39. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)
Directed by: Dean Fleischer Camp
Written by: Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate and Nick Paley
Starring: Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer Camp, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, Lesley Stahl and Isabella Rossellini
Music by: Disasterpiece
Rated: PG
Marcel (Jenny Slate) is a little shell with shoes on, who lives with his grandmother, Connie (Isabella Rossellini) and his best friend, a divorced human filmmaker named Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp), who makes short YouTube documentaries about Marcel’s daily life. After their shorts gain online success, Marcel decides to use his newfound fame to search for his lost family…
Originally beginning life as a trilogy of YouTube short mockumentaries by Director Dean Fleischer Camp and his former wife, Jenny Slate from 2010 to 2014, the adventures of Marcel, a little talking shell going through daily life, would eventually get adapted for a feature-length film, that is one of the most heartwarming films of the year.
While animation has recently had success with real life documentaries such as Waltz With Bashier and Flee, family-friendly examples of fictional documentaries can be found with Aardman’s Creature Comforts franchise and Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up, and this is no exception. While Marcel the Shell with Shoes On does have an awkward way of balancing both the documentary feeling of the shorts, with a conventional narrative structure about Marcel’s quest for his family, the tender moments and great stop-motion sequences are what makes this such a cute film.
Jenny Slate once again, brings this character to life with adorable curiosity and innocence, while also getting a moving emotional subplot of his relationship with his grandmother, voiced wonderfully by Isabella Rossellini. Even if some of the internet gags do ruin some moments, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is still a wonderful and sweet little film about how even one of the oddest characters, can tug on heartstrings.
Rating: 4.5/5
38. The Breadwinner (2017)
Directed by: Nora Twomey
Written by: Anita Doron and Deborah Ellis
Starring: Saara Chaudry, Soma Bhatia, Ali Badshah, Noorin Gulamgaus, Kawa Ada and Ali Kazmi
Music by: Mychael and Jeff Danna
Rated: 12
In the months before the United States invasion of Afghanistan, a young girl named Parvana (Saara Chaudry) has her father (Ali Badshah) taken away from her and her family, after he defends her from the Taliban. To provide food and water for her family, Parvana decides to dress up as a boy in order to be allowed to buy provisions, with the help of another girl named Shauzia (Soma Chhaya)…
A bleak and emotional departure from the style of Cartoon Saloon’s Irish Folklore projects, The Breadwinner, adapted from Deborah Ellis’s book of the same name, is a harrowing tale about oppression so severe and unfair, that it makes Persepolis look more cheerful by comparison.
While some may argue that the Irish Studios’s cartoon like art style doesn’t fit for this more realistic story about Taliban rule in Afghanistan, it does help in easily making the characters much more sympathetic and engaging. However, these bleak moments are balanced out with Parvana’s arc of finding her father and with her subplots with Shauzia and a much more open-minded man repaying her for delivering news about her family to him, which gets a really emotional payoff in the climax.
Overall, in spite of a rushed ending, The Breadwinner is still one of the best films from Cartoon Saloon that, despite the bleakness of oppression depicted here, shows that one of the newest animation studios, is capable for telling all kinds of film genres through the magic of animation.
Rating: 4.5/5
37. Song of the Sea (2014)
Directed by: Tomm Moore
Written by: Will Collins
Starring: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Lisa Hannigan, Pat Shortt, Jon Kenny, Liam Hourcan and Lucy O’Connell
Music by: Bruno Coulais and Kíla
Rated: PG
Ever since losing his mother Bronagh (Lisa Hannigan) in the Irish seas, Ben (David Rawle) has blamed it on his mute sister, Saoirse. When it is discovered that the young girl is a selkie, a human with the ability to turn into a seal when wearing a magical cloak, Ben and Saoirse are forced to work together in order to get her back to the Irish Coast so she can sing a song designed to send a group of mythical creatures back to their homes..
The second instalment in Cartoon Saloon’s unofficial Irish Folklore trilogy, is absolutely a visual masterpiece and the most tearjerking entry in this series. Even though the main protagonist, Ben, is very hard to like in the first act given his awful treatment of his sister, it is clear that his family is a deeply heartbroken one, especially with his depressed father Conor (Brenden Gleeson) and his strict, but well-meaning Granny (Fionnula Flanagan), leading to an incredibly emotional ending.
