My favourite animated pictures (and why)

Satoshi Kon (RIP. Taken from us far, far too soon.) is one of my favourite animators and whenever someone asks about our countries animation I will immediately tell them that in my eyes, Satoshi Kon was the most talented on the animation front. I won't lie, our animation often has stiff emotions and I hate it when we simply super-impose silly, flat caricatures or symbols over characters faces to represent "emotion." Satoshi Kon's animation was different, every human emoted both with realistic emotions and unrealistic ones - after all it is a cartoon. He also was wonderful at animating the fantastical and grand, and Paprika in my eyes was his masterpiece.

The story is interesting and unique - it uses genuine psychology and was even written by a noted psychologist, but rather than writing an essay to express his findings and thoughts he created a great story about a brilliant scientist/psycho-therapist who uses a machine to enter peoples dreams and study their dreams to treat them, while at the same time the same woman, Aoyama, uses the dream world as a place to escape using her alter-ego; the eponymous Paprika.

Paprika herself (and by extension, Aoyama) is one of the most memorable female characters ever put on screen, let alone in one of our animated pictures. She's strong, exciting, cute, fun to watch, and save for some minor fan service - she's rarely exploited or pointlessly sexed up like women often are in our pictures, something I hate to admit to. She also fits the subject matter, as Paprika is a creature of pure, undiluted id and it is a clever extension of the familiar Walter Mitty style story about a man/woman who escapes from their lives into dreams - but here, the main world is not so mundane as Mitty's and the world inside the dreams aren't quite as perfect either and the films climax merges the oddness in the real world with the pure nonsense of the dream world in one of the most visually stunning, imaginative, and just downright entertaining scenes ever put on film. Do NOT miss this one - even if you are not the worlds biggest fan of our countries animation.

I remember growing up, kids at school would always react odd when I said that my favoruite Disney wasn't Robin Hood, The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty & The Best and etc. etc. but rather that it was Fantasia, usually the reaction was "But that's the BORING one, you are boring." Well, maybe I am - who knows. But I love Classical Music, and I grew up listening primarily to "old" music - classic rock, classic Jazz, and classical orchestra. I rarely listened to modern bands and artists and funny thing is, I still don't. But my love of classical music and my love of fluent, eye catching animation made Fantasia more hypnotic and spellbinding than any other Disney film.

And as an adult, it still stands as the best film Disney made in my opinion. Whenever I need to calm down and chill to some relaxing music and smile, I snuggle up with my wife and pop this in - she loves it just as much as I do and it always makes us happy and mellow.

I remember seeing this in the theatres, it absolutely mesmerized me. It was probably the first "adult" animated picture I saw, and it was also one of the earliest film epics I saw and to this day it is one of my favourite. It sparked a massive interest in the history and culture of my people and while I may not believe in the ghosts and spirits of our past I find them all fascinating and admittedly one of the things that drew me to my wife Chie, was the fact that she was devout in the ancient religion of Shinto and I remember being fascinated whenever she would tell me all I wanted to know about the mythology and I was glad to hear that much of this films mythology fits many of the stories and ideas she told me.

It's a nearly perfect clash of history and mythology and tells an epic story, and it also carries an environmentalist message that doesn't feel all too preachy. I also feel that while I understand that its appeal is not quite as broad around the world as Miyazaki's more family oriented pictures are, this is still an absolutely stunning and powerful film with gorgeous artwork, a wonderful and epic story, and it also has one of the best modern orchestral soundtracks of a film in this genre courtesy of composer Joe Hisaishi.

Satoshi Kon strikes again, with my second favourite film of his. I mentioned most of the reasons I love Satoshi Kon, and to reiterate in fewer words I love the fact that he displays magnificent emotions on his characters faces and he understands how to write genuinely engaging and entertaining characters.

While I still prefer Paprika for its wild dream setting, Tokyo Godfathers deserves even more credit for character, charm, and emotion. Every character in this film is unique, entertaining, and fun to watch. They provide equal parts comedy and drama. You *care* about them, this film practically defines what it means to have character to your picture and it is a beautiful picture with a fun and emotional story with practically no faults whatsoever. Once again, even if you aren't a fan of the more typical animations from our country you should watch this film. It is a masterpiece. Oh, and if anyone asks me about my favourite Christmas movie (I get that question despite the fact I have never celebrated Christmas, but whatever.) well, here you go.

Okay, so I am cheating a little. This technically was not a full hand drawn animated movie, or even a full computer animated picture but rather a rotoscoped project - for those unfamiliar with the term, it means that much of the film was made in live action but was later traced and animated over with all forms of special effects being animated independently of the live work.

It needs to be said that I am a HUGE fan of Phillip K. Dick. He is my second favourite author, right after Neil Gaiman. PKD. was a brilliant man, it is just a shame movies based on his work miss the point. They aren't always bad, look at Blade Runner - it is a great film, but there's no denying it botched what made "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?" the masterpiece that it was.

