The 85th Annual Mawnckscars

Originally Posted By mawnck

Good evening friends, and welcome to the Mawnckscars, an annual rundown of all the movies submitted for the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature Oscar, including the ones that did not come to a theater near you and never will unless you live in Southern California. It's presented as a public service to animation fans who don't have the opportunity or intestinal fortitude to catch 'em all.

I am mawnck. I post on LP's comments board, and various assorted other places on the internets (usually as someone other than mawnck). I tend to overuse parentheses. I am not an Academy member, nor am I in the animation industry. I am merely a fan who likes going to see the movies (even the awful ones), and then droning on about them later. And it's later.

To be eligible for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, a movie must be submitted to the Academy for consideration. It also must play for one consecutive week in a theater in LA County during the year. For most of the obscure ones, the producers pay a single theater to run the movie for a week, often a small and/or crappy theater out in the burbs.

After they're submitted to the Academy, the movies are reviewed by officials to make sure they meet all the requirements for being an Animated Feature. They are then watched by a larger nominating committee, the members of which grade them on a numerical scale in a secret ballot.

The top 3, 4 or 5 scorers are your nominees, depending on – get this – how many movies were declared eligible. If there are only 15 eligible movies, then there are 4 nominees, no matter how good the 5th one was, and if there are 16 eligible movies, then there are 5 nominees, no matter how much they all suck. Yes, this rule is staggeringly stupid. This year there are 21 submissions, so for once we need not worry about this. Much.

Why are there so many movies submitted that obviously have no chance at a nomination? Well, first of all, because of that “number of nominees” rule, the large studios have an incentive to submit their eligible turkeys (cough cough SecretOfTheWings cough) to insure that there will be enough nomination slots to accommodate their “big” movies.

Secondly, the worker bees at the animation studios consider it a bit of an insult, and certainly a morale buster, if the studio doesn't consider their own movie worthy of submission. Crew of Back to the Sea, consider yourselves insulted.

Also, moviegoers, especially overseas, don't understand the difference between “NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR!” and “ACCEPTED FOR OSCAR CONSIDERATION!”, so just submitting your movie, even if it doesn't have a snowball's chance in Zambezia, can be helpful for promotional purposes. Hence all the foreign weirdness on the list. Well, that, and they're proud of their crummy movies.

Also, there's a distributor in New York called G-Kids that has made it their mission to bring overlooked animated foreign films to America, and 5 movies on the Mawnckscar list (including 4 Oscar submissions) are from them. By the way, G-Kids scored two of the five Oscar *nominations* last year.

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

The Mawnckscars count 'em down from worst to best, and make no attempt to be objective, because I don't think there's any such thing in a list like this. If you don't like that I thought Hey Krishna was a tad better than Production IG's critically acclaimed Anime stinker A Letter to Momo, then get your own dang Mawnckscars (or leave a comment telling me how much I suck). Also, for any foreign readers (or wannabes) who think I “didn't get” your favorite movie, especially if it's A Letter to Momo, (a) you're probably right and (b) what'd you send it to America for then? You know how we are.

As a bonus, I've even included the animated movies I saw this year that didn't get submitted to the Oscars for one reason or another. They don't have ranking numbers, but are listed in the spot in the lineup I think they deserve, along with the alleged reason they didn't get submitted. Now how much would you pay?

I'll give you a description of the plot for the obscure ones, but if you aren't familiar with Wreck-It Ralph yet, I'm afraid you're on your own. I reserve the right to include mild spoilers in the reviews of the most popular major releases. For instance, I assume you already know that you-know-who turns into you-know-what in Brave. If you don't, then stop reading now if you don't want to find out.

In case you're wondering, the much-promoted (but not submitted) 3D cheap-stravaganza Dino Time <a href="http://www.dinotimemovie.com/" target="_blank">http://www.dinotimemovie.com/</a> failed to appear on its scheduled release date, and has not been released in the LA or Orange County markets as of this writing.

It wasn't a great year by any stretch, but it was a better year than boring old 2011, when even the top 10 contained several decidedly dreary entries. The biggest development this year seemed to be a marked uptick in the amount of preachiness that was inflicted on audiences, with The Lorax being merely the highest profile promoter of the trend.