As expected from this series, the world-building revolving around Irish legends is really interesting, especially with the morally grey witch, Macha (Also Fionnula Flanagan), the funny aos Sí and the quirky Great Seanachaí (Jon Cooper). Even though the selkie mystery is a bit overblown as they are depicted as creatures on the same power level as Jesus, the singing sequences are incredibly beautiful to listen to.
Overall, Song of the Sea is a powerful and deeply emotional story about a broken family brought back together again by the power of myth and the bond of enemy siblings becoming friends.
Rating: 4.5/5
36. Memoir of a Snail
Directed by: Adam Elliott
Written by: Adam Elliott
Starring: Sadie Snook, Kodi Smit–McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Magda Szubanski, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Paul Capsis and Jacki Weaver
Music by: Elena Kats-Chernin
Rated: 15
Set in 1970s Australia, Grace (Sadie Snook and Charlotte Belsey as a child) and Gilbert Pudel (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Mason Litsos as a child), live a quiet, but happy life in Melbourne until their father (Dominique Pinon) dies in his sleep. With Gilbert being sent away to an abusive religious family in Perth, Grace finds purpose in Canberra by collecting snails, while also befriending an eccentric elderly woman named Pinkie (Jacki Weaver), who encourages her to look for silver linings in life, no matter how dark it can get…
Being only the second R-rated animated film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards after Anomalisa, Adam Elliot, after his outstanding debut, Mary & Max failed to get the nomination in 2009 due to the overwhelming competition that year, finally got a nomination with Memoir of a Snail.
While the film does repeat a lot of the themes and even a pivotal moment in the climax from Elliot’s first film, Memoir of a Snail does manage to be a lot more emotional, especially in how it gives an honest message about the dangers of hoarding and the importance of bravery in order to change your life. However, it still remembers that, much like that previous film, to add a lot of the Australian director’s signature quirky humour, as well as having the ability to make his unconventional stop-motion animation style, look incredibly charming with its weirdness.
Overall, with great voice-acting from Sadie Snook, Kodi Smith-McPhee and especially Jacki Weaver as the incredibly amusing elderly woman, Pinkie, powerfully emotional themes about finding happiness in bad situations and the celebration of quirkiness as only Adam Elliott can provide, Memoir of a Snail is another great example of the potential of Australian animation in telling incredible stories.
Rating: 4.5/5
35. Klaus (2019)
Directed by: Sergio Pablos
Written by: Sergio Pablos, Jim Mahoney and Zach Lewis
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Neda Margrethe Labba, Sergio Pablos. Norm McDonald and Joan Cusack
Music by: Alfonso G. Aguilar
Rated: PG
A selfish and lazy young postman named Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) is sent by his father to Smeerensburg, an isolated, violent village in the Arctic Circle, to set up a post office and deliver six thousand letters within one year, or risk getting cut off from his wealthy lifestyle. When Jesper encounters a lonely old toy-maker named Klaus (J.K. Simmons), letters finally start getting written and the behaviour of the townspeople slowly starts to change for the better…
Before creating the Despicable Me franchise for Illumination Entertainment, Spanish animator Sergio Pablos worked as a character designer for Walt Disney Animation Studios on films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Tarzan. After releasing a test-footage trailer in 2015 of a revised origin story for Santa Claus, this ambitious attempt to evolve the declining art-form of hand-drawn animation, definitely succeeds in pure visual wonder.
Although the narrative is devoid of much surprises in plot terms and the decision to replace the original voice-actor from the teaser trailer for the character of Jesper with Jason Schwartzman, makes one wonder whether Netflix and Pablos had to compromise the quality in order to get the film made, Klaus is still a wonderful story about the importance of good deeds and selflessness in spite of the environment you live in.
Overall, the beautiful animation, the (mostly) wonderful voice-acting and the timeless message about kindness, makes Klaus one of the best animated Christmas films of recent years, along with Aardman’s Arthur Christmas.
Rating: 4.5/5
34. Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Directed by: John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
Written by: Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger
Starring: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong and Jackie Chan
Music by: Hans Zimmer and John Powell
Rated: PG
In a version of Ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, Po (Jack Black) is a fun-loving, yet lonely giant panda, who works as a noodle salesman along with his goose father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) in the Valley of Peace. When the strongest Kung Fu master in the world, Grand Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), has a vision of the return of Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a vicious snow leopard warrior who once destroyed the Valley, he unexpectedly chooses Po as the “Dragon Warrior”, a legendary hero that is the only one capable of stopping Tai Lung. However, as Po works hard to win the approval of Oogway’s student and greatest teacher of Kung Fu, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and his heroes, The Furious Five, (Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu), Po must figure out his own inner strength in order to save his home….
