Hello everyone and Happy Holidays. I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and are looking forward to a new year. Seeing how this is the time of the year when you see a lot of people doing top 10s or 5s about their favorite movies, games, music albums, or other pieces of media, I thought it would be a good idea to share and reflect on the animated movies this year and talk about which ones we enjoyed, and which ones we disliked. I hope everyone who reads this would join in on the discussion as we can all talk about our favorites while also keeping the wiki going with some nice traffic.
To start off, I personally think 2014 was a much better year for animation than 2013. With 2013, most of the movies we got weren't good and outside of Frozen and maybe Epic and Dispicable Me 2, there weren't that many great movies we got. With 2014, we got less bad movies and more good and great ones worth watching.
Out of all the animated films we got this year, I've seen 10 of them. I'm going to list them in order from least-favorite (10) to favorite (1) and I hope other people get involved in this activity.
10. The Nut Job: I saw this movie after hearing all the hate this film has been getting. I decided to watch it to see if the hate for it was legit. After watching it, I thought it was mediocre- an average kids film with not much going for it. The problems I had for it included: an un-likeable protagonist, jokes that mostly missed, bland animation, some annoying characters, and a score that I wasn't fond of. It didn't help that they played a certain song that I dislike a few times throughout the movie, but there were some good things I took away from it: A nice little story that had a heist theme to it, and the animation isn't bad still. This movie could've been better because of its story, but it just failed to deliver due to its flaws. I'd give it a 5/10
9.The Boxtrolls: I've never seen a Laika Studio film before so I was hesitant to see this one. But I did out of curiosity, and the result was an OK experience. I really digged the stopmotion animation, some of the characters I liked, and I thought the topic the story brought up was nice. Unfortunately, the movie also featured some problems in pacing and structure of the story, some characters annoyed me, and I found nothing memorable from the score that was used. If this is really Laika's worst, then I hope their best can impress me more. 6/10
8. Planes: Fire and Rescue: I never saw the 1st Planes movie becaused I heard it sucked. I was gonna avoid this film until I saw the reception was a little better than the 1st, so I gave it a shot. The film ended up not being that bad as I thought it would be. I liked what they did with the firefighter theme in the story, the animation has some nice moments, especially during the fire sequences, and the music was great with a score that really shined during those fire sequences. Unfortunately, the story is a standard one with the "protagonist hoping to be something" cliche, the jokes mostly fall flat, the charcaters aren't really that great, and the performances i felt were lacking. But at least it's better than the 1st from what I heard. 6/10
7. Mr. Peabody and Sherman: I thought the movie was OK as well. I never saw the original cartoon, so nostalgia wasn't a factor for me. I really liked Mr. Peabody himself who is the talking dog protagonist here along with whoever performed his voice. I also enjoyed the animation that was used, the standard time-traveling plot, and some of the jokes that were used. Where the movie falls flat I think is in the character development area, a pointless subplot about Peabody parenting Sherman, and Sherman himself annoyed me at times. But there's still some things to enjoy here though. 6/10
6. Penguins of Madagascar: As a fan of the Madagascar trilogy, I enjoyed this as well. Despite having problems in having a valid story, character development, and some jokes that miss, I was still entertained by the 4 penguins themselves, the animation was still fun to look at, and I still got some nice jokes out of the movie. If you're a fan of Madagascar, you should check out the movie for yourself. 7/10
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2: This one is definately a controversial choice as many people, including critics and audiences, hail this as the absolute best animated film of the year. So I'm the main outlier here when I say the movie's overrated and I stand by that statement. I liked the movie, but I don't think it's worthy of winning best animated feature at the Oscars, or any award show for that matter. The story is just ung-Fu Panda 2 retold again with HTTYD characters, the jokes didn't work for me, some of the performances and writing disappointed me, and the big scene that I won't spoil is completely pointless and was only added for shock value in my eyes. However, I still loved certain things in this movie: The animation is outstanding, the music was breathtaking, some of the characters I still liked, and some of the performances were great still. I still like this movie, I just don't think it's as amazing as people are setting it up to be. 7/10
4. Rio 2: If this list were to go public, chances are people would rain insults upon me for putting Rio 2 higher than Dragon 2, but that's just how I feel and I'm not saying this because I'm a part of this wiki. At least Rio 2 didn't try to be anything more than what it is: a family film for entertainment. The story does have a problem of too many subplots, but it didn't bother me too much since this franchise, like Madagascar and so many others, isn't supposed to be approached as a story-based movie. It's like Penguins of Madagascar in theat sense. The animation was still beautiful, the songs I'd argue were slightly better than in the 1st, Nigel and Gabi were scene-steelers, the performances were great, and the morals worked in the movie. Sure it wasn't what some people wanted, but you have to learn to be open with a sequel since not everyone's gonna have the same idea on how to continue the story. So in the end, I liked Rio 2 more than HTTYD2, and I'm sure people might hate me for that despite me giving both films the same rating. 7/10. No need for a trailer since you guys should know what Rio 2 looks like. This is Rio wiki after all.
