I personally adore camera-less animation—the work of Len Lye, Norman McClaren and Stan Brakhage. McClaren’s “Begone Dull Care” is a masterpiece by any other name. A modern day camera-less animation feature produced on celluloid, then scanned and projected digitally? One can dream.
Miyazaki films rock.
Spirited Away ftw.
‘Waking Life’ by Richard Linklater is also another movie that most definitely belongs to this life. It was probably the most sophisticated and unique animation of the Film History. No matter, how many times I watch this movie, it never gets old or redundant, and I always end up noticing something that I haven’t noticed before… Such a brilliant movie…
Well I do enjoy animation as much as any other form of cinema; my favourites are: -
(Non-anime)
The Lion King
Shrek
The Corpse Bride
Aladdin
Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? (don’t know if this should be on the list.. haha)
(Anime)
Akira
Ghost in the Shell
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Jin-Roh: The Wolf’s Brigade
Sky Blue 2142 A.D
Princess Mononoke has always been my favorite. Howl’s Moving Castle is pretty good aswell.
The Man Who Planted Trees (L’Homme qui plantait des arbres) by Frédéric Back (1987) is at the top of my list which includes “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Paprika”. “Sin City” probably deserves an honorable mention since it is based on comics.
i think it must be Howl’s moving castle
MindGame and Cat Soup by Masaaki Yuasa are brilliant.
Akira is (in my opinion) the best film of all time. The level of detail the animators went to has never really been matched.
I also love all of Frédéric Back’s work. That guy can create some amazing works.
I also love the work of koji yamamura (Mt Head). I’m really looking forward to see his latest film “Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor”
L’ange
I’ve been wanting to see the Danish Poet but can’t seem to get my hands on it. Has anyone seen it?
Alice in Wonderland is my favorite animated film but I also love Fantasia.
I forgot to say that Princes and Princesses, although a series of short films, is quite good and deserves an honorable mention.
I have a French friend who says My Neighbor Totoro is her favorite anime film. Obviously, from the comments above I can see that there are many anime films I haven’t even heard of… such as Danish Poet, Mind Game, Cat Soup, Back’s work, A Country Doctor, etc. I wonder what would be some of the criteria for categorizing them? Anyway, I would be very happy to watch more anime films, especially those recommended by the Auteurs Cinema.
One of the best piece of animation I’ve seen so far comes in the form of a music video.
Do the evolution, by Pearl Jam. Directed by Kevin Altieri, known for his direction on Batman: The Animated Series, and Todd McFarlane, better known for his work with the popular comic book Spawn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8
Also, perhaps one of the best music videos ever.
(and I’m not a pearl jam fan, so it’s an unbiased opinion jaja)
I’ve always liked Alice in Wonderland, but I haven’t seen many animated movies from outside the US, even though I really want to.
On my to-see list:
Triplets of Belleville
Spirited Away
Ghost in the Shell
Oh! I remember I saw Akira, that was great, even if it was dubbed.
Fantastic Planet
Ghost in the Shell
Spirited Away
Cowboy Bebop (TV show and movie)
various things by the brothers Quay.
There are many brilliantly animated films that are too gory for me or have weak stories, but merit mention:
Karas
Blood: The Last Vampire
Jin-Roh
Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence
I’d also like to second on Kim’s mention of The man who planted trees. Beautiful to watch.
Shameless self promotion. My feature animated film comes out in 2009. strange frame: Love & Sax.
Watership Down
The Jungle Book
Yellow Submarine
The Incredibles
Ratatouille
Spirited Away
Ghost in the Shell
The Emperor’s New Groove
Shrek (but the sequels almost negate its value retroactively)
The Iron Giant
DESTINO!
The unfinished collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali.
I am suprised no one mentioned Jan Svankmajer (all by him is incredible)!!
all things Brothers Quay
all things Miyazaki/Studio Ghibili
all things animated by Terry Gilliam!!!
Fantastic Planet
Akira
Nightmare Before Christmas
Iron Giant
The Hobbit
Yellow Submarine
Vampire Hunter D and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
hands hurt, thats enough
Akira and Fist of the north star is a rare mention, though incredibly action packed. Ralph Bakshi’s fritz the cat is also worth a mention although sick and vulgar.
Yeah Svankmajer is great – I watched “Alice” and “Faust” again recently and am still spellbound, he is an animator of unparalleled brilliance.
I’m a big fan of the Russian animator Yuriy Norshteyn: “The Heron and the Crane”, “Hedgehog in the Fog” and “Tale of Tales”, absolutely stunning illustrative style and beautiful storytelling techniques.
The Italian animation “Allegro non Troppo” is definitely worth seeing, it’s very entertaining, innovative and playfully makes fun of Walt Disney’s Fantasia in a clever way and similarly utilizes the use of classical music.
The British animator Phil Mulloy is also very interesting, he has a great sense of humor, his mini-series of “The Ten Commandments” is a must see.
I’d also add Ralph Bakshi to the list of great ‘forgotten’ animators: his classic ‘adult’ animation films like “Fritz the Cat”, “Wizards”, “Fire and Ice”, and of course “Lord of the Rings”. It’s a great shame that he never got to complete the other parts of the Lord of the Rings animation series because his inspired use of rotoscoping live action footage and painting over it was totally innovative for it’s time and still looks amazing today!