Now, as Casey Kasem used to say, let's get on with the countdown.

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

21. A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman
I was saddened to discover that this tribute movie was ugly, boring, pointless, banal, and decidedly short on funny. It was very consistent in all these areas, despite the fact that several animation studios worked on the various segments. It also didn't tell you much about Chapman (true or otherwise) other than he was bisexual and drank an awful lot. I hear that if you're a huge Monty Python fan, then you loved this movie for some inexplicable reason. But if you're like me, a casual Monty Python fan who thought Holy Grail was pretty awesome but wasn't all that into Life of Brian, then it's a terrible waste of time. And it reminds you of that fact, minute after painful minute. This gets the “Mars Needs Moms Crushing Disappointment of the Year” award.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbW842eMNtI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...842eMNtI</a>

20. Walter and Tandoori's Christmas
A movie-length 3D episode of a French-Canadian flash-animated kiddie-TV show. With all that that implies. An evil big box retailer opens a new store in town and causes ecological and financial havoc. Walter, an environmentally-minded handyman, and Tandoori, a Bollywood-dancing talking chicken (haw haw) try to put a stop to it. The connection to Christmas is only incidental, and the connection to tolerable movie making is even smaller than that. There's nothing nice to say about this piece of preachy poop, from the moronic, predictable story to the glacial pacing to the TV-ugly character designs to the lousy animation to the glaring-error-infested 3D imaging. This would be patience-trying at 22 minutes. At 80, it's maddening. What were they thinking when they submitted this thing?
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi3562841113/player?uff=2" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/...er?uff=2</a>

–. Puella Magi Madoca Magica Parts 1 and 2
Gee, it turns out that being an Anime magical girl is a lot rougher than Sailor Moon ever had it, since the whole gig is essentially a trap by alien energy vampires. In exchange for a wish, these young teenyboppers have to deal with death, deception, betrayal, solitude, and worst of all, social ostracism by the cool kids. And then they die. Horribly and loudly. (And the aliens, I suppose, get to drive their SUVs for another few months. And you thought Monsters Inc. had a rotten energy policy?) The story centers on one good-hearted kid who is being pressured into signing up for Magical-Girl-ness by a small generic alien Anime animal, while everybody else tries to talk her out of it (in between being killed by psychedelic monsters). This FOUR HOUR marathon, literally an entire Anime TV series edited down into movie form, is noisy, overwrought and stiflingly serious. It also shows its TV roots in the form of iffy character design, animation, pacing, and an ending that I correctly guessed about 3 hours and 37 minutes before it finally hit. The last hour is particularly exasperating, since the filmmakers spend it essentially flailing around, killing time and looking for the ending that I'd already guessed. Not eligible for an Oscar because dang it, it's a TV show.
<a href="http://madokamagicausa.com/" target="_blank">http://madokamagicausa.com/</a>

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

19. Delhi Safari
An ineptly-animated 3D CGI flick, produced by the India branch of PETA. I'll pause while that sinks in. (Pause.) In a brilliantly original plot stolen from half a dozen other movies, a bunch of funny (read: extremely annoying) animals travel to Delhi to tell the politicians to stop the construction that's destroying their habitat. (One of them is a parrot who speaks whichever-language-you're-watching-the-movie-in.) Most everything in this steaming pile is a blatant copypaste from an American movie. The Lion King and The Jungle Book in particular. The character design is hideous, the plot is stupid, the climax preachy (ahem!), the jokes flat, and, amazingly for a Bollywood movie, most of the songs aren't all that great. The English dub team, which includes several A-listers from the American voice acting world, deserve much credit for great professionalism (dare I even say heroism) against hopeless odds. Somebody even came up with plausible English lyrics for the songs. But the source material simply will not yield.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9oljIvNEHo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...ljIvNEHo</a>