3. The Book of Life: I like to think of this as the Latino version of Rio. I also think this film's gonna do for Day of th Dead what Rio did for Brazil: introduce people to a new culture and also be entertaining to watch. Even though the story is a basic love-triangle, it's made a little more better due to the Mexican holiday theme it has. The animation is also something we've never seen before and it's outstanding, the songs were a joy to listen to, the performances were great, and there was some nice laughs along the way. My big problem would be like Rio 2 where there are too many characters to properly develop. there was also in my eyes a point less subplot involving bull-fighting that felt out-of-place in this kind of movie. Still, the movie's a joy to watch despite its flaws. 7/10
2. The Lego Movie: This movie I thought surpassed the expectations set by it. It was funny, features some great animation, nice performances by pretty much everyone, and it has a nice message about being creative despite having a standard kind of story with a good 3rd act. I even like the techno score it used except for "Everything is Awesome" (Rio 2 should of won!). It was definately a pleasant surprise to me and for almost everyone else. 8/10
1. Big Hero 6: Despite thinking Frozen recieved too much praise than its worth, I felt BH6 lived up to the hype. The movie features Marvel's great action mixed in with Disney's heart and storytelling to make an amazing movie. The movie has a nice touching message in it, great animation, tons of funny moments thanks especially to Baymax, great action scenes, interesting robotic ideas, and tons of likeable characters. This is why Big Hero 6 is my favorite animated film of 2014. 9/10
So those are the animated films I've seen this year in order of value and I must say this year was so much better than last year. Now I didn't get to see all the movies that came out. I never saw The Wind Rises because I'm not into anime and I never saw Legend of Oz because no theatre showed it, and I don't care about seeing it because I heard it's awful. One last think I want to give is my thoughts on all the upcoming animated films of 2015.
Inside Out: Interested; hopefully, Pixar can make a comback with this one.
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water: As someone who grew up with the show, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie as the original writer for the show is returning to write this movie.So I'm looking forward to this.
Minions: a Despicable Me spin-off with minions sounds like a decent idea. Not sure if the minions are strong enough to handle their own movie since they don't talk, but we'll see.
Strange Magic: Not Interested; might check out if reviews are strong.
Home: Maybe; wait for reviews.
Peanuts: So Excited! Please don't let me down Blue sky. This could be your moment to show the world your talents as an animation studio. I'm counting on you guys both as a fan of you guys and of Peanuts.
The Good Dinosaur: As a fan of both Pixar and Dinosaurs, I'm looking forward to this.
Hotel Transylvania 2: Never saw the 1st, so i should see that one before deciding on this one.
Absolutely Anything and The Little Prince: Not interested in either.
Ratchet and Clank: Never played the games, so I'll just wait for reviews.
Asterix, Underdogs, Shaun the Sheep, and Monster Trucks: Not interested.
Popeye: Maybe; wait for reviews.
Everything else: Not interested and if you want to know where I got the movie titles from: http://www.movieweb.com/movies/2015/animation?pg=1
Hope you all enjoyed your holidays and this year's animated films. Let's all hope next year will deliver us more amazing animated films worth watching. What were your favorites this year and what animated films are you looking forward to? Feel free to reply and Happy Holidays!