Top 50 Favorite Animated Films List – Part 1: No. 1 – 5

I’ve made a last minute decision to include summaries of why most of these films are my favorites, so, because of that decision, I am going to roll out my list in parts. I will probably include summaries of only the first 10 to 15 films on the list, but to get this ball rolling here is the top 5 movies on my list. I know most lists start with the last film and make you wait in suspense to see what got first, but these are my favorites list and I don’t think it matters as much. When David and I decide to roll out our complete Top 50 BEST list, we may do it that way. So, before I begin, here were the ground rules: First: it had to be a theatrical feature. Animated films only shown on TV don’t count. At some point, you had to have been able to watch these movies on the big screen. They also have to be American. Not that I have anything against foreign animation or anime, I just don’t have wide enough knowledge of those films as I do American animated film. Not to mention, Anime really deserves a list of it’s own. The third rule is that while CGI and stop-motion count on the list, films made using Motion Capture do not, so you won’t see “Beowulf” or “The Polar Express” on our lists (Although, you wouldn’t have seen them on there anyway). So without further ado, I present to you “Luke Boyce’s Top 50 Favorite Animated Films of All Time – Numbers 1 – 5″:

1. Bambi (1942)
When I was younger, my Grandma Boyce only had a couple videos that you could watch at her house. One of them was usually just a tape we’d leave there every now and then but the one she did own was “Bambi”. I remember watching it and it making me die laughing and soon after, be horrified. It was incredibly powerful. Then, about a year and a half ago I rediscovered the film as an adult. I was going through and watching some of the older Disney movies I had kind of left behind as a kid and I came across two movies that shook me to my core. The first one was Bambi. As I watched it by myself in my office I wept and was completely taken back to the feelings I had as a child. When the movie was over, I sat there in disarray. Not only had I felt emotions identical to the ones I had experienced as a very young child, but I had now felt them in conjunction with new stronger feelings. Feelings that only come from understanding the world and seeing something that reflects that and reinforces it. It occurred to me that this film was a piece of art in the most direct terms. There’s not much of a story to it except that it explores the life, in a very short time, of a solitary deer and, just like us, grows up and experiences life, it’s ups and downs. There is an absolute power in Bambi that is raw and visceral and yet, as we watch it there’s a beauty to it as well. It’s fluid and real yet anthropomorphic and exaggerated. It is, in my opinion, one of the most pure examples of an “animation-as-high-art” experience. “Bambi” is that one animated film that I can watch over and over and over again and it is a fresh and moving experience every time, and not only that, but an experience that feels somewhat spiritual. That’s what this film is to me. A “spiritual” experience.

2. Toy Story (1995)

Before 1995, people knew what CGI was. We had seen numerous television commercials utilizing it and movies were starting to make brilliant use of it as well, including 1993’s “Jurassic Park”. In fact, it was that movie that really changed the history of films. Once we all knew what was capable and how photorealistic and special this technological process was, the world waited for what was next. I remember after a Saturday morning show called “Reboot” aired and became a staple in my house, thinking how cool it would be to have a movie that was completely animated by a computer. It was in that year that “Reboot” first aired, 1994, that I saw a trailer for “Toy Story”. I went in 1995, expected to be wowed by the technical achievement. We all did. I remember my dad being extremely interested in the technology himself. We wanted to see what a fully CGI film would look like. The reason “Toy Story” is this high on my list (pretty much a tie for first) is because about 1 minute into the film every person in the theater completely forgot that this was a new technological achievement. It was in that moment that we witnessed “Pixar”, perhaps one of the greatest success stories in artistic history. I left the theater with my family, all of us dumbfounded, dazed and astonished. The movie we had just witnessed had been, perhaps, one of the most original and enchanting motion pictures I had ever seen. It wasn’t the CGI we were talking about, it was the story, the music, the characters, the humor, the drama. The fact that this was the first CGI film in history didn’t even matter. Today, it matters, because it ushered in a new era of animation. But back then, it was just mystifying that this company had created something so heartfelt and so original when they easily could have simply rested on the laurels of being “the first”. But they didn’t, and they’ve left us with something as timeless, original and amazing as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” some 70 years later. “Toy Story”, like “Snow White” before it, will be studied for decades and decades to come, not only in the animation field but in the art of filmmaking itself. And I love every single last second of that film. It was also the first movie I had ever seen multiple times in theaters. I managed to see it five times, before I had a drivers license. When the video came out it was priority number one to purchase it and I wore a hole in that sucker. Watching it at least 3 times a week for months. I still have the majority of the script memorized.

3. Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Remember those two movies I mentioned that I rediscovered about a year and a half ago, the first being “Bambi”? Well, the second film was “Sleeping Beauty”. However, unlike “Bambi”, this was a film I didn’t care that much about as a kid. In fact, I don’t remember ever owning a copy and just seeing the film on television. The reason I think that was, is because “Sleeping Beauty” is not really a kid’s film. Watching the film over a year ago this suddenly became very apparent. Unlike the princess films before it, “Sleeping Beauty” was dark and foreboding. A much more honest attempt by Disney at approaching fairy tales, despite the still happy ending. But I immediately fell head over heals for the film as I watched it as an adult realizing this. This isn’t a disney movie as much as it is a disney FILM. The first to ever be photographed in Cinemascope anamorphic widescreen and at 70mm (the only other would be Disney’s “The Black Cauldron”), “Sleeping Beauty” is a pure work of art. The film was such a drastic departure from the norm. The film, unlike it’s predecessors, was extremely stylized. Most of this is due to production designer Eyvind Earle who was given an unusual amount of creative freedom. Not only did he set the style in such a distinct design, inspired by many pre-renaissance and gothic art such as Van Eyck, Bruegal and Albrecht Durer, but he also painted the majority of the backdrops himself. The backdrops, which in this film become a character of their own, are so beautifully imagined and executed you could hang them in a museum and no one would be the wiser as to where they came from. Lush backgrounds drawing out strong vertical and horizontal lines create a setting in the film that is beyond majestic. There is such a meticulous feel to the film that watching it, you can’t help but feel as though you’re watching grand medieval artwork and storytelling come right to life. Couple that with such incredibly strong characters, specifically Maleficent, the mistress of all evil. Perhaps one of the villain character design and persona ever animated. Her immediate and mere presence in the film creates a heavy charismatic weight to the film. Overall, you don’t watch “Sleeping Beauty” and think “Great Disney movie”. You watch it and think “This is an art film in every sense of the word”, and one that can never be studied and deconstructed enough.

4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

When I was a kid in the very early 90’s, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was my first “Citizen Kane”. It could honestly be said that this was the first film that I ever “geeked” out over. It became an obsession. Ask my entire family. I lived, breathed and ate “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. I can easily remember a vacation we took at the Ozarks and the only thing that interested me was that the hotel we stayed at had the movie extremely early on their pay-per-view. It’s one of those movies where I was so enthralled in the world that, just like music, each viewing has left an imprint in my mind. I remember watching it while being home sick from school at my grandma’s house. I remember the color of the pajamas I used to watch it in. This movie left a very distinct imprint on my collective psyche. Then, during my teen years I kind of forgot it and it wasn’t until the film was re-released on DVD that I revisited it and fell in love all over again, but this time on a much deeper level. In my teen years I had discovered classic film, and not just classic film but particularly “Film Noir”. The genre absolutely enthralled me. I was a sucker for the femme fatales, the stark contrasts, the shadowy lighting and the moral ambiguities. When I rewatched “Roger Rabbit” and realized that this was a neo-noir film (the story is lifted from a sequel story to “Chinatown”) I had a brand new appreciation of it. But there was more, having now been living in the new age of CGI it became extremely aware at how revolutionary the animation was. The techniques used by Industrial Light and Magic to create the incredible realistic interaction between humans and cartoons in this film have never been duplicated. Robert Zemeckis has stated that he would NEVER make a sequel to the movie again because of the intense difficulty it was. But that difficulty was a result of the quality of the animation. This isn’t just a live-action film with some animation in it. This is equal parts live-action/animation. The animation is a veritable force within the movie that adds an incredible depth to the surprisingly serious storyline. I’m convinced to this day that no film will exceed the level that “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” achieved in 1988.

5. Wall•E (2008)

You may be surprised to see a film that only opened two weeks ago in my top 5 here, but I’m telling you, that’s how good this movie is!!!! This movie is an extremely special film. One that is pretty easy to state as an instant classic. But, as I’ve been thinking about it these past two weeks, having seen the film twice now, is that “Wall•E” was able to reach a place in me that I don’t feel has honestly been fully exploited since I first saw “Toy Story” 13 years ago. The feeling I got as I walked out of the theater was a pure child-like enchantment. And not an ignorance-type feeling, but a real honest head over heals charm that is near impossible to achieve in my opinion. To begin with, as you’ll find out soon in a supplemental piece I’m writing to this list, character design is an extremely important factor to me. As important as story when it comes to animation. “Wall•E” transcends character design though. This was the first film I can honestly say, there was no doubt in my mind within 5 seconds that “Wall•E” was an actual living thing with a soul. If you do not fall madly and deeply in love with this character within 1 minute of seeing him in action you have truly lost your innocence and any remnants of a soul and/or heart. Even more than that though, “Wall•E” represents for one of the first times, the attempt by an animated feature to be inspired by and try to emulate actual normal classic cinema. The direct emulation of classic silent films by Chaplin and Keaton (Andrew Stanton claims they spent over a year watching every silent comedy film they could get their hands on) and classic sci-fi films of the 70’s like “Silent Running”, “2001″ and “Alien”, creates a new level of appreciation for this genre. Most people do not seem to view animated films within the same realm as other live-action classic films, but I can honestly say that “Wall•E” can easily be pitted against a movie such as “Silent Running” or “City Lights” without hesitation. To me, this is an enormous feet. And being a majorly huge silent film fan, I simply have to give props to Stanton for proving to this cinematically lazy generation that silent film is still a viable and relevant type of film. I only hope that the many references reviewers have made with this film and those will prompt new generations to view the genius of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. When the DVD for this movie comes out, be prepared to not hear from me for about a month or so.