The Kino dvd-set of animated soviet propaganda reunite a lot of wonderfull animation!
oh man see i was so tired, Antoine i totally agree, Norshteyn is amazing! My friend is a big stop-motion head and he got me into him!
also i totally feel like an idiot for leaving out….TRON !
L’Homme qui plantait des armes, Svankmajer’s Alice and shorts, Akira, Steamboy, Miyazaki’s films (all of them), The Cat Returns, Whisper of the Heart, The Iron Giant (and the orther Brad Bird films)… and finally some of Walt Disney
Norman McLaren’s work is, for me, one of the most interesting of all. OF course, there is so many films and directors-animators actually that do beautiful things, but I strongly think that what McLaren achieved in his career is incredible and inspiring. I also like his work simply because he tried new techniques and way of animating in 2D, he experimented. He would have been a ‘’good Garager’’, haha. His films always has something different but somehow the same, his style was evident and his hand meticulous. He is a known around the world and is considered one of the most innovative animator.
After all, I love what the NFB’s artists do. There is a part of political and/or cultural integration. There is also a huge part of experimentation, of creation. I admire the National Film Board (Canada).
When I was a child (still now… haha) I feld in love with Toy Story (and PIXAR!). There is many Walt Disney’s animated films which I like. (Pinocchio, Robin’s Hood, The Lion King, Aladdin)
Stop-Motion . Mr. Burton? Nightmare Before Christmas? Juke-Bar par Martin Barry! Co-Hoedeman’s ‘’The Sand Castle’’, La Planète sauvage by René Laloux is MAGNIFICIENT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Planet)!
Haha! nice Ramsay! I feel like an idiot coming from the antipodes and leaving out the master of ‘old brain’ direct animation Len Lye! He was one of the first (if not ‘the’ first) to directly paint, scratch or stencil onto the film stock to create rhythmic animations which he also synched to music! He was an eccentric and innovative genius, influenced by indigenous art and surrealism, some film highlights include: “Tulsalava” (1929), “Kaleidoscope” (1935), “A Colour Box” (1935), “Birth of a Robot” (1936), “Swinging the Lambeth Walk” (1940) and “Free Radicals” (1959). You can see many of these films on youtube.
And yeah Colin, Norman McLaren is a stunning animator, he’s another brilliant “direct animator” and also an incredible live action innovator extraordinaire! His film “Neighbours” blew me away when I first saw it and others like “Blinkity Blank” and “Mosaic” are great. I also recollect his innovative use of the continuous ‘traveling zoom’ in some of his works, which was said to have been a great influence on Kubrick’s “2001” portal sequence.
I’d also definitely recommend getting a hold of the “Masters of Russian Animation” four volume series. Some of the stand outs are:
Andrey Khrzhanovskiy’s “Butterfly” (1972) his mixture of illustration styles and animation techniques is amazing, and his use of ‘camera’ movement is really innovative, and of course the film has a strong sociopolitical narrative which is still quite relevant.
Anatoly Petrov’s “Singing Teacher” (1968) is brilliantly simple, clever and very funny, it’s a remarkable animation made entirely from pencil drawn illustrations, in which a hippopotamus tries to sing, the use of sound is fantastic and it has a great ending!
Ideya Garanina’s “Crane Feathers” (1977) based on a Japanese fairy-tale is another stunningly poetic work of art using stop motion armature animation.
Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Yuriy Norshteyn’s “The Battle of Kerzhenets” (1971) is a technically amazing film that utilizes old Russian frescos and paintings from 14th and 16th centuries and brings them to life to tell the folktale of the invisible city of Kitezh which is said to have disappeared beneath the waters of a lake to escape a Mongol attack.
Lev Atamanov’s “Ballerina on the Boat” (1969) is a very cleverly choreographed and entertaining hand drawn animation in the French ‘impressionist style’, it has an extraordinary score by Schnittke that enhances the film immensely.
A couple of great Japanese animations not mentioned yet are the stunning psychological thrillers “Perfect Blue” and “Paranoia Agent” by Satoshi Kon the director of “Paprika”, they are definitely worth watching for fans of the later film.
Great additions!!! I also think Yuriy Norshteyn is a genius. “Tale of Tales” could possibly be my all time favorite animation…I also love many of the Czech animators. Besides Jan Svankmajer, I also think Jiri Barta is incredibly talented…And a lot of his films reminds me the style of Tim Burton…
There is also a short-film/anime titled “Voices of a Distant Star.” I think this is one the most touching love stories that I have seen in a long time. The animation is pretty good, but what really got me was the idea behind the story, certain motifs for the story really reminded me “La Jetée”…Highly recommend it to anyone who likes anime, coming-if-age love-stories and/or science-fiction…
Halim Cillov
I really love Animation Films and I am happy to see that finally people are paying more and more attention them. I mean finally we have a separate Oscar category for Best Animation Films… I was wondering what are some animation/anime films that Film Buffs Love…
My list goes something like this, in no particular order:
- Toy Story
- Persepolis
- Lain
- Ghost In the Shell
- Paprika
- Finding Nemo
- Monsters Inc.
- Spirited Away
- My Neighbor Totoro
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Fantasia 2000
- The Little Mermaid
- Lion King