Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2006

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2006 Note: Walt Disney Feature Animation (soon to be renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios) didn't release a single film this year.

There were two animated movies released in February that year. The first was Curious George, based on the beloved books by Hans and Margret Ray. It was also the only American hand-drawn animated film that year to be released in theaters. Curious George was popular enough to spawn a TV series on PBS Kids.

The second was Doogal, a horrific dub of the French CGI film The Magic Roundabout. It's considered by many as the worst animated movie of all time.

March saw the return of Manny, Sid, and Diego in Blue Sky's third feature film Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. This is what Rotten Tomatoes has to say about this movie: "Despite its impressive animation and the hilarious antics of the saber-toothed squirrel Scrat, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown comes up short on the storytelling front." I personally thought the film was sexist, as Manny only wanted Ellie so he could mate with her to save their species.

April saw the release of The Wild, a Madagascar knockoff that was distributed by Disney, but was produced by Canadian studio CORE Design.

In May, DreamWorks released their 10th animated film (excluding Aardman features) Over the Hedge. This was the second CGI DreamWorks film to not involve PDI (the first being Shark Tale), got mixed to positive reviews, and earned over 300 million dollars at the box-office.

June saw the release of Pixar's seventh feature film Cars. While it got weaker reviews than previous Pixar films, Cars did get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. However, it lost to Happy Feet, Australia's first CGI movie.

In July, Robert Zemeckis released his second motion-capture film Monster House. While it’s technically not an animated film, Monster House got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

There were two animated movies released in August. The first was Barnyard: The Original Party Animals, Nickelodeon's second CGI movie. It got very negative reviews, but managed to gross enough money to pay off its budget.

The second was The Ant Bully, from the same director and animation studio that did Jimmy Neutron. It got better reviews than 'Barnyard', but unfortunately didn't make enough money to pay off its budget, and even forced production house DNA Productions (who also created the Jimmy Neutron movie and TV series) to shut down.

September saw the release of the kid-friendly Everyone's Hero, which was about a young boy from New York who must return Babe Ruth's lucky baseball and bat. It got lukewarm reviews, but managed to win the Heartland Award for Truly Moving Picture.

Also released in September was Sony Pictures Animation's first feature film, Open Season. Like other animated movies that year, Open Season got mixed reviews, but grossed enough money to pay off its budget.

In October, the rather embarrassing Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss was shown at Los Angelas, California. It was animated, written, produced, and directed by veteran Disney animator Phil Nibbelink, and told the story of Romeo and Juliet with seals. It was a box-office flop and got rather negative reviews, even going as far as being regarded as one of the worst animated movies in recent years.

On November 3rd, DreamWorks and Aardman released their third and final film together, Flushed Away. Instead of being stop-motion that Aardman is best known for, Flushed Away was animated using CGI. This was because there was lots of water in the film, and water is extremely difficult to animate in stop-motion. Unfortunately, the film was a bust, and DreamWorks and Aardman disbanded from one another in 2007.

And finally, on November (or as it was stylized, Novemburr) 17th, Happy Feet premiered and did very well at the box-office. Despite getting mixed reviews, Happy Feet won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature that year over Cars. 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 2007, in which Shrek appeared in his third big-screen adventure, Pixar cooked up another cult classic with Ratatouille, the Simpsons made their feature film debut and earned half a billion dollars at the box-office, and Disney gave us a hopeful look at the future with the underrated Meet the Robinsons.