18. The Mystical Laws
A mostly hand-drawn Anime. In the near future, a totalitarian, swastika-wearing Godless Commie nation in East Asia (hmmm …) has conquered most of the world's governments. A psychic, personality-challenged sourpuss named Sho has been put in charge of a secret mystical organization of freedom fighters called “Hermes' Wings”, who, ummm, secretly fight for freedom. And stuff. But this is no mere freedom fighter movie. This movie features a demon-possessed dictator, a hot intergalactic princess, technicolor multi-headed fighting dragons, unexplained giant CGI shogun warriors, a Shinto goddess ghost person calling up tsunamis, an Earth-destroying bomb (It obstructs my view of Venus!), rampaging orcs, a UFO armada of alien lizard people, a crucifixion and a firing squad (both at once – they wanted this guy DEAD), a resurrection (natch), and a worldwide spiritual awakening. But most of that's in the last 25 minutes. Before this awesomely bonkers climax you have to slog through an hour and a half of agonizingly snail-paced exposition, pontificating, and Sho's glowering, courtesy of the movie's producers, Happy Science, a controversial Japanese Buddhist sect. Yeah, it's supposed to be a recruitment movie. At least the animation is competent (mostly), and the climax, though extremely, unintentionally silly, is way more fun than anything in the first four movies on this countdown (or, for that matter, the next six). Submitted to the Academy with subtitles. There's also a (bad) English dub.
<a href="http://mystical-laws.com/" target="_blank">http://mystical-laws.com/</a>

–. Back to the Sea
Kevin the flying fish gets caught and put into a fish tank at a Chinese seafood restaurant, and the son of the owner tries to rescue him. This Chinese/Canadian low-budget hand-drawn flick suffers from a rather odd, angular art style, and heavy plot filching from - you guessed it - Finding Nemo. With a directionless story and a half-baked ending, this flick is so forgettable that they apparently forgot to submit it to the Academy … which is probably the best decision that anyone ever made in connection with it. It's available now on DVD, for those nights that the Lunesta just isn't cutting it.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwkn7tjdMU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...kn7tjdMU</a>

–. A Letter to Momo
Production IG's attempt to do a Studio Ghibli movie this year is even worse than Studio Ghibli's attempt at the same thing. Poor Momo is an 11 year old girl who lost her dad in a boating accident, and now she and her mom have had to move to the boonies where she doesn't know anyone. And then these three comical demon monster thingies show up to torment her for no apparent reason. Every year there's one that the critics love but THEY'RE WRONG. This is the one for 2012. Apparently these critics were impressed enough by the admittedly moving tearjerker ending to not question why they just sat through nearly two hours of pointless, unfunny demon shenanigans. Yeah, two hours; it's also way too long. I think G-Kids is planning to get this one eligible for next year's Oscars, but I don't think it's going to work, since the Japanese release date was 2011.
<a href="http://www.gkids.tv/momo/" target="_blank">http://www.gkids.tv/momo/</a>

17. Hey, Krishna
A flash animated Hindu Sunday School movie, in Hindi with strangely small subtitles. An invincible holy blue kid does battle with an evil king and his pals in the Hindu demon squad. It's clearly intended for Hindus who already know the story and its religious significance (IE not me). That being said, it's good for what it is, a lowish budget religious movie. It's certainly WAY better than Delhi Safari. The plot is paper-thin and (I found out later) omits a lot of back story that would have helped it at least make a little more sense. But the movie is plenty long enough as it is. And no FSM-fearing American is going to get past what an obnoxious little blue brat our hero Krishna is. (Apparently his antics are supposed to be adorable. But they ain't.) One of the (mostly pretty good) musical numbers features a sexy she-demon named Putana, singing about slaughtering infants. Think Maleficent as a pole dancer. Apparently it's more important to get a bad-ass Bollywood production number in there than to keep the tone of the movie consistent.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bAG2KpFvFc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...G2KpFvFc</a>
And here's the Putana number, because you know you want to see it. No subs, unfortunately: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFtBgCFF-Zc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...BgCFF-Zc</a>

