Support NeoGAF

[Finaika]

Don't look back, there's a giant white wolf behind you.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Did they just have a "only one movie per studio" thing or something? Seems crazy not to have several more Miyazaki movies. And I definitely agree that Coraline should replace Boxtrolls.

 

[Ratrat]

I'm sorry if it seems like I am attacking them...As I said before, I appreciate them overall but in comparison to other examples, they fall short (in certain aspects).

I can't comment on Waltz or Song of the Sea as I haven't seen them...nor have I seen Kaguya. Lego Movie and Mr Fox are (at least in style) are stop-animated films...they are in fact shot at 24 fps but the style gives it a "stuttery" impression.

Besides The Lion King, the other examples are pretty bad. Legend of the Guardians will be hideous in 5 years like Final Fantasy or Polar Express, Waltz and Sound of the Sea look like they were done in flash and the then you have that paper thing.
And there, you have a stylistic reason for a low framerate/stuttery feel, which shows smooth animation is not automatically superior. It depends on the film and there are many factors that determine whether these movies look 'good'. Hence Shinkai.

Did they just have a "only one movie per studio" thing or something? Seems crazy not to have several more Miyazaki movies. And I definitely agree that Coraline should replace Boxtrolls.

Paranorman looked better imo. Wasn't it their first movie to use 3D printing? Even Nightmare Before Christmas looks better than Coraline.

 

[Servbot24]

That is a bizarre list. They must not mean aesthetic beauty?

 

[Pons]

No Rats/Secret of Nimh automatically makes this list invalid :l

 

[Slixshot]

No The Last Unicorn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF1Q56YAo0Q

; _ ;

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

That's a bad list.

The Prince of Egypt should've been in there.

 

[MogCakes]

Where is Finding Nemo OP?
Macross DYRL?
Atlantis?
Secret of Nimh?

I agree with some of your list tho

 

[Subpar Spatula]

I actually agree with this list for the most part...From a technical and artistic point of view, its only natural that the latest movies using the latest technologies should look the best.

Of particular note (puts on flame suit) I agree that most Japanese films should be excluded from it. Films like Princess Mononoke (which I enjoy) is technically subpar to most every Disney film ever made. Japanese animation to this day is drawn at a mere 16 frames per seconds...the result is that no matter how well things are drawn or envisioned, its a stuttering mess.

This "style" is used to save costs...the fewer frames you draw, the less you spend. As a counter-example, all of Disney's films are (and always have been) drawn at 24 frames per second so in comparison it's hard for me to consider these as equals (technically).

"Technical" doesn't mean better. You need an argument as to how 24FPS makes these films superior. Having higher frame rate is, yes, technically more frames. You haven't made an argument as to why this is better.

 

[bennywhatever]

Glad to see Legend of the Guardians on there. I was blown away by the visuals on it. Some of the flying scenes were just beautiful.

 

[SaganIsGOAT]

Where the hell is Mononoke ?
What a stupid list.

My first reaction.


Ghibli would run these charts in reality. They are just so beautiful.

 

[Sinatar]

Can't take an Akira-less list seriously.

 

[Messypandas]

The Lego wins because of its mastery of depth of field, lighting, those weird subtle artifacts like grease and fingerprints. You forget that it isn't actually a camera filming at times. And thats just on top of the fact that its beautiful and entertaining.

 

[Finaika]

No The Last Unicorn?

She looks so sad

 

[Draft]

Not only is Akira beautiful with great inventive art and fun colors, it is the smoothest 2D animation ever put on a cell. There are some thing only money can buy and one of them is an army of hands and pencils putting minute detail into every 1/24th of a second that appears on screen. It's sci fi cheese that's very confusing and doesn't belong on a list of the 10 best animated movies, but it clearly belong near the top of the list of most beautiful animated movies.

 

[Daria Morgendorffer]

I'm a big fan of Wall-e but I think there are other pixar movies that are better animated. Also I would put Paprika somewhere on the list too.

 

[adj_noun]

I'd have thrown the Last Unicorn in there somewhere.

 

[MMarston]

I only agree with like 2 entries on that list.


It really is a shit list.

 

[Xe4]

Hmm...I love a lot of the movies on that list to death, but many of them would not be in a top 10 for animation for me.

If we are to exclude anything under an hour long (so excluding the works of Yuri Norstein, Aleksandr Petrov, etc...), and only look at how well they are animated (excluding story) my list would be.

