dragon Warrior" by the wise tortoise Oogway. Much to his dismay, Shi-Fu (Dustin Hoffman), trainer of the Furious Five, now must train Po so he can defeat an evil snow leopard named Tai-Lung (Ian McShane.) Kung Fu Panda was a big challenge for DreamWorks because there had to be absolutely no pop-culture references. That was a problem because pop-culture references are part of DreamWorks' trademark. If there were pop-culture references, the movie would feel more like a parody. Kung Fu Panda eventually became another cash cow for DreamWorks and got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
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