'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' fantastic year for animated movies

by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Tags: A Christmas Carol, Commentary, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Favorite Movies, Up!

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Owen loves Fantastic Mr. Fox and Disney’s A Christmas Carol, and so do I. Read the full post.

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chris
Fri 11/13/09 2:11 AM

“Up” was a beautiful film and almost certainly deserves to win. But personally, my favorite animated film of the year was “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” No other film packed in so much raw joy. It managed to be touching and hilarious in the same moments, and the whole moviegoing experience was satisfying in a way that “Coraline” and “9″ were not. In a way, it’s too bad this is such a strong year, or “Cloudy” would get the recognition it deserves.

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TopLioness
Fri 11/13/09 9:41 PM

The animated movie I enjoyed the most was, of all things, “Astro Boy”. That movie had heart, action, darkness and light in equal and delightful measure. I feel sorry for those folks who took a pass on it. They don’t know what they missed. My second fave was “Up”, for its imagination, and third was “Ponyo” because it was so different. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” on the other hand…echhh. It was like an animal version of “Zombieland” without the laughs. *shudder* Nearly walked out of it this afternoon. I’ll never look at roadkill the same way again.

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themoviesnob
Fri 11/13/09 11:29 PM

I don’t think it is fair to lump the very strong (although still overrated) Up with films like 9 and Coraline. (I have hopes for Mr. Fox, which I have not seen). I admire both critics very much (being an avid reader for over 13 years), but Lisa seems to generously apply grades north of B+ to animation, as Owen does with documentaries. These critical soft spots suggest there are no wide differences in quality within the genre and they also prevent the true cream of the crop from gaining attention by larger audiences (you know, audiences who don’t see every animated film and doc that comes out each year like us film nuts do).

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Brandon Isaacson
Sat 11/14/09 12:20 AM

I actually LOVED Mary and Max most so far but I am a huge Wes Anderson fan so that will probably take the crown. Up was excellent but I’m bored of the typical animated movie when you have things like Mary and Max, Fox, and 9 out there. (9 story was dumb but the animation was BRILLIANT. visually best animated movie this year easily for me).

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Ken
Wed 11/18/09 11:01 PM

I am feeling a bit isolated from everyone here, in that I feel that for the first time, a Pixar film was not the best film of the year. UP was good, but it seemed a bit rushed towards the end. The jokes seemed reused a bit, and the background designs were ugly. (Just my opinion.) The best animated film this year I have seen was Ponyo, but I don’t know if it’ll be a contender for this year’s Best Animated Feature, since it was released in Japan last year, and is not an original 2009 film. If Ponyo does not get it, I’m going for Coraline.

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JB
Thu 11/19/09 1:31 PM

I am deaply disappointed that on of the best animated movies I have ever seen and one that was submitted to the Academy for an Oscar Nomination this year has not even had a major release in this country.
I saw Mary & Max in while living in Australia and was blown away at the story line, script amd art direction. It is an adult theme movie, but very moving. For all of us who felt we didn’t fit in at diferent periods of our life, this movie will strike a chord. I hope it finds a place in a few theaters before the Oscars. It deserves to be at least nominated and perhaps a win.

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Yogurt
Fri 11/20/09 9:41 PM

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Janet
Mon 11/23/09 8:11 PM

I loved Mr. Fox, Coraline, Up.

SONG OF THE YEAR:

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Kirstie
Tue 11/24/09 3:13 AM

As a humongous fan of Wes Anderson, I can’t wait for this movie. On top Coraline, A Christmas Carol, and especially UP, this really is an amazing year for fantastic films.

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Samantha
Mon 12/14/09 4:44 AM

Hello admin, nice site ! Good content, beautiful design, thank !,

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