My Top Ten: Top TWENTY Favorite Animated Films (20 - 11)

Its that time of the month where I give my Top Ten on ANYTHING!

I haven't been doing a lot blogging as well as the "monthly" Top Ten list, but now I'm back on the giving the traditional top ten lists. And this time I won't be doing just Top Ten, but Top TWENTY! And with the much-anticipated Toy Story 3 coming in to spark the inner child within me, its time to look back on my most favorite animated films of all time. Whether it is a childhood gem of mine or something artistic and whimsical, these are the films that truly inspire me as an animator and filmmaker.


Lets get on it shall we?

20.
FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN

I put this WAY up there in the top 20 because this film is PURE guilt pleasure. Yes, the story is nonsense. Yes, the characters are wooden as dead-wood. Yes, the character designs are between ridiculous and a little bit gay. But one thing that really makes up for it are the over-the-top giant gravity-defy epic fight scenes. At least if you are not gonna sell me on the story and characters, make the battles very entertaining to me and it surely entertained me. In fact, I was blown away by how ridiculous and yet awesome these fight scenes are the first time I saw them. This film is only for those who love anime (considering I'm not into anime anymore).

19.
SHREK



The Shrek movies have gone stale with age and they recycled every jokes they have with each movie, but you can't deny how funny and daresay "original" the first film was. The first Shrek movie causes a ruckus storm because it was nothing the mainstream audience have seen before and we are taken in of how referential and indeed clever the writing and the story was, not to mention all the great characters in the film and all the great funny moments. It was a great parody of every fairy tale animated films before it became something we now despise in the film community.

18.
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE

This is ANIMATED right? Animation is labeled for 2D, 3D, stop-motion or puppetry, so this is considered an animated film. Anyway, whats better than a parody of fairy-tale animated movies? A parody of Michael Bay movies. This film was VERY under-appreciated by the mass and people have missed out on how VERY clever, innovative and just downright awesome it was. Of course, this is from the creators of South Park, the guys who made paper-cut animation awesome. Not only that, but it is a funny and clever parody on police-dominating America and the dreams of red-neck Americans if they can save the world by just nuking a country. Not to mention they invented one of the greatest one-liners consisting of two words: "Matt... Damon...".

17.
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE

Considering this is just a much longer episode of my MOST favorite Japanese anime series of all time, this film consist everything that makes the show awesome as it is from the funky/jazz soundtrack, the cool moments from the characters to the great space battles and fight scenes and it works. What I can say about the misadventures of the all-time cool cat, Spike and his band of bounty hunters that I haven't praised about. If you're new to anime, watch the brilliant anime series first and then this movie.

16.
FANTASIA

This marriage of classical orchestral music with wonderful Disney animation is one of the art students such as myself. Enabling for the Disney artists to create their vision/storytelling through the music of some of the greatest composers in history such as Tchaikovsky and Beethoven was just a breathtaking and wonderful visual experience to me. There were great moments of storytelling such as The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain that you can't help but be mesmerized. Its a shame we don't have something like this in today's industry.

15.
PERSEPOLIS

This film turned out to be a surprise to me as I thought I would be one of those pretentious art films when it is kinda only half of that. I ended up loving the story of a young Iranian girl growing up in Iran during the Revolutions only to become intelligent, strong and independent despite her treatment and discrimination of her own gender. You really do root for her as she kinda represents the modern Middle-Eastern woman as she shakes the harsh tradition of the female upbringing in Iran and she has a very unique personality from worshiping Bruce Lee to listening to punk and heavy metal such as Slayers. Not to mention I love the simplistic and whimsical animation of the film.


14.
PINOCCHIO



You know the first time I saw this when I was little, it freaked me out. Seems harmless in the beginning, but talk about a cruel puppet-master, boys turning into donkeys and a giant monstrous whale. But that said this film is just magical. Not only it is an example of animated artistry, but this is considered a true childhood gem of mine and it was an introduction to the world of Disney. Way before its magic is spent on Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. Probably it is very relatable to me and every other boys today as Pinocchio is the one example of an innocent naive child, exploring the vast dangerous world and getting into sorts of trouble. And who could ever forget the ever-classic song of "When You Wish Upon A Star"? That song is pure magic.

13.
TOY STORY/TOY STORY 2

I have to put these two together because they serve perfectly well together as one movie. Probably the great thing about this movie is that we instantly fall in love with all the characters as each of them has their own lively bubbly personalities. The fact that it was the first 3D-Animated film in theater we ever saw that we truly believe that the toys really are alive and they are out there in their grand adventure that is much bigger than them. It serves as the same kind of imagination that we had as a little kid when we all started playing with toys and these films always spark our inner child.

12.
NINJA SCROLL

One of the few anime films that introduced me to the world of Japanese anime in my teenage years. Though it is a true samurai tale of one ordinary, yet highly skillful samurai ninja taking on one opponent at a time each with their own brand of skills and theme. Not to mention the fight scenes were incredible and some of the best I have seen. If there's one word I can describe this film, it's BADASS!

11.
FANTASTIC MR. FOX

This is another film that took me by surprise. Some people won't get into hipster films like Wes Anderson and some people are huge fans of that. I'm one that belongs to the latter. I'm a fan of Wes Anderson's film and even when he's adapting a simple children's book by Roald Dahl, you'll still get a Wes Anderson's film. What I dig (no pun intended) about this film is that they apply certain adult themes such as mid-life crisis, fatherhood and responsibilities that appeals to a much older audience. Not to mention the awkward dialogue that is standard Wes Anderson and the wonderful, yet simplistic old style stop motion animation that is just a visual feast. And who to have provide the voice of the cool Mr. Fox than Mr. Cool himself, George Clooney.

So that is 20 to 11. The top 10 to 1 will be next. What's your opinion?