No matter which film on this list you're personally drawn to the most, there is no denying 2009 was a wonderful year for animation. Some films were pushing the boundaries of stop-motion animation, while others were reviving the 2D traditional format. But what's worth paying attention to, more than anything else about these films, is the high level of quality that can be seen in practically any of the films on this list. Whether a film crosses any new barriers or not, most likely it has still evidently spoken to its audiences in one way or another: note that each film deals with a different subject in a different way, be it acceptance, loss, fear, ambition, or the feeling that you just don't belong. One of the ideas that I emphasize the most in film criticism is that animation can often be just as, if not more poignant than live-action. This is a year that showcases that idea like no other.
1. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Wally Wolodarsky
Release Date: November 13, 2009
Running Time: 87 minutes
Rating: 5/5
There's no denying that Fantastic Mr. Fox has its share of fans, but I'm still frequently surprised that this film isn't more popular. I suppose it makes some sense, when you take into account genre biases: it was too sophisticated to be remembered as a kids' film, and even as a Wes Anderson film, it doesn't really get talked about because it's, well... animated. And yet there are innumerable reasons why it should be one of his most discussed films- for a director of R-rated deadpan comedies to voluntarily submit himself to the restrictions of the PG rating and still produce something on par with the greatest of his earlier films- that, to me, displays a level of talent and versatility that all aspiring filmmakers should strive towards. But why, exactly, do I consider Fantastic Mr. Fox to be Wes Anderson's best film since, say, Rushmore? Let's talk visuals. In Anderson's other films, we see meticulous set design, symmetrical camera framing, and some nice interior decorating. But in Fantastic Mr. Fox, every minute detail can be shaped- in other words, this is where we get to see his creative perfectionism fully let loose. Notice how the sky is never really blue- with the exception of the night scenes, it's either gray and cloudy or a rustic sunset orange. All of the anthropomorphic characters populate a space and a world that seems immediately natural for us to accept; their environment is like that of an old whimsical painting, the kind you might expect to find in a relative's summer cottage, hence the casual whimsy of the characters themselves becomes real to us because they harmonize so well with their own reality. We're constantly confronted with the convergence between naturalism and industrialism. The characters may be forest-dwelling critters, but they haven't escaped modern culture: the badger has his own law firm, the weasel is a real estate agent, the fox is a newspaper columnist. Every beautiful landscape is framed by telephone wires, train-tracks or factory smokestacks, but these things only accentuate the beauty, transporting us to a Britain of the past that has such a perfect dose of anachronism that it doesn't fit into any decade neatly. And while it may have the genius wit and imaginative humor of Roald Dahl, the author himself would have probably hated it, as he hated every film adaptation of his own books. But Dahl's story structures were always a bit too unevenly paced to work well within cinema- in adapting a Dahl story, as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory shows us, the key idea is not in how true you stay to the book, but in how well you create your own story from what the book gives you. And the structure of the plot here moves fairly well- every event is presented to us through convenient chapter title, focusing on the titular Mr. Fox as he plans and executes three separate heists on three evil farmers, each nastier than the last in starkly different ways. Thus we move at breakneck speed from episode to episode, each one providing us with different pictures and objects to hold onto: my favorite scene in the entire film is probably the thirty seconds where Mr. Fox's nephew Kristoffersen nearly cries himself to sleep but finds comfort in the electric lights of his cousin's miniature train set. We have approximately twenty or more characters, and be they minor or major, heroes or villains, every single one of them has certain problems and hopes that give them the motivation that fuel the ensuing antics, bringing the patchwork of moments together. This is one of the funniest films I've ever seen, and it still manages to remain relevant on an emotional level in its themes of dysfunctional families and an individual's quest for meaning and fulfillment within a community. The fact that it was geared towards kids and adults equally may have confused people at the box office, but its dual-appeal factor will prove to work to its benefit in the long-run, and the troubled heart that lies at the center of the story will keep people coming back, whether they're aware of it or not.