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

16. Secret of the Wings
The latest Disney Fairies movie. Tinker Bell has a lost twin sister who lives in the Winter Woods. Wait, there's a Winter Woods? Now there's a fun fact that you'd think would've come up sooner, especially since we've had Tink venture into snowy climes before. How many undiscovered fairylands that everybody but us knows about are they going to concoct before this stupid series runs out of gas? Anyhow, I digress. Tink and her sis Periwinkle meet, instantly bond, and really really want to be together, but like most twins they are climatologically incompatible, because their wings will get permanently buggered if they go to the other's world for any period of time. Tink concocts a solution, and then something goes horribly wrong. The nicest thing I can say about this Tink movie is it's better than the last one. (Pro tip: The last one sucked.) Disney ran this for a week at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood before the home video release, so it's a card-carrying theatrical feature as far as the Academy is concerned.
<a href="http://disney.go.com/fairies/movies-secret-of-the-wings.html#/movies-tv/secret-of-the-wings/videos" target="_blank">http://disney.go.com/fairies/m...s/videos</a>

15. Ice Age: Continental Drift
Did I even see this one? Oh yeah, I guess I did. I remember now. Everybody got separated, they met some bad guys, there were fart jokes, and then they finally let me go home. I've never been a fan of this series, and this one SURE didn't change that. Even good ol' Scrat has gotten tiresome.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WJ4dDOKqCU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...4dDOKqCU</a>

–. Ted
Uh, yeah, whatever. It's a slight and slightly sweet love story with a one-note joke imposed on it (ie, live teddy bear as frat boy). I didn't hate it nearly as much as I expected, which is perhaps not surprising, since I expected to HAAAATE it. (I'm not a Seth MacFarlane fan. At all.) Anyway, this one wasn't submitted. It probably wasn't eligible anyway because there's only one animated character in it.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt_OSznnGkY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...OSznnGkY</a> (that's the relatively work-safe version of the trailer)

14. From Up on Poppy Hill
The latest Studio Ghibli feature, and the first to not be distributed by Disney in a good long while. (But Disney did produce the English dub.) It's written by some guy named Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by his still totally unqualified son Goro. Poor Umi is a teenage girl who lost her dad in a boating accident. (Deja vu!) She meets a cool boy, they fall in love, then (spoiler ahoy!) they discover that they might be brother and sister. No, their names are not Luke and Leia, more's the pity. It's almost as stupid as it sounds (her boyfriend even lampshades it as a “cheap melodrama” at one point), and only an amusing Miyazakian subplot, about schoolkids rescuing an ancient hotel from demolition, lifts this movie from the basement of pure stinkery. The artwork is, of course, gorgeous.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfaMG07ChY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...aMG07ChY</a> (I found this trailer after I wrote the review. Now tell me these reviews ain't accurate.)

13. Frankenweenie
Tim Burton's tribute to classic horror movies, and to himself. As with Para Norman, it fails to deliver the chill factor that it seems to promise. It's just too much of a kiddie movie. But then it makes matters worse by galloping way off into the weeds trying to stuff in a bunch of irrelevant monster movie tributes right at the climax, with a gaggle of gags that probably looked great on paper, but fail to get any traction on the big screen. The flick has its moments, especially earlier on, but you don't get a Mawnckscar for moments. And the deliberate recycling of characters from much better Burton productions (including the live-action short it's based on) is exasperating. Most critics liked this one a heckuva lot more than I did, and an Oscar nom would not surprise me.
<a href="http://disney.go.com/frankenweenie/" target="_blank">http://disney.go.com/frankenweenie/</a>

12. Rise of the Guardians
A Christmas movie that takes place at Easter (seriously), as a bunch of butt-kicking mythical holiday characters team up to defeat the Boogeyman. It's a 3D feast for the eyes, but the stuff that goes on in this movie is ridiculous, even by its own standards. For one thing, it would cause unbelievable disruptions all over the world, but the movie doesn't seem to notice, being too wrapped up in its own (preachy!) messages about belonging and responsibility and personal centers and stuff. Like Up before it, this movie swamped my implaus-o-meter repeatedly, leaving me greatly enjoying the spectacle, but not much else. Like Up before it, YMMV.
<a href="http://www.riseoftheguardians.com/" target="_blank">http://www.riseoftheguardians.com/</a>