10. The Adventures of Prince Achmed
9. Paprika
8. Sprited Away
7. Fantastic Planet
6.Redline
5. The Nightmare before Christmas
4. Akira
3. Pinocchio
2. Garden of Words
1. The Thief and the Cobbler

But I haven't given it too much thought.

 

[Skiptastic]

Glad to see Legend of the Guardians on there. I was blown away by the visuals on it. Some of the flying scenes were just beautiful.

Agreed. The movie story and plot are meh, but my god was this a gorgeous looking film.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Especially when the list features a lot of modern movies and often based more on technical excellence, I am surprised Tintin is not on there.

 

[Linkark07]

Garden of Words is indeed one of the most beautiful animated movies I have ever seen. Such a delight watching such a gorgeous movie.

 

[The Lamonster]

no Fantasia = instant fail

 

[JadedWriter]

Can't take an Akira-less list seriously.

I wonder how many animators dyed drawing this... Still surprised Char's Counter Attack and Macross Plus aren't on here.

 

[jett]

IT WAS DRAWN AT FULL 24 FPS.

Over 160,000 individual cels drawn. 160,000/24 = >6666 seconds of animation. 6666/60 (seconds in a minute) = 111 minutes of animation. The total length of the film including credits is 121 minutes.

That's not how it works. A different character or just a small moving part of the environment would be a unique cel.

As far as my eyes can see, some of Akira is animated at 24fps and some of it isn't.

 

[borghe]

pointless list IMHO. I mean I get everyone wanting to do "Top xx" lists.. but I mean how do you even rank something like this... Just off the top of my head omissions include

Secret of Nimh
Iron Giant
so so so many Ghibli movies (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, Porcco Rosso, etc)
Akira
Finding Nemo
Brave (really, the movie is beautiful)
Sleeping Beauty
Pinocchio
etc

I mean the list isn't junk.. I just don't really know how you could make a top list of beautifully animated movies when there are literally hundreds each with their own merits.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

As far as CGI movies are concerned, a huge omission is Rango. It was one of the only CGI movies in recent history that still wows me. The textures, the lighting, the cinematography. So criminally underrated.

Much better in motion:
http://c.1339.cf/depdaoj.webm
http://g.1339.cf/jxfzzxp.webm
http://b.1339.cf/dejieqa.webm

 

[Bjomesphat]

I can't comment on Waltz or Song of the Sea as I haven't seen them...nor have I seen Kaguya. Lego Movie and Mr Fox are (at least in style) are stop-animated films...they are in fact shot at 24 fps but the style gives it a "stuttery" impression.

Fantastic Mr Fox was shot at 12 fps. Stop acting like you have any idea what you're talking about.

 

[genjiZERO]

Boxtrolls? Give me a break. It was a fine film, but I'm not prepared to call it "beautifully animated".

Also, CGI shouldn't be pared with cell animation. They're too different a media.

 

[kewlmyc]

Normally I don't care about lists, but no REDLINE is just odd.

 

[Shergal]

Weird choice for the Ghibli one, though. Kaguya has an interesting style and does it well, but it's not nearly the eye candy of most of Miyazaki's oeuvre. Spirited Away, Ponyo, or Mononoke should have that spot.

Kaguya is easily the best looking and most visually impressive film put out by Ghibli though. Miyazaki's eye candy is more down to content.

 

[Doc Holliday]

No top 10 best animated films is legit without :

The Jungle Book - any film that Milt kahl worked on could be in the top 10, this one just stands out for me

Akira

The thief and the cobbler

The Illusionist

The Incredibles - underrated in animation for some reason but it raised the bar for all cg movies after that.

After that you can add many movies from the 2d disney films, or ghibli.


Ps tint ok was motio captured, should not be in any best animated list

 

[Mumei]

Where on earth is Sleeping Beauty!? It should be number 1 on that list

And that doesn't even account for the gorgeous animation.

 

[jett]

These fools limited themselves to a single Disney pick, for reasons. And gave Disney the tenth position, for even dumber reasons.

 

[Puruzi]

Fuck Redline at?

 

[Doc Holliday]

And that doesn't even account for the gorgeous animation.

My god I need that Blue ray :O

Ps if Don Bluth made a space ace or dragons lair movie...it would be on the list.

 

[Zissou]

Some glaring omissions.

Paprika
The Wind Rises
Persepolis
Kirikou and the Sorceress
Alice in Wonderland
Bambi
Sleeping Beauty
Pinocchio
Mind game
A Scanner Darkly
Fantastic Planet
REDLINE
The Thief and the Cobbler
The Book of Kels

How many entries do you generally put in a top 10 list?

