Wall-E

Andrew Stanton, 2008 (10*)
This terrific science fiction comedy is Pixar's best so far. It's rare that an animated film combines both a great story with terrific and imaginative artwork. You would think that after the Toy Story films, Cars, and Monsters Inc that the creativity there would slow down, but Wall-E tops them all. It's basically about a garbage compacting mobile robot living on an unpopulated earth. However, drones are being sent to try to find a return of life on earth, and naturally Wall-E comes into contact with life again (or there'd be no story), as we now know it, and with hilarious results. This film has a lot humor, as well as a lot of heart, making us all somehow care for what happens to a mechanical garbage man! Another rarity: a children's film that adults should enjoy just as much. Winner of over 35 awards already this year, for some odd reason it's not nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and will have to settle for Animated Feature as a consolation prize.

Link to Wall-E's awards page at IMDB: Wall-E Awards

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The Absent-Minded Professor

Robert Stevenson, 1961, bw (7.3*)
One of the better live-action Disney films, with very good special effects for the time, this is actually a science fiction story disguised as a fantasy. Fred McMurray, a forgetful Professor Brainard, invents a gravity repellent rubber substance, which he calls “flubber” for flying rubber. He first bounces around on his shoes, jumping about 20 feet high, then realized it can power his car and he gets the old Model T flying - here’s your lasting image of the film and the dvd cover. Finally he applies it practically to the basketball team; suddenly the government takes notice. Fun for kids and adults as everyone wants to fly.

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Beauty and the Beast

Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1991 (9.1*)
Best Musical/Comedy Picture (GG)
This is the animated Disney version, and one of their best animated films ever. Much of the design for the animation movement mimics camerawork on early Hollywood musicals, which is appropriate since this also has some songs that are very well integrated into the plot, which is basically about a trapped princess who falls in love with a "beast of a man". This was the first animated film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and is a treat for kids and adults both. Three songs were nominated for Oscars, a first. Two Oscars (Music Score and Song)

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101 Dalmatians

Wolfgang Reitherman, 1961 (8.2*)
Animated Disney doesn't get any better than this. Dalmatians have a litter of 15 puppies, and if that isn't enough of a problem, the evil Cruella De Vil, the voice of Yvonne DiCarlo and probably the best name for any film villainess, wants to make a fur coat out of a hundred-and-one Dalmatian puppies. Man, that's evil personified! Of course we have heroes, narrow escapes, nail-biting, but it is Disney, so you feel confident that they won't skin 101 puppies! Forget the live action remake, this version is the one to see again and again.

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Fantasia

James Algar, 1940 (8.5*)
Way ahead of its time, Disney created a series of artistic interpretations of short classical music works, and though each film was animated, the styles (other than the classic Mickey Mouse one) were not the usual Disney cartoons. In fact, some were downright frightening for small children, like "Night on Bald Mountain" or "Rite of Spring". Each viewer will likely have different favorites, and not all will work for everyone, but it's safe to say that Mickey as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" ranks way up there as the best of both animated music and Disney's favorite character. This was an historical film in the history of animation.

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Cars

Dir: John Lassiter, 2006 (8.5*)

I loved this Pixar animated movie, from the same crew as Toy Story. The plot involves a young Nascar racer (the cars are characters), voiced by Owen Wilson, who gets dropped out of his trailer on the way to the next race, somewhere in the American southwest, and is basically lost along Route 66, in small town that somehow survived the freeway being built. He becomes trapped in the town, with some wonderful characters: Paul Newman as an old pickup truck who’s really a former Nascar champ, Bonnie Hunt as his lady friend, and a host of others (Cheech Marin, John Ratzenburger, Katherine Helmond, Larry the Cable Guy, George Carlin, Richard Petty) who have various businesses around a town that no longer has any tourists. Randy Newman wrote a beautiful song called "My Town", an Oscar nominee sung by James Taylor, about living in a small town like that time and freeways (and therefore people) have sadly grown beyond and passed by. Great script for me since I’ve been all the way across Route 66 twice, and crossed on the freeway (I-40) once, so the nostalgia of this story really hit home for me. For that reason, it's probably going to mean more to adults than kids, who won’t understand the references to America’s greatest highway. Look for the closing credits and all the towns the producers thanked, it reads like the songs "Route 66" and Little Feat’s "Willin" put together: Tucumcari, Tehatchopee, Winslow, Wynona, Gallup…

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Toy Story

John Lassiter, 1995 (8.5*)
Terrific animation from Pixar, their first full-length movie done with computer animation. In this story, the toys of a boy named Andy come alive with the arrival of a new one, Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut voiced by comedian Tim Allen, while the "leader of the gang" of old toys, a cowboy named Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, is not only jealous but confused. Buzz and his miraculous 'high tech' stuff, like a laser beam, threaten Woody's status as smartest toy, and thus the natural leader.

This is a wonderfully human story with terrific visuals and an enjoyable plot for all ages. When you suspend your belief and buy into the fantasy, the toys become human and elicit our feelings as if they were real. The sequel, Toy Story 2, is almost as good, and deals with the poignancy of discarding old toys that were once best friends..

Winner of 19 awards and 33 nominations, ranked #147 on the IMDB 250

Update: here is our review of 2010's Toy Story 3, a very worthy sequel and perhaps best of the trilogy, nominated for five Oscars®

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Finding Nemo

Dir: Andrew Stanton, 2003 (9.8*)
One of the best animated childrens films, all the qualities of classic Disney. Thoroughly enjoyable story with funny dialogue, made funnier by the casting of Albert Brooks and Evelyn Degeneres. The story concerns dad fish Broooks looking for son fish Nemo who gets swept up in a tropical fish collectors net, and ends up in a dental office aquarium! Creepy stuff… but not as creepy as Chicken Run. Along the way he runs into Degeneres, and various sea creatures, including some lovable sea turtles. This is a must see, best five all-time for animation. The others: Snow White, Fantasia, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story. (I also like The Incredibles, Cars, Hoppity Goes to Town, Curse of the Were-Rabbit) Well, Wallace and Gromit's Amazing Adventures are the best, but all short films - still, four Oscars in all!

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