11. The Rabbi's Cat
Hand-drawn 3D French film about a snarky cat (in 1920s Algeria!) who becomes able to talk after eating a parrot. Actually it's about a lot more than that. It also involves quite a few quirky human characters, a trans-Africa journey, weighty ponderations on relations among various religions and races, a couple of very graphic onscreen murders (besides the parrot's), and a relatively tame animated sex scene. But mostly it's a meandering story with no real arc and a very unsatisfactory ending. The movie holds your attention and contains some great stuff, before the non-ending unexpectedly hits and you say “hey wait a second, now what was that all about anyway?” And there's WAY too much yapping for an animated film. Both the cat and this movie will talk you to death. For the record, having seen this in 3D, I am now more convinced than ever that 3D hand-drawn animation sucks (especially when you add subtitles to it) and they need to knock it off. See also “Walter and Tandoori's Christmas”. (Or, rather, don't.)
<a href="http://vimeo.com/53963376" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/53963376</a>#

–. Fullmetal Alchemist – The Sacred Star of Milos
Based on an Anime TV series that involves children under an ancient curse that turns them into metal mutant monster thingys. The plot is too dang complicated to summarize, but it involves convoluted tribal conflicts, shifting alliances, battle scenes that constantly get put on pause for philosophical oratories, squabbling over mystical doodads with unbelievable power, and blood. Lots and lots of blood. RIVERS of blood. The screening at LA's famously strange Downtown Independent theater was packed with fans of the show, who literally cheered when minor characters popped up onscreen for brief cameos, and laughed uproariously at inside jokes that sailed right over my head. But I enjoyed myself vicariously though them. (“YAAAYY for whoever that is!! She's so COOOOOL!!!”) Setting all that aside, it's a considerably better (and SHORTER) film than Madoca Magica, and with theatrical, not TV, production values. Not submitted to the Oscars, probably due to a defeatist attitude. Which is probably for the best. (Funimation hasn't submitted one of theirs in several years.)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4o3utRx6hs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...3utRx6hs</a>

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

10. Adventures in Zambezia
Made in South Africa, in English, with an all-star American voice cast (Samuel L. Jackson! Leonard Nimoy!). This one is about a young falcon who leaves his father and his desolate home in the desert and moves to a fabulous city of birds that's being threatened by evil lizards. He joins the bird air force and discovers the untold secret of his father's noble role in Zambezia's history, blah blah blah. It's CGI, in 3D, and is actually pretty good, although it does get noticeably Lion King-y and/or Finding Nemo-y in a few spots, and the animation is on the low budget side. It's coming out on home video in the US soon, and is worth a rental at least.
<a href="http://www.zambeziamovie.com/pages/trailer.html" target="_blank">http://www.zambeziamovie.com/p...ler.html</a>

9. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
A fun one, though weakly plotted at times. It's the best of the Madagascar series, for whatever that's worth, thanks mostly to the crazed Monaco Animal Control woman, who gets my vote for movie villain of the year. Raised one notch for its particularly trippy acid trip production number, but docked one notch for the circus afro.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlkWVkpP59U" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...WVkpP59U</a>

8. Para Norman
Stop-motion from Laika, the makers of Coraline. After a strong start, Para Norman loses a lot of steam when it starts becoming obvious that nobody of significance is going to get hurt, and the supporting cast is mostly (ahem) one-dimensional. This one comes out way ahead of Frankenweenie, thanks to more focused storytelling, superior art direction, and a sharper satirical edge … but it's still too cartoony and kidflicky for a Halloween movie that also seems to be trying for the scare factor. Coraline was WAY better.
<a href="http://paranorman.com/" target="_blank">http://paranorman.com/</a>

7. Brave
OK, I've had lots of time to think it over. And here is my conclusion: Having Mom turn into a bear really was a stupid idea. This is not a bad movie, and the animation of the bear is brilliant, but JEEZ, Pixar! What is going on over there? All that behind-the-scenes drama, and THIS is what you have to show for it? A girl, a bear, and a room full of brawling doofuses? Is this really the same studio that made Wall-E and The Incredibles? That came up with Dory and Remy and Boo and Buzz Lightyear? I grouse because I care, but keep this up and I'll start not to.
<a href="http://disney.go.com/brave/index.html" target="_blank">http://disney.go.com/brave/index.html</a>

