Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2008

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2008

The year began in January with a film nobody cared about nor asked for: Veggietales in The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

In March, Blue Sky released their first G-rated film, Horton Hears a Who! It is based on the beloved children's book by Dr. Seuss. 'Horton' did well at the box-office and got great reviews. This would be the last Blue Sky movie Chris Meledandri would be involved with, as he left the studio to form Illumination Entertainment.

In June, DreamWorks released Kung Fu Panda, their biggest hit since Shrek. The film was so successful that it spawned two sequels, a TV series, and numerous follow-up specials and short films. Kung Fu Panda also got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to WALL-E.

Also released in June was another hit from Pixar, WALL-E. It did very well at the box-office, got excellent reviews, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

In July, Vanguard released one of their final films, Space Chimps. While the film made enough money to cover its budget, Space Chimps got rather negative reviews and spawned an even worse direct-to-video sequel.

August saw the US release of the Belgian CGI movie Fly Me To The Moon. It is said to be the first animated movie to be created for 3D, but it also got rather negative reviews.

In September, Igor, another CGI movie from a lesser-known studio, was released. In my Top 30 Worst CGI Movies of All Time countdown, I stated that "Igor isn't horrible, but it has awkward character designs, pop-culture references that will fly over viewers' heads, and a storyline that feels like a feature-length episode of Phineas and Ferb."

October saw the US release of Michael Ocelot's Azur & Asmar: The Prince's Quest. It's basically an apology letter from The Weinstein Company for ruining The Magic Roundabout. I personally think 'Azur & Asmar' is underrated, and it deserves a bigger fandom.

There were three animated movies released in November. The first was The Tale of Despereaux, based on the beloved children's book by Kate DiCamillo.

The second was Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. In this film, Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman crash-land in Africa. Alex also meets his parents, whom he was separated from when he was a cub. ‘Madagascar 2’ did very well at the box-office, got better reviews than the original, and also won the KCA for Best Animated Movie.

The third was Bolt, Disney's first CGI movie to have the full involvement of John Lasseter. It became the best reviewed Disney movie since Lilo & Stitch, and even got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

And last, but kind of least, in December, the Georgia-produced Delgo premiered and was a box-office flop: It earned less than 700,000 dollars on a 40 million dollar budget, perhaps because of Delgo's very limited promotion. Well, that's all I have to say for this weeks Animated Movie Throughout the Years! Tune in next week when we talk about animated movies from 2009, in which Disney made a triumphant return to hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog, Pixar released the first animated film to get the Oscar nomination for Best Picture since Beauty and the Beast, and stop-motion animation reached new heights with Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox. You can now find me on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/andrew.sateriale.31