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Cool Animated Movies You May Not Have Seen |
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Written by Michael Salsbury
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Monday, 02 January 2006 |
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Welcome to my "top 10 list of cool animated movies you may not have seen". For the record,
I'm not an "anime" fan. The
superfluous use of shadows, the "big eyes, small mouths"
art style, strange movie titles, bizarre story lines, etc., in anime
simply turn
me off more than the clever animation techniques draw me in. As
a result, you'll not see much here that an anime fan would appreciate
(I'm guessing). Still, I think these are all amusing films that
you should have a look at if you get the chance (and since most of them
are a bit obscure, you can pick them up for about as much as it would
cost to rent them at your local Blockbuster Video):
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1
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The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
I'm fond of this disc for one reason, the very maniacal expressions on
Mr. Toad's face as he drives his motorcar around like a madman. I
don't know that I've even watched the Ichabod part since I was a
kid. Another reason I'm fond of the Mr. Toad cartoon is that it's
the basis for my favorite ride at Disneyland in California (and
formerly in Disney World in Florida). Family friendly fare here,
in case you're wondering.
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2
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The Adventures of Wallace and Gromit
This "claymation" creation is another personal favorite. The
lovable dimwit inventor Wallace and his steadfast canine companion
Gromit visit the moon for some cheese, do some window washing, and even
get into trouble with "techno-trousers". This is also very family
friendly stuff.
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3
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The Itsy Bitsy Spider short film on the Bebe's Kids
disc
The Bebe's Kids movie was cute but in my opinion nothing special.
Its companion on the disc and VHS, however, is awesome. Jim
Carrey voices a Rambo-like exterminator out to rid a piano teacher's
house of a troublesome arachnid. In the end, it's the
exterminator and the house which are eliminated. In between, it's
lots of laughs. You'll wish it was the 2-hour movie instead of
Bebe's Kids. I enjoyed it enough that I bought this disc for the
short feature alone. That should tell you something. The
voice acting, animation, and writing are all dead-on perfect here.
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4
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Cool World
Not strictly an animated film, this one contains live-action
performances by Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, and others alongside animated
characters by Ralph Bakshi. The gist of the story is that there
are two realities in the universe, one where cartoons ("doodles") live
a life of their own, and another in which we "noids" (humanoids?)
live. Residents of the worlds generally don't cross between them,
and there are serious consequences when they do because both realities
are jeopardized. The biggest crime is for a "noid" and a "doodle"
to engage in physical relations, because it upsets the balance of
realities and makes the "doodle" become "real". As you can
imagine, this happens and things go crazy in both worlds. While
watching this "non-family-friendly" film, pay attention to all the
silly cartoon characters in the background. Sometimes they're
more interesting than the main characters!
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5
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Fritz the Cat
The first animated feature ever to get an "X" rating from the motion
picture rating authority, Fritz the Cat is the tale of a young feline
who indulges in drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, and about every other
sin or vice you can imagine. It got its X rating from the rather
graphic nature of some of the scenes in the film, though today it would
probably get an "R". This is another Ralph Bakshi film. It
suffers at times from going into psychedelic rants about the
establishment, society, etc., but offers some genuine laughs and pokes
fun at just about everything. And yes, in case you haven't
guessed, it's NOT family friendly at all, unless you've got one REALLY
liberal household.
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Heavy Metal
This is a series of loosely related stories about the evil "Lochnar"
corrupting a variety of people and ruining their lives. The
stand-out piece to me is the trial of Captain Sterrn. It features
a number of very family-unfriendly themes, so don't watch this with the
kiddies. A couple of the sub-stories are snoozers to me, but
they're overshadowed by the good ones.
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7
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The Iron Giant
I love the animation, voice acting, and sound effects in this
one. It's family friendly, tells a decent story (even for
adults), and is fun to watch. What more do you need to know?
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8
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One Crazy Summer
This isn't really an animated film, but animation plays a fairly large
role in it, so I'm listing it here. My favorite part of this film
is the animation attributed to John Cusack's character, especially the
stories it tells of the lonely guy who gets revenge on the "cute and
fuzzy bunnies" who are ruining his life, a parallel for his character
getting shafted by the cool and popular people around him. It
features performances by Eugene Levy, Demi Moore, Bobcat Goldthwait,
and a variety of others you'll recognize. Probably not family
friendly if you have anyone in your family under the age of 16, but
probably OK otherwise.
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9
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Titan A.E.
This film tells a story of Earth's distant future (the “A.E.” stands
for “after Earth”) when mankind has become a third-rate power in the
universe, with aliens hunting down and killing humans where they can
find them. In typical Hollywood fashion, one unlikely hero changes all
that, and this is his story.
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10
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Wizards
This Ralph Bakshi film is a classic. The storyline is nothing
especially exciting. A wizard named Blackwolfe is looking to take over
the post-nuclear holocaust world. His brother, a good wizard named
Avatar, wants to stop him. Along the way, they encounter various groups
that want to help or hinder them in their quest. The movie features
some very unique animation techniques, great voice performances, good
music, and memorable dialogue. Although it's tenth in this list
(arranged roughly alphabetically), it's my favorite film of this entire
lot.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 April 2006 )
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