--. Arjun, the Warrior Prince
Yet another Indian import, this one in a 2D CGI style, At times it looks like mo-cap or rotoscope, but I'm not sure it is. Oh, and it's co-produced by Disney, believe it or not. This one is based on an epic Indian folk tale, in which Prince Arjun is exiled by his evil brother and works up a plan to avenge his shame and retake his rightful throne. And it's GOOD – very exciting, very stylish, and appropriately mythologically epic. The ending is rather abrupt (reminiscent of Bakshi's “Lord of the Rings”). Disney quietly ran this for a week at the El Capitan in what was obviously supposed to be a qualifier run, but then they didn't submit it. Why not? Probably either because they heard the five nominee slots were out of danger, or else there was a technicality that made it ineligible. (Rumor has it that it was available on either Netflix or iTunes before the El Capitan run. If true, then that would do it.)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPZ-VRD6IMs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...-VRD6IMs</a>

6. Hotel Transylvania
I had to think real hard before putting this one way up at number 6, but I've decided that I prefer a totally successful piece of crowd-pleasing fluff to a not-all-that-successful piece of “art”. So for me, this one wins the Halloween movie sweepstakes of 2012. No scares are present, but in this case, none were attempted. It's just a really fun, stupid movie about funny monsters, with some fabulous cartoony CGI animation.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AezBQxkMgJY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...BQxkMgJY</a>

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

--. The Secret World of Arrietty
The “previous” Studio Ghibli feature (pre-Poppy Hill), released in February in the US but ineligible for the Oscar because the Japanese release was in 2010. A teensy teenage girl who lives in the walls of a house is discovered by one of the full-sized inhabitants, a nice boy with asthma. It's a sweet movie. Nothing spectacular, but very charming, and the artwork is, of course, gorgeous.
<a href="http://disney.go.com/arrietty/" target="_blank">http://disney.go.com/arrietty/</a>

5. Dr. Seuss's The Lorax
I don't care what anybody says … I LIKED this one, preachy or not. Which is the first time I've ever said that about a Dr. Seuss theatrical feature. I thought it managed to stay true to the very short (and very preachy) book, while adding appropriate Hollywood embellishments. As opposed to all the inappropriate ones that ruined all the other Dr. Seuss movies. And they did a great job of getting the Seuss look in CGI. I only wish that the musical numbers had been up to snuff. Me and the critics are seriously at odds on this one too, so it probably doesn't have a chance against Frankenweenie and/or Para Norman.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv-DwVmTKlk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...DwVmTKlk</a>

4. The Painting
An art film. (See what I did there?) A small band of painted and partially-painted people jump out of their frame to find the painter and ask him why the hell he never finished their painting. Very cerebral, very strange, and VERY French. Computer animated in a 2D-ish style that really does resemble oil painting. Gets too bogged down in social commentary for its own good (the unfinished “Sketchies” and “Halfies” are brutally repressed by the “Allduns”), and you can guess how it ends just from what I wrote here (SPOILER: They find some paint), but it's still fascinating, and well worth your time if it pops up at a theater near you and you don't mind subtitles.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5NNf1lrj2c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...Nf1lrj2c</a>

3. The Pirates: Band of Misfits
The best stop-motion movie of the year, in a year in which that means something. Aardman is true to form in this brilliant, whimsical and silly (in a good way) British farce about a hapless pirate captain (named Pirate Captain) who discovers his “big-boned parrot” is actually a live dodo bird, attracting the attention of both a devious Charles Darwin and a completely psycho Queen Victoria. If you didn't go see it, and almost no one in the USA did, then I recommend you rent it ASAP. In fact, you should make it a double feature with Aardman's Arthur Christmas, the most underrated animated feature of last year (and possibly ever).
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiQNvcYlZVg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...NvcYlZVg</a>

2. Wreck-It Ralph
As with other recent Disney efforts, no new ground is broken here, but they've gotten SO good at the old ground that they're now starting to tap dance over onto Pixar's. Old ground, that is. In fact, if this was the Pixar movie, we'd all be breathing a sigh of relief. Or at least I would. This movie is about 98% spot-on, a real crowd-pleaser, gorgeously animated and (unlike way too many of these this year) meticulously plotted. If you haven't seen this movie yet, GO.
<a href="http://disney.go.com/wreck-it-ralph/" target="_blank">http://disney.go.com/wreck-it-ralph/</a>

But wait! Was there really a BETTER movie than Wreck-It Ralph this year? Yep. Sorry, Disney fans, there was. And if you haven't seen it, then you're not in a position to argue, now, are you. (Actually it was very close, so argue away.)