With beautiful art direction, a refreshing take on the hero’s journey narrative, a respectful depiction of Chinese culture and a willingness to tone down Dreamworks’s usual reliance on gags in service of storytelling and atmosphere, Kung Fu Panda marked a positive change for Dreamworks Animation towards more story-driven narratives and is one of the finest animated films of the 2000s decade.
Originally planned as an animated spoof on martial arts films, directors John Stevenson and Mark Osbourne instead decided to make a character driven wuxia film, that just happened to be a comedy as well. While the jokes are still really entertaining as expected, the character arcs of Po, Master Shifu and even the antagonist, Tai Lung, are far more interesting and emotionally powerful, especially with the touching message of “there is no secret ingredient.”
While the impact that this film had was overshadowed by the huge success of How to Train Your Dragon in 2010, Kung Fu Panda is still an incredibly entertaining, action-packed and heartwarming movie that marked a new beginning for DreamWorks Animation, even after the Shrek films had started to decline in popularity in the late 2000s.
Rating: 4.5/5
33. Robot Dreams (2023)
Directed by: Pablo Berger
Written by: Pablo Berger
Starring: N/A
Music by: Alfonso de Vilallonga
Rated: PG
Set in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, in 1984 New York City, a lonely Dog finally finds his best friend, a Robot that he built himself. At the end of the summer however, Dog is forced to leave his friend behind on the Coney Island beach after Robot rusts as a result of too much swimming. As the seasons pass, Dog and Robot go through life-changing experiences, which change their perspectives of life, love and friendship…
After being originally conceived as a CGI film in the late 2000s and a possible production for Cartoon Saloon the following decade before COVID scrapped those plans, this delightful and bittersweet adaptation of Robot Dreams, a 2008 comic book by Sara Varon, would finally get made across numerous independent Spanish and French animation companies.
Much like the Shaun the Sheep movies, Robot Dreams has absolutely no dialogue, and relies on the facial and body moments of its animal and robot characters to tell this friendship story. Both the character arcs of Dog and Robot are so emotionally devastating, yet heartwarming as well, with several fantasy sequences really twisting the knife on the sadness of their situation. While some could say that the character designs are too simplistic for a story like this, the cuteness of the animals does help in making it feel like a less cynical and adult Bojack Horseman at times.
Overall, Robot Dreams is both a heartwarming and heartbreaking tale of why the best friendships are the most important in your life, even if they don’t have to last forever.
Rating: 4.5/5
32. Wolfwalkers (2020)
Directed by: Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart
Written by: Will Collins
Starring: Honor Kneafsey, Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean, Simon McBurney, Tommy Tiernan, Jon Kenny, John Morton and Maria Doyle Kennedy
Music by: Bruno Coulais and Kíla
Rated: PG
Set in 1650s Ireland, a young girl named Robyn Goodfellowe (Honor Kneafsey) hopes to join her father, Bill (Sean Bean) in his wolf hunting profession, after the latter was assigned by the authoritative Lord Protector (Simon McBurney) to remove all the wolves from the forest surrounding Kilkenny. However, when Robyn ends up getting saved from a trap by Mebh Óg MacTíre (Eva Whittaker), another young girl who has the power of “wolfwalking”, turning into a wolf whenever she falls asleep, Robyn has her eyes opened to the true nature of wolves, especially when she ends up becoming one herself after Mebh accidentally bites her…
The grand finale of Cartoon Saloon’s unofficial Irish Folklore Trilogy, that began with The Secret of Kells and continued with Song of the Sea, is a fantastic conclusion to Tomm Moore’s tributes to Irish mythology. After telling stories about the creation of the Book of Kells and selkies, both Moore and co-director Ross Stewart gives the audience, an amazing twist on the werewolf scenario, basing this story on the legends of the Werewolves of Ossory, with the world of the Wolfwalkers, showing the benefits of transformation into animals.
Both Robyn and Mebh make for fantastic protagonists, with the latter in particular, having a really fun personality and design, and, as expected from Cartoon Saloon, the character designs, background animation and music are beautifully crafted and feel like a fantasy illustration coming to life. While the plot does follow the (very literally in this case), Dances with Wolves plot structure, of a person from one side of a conflict coming to understand and join the other side, the emotional relationships between the characters and absolutely heartwarming ending makes this, along with Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, one of the best versions of this story.
