Children's/Animation: 2015

Okay, so normally I do these year-end reviews over at my written blog, "Dark Rooms and Shared Daydreams", and my initial plan was for this channel to be reserved for my "Second Viewing" series (in which I discuss the great classics of cinema, old and new), but I've had a change of heart, and as an awkward belated Christmas present to, like, everyone, I'm putting together some videos going over the best and worst of 2015. Now, as I'm writing this I'm still waiting to watch a few of those 2015 films which I missed (yet still really want to see), so to tide everyone over, I've prepped this review of five major kids' animated films of the past year, just to give a few thoughts on each of them. And in case anyone goes off complaining about "oh, they're just kids' films, don't take them seriously"- kids are a lot smarter than you think- and trust me, when a kids' film has a good story, with good animation and strong characters- they'll notice, and they'll walk out feeling way more satisfied than they will if you just cram garbage in their face. Hey, maybe I'm alone in believing this- a lot of people will say "hey, when I was a kid, I liked pretty much everything"- and yet, this is how I felt when I was a kid. So when I review these films, I'm not only watching them from the perspective of an enormous animation geek, but I'm also channeling my inner child- the picky, critical child that I was. 

1. Song of the Sea

Director: Tomm Moore

Starring: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Lisa Hannigan

Release Date: March 17, 2015

Running Time: 93 minutes

Rating: 4.5/5

This year's greatest animated display of visual storytelling would probably be this: Song of the Sea. With Song of the Sea, Irish director Tomm Moore carries on the distinctive visual style he introduced six years ago with his debut film The Secret of Kells. Both films sport designs deriving equal inspiration from the textures of Celtic art and the geometric patterns of modern artists like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky to create a fairytale atmosphere like no other. Now, anyone who's picked up The Secret of Roan Inish from the $5 bin at WalMart is familiar with the "selki" legend, where women with the ability to turn into seals leave their husbands when the sea calls them or something like that. But more than an Irish version of the mermaid story, "selki" tales often serve as a metaphor for bereavement. Song of the Sea is just as rich in content as it is in imagery, thus it's able to reach a much wider audience. When Ben's mother dies at the beginning of the film, it affects everyone, and you can see how his father is just as torn as he is, and how he blames his sister for his mother's death. But the melancholy in the film, though a central element, is never overwhelming. What it is is a beautiful and magical fable which says a lot without really saying anything outright- and for me, that's as close to perfection as you can get.

2. Shaun the Sheep: The Movie

Director: Richard Starzak, Mark Burton

Starring: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Omid Djali

Release Date: February 6, 2015

Running Time: 85 minutes

Rating: 4/5

Here's another largely overhyped children's film- Shaun the Sheep. I was kind of apathetic about the cutesy little "Shaun the Sheep" short films that Aardman's been producing for the past few years, and I was equally apathetic seeing pretty much the same thing on the big screen. The entire movie manages to tell its story of a herd of sheep trying to find their farmer in a big city, but it does so without using a word of actual dialogue. No surprise that this was a bigger hit among critics than it was among audiences. They seem to forget that this idea has been done before, and better- 30 minutes of silent comedy in Wall-E was better than 90 minutes of silent comedy here. Hence the divide between genius and gimmick- genius uses an idea to work with the story, so that it becomes an essential part of the movie, while a gimmick ensures that the idea is the movie. It's tempting to compare this film to the likes of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, but Shaun the Sheep draws its chief inspiration from the social satire of French comedian Jacques Tati, and somehow its gimmick is able to outdo the genius of Tati himself- assuming you count Sylvian Chomet's The Illusionist as genuine Tati. Why? Shaun the Sheep, for all its suffocating charm and pretentious ambition, is entertaining- and what's more, it's funny. To overlook this film would be an embarrassing mistake, even if it isn't the best this year has to offer in animation.