In a shocker, the 2012 Mawnckscar for Best Animated Feature goes to …

1. Zarafa
African kid is chased by a slave trader, escapes, befriends an orphaned baby giraffe, and both are dragged off to France by a dashing Egyptian dude so the giraffe can be presented as a gift from Egypt to the French King. An absolutely magical, gorgeous, marvelously hand-drawn French feature. If given the opportunity, PLEASE go see it, and bring your subtitle-reading glasses. You can thank me later.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSdlenkDEc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...dlenkDEc</a>

And there you have it, ladies and germs. Thanks for joining me for this year's Mawnckscars.

Stay tuned for next year, when we find out whether Frozen is cool or just crusty. TTFN.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<14. From Up on Poppy Hill
The latest Studio Ghibli feature, and the first to not be distributed by Disney in a good long while. (But Disney did produce the English dub.) It's written by some guy named Hayao Miyazaki,>>

Ghibli is actually producing the English version - Kennedy/Marshall are still involved in the dub but Disney has absolutely nothing to do with Ghibli now. Even the back catalog has shifted to GKids hence the retrospective they have been running.

It is based on a very average serialised comic by Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsurō Sayama. I wasn't surprised that the film had nothing to offer.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<13. Frankenweenie
Tim Burton's tribute to classic horror movies, and to himself. As with Para Norman, it fails to deliver the chill factor that it seems to promise. It's just too much of a kiddie movie. But then it makes matters worse by galloping way off into the weeds trying to stuff in a bunch of irrelevant monster movie tributes right at the climax, with a gaggle of gags that probably looked great on paper, but fail to get any traction on the big screen. The flick has its moments, especially earlier on, but you don't get a Mawnckscar for moments. And the deliberate recycling of characters from much better Burton productions (including the live-action short it's based on) is exasperating. Most critics liked this one a heckuva lot more than I did, and an Oscar nom would not surprise me.>>

A colleague of mine is very close to Burton and Tim told him repeatedly during production that the Studio continually demanded that the film was toned down for a family audience - allegedly it all got very tetchy. Sean Bailey told Burton that the movie would never have been approved in the post-Cook era which left Burton to question whether he will ever work for the Company again.

I totally agree that it failed to work in any sense. It is a shame that the Studio has only one umbrella now and that features can't be badged under Touchstone or Hollywood if they come from the Studio itself.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<--. The Secret World of Arrietty
The “previous” Studio Ghibli feature (pre-Poppy Hill), released in February in the US but ineligible for the Oscar because the Japanese release was in 2010. A teensy teenage girl who lives in the walls of a house is discovered by one of the full-sized inhabitants, a nice boy with asthma. It's a sweet movie. Nothing spectacular, but very charming, and the artwork is, of course, gorgeous.>>

I completely forgot it had a theatrical release this year. I was disappointed by Arrietty - it had major pacing issues for me - took way too long to really get to the core relationship. The source material (The Borrowers by Mary Norton) is one of the greatest pieces of child fiction of the post-war era. It was beautifully inked though and I loved the music. I preferred Ponyo.

If you liked the story then the BBC series of the early nineties (maybe '92?) is a classic - a real joy.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

How would you rate the year overall mawnck? I thought it was a pretty poor year for animation overall - lacking any real stand-outs for me - the majors all seemed to just be going through the motions with their releases.

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

>>Ghibli is actually producing the English version - Kennedy/Marshall are still involved in the dub but Disney has absolutely nothing to do with Ghibli now.<<

According to one of the head honchos of G-Kids, who I spoke with at their film festival in LA, Disney is still involved, and working closely with both companies, as well as continuing to handle all home video in Japan and the US. I'm not sure if I'm recalling this correctly, but I think they're doing future releases with Disney getting a "first refusal" kind of thing. How much of that was true and how much of it was just good PR talk, I can't say.