Director: Pete Docter
Starring: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson
Release Date: May 29, 2009
Running Time: 96 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5
When people talk about Up, it's usually for one reason: the first ten minutes. Within a short span of time, we see the wonders of a childhood friendship quickly evolve into a gentle romance. We watch on as without a word, very simple yet touching images convey the passage of months and years as they grow from a young couple to an old couple, continually trying to save up money for their dream vacation they are somehow always interrupted by setbacks. Though the wife dies just as the husband purchases the plane tickets, the two have found happiness in the time shared with each other. The sequence ends on this tragically bittersweet note, and where one story ends, another begins. While I acknowledge that this is probably one of the best sequences ever animated, it remains problematic: it sets a standard for the rest of the film. Many will say that they preferred the opening ten minutes to the 80 minutes that follow it- this is no discredit to the rest of the film. The rest of Up is fantastic- it's just a bit overshadowed by its ambitious overture. So what happens in the film's main storyline? Carl Fredricksen, the old man from the prologue, is living alone in a property that is about to be condemned to make way for the construction of the metropolis that is rapidly growing around him, and to make matters worse, he's being forcibly admitted into a seniors' home. His escape plan? Tie a bunch of balloons to his house and soar off into the blue. Only problem with that? Once he's airborne, he finds a young boy Russell, a boy-scout who happened, at the moment of liftoff, to be searching under Carl's porch in an effort to win a merit badge for "assisting the elderly". The two land the house in South America, where they trek to Paradise Falls and encounter a mischievous new species of bird, a talking dog, and Carl's childhood hero. To make a doddering old man and a vulnerable child the main characters of a high-stakes adventure is a risky decision indeed- the experience of watching their escapades is nail-biting at the least. But despite their conflicting personalities, both characters manage to express enough life to soar above most other films geared towards the same audience. Many would say that this is one of the greatest Pixar films ever made- I wouldn't disagree with that. Still, I would only place in the top ten, as opposed to, say, the top five. It satisfies all of the expectations for quality that are usually placed upon productions that come from this studio, but it didn't do much for me personally, possibly because of a loose end in the plot or something minor like that. But I can still acknowledge it as a milestone of a motion picture. I must give it credit for its incredible originality in creating unique and lasting concepts of airships, exotic jungles, and telepathic translation collars. But what's more than that is that it can deal with difficult themes smartly, in that we can recognize and honor the past while still investing ourselves in fostering and protecting the future: and that, I hope, is a message that should touch everyone who sees this film.
Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Robert Bailey, Jr., John Hodgman, Keith David
Release Date: February 6, 2009
Running Time: 100 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5
Coraline typifies a certain trend in children's films which provides for the more bold and adventurous children a gateway to the macabre: scary movies for kids who like to be scared, if you will. I was not one of those kids, but as I became a fan of horror films later on in life, films like Coraline manage to work a special kind of wonder for me. Really, it's because they inspire so much wonder. After such strong successes as Paranorman and The Boxtrolls, Laika Entertainment may just be the next big name in animation- and yet the studio's first film Coraline remains its most impressive production to date. While the two former films relied on muted color schemes to silhouette their stories, Coraline dazzled us with bright colors and fantasy landscapes. It is undeniably dark, but it is still a children's film and a fantasy film, and there are plenty of magical and fairytale elements woven in. Amidst all of the convoluted details of alternate universes, perfect parents, ghost children, magic rocks, and buttons that are sewn into people's eyes, parents may have a hard time understanding what exactly the plot of this bizarre film is about at a first glance. The best way to simplify it would be to describe it as a retelling of the classic Hansel & Gretel story, minus Hansel. A girl finds a giant house made out of candy, except it's a parallel universe where everything is exactly like it is in her own life but... better. The only catch is, behind it all, there's a witch trying to eat her- yup, literally. Everything else kind of ties in to that central idea, but it's all laced up so well, and with such interesting characters, that you can't but love it to some degree or another even when things get scary- in fact, especially when things get scary. The characters may be exaggerated and cartoon-like, as is traditional for the animated format, but between the delusional Russian circus performer upstairs, the psychic ex-thespian old maids downstairs, and the slimy rain-coat kid Wybie from next-door, there's actually a large level of realism in the atmosphere of the "real world" portions of the story. As strange as it is, this is the kind of creepy old house that as a kid you could imagine your family move into- the story is more horrifying because obscure details like faded wallpaper, slow computers, and cold dinners just bring everything so much closer to home. Less comforting is the eerie soundtrack filled with a chorus of children who sing in gibberish, perhaps invoking spells of protection upon the story's unwitting heroine. Even when Coraline shows us the "perfect" other world, we're already petrified because though we may find ourselves enchanted by its beauty, something within alerts us that's it's too good to be true. Thus the film operates on a kind of duality, though it's really more of a "trinity", as each location in the film is seen not two, but three different times- first in the real world, then in the beautiful alternate reality, and lastly in the alternate reality's hellish state of deterioration. Coraline is in many ways the most beautiful any claymation film brought to the modern box office- and it's almost the most grotesque. There are some moments that clearly display that the people who made the film did not know what kind of stuff is "crossing the line" in regards to what constitutes a family film, and what stuff isn't: this has nothing to do with the scary moments, but rather with the significantly risque designs of some of the characters, along with some other minor disrupting factors. But what stands front and center is the important message at its heart: that no family is perfect, and if there was a perfect version of our own family, would we really want that? What redeems Coraline Jones at the end of the story is her loyalty to her own parents at the end, and her bravery and perseverance in being able to fight for them, no matter the odds. It doesn't matter if you are an adult: I still can't promise that this film won't give you nightmares- but what I can promise you is that they will be worth it.