 

[Shig]

Kaguya is easily the best looking and most visually impressive film put out by Ghibli though. Miyazaki's eye candy is more down to content.

Man, I can't agree at all. Kaguya's a fine film but I never felt anything in Kaguya really blew the doors off, animation-wise. There's always several shots in any given Miyazaki film that have my mouth agape and stay with me forever.

 

[Drek]

That's not how it works. A different character or just a small moving part of the environment would be a unique cel.

As far as my eyes can see, some of Akira is animated at 24fps and some of it isn't.

By that standard has there ever been a hand drawn animated work that literally re-drew background for every single cel?

3rdman's critique was that they reshot the same identical cel as filler to meet the 24 shots per second number, i.e. shot on the 2's, 4's, etc.. Akira had some level of modification to effectively every 1/24th of a second. Did they redraw entire cityscapes? I'd presume not, but they did specifically detail every single 1/24th of a second even if the image was more or less static.

 

[aerts1js]

I can't take that list seriously considering Land Before Time, Secret of Nimh, or All Dogs Go to Heaven aren't on it.

edit: and the Last Unicorn.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Any movie not shot at at least 120fps is automatically bad.

/expert opinion

 

[genjiZERO]

Man, I can't agree at all. Kaguya's a fine film but I never felt anything in Kaguya really blew the doors off, animation-wise. There's always several shots in any given Miyazaki film that have my mouth agape and stay with me forever.

It's because it's stylistic. It's a combination of traditional ink drawing and Western watercolors, and it works brilliantly. Now, that doesn't make it an "animation feat", but that could mean it's "beautifully animated". These two ideas could mean different things.

 

[Mumei]

My god I need that Blue ray :O

It makes me wish I had a Blu-ray player. D:

I can't take that list seriously considering Land Before Time, Secret of Nimh, or All Dogs Go to Heaven aren't on it.

edit: and the Last Unicorn.

Specifically the pizza.

 

[Shergal]

Man, I can't agree at all. Kaguya's a fine film but I never felt anything in Kaguya really blew the doors off, animation-wise. There's always several shots in any given Miyazaki film that have my mouth agape and stay with me forever.

Well, Miyazaki specifically aims for that in most of his films. That's why I put it down to content. The most impressive Miyazaki film in terms of the animation is Ponyo IMO, much more unhinged on the animation front than its companions, but even then, it's the fact that they're animating giant waves wrecking havoc what impresses in the film.

Tanabe's style from Kaguya and Yamadas is much more interesting and fleshed-out, and I think it's more flexible as well. The quietest scene with two characters simply talking can feel impressive, but you can also get things like this:
http://sakuga.yshi.org/post/show/8391/animated-background_animation-my_neighbors_the_yam
http://sakuga.yshi.org/post/show/8394/animated-effects-kenichi_yoshida-liquid-my_neighbo
http://sakuga.yshi.org/post/show/11671/animated-background_animation-running-seven_years_
http://sakuga.yshi.org/post/show/11712/akiko_yamaguchi-animated-effects-hiroyuki_morita-l

Also, the art direction in Kaguya is easily Kazuo Oga's most labored despite the faded style. It's hard to pay attention to that as you watch the film, because it's so immersive, but seeing the art boards after the fact was enlightening.

 

[3rdman]

Fantastic Mr Fox was shot at 12 fps. Stop acting like you have any idea what you're talking about.

LOL. Ok.

My general point STILL stands. I apologize for sharing my opinion...I am out.

 

[Crossing Eden]

The fact that the wolf isn't moving at all in that shot is ridiculous jarring.

Boxtrolls? Give me a break. It was a fine film, but I'm not prepared to call it "beautifully animated".

Also, CGI shouldn't be pared with cell animation. They're too different a media.

Boxtrolls was beautifully animated, there is a ton of nuance in the motion of the characters, especially the expressions.

 

[injurai]

How many entries do you generally put in a top 10 list?

It's not a top 10, it's a list of some which should have been included in place of what was given.

 

[Karkador]

The list is wrong, but I'm glad that there are more than 10 films I'd put on this list. It's great that animation is still a relevant and appreciated artform, even if it's gone through a lot of changes.

 

[andymcc]

The fact that the wolf isn't moving at all in that shot is ridiculous jarring.

pretty sure the fur is moving because the wolf is growling. bad gif.

 

[Despera]

Even after considering the subjectivity of it all, and I generally refrain from strongly commenting on stuff like this because of that, this list is pretty shit.