>>Tim told him repeatedly during production that the Studio continually demanded that the film was toned down for a family audience<<

AHA! That explains it. Was rather mystified that Burton would have made such a sugary movie. I expected it to be SO MUCH BETTER than it was. Did they learn nothing from Nightmare Before Christmas?

>>How would you rate the year overall mawnck? I thought it was a pretty poor year for animation overall - lacking any real stand-outs for me - the majors all seemed to just be going through the motions with their releases.<<

"Going through the motions" might be overstating it (and probably applies more to last year than this one), but I agree there was a lack of, let's say, passion for filmmaking apparent in this year's crop of major releases. The majors at the top of my list are high-grade crowd-pleasing fluff, while the weightier movies, like Brave and Rise of the Guardians, are hindered by other issues.

I was repeatedly disappointed by movies I was really looking forward to, and there were only a few that were better than I expected.

And - I know this is weird - I was disappointed in the really bad ones too. Except for certain sections of Hey Krishna and The Mystical Laws, most of teh suck this year was very mundane and not entertaining in any respect. There was certainly no The Lion of Judah this year.

Have you seen Zarafa? LORD I hope it gets nominated.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<Disney is still involved, and working closely with both companies, as well as continuing to handle all home video in Japan and the US>>

I'll ask around - it wouldn't be the first time that someone at the studio has sold me a red herring. They definitely are still doing the Japanese releases as Disney unveiled Kiki's Delivery Service on blu-ray before Christmas. I think Only Yesterday was also dusted off.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<AHA! That explains it. Was rather mystified that Burton would have made such a sugary movie. I expected it to be SO MUCH BETTER than it was. Did they learn nothing from Nightmare Before Christmas?>>

For as long as I can remember pet projects from one era are openly shunned by the next. It is incredible how many of the projects that were approved by Dick Cook were subsequently dropped or curtailed. Dick was a huge champion of animation including stop-motion but the current management just don't like it hence the decision to shut down Selick's last film and write off a substantial amount of production costs.

The storyboards I saw for Frankenweenie years ago showed a much darker side to the movie than the nonsense that was finally released.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<The majors at the top of my list are high-grade crowd-pleasing fluff, while the weightier movies, like Brave and Rise of the Guardians, are hindered by other issues.>>

I usually end up watching at least some of the DWA/Blue Sky/Sony stuff on planes. I couldn't stomach Madagascar 3 or the last Ice Age at all. Rise was like all of the Joyce films - I still can't fathom how all 3 major animation studios have now worked with him and each has been a major disappointment. Brave was just plain average - clearly two movies sandwiched together. Wreck-it Ralph was fine - you knew what you were getting - I just hope WDAS gets to play outside the Pixar sandbox once in a while.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<Have you seen Zarafa? LORD I hope it gets nominated.>>

Nope but it is on my list now. I gather it has been included in a few film festivals so hopefully I'll see it at some point. I don't think it has a UK distributor yet.

 

Originally Posted By Dabob2

<a sexy she-demon named Putana>

So is this the elusive, long-sought-after intersection of Hindi and Italian?

Very entertaining write-ups, mawnck. I feel like I saw some of these movies (and now for the stinkers, I don't have to!)

 

Originally Posted By mawnck

>>So is this the elusive, long-sought-after intersection of Hindi and Italian?<<

Yeah, I know, although I believe the Italian word contains two N's.

She has poisonous breast milk, and Krishna (who is way too holy to be felled by mere poison) kills her by nursing her to death.

Which is also in the original story. Top THAT, Baby Jesus!

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putana" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putana</a>

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

I love the Mawnckscars! Thanks for the great write ups.

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

Great summary! It makes me sad that I've missed some good ones this year (I still haven't seen Ralph, along with about 5 other films that have been released since Thanksgiving that look really good, but I've just been too busy for), and glad that I've missed some of the not-so-great ones. It does seem like ther ewas an overall lack of interest from the studios, and just a ton of volume, rather than any especially great quality.

And what's with all of the preachy movies? Several of these sound like direct copies of the Timon & Pumbaa movie in The Land at Epcot, in the worst way possible. That one gets by simply because it's in a setting that is supposed to be educational (and in a specific setting that tends to be kind of preachy), but I can't imagine going to see some of those films for fun. Blech!