Overall, Wolfwalkers is a fantastic and engaging fantasy story that brings everything that Cartoon Saloon and Tomm Moore have done for independent animation, to full circle here. You’ll laugh, cry and howl in delight.
Rated: 4.5/5
31. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Written by: Dean DeBlois
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, Djimon Hounsou and Kit Harington
Music by: John Powell
Rated: PG
The Vikings of Berk, with the help of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), Astrid (America Ferrera) and the rest of the Dragon Riders, have been living in peace with dragons in the last five years. But when Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou), a ruthless warlord threatens to destroy their existence, Hiccup plans to try and find a way to reason with him. which gets more complicated with the sudden reappearance of his mother Valka (Cate Blanchett) into his life…
Taking place after the events of the Dragons animated series, How to Train Your Dragon 2 doesn’t feel as well organised as the first film in terms of pacing and it’s obvious that some intended character arcs had to be dropped over time. After Chris Sanders left the franchise to work on The Croods, his co-director Dean DeBlois would take over the story, and regardless over the dropped story elements, such as Valka’s more darker role and the original plans for Drago expanding to the third film, more could have been done to make the story tighter.
However, it doesn’t really matter as the risks in the storytelling, the beautiful animation and of course, the heartwarming bond between Toothless and Hiccup, elevatates this worthy sequel up to the most emotional film that Dreamworks Animation had done since The Prince of Egypt. As with the first film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is absolutely stunning animation wise and while the side characters have devolved into annoying ones, the main characters of Hiccup, Stoick (Gerard Bulter), Toothless and Valka are given fantastic development, although the latter’s role could have been stronger.
Overall, How to Train Your Dragon 2 was yet another masterpiece sequel that DreamWorks Animation had perfected with the likes of Shrek 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2.
Rating: 4.5/5
30. The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
Directed by: Mike Rianda
Written by: Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe
Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Eric André, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Blake Griffin, Conan O’Brien and Doug the Pug
Music by: Mark Mothersbaugh
Rated: U
Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) is a teenage girl who loves films so much that her filmmaking talents have managed to get her accepted into film school in California. Only one problem however, her technophobe father Rick (Danny McBride), decides to take her, her mother Linda (Maya Rudolph), her dinosaur-obsessed little brother Aaron (Mike Rianda), and the family pug Monchi, on one last roadtrip before she leaves. But the crazy Mitchell family will soon have to put their problems aside when PAL (Olivia Colman), a sinister AI, takes over all of the world’s machines and captures nearly all of humanity, except for the one family that can (or try) to save the world…
After the disastrous results of 2017’s The Emoji Movie, it would seem that Sony Pictures Animation, despite some earlier successes with Surf’s Up and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, was going to go down in flames. However, all of that changed when the directors of Cloudy came back to the studio to have more involvement in their film’s productions and as a result of this, in just one year, Sony turned itself around with the award-winning and critically adored Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Now, after making a surprisingly good sequel to Sony Imagework’s The Angry Birds Movie, Sony Pictures Animation is out to prove that Spider-Verse was not just a one-hit wonder, by hiring Mike Rianda from Disney’s Gravity Falls, to create their first original film since 2017’s The Star.
Although this family friendly take on a Terminator-style robot apocalypse does follow the “child reconnects with estranged parent” formula from the likes of A Goofy Movie and Finding Nemo, what makes The Mitchells vs. The Machines so great is its emotional honesty about the pros and cons of having a crazy family, while also fleshing out the relationship between Katie and Rick as two flawed people who just want what’s best for the other. Even the brother character, Aaron gets some heartwarming development as one of the best depictions of autism in mainstream family animation in a long time.
But of course, even if Phil Lord and Chris Miller didn’t direct or write this film, their fingerprints are all over this as like their entire filmography, the jokes are some of the funniest gags in years revolving around subverting expectations, geek references and much like how Spider-Verse pushed boundaries in changing animation for good, The Mitchells vs. The Machines is absolutely stunning with its mix of CGI, hand-drawn animation and even live-action puppetry for sight gags.
Overall, The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a wonderful encore for the new age of Sony Pictures Animation. As 2021 is proving to be their most interesting year to date, if this film is anything to come by, we may have a new powerhouse studio on our hands!
Rated: 4.5/5
Chaz’s Cinematic Odyssey 