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David
Release Date: December 11, 2009
Running Time: 97 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5
There are two mistakes that people can make about The Princess and the Frog when they judge it at first glance. The first mistake is to assume that this film is a landmark in Disney princess films, but only because the main characters are black. The second mistake is to assume that this is a Disney princess film at all. This is not just a film for African-American girls, and it's not just a film for girls, and it's not just a film for kids. And yet be it for one reason or another, the audience for this film seemed about half the size as that of your usual Disney flick. The bottom line: The Princess and the Frog gets criminally ignored. To be honest, any kind of racial politics that Disney could have tackled within this film are brilliantly sidestepped to enable the simple telling of the story, which really only slightly resembles the actual fairy tale, the notable differences being that it's transposed into 1920's New Orleans and there's a... well... enormous twist that takes up a majority of the plot. This twist is, of course, that when the princess kisses the frog, she turns into a frog herself. Why is that? Because she's not actually a princess. Why is that? Okay, let's rewind a little. Our leading lady, Tiana, is a hardworking waitress in the busy city of New Orleans. She's about the furthest thing from your typical Disney heroine that you can expect. She's not wistfully waiting for an adventure to come along and whisk her away. Instead, she's got a clear vision of where she wants to be in her mind, and she's doing everything in her power to get there. So what's the best thing the narrative can do at this point? Throw someone in her path who is her complete opposite, of course. Cue Prince Naveen, the sweet-talking party animal from Maldonia, indefinitely shut off from family funds and forced to marry into wealth. As luck would have it, it becomes convenient for a voodoo doctor Facilier to transform Naveen into a frog, so that through a masquerade of deception he can assume control of the city to pay back his debt to the demons from which his magic powers originate. Tiana crosses paths with Naveen in his frog form at a costume ball. Naveen assumes she is a princess because of her costume, and persuades her to kiss him- and because she is not actually a princess, the spell unfortunately drags her down to amphibian form as well. From here, the story takes them deep into the bayou, where they encounter a wide range of characters all while trying to find a way to reverse the spell. This is a movie that takes full advantage of its environment, from the New Orleans jazz scene to the beautiful bayou to the Creole cuisine to the dark supernatural side of the active port city. Its only drawbacks, if any, are the more or less forgettable musical numbers, and a few holes in the logic of the plot. What this film tries to do is essentially resurrect the magic of the traditionally animated films of Disney's Golden Age, as it is technically the first traditionally animated Disney film after a hiatus of five years after the disastrous Home on the Range. And in my opinion, it succeeds wonderfully. If you're looking for a children's film that really brings back a level of quality and effort unseen in recent years, then The Princess of the Frog should really come as a breath of fresh air for you.
Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris
Release Date: September 18, 2009
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
Many may recognize some of the images and ideas presented in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, as they've probably read the children's book the film was based on. But the similarities don't extend much further than that. The beloved 1970's Judi Barrett book centered on an old tall tale bedtime story told to some kids by their grandfather, that describes an old town far, far away where food fell from the sky instead of rain. For no reason, of course, the food storms began on getting worse and worse and bigger and bigger, to the point where everyone had to evacuate the island and find new homes in the normal world. You'll find no such homespun folktale in this heavily modernized kids' film. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs believes that no such story can survive without a main character, nor can it survive without an explanation for the food weather itself. And so it takes upon itself the responsibility of inserting a young, quirky, and out-of-touch inventor into the mix and changing things up so that the cheeseburger showers are now the result of a new invention gone horribly wrong. Off the bat, we have some interesting concepts: the machine is supposed to take water and turn it into food, but when it accidentally launches into the sky, it takes the water molecules from the clouds themselves and transforms them into food, which naturally falls down to earth just like rain and snow would. This results in some funny moments which are of course, lifted straight up from the book: roofless restaurants, ice-cream snow days, and Jell-O sunsets. But if all of this hasn't clued you in already, it should definitely be made clear this film is not to be taken seriously on any level. Filled with sight gags, rude humor, and goofy characters from start to end, the entire story could arguably be seen as one really long joke (and I don't mean that in a bad way). In fact, if it made this it sole aim, then Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs could probably succeed beautifully. But sadly, the tone remains muddled by token emotional conflicts- father-son misunderstanding cliches, "being different" cliches, having your whole community treat you like an outcast because you're smart and geeky cliche, on and on and on- cliches that only exist to serve as a backdrop for much more colorful and busy action that distracts kids so entirely from the development of the trite characters. Hence, the strained drama really just doesn't need to be there in the first place- of course it's an element of the plot that's so easy to ignore, but I'm harping on it because it's easy to ignore, and because it wouldn't be easy to ignore if it weren't so unoriginal. Still- all in all, harmless entertainment. Whatever originality is lacking in the plot dynamics is made up for in the silly and creative visuals and the way they present it. Whether it's a disguised warning about over-eating or just another fun premise gone wild, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will make adults squirm with its painful eye-rolling jokes and unrelenting weirdness, but it's bound to make kids squeal with delight for exactly the same reasons.
-Julian Rhodes
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