The problem with most PKD adaptations is that they swap out his heart for more action, sometimes for just a little bit more (Blade Runner) sometimes for a bit too much more (Total Recall... then again Schwarzenegger was in it so I suppose you expect the action. Even I didn't deny that before seeing it.) but the personal feelings and emotions he imbued in his work was simply stripped away. A Scanner Darkly was arguably the hardest PKD novel to adapt (Though The Man in the High Castle comes close to being pretty un-filmable too, though I would be interested in seeing how they do it anyways...) since it had more than just his heart, but also his soul as it was deeply allegorical and was made as a heartfelt tribute to all the friends he either lost or saw permanently damaged by dangerous narcotics he was addicted to in the late 50s and early 60s. When I heard that Keanu Reeves was attached, I abandoned hope - I knew they were going to add action, Keanu Reeves was going to be the undercover cop who busts Substance D users in the chops with Kung-Fu. Bah humbug I said.

I remember sitting in the theater, arms folded already thinking up the scathing review. Then the movie grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, slapped me, told me to stop being a cynical *beep* sat me down and blew me away. It captured the heart and soul of the novel, and stayed true to the story - only eschewing minor and unnecessary details and scenes. Also, it made Keanu Reeves a good actor. Yes, I just said that, no I did not sleep acid into your drink. Paradoxically, I like Keanu Reeves when he is in action films - he has the right amount of charisma for that, but when put into dramatic pictures or serious roles he has no charisma and the acting chops of a wooden plank. Well, in this movie he plays a man so addicted to a deadly narcotic known as Substance D that his soul is being cleaved in two, detaching him from all emotion and reasoning creating a hollow shell of a man who has no charisma and the emotional capability of a wooden plank. Holy *beep* Keanu Reeves was perfect for this role. This is a wonderful picture, and if you are a PKD fan who has been on the fence - see it now. The rotoscoping/animated effects are fantastic as well, and they fit the tripped out atmosphere of the film and the effects are put to good use making you feel like you are in a world distorted and made all the stranger by the drugs the characters inhale on a daily basis, and the animators slip in clever and subtle effects that really *beep* with your mind. A+++

Do I need to explain why this movie is great? Do I need to praise the animation, the story, the mythology, any of that stuff? Because you've seen it. Even people who I know that LOATHE most of our animated pictures have seen and adore this picture, and it lives up to the hype. It is one of Miyazaki's finest pictures and easily his best family picture. I was happy to see it receive so much popularity in America, because I feared that the heavy use of Japanese spirits and creatures would turn off foreign viewers - then my aunt phoned me up and said it won a bloody Oscar.

That made me feel good, I was aware that for years - particularly during the 90s - the animation fed from our country to English speaking locales was usually either crap, or stuff far too adult to breach the trepidation some foreigners have with "adult" animations. One of my American friends, Sara, kept her kids and herself away from any and all of our animation for years because she saw things like Ninja Scroll, Angel Cop, and the other dribble Manga Entertainment put out and the like and assumed that our animation was all guts and tits. It took me quite a bit of pleading, but she saw this picture - with her kids - and finally accepted that our animation is just as broad in scope and genre as Americas is. If you are one of the 2 animation fans on the planet who hasn't seen this, give it a watch.

I remember feeling odd about this one. I liked it as a kid, but when it came to newer Disney films at the time - I was more excited to watch Aladdin or the Lion King, feeling they were more up my alley as a boy. Now, looking back, while I still enjoy some of those other ones - I actually like this one a lot more as an adult. I think Belle is much more interesting than the other Disney Princesses, and the fact that she and beast don't just immediately fall in love in half a second and actually have *gasp* conflict and relationship issues (In a Disney film? Nooo, you gotta be kidding me.) made it a more interesting fairy tale picture, plus the music and animation is all absolutely gorgeous. This became one of my favourite Disney films as I got older, and it still surprises me that it is - but that is by no means a bad thing, and it deserves all the praise it gets.

I may have mentioned above that Neil Gaiman is my favourite author. I will say it again here. I was not embarrassed at all when I was reading Coraline, a children's novel, because of my love for all his work; for adults and for younger audiences. And when I saw that it was being adapted and animated in stop motion by Henry Selick, the man behind "The Nightmare Before Christmas" I got excited. The only fear I had is that he botched one of my favourite novels as a kid, James and the Giant Peach which save for the animation was a MASSIVE disappointment. Yet thank the movie gods - he did Coraline right.

Coraline is an awesome movie, and one of a kind. It captures the unique feel of the book and while the story can be compared to Clive Barker's "The Thief of Always," the characters and stylistic choices are unique enough to set it apart from Barker's story and feel fresh. The stop motion, needless to say, is fantastic and if you liked the designs and style of Nightmare Before Christmas you will love the ones in Coraline.

It was one of my favourite films of 2009, and I think it is one of the best family films to come from America in absolute years - contending even with Pixar.