3. Inside Out

Director: Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen

Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling

Release Date: June 19, 2015

Running Time: 94 minutes

Rating: 4/5

Now let's talk about that other Pixar film- the successful one. Now a lot of people see Inside Out as Pixar's big comeback- and sadly, I can't say I was all that impressed. I mean, was it a good film? Yeah, absolutely. Was it a great film? Meh... Inside Out, to me, is just another new take on the very old concept of using characters and locations to visualize our complex mental processes. And while the film certainly seems to have done things a lot better than any previous effort, I'm kind of disappointed they didn't do more with it when they had so many opportunities. There's an entire spectrum of human emotion, you can't just lump everything into five categories and deny everything else. Why don't Riley's emotions look like Riley? Why is it even possible for emotions to fall out of the control center in the first place? Because the fact that that can happen is both terrifying and unbelievable. I'm just saying, there's some sloppiness around the edges here that raises a lot of unsettling questions. Of course it still pulls everything off with a strong ending, and it's a good story. But considering it doesn't really account for things reason or desire, and it confuses "interests" with "personality", I'd be hesitant about allowing it to have the kind of influence it's developing over popular conceptions of the psyche.

4. The Good Dinosaur

Director: Peter Sohn

Starring: Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Marcus Scribner, Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin

Release Date: November 25, 2015

Running Time: 100 minutes

Rating: 3.5/5

I'll have to admit, The Good Dinosaur was a movie which I had absolutely no interest in seeing- and yet, it turned out o be one of those movies where, upon seeing it, I was surprised I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would. Now the most interesting thing about The Good Dinosaur isn't the movie itself, but what it says about the future of once-beloved animation company Pixar, and a lot of people have brought this up. This movie is Pixar's first real box-office bomb, meaning it could serve as a wake-up call for a company which seems to be going downhill. What I saw as being the biggest problem with The Good Dinosaur was how cliched it seemed: from the first ten minutes of the movie, you can pretty much predict everything that's going to happen. It's like the writers are just going through the motions with no real feeling , as if they believe they've mastered the secret formula to pulling on our heartstrings. Despite being maybe the worst Pixar movie I've seen next to Cars 2, (as I still haven't seen Monsters University and I don't intend to), The Good Dinosaur isn't a bad film- it's more like the socially stunted version of what could have been a good film. In its defense, I think it had a lot of good talent and imagination present- definitely more in the backgrounds and the tiny forest critters than in the actual characters themselves- and as one critic put it, it's the "trippiest Pixar film yet", even if you take out the drug trip scene.

5. The Peanuts Movie

Director: Steve Martino

Starring: Noah Schnapp, Troy Andrews, Francesca Capaldi, Bill Melendez, Hadley Miller

Release Date: November 6, 2015

Running Time: 88 minutes

Rating: 3/5

Being a long-time Peanuts fan, I was naturally very excited to hear that the classic Charles M. Schultz comic strip was finally getting the big screen treatment it deserved, being brought to life in vivid computer-generated animation by Blue Sky Studios. Now I've heard criticisms against Blue Sky in the past for using classic pop-culture icons as an opportunity to crank out a series of lazy, soulless cash-grabs, but only after watching The Peanuts Movie did I really have reason to agree with those criticisms. Some movies update the setting of their source material while still remaining true to its spirit- The Peanuts Movie keeps the classic characters in the environment of the original comic strip, but replaces whatever depth the old stories had with all of the upbeat shallowness present in all of the cheapest kids' films out there today. If I had more time, I suppose I would complain about how the story awkwardly tries to balance a series of disconnected episodes with an overarching plot, but to keep things brief, I'll try to pin down what I believe was the film's major flaw. If I'm not mistaken, what Blue Sky was trying to do here was make a film which could appeal to both fans of the franchise and still remain enjoyable for newcomers, and in my opinion, the movie fails on both levels. It's funny enough for kids to enjoy it and sweet enough for parents to enjoy it, but unsatisfying on pretty much every other level.

-Julian Rhodes