Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2012

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 2012

In February, Studio Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty was released in the US, though it was originally released in Japan in July of 2010.

In March, Illumination Entertainment released their next film after Despicable Me and Hop, The Lorax. It was based on the beloved children's book by Dr. Seuss, but this adaptation feels like a WALL-E knockoff with Minion clones. Despite all that, The Lorax earned more than 300 million dollars at the box-office and won the Heartland Award for Truly Moving Picture.

In April, Aardman and Sony released their next collaboration The Pirates! Band of Misfits. It was Aardman's first stop-motion film since Curse of the Were-Rabbit. While the film didn't meet box-office expectations, 'Pirates' got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

There were two animated movies released in June. The first was Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In this film, the New York zoo quartet hitch a circus train that travels across Europe while avoiding animal control hunter Captain Chantel DuBois. The film got mixed reviews as usual, but managed to earn 746 million dollars worldwide.

The second was Pixar's 13th feature film Brave. It is ridiculed by fans for not feeling like a true Pixar movie, but managed to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

In July, Blue Sky released the fourth installment in the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. While this film got rather negative reviews, Ice Age 4 managed to gross over 877 million dollars worldwide!

August saw the release of ParaNorman, Laika's second feature film. The film got very good reviews and got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. In fact, there are even some people out there that like this movie more than Wreck-it Ralph!

September saw the directorial debut of TV legend Genndy Tartakovsky with Hotel Transylvania. While it received mixed reviews, the film managed to spawn two sequels and a TV series.

In October, Tim Burton made another stop-motion feature film Frankenweenie, based on his 1984 live-action short film of the same name. The film got weaker reviews than ParaNorman, but got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

On November 2nd, Disney released their 52nd animated feature Wreck-it Ralph. The film did well at the box-office, got great reviews, and even got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Unfortunately, for many, it lost to Brave. However, it did win the KCA and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.

And finally, on November 21st, DreamWorks released their 22nd animated feature Rise of the Guardians. Despite all the lavish care into making the movie, the film unfortunately tanked at the box-office, becoming DreamWorks' first flop since 'Sinbad'. However, the film does have a big online fan base. 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 2013, in which Disney melted our hearts with Frozen, DreamWorks traveled back in time to the Croodaceous Period with The Croods, Gru and his Minions appeared in another adventure with Despicable Me 2, and Mike and Sully went to college with Monsters University.