I find it strange I managed to skip this on my first iteration of the list, ironically because I was listening to Daft Punk's album Discovery while making the list. Essentially, I forgot to add the movie based on the very album I was listening to that I wouldn't know about if this movie wasn't so awesome. >__<

Anyways, this movie is awesome and it introduced me to the Daft Punk. I actually ignored them for years because... I don't like House music or electronic dance music in general, and I went into this as cynical as I did when I went to see A Scanner Darkly and like that movie, it grabbed me by the scruff slapped me told me to stop being a cynical *beep* and give it a chance. Then it set me down, and made lots of pretty sounds and showed me lots of pretty colours.

Admittedly, if you don't like Daft Punk - you will not like this movie. It is more or less a full length music video for their album "Discovery," but it's a damn good music video. The story isn't a masterpiece, but it is imaginative and it does some impressive things. Considering the characters never speak and aren't given names in words, it says a lot that you get to care about them. Naturally, while the lyrics don't always reflect what is happening - the tone of the music, the tempo, and the like often change to reflect parts of the film and there's even a part where the tempo drops and the music becomes melancholy, and I genuinely shed a few tears as a sad scene played out. It's a testament to how powerful music can be.

The art and animation is admittedly not the best in the world, but it has a fair amount of charm to it and it is very eye catching, it is colourful and visually interesting in design and is that not what people want from a music video?

I mentioned on my Tokyo Godfathers entry that I don't celebrate Christmas, but despite that Tokyo Godfathers was my favourite Christmas film. Well, despite my absence in the holiday and I have to say another favourite Christmas film is this classic short film; there is another Christmas film I regard higher, but it is not animated so it won't make this list. Despite being made for young kids (It is Dr. Seuss, afterall) this still holds up as an adult, at least for me it does. Chuck Jones is a great animator and I like how he manages to make this special look and feel like his work with Looney Tunes and other famous Warner Bros. cartoons while retaining Dr. Seuss' distinctive abstract style. It has a nice message and the Grinch is memorable, and who doesn't love "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch?" Nobody, that's who. This is a piece of childhood that I will always enjoy.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of Ralph Bakshi. At least not a big one. I didn't care for Fritz the Cat, I LOATHED his version of Lord of the Rings and I also LOATHED Cool World, Fire & Ice looked nice but didn't do much for me, and Coonskin.... *sigh* But Wizards is one of two Bakshi films I enjoy immensely, the other will appear later in this list.

Wizards is very much high camp, and while you can boil the story down to a very basic fantasy story - the execution is undeniably psychedelic and imaginative. Just giving a brief synopsis of the story is a bit of a trip, basically it is set in the future where humans nuked themselves into Oblivion and after we were vaporized, ancient creatures such as faeries, elves, wizards and the like all decided it was high time to return and make Earth a fancy fantasy realm once more. BUT! Our history wasn't wiped out, and the evil Wizard of the film discovers technology and uses it in combination with his magic to make the world put on a frowny face once more, and his ultimate weapon? Hitler! No, they didn't resurrect Hitler but they unearthed his propaganda films and Nazi war machines, and is using them to strike fear into the hearts of all innocent beings and using their insidious weaponry to enslave said innocent, cute beings.

The films animation and art can be a bit sloppy and out-dated, but it has a weird charm to it. From the good wizards bulbous nose and giant feet to his busty fairy assistant, to the funky robot Necrom-99 and his trippy war-camel that stepped out of a bad acid trip, and a hilarious montage of poorly rotoscoped rainbow coloured panzer tanks - the movie at least looks unique and is fun to look at despite its technical flaws. It's not perfect, and it is best suited for fans of psychedelia and high camp - but if you like that stuff and this sounds like your kind of LSD drenched bag, definitely drop this blotter on your tongue and enjoy. Or you can just drop it in your DVD player, yah that's a good idea.

Howl's Moving Castle was the first book I read in English, and I adored it. While I was well into my teenage years when this came out, my heart soared when I saw that Miyazaki was making an adaptation. It isn't generally regarded as his best film and that is because it is not - but it has a special place in my heart anyways. The biggest complaint I have really is some of the politics and dialogue scenes can drag, and the pace is awkward. But the characters, story, and fantastical world is executed beautifully and this is one of his more underrated films in my eyes.

This is one of Studio Ghibli's most powerful films, and in my opinion of the Studio Ghibli films NOT directed by Miyazaki - it is the best. I love history, but I was never sure how to feel when reading about World War II. I accept that my people made terrible decisions during the war and did evil things, but not all of us were bad and truly my people understood that the ones calling the shots were insane long before the bomb fell - and I consider this a fine example of why I feel we did not deserve the continuing actions against us after the bombs fell. This is a look into the lives of a young Japanese boy and his young sister attempting to survive near the end of the war, during the firebombing of our country. It focuses solely on their plight and troubles and the film is extremely powerful... and incredibly sad.

I saw this when I was 7, and I sobbed my eyes out. I saw it again when I was 12, and I sobbed my eyes out. I saw it again two months ago with my Korean friend Ha-Young, and she & I sobbed our eyes out. It is a very sad film, if you want a "fun" Ghibli film - this is not it, but it is a powerful and wonderfully crafted film. One of my favourite films concerning the war, Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" comes in second place.

NOTE: This is not my last entry in this list. I will update it with more later ^_^ Please leave your thoughts and tell me some of your favourites.