Give til the end of the week to tally and any last votes. Any suggestions on what to topic next?

waltz with bashir
spirited away
a scanner darkly
fantastic mr. fox
persepolis

Superhero films. Keep it topical.

Waking Life
Mary & Max
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Spirited Away

so very difficult to narrow it down to 5, especially that last Miyazaki slot.... could easily do a list of 5 worthy films from him alone (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, then.... Ponyo / Kiki's)

Also interesting to note my list has only 1 traditionally animated movie. 3 are stop-motion (but the quality of the story-telling propels them to the top) and the other is perhaps the first instance of animation laid over a digitally captured image, to mesmerizing effect that perfectly compliments the dreamy, philosophical 'story.' No computer animated films made the cut (How to Train Your Dragon would be closest).

Other worthy mentions:

Paprika
Waltz with Bashir
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
The Secret of Kells
Akira

and then there's all the ones cherished from my childhood, which may or may not actually be good films:

The Secret of NIMH
The Land Before Time (this qualifies)
Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest
An American Tail
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
Brave Little Toaster
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Incredible Mr. Limpit

1. Shrek 2
2. Shrek
3. The Lego Movie
4. The Prince of Egypt
5. Kung Fu Panda

I forgot the Prince of Egypt, lol. Now thats a fantastic movie.

I love the weird animation and British humor of their films, and had a hard time deciding which one to pick.

And seriously? Prince of Egypt? Yuk.

Interesting story on that one. When it came out, I said some bad things about it in Entertainment Weekly and Dreamwork's publicist sent me a personal nasty letter. So nice to be noticed.

Really Groucho? You got a letter published in EW magazine then received personal notice from the studio? Weird. I'm curious to know what you said and why you loathed the movie so. I remember liking it, not absolutely loving it, but appreciated the visuals and the music for sure.

Coraline is their best film by far.

I'll try to find the article and scan it in for you. I had actually not reviewed the film at all but merely said something like if they expect to beat Disney it would have to be a masterpiece or something like that.

I thought the film was forgettable. Now mind you, I'm an atheist, but I love a good story. I can like a religious story if it's fun. But this wasn't -- Moses was the hero and he didn't even do anything. Talk about your deus-ex-machina ending. Unsatisfying, forgettable songs, and not worth a second watching. Not terrible, but doesn't deserve to be on anyone's best list.

But the Boxtrolls is great!

better than POE, tbh

Here we go. Just under the picture in the first column.

The story of Moses is the story of Moses. Complaining about deus ex machins in a Bible story is ridiculous when the main character is the all powerful God.


And the soundtrack kicks ass, are you kidding me?

The fact that bad storytelling comes from the Bible doesn't turn it good.

Akira
Princess Mononoke
The Iron Giant
How To Train Your Dragon
Spirited Away

Please explain how a story beloved by millions is bad. (Possibly a couple billion). Do you expect God not to do things in a movie about him. The whole point is that Moses frees the slaves through his faith in God.

Because it's bad storytelling -- in the same way Disney's Sleeping Beauty is a bad story because the hero doesn't solve the problem, "magic" suddenly appears and solves everything. Moses doesn't free the slaves, magic does (in the form of God) and all Moses does is stand there while God solves everything. That's just bad writing.

The fact that people like something has nothing to do with whether it's good or not. Armageddon was a huge hit, too. Doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

Hey now, I thought Prince of Egypt was pretty good

It would be one thing if God just showed up at the end. But he is throughout the movie. Should they have made an atheist version without God?

Basically you seem to be against the supernatural in movies. Magic saves the day in like every Disney movie.

I write books with supernatural stuff in them. I run a large game with magic.

But it has to make sense within the film; using magic as an easy excuse to solve the problem is bad storytelling. "Oh no, the dragon will kill us! No problem, I'll just use a magic spell that was never mentioned previously and which makes no sense given the world already established. Ta da! We're saved!" Very unsatisfying.

Same thing goes for science fiction that uses "technology" to get the characters out of a plot problem. It's an easy and lazy fix for a writer.

Magic isn't the problem -- easy fixes using magic is the problem.

And it's even worse when the problem is fixed by someone other than the main character. That's one of the problems I have with PoE and Sleeping Beauty (as I said previously). If God is the one who moves the plot along, then God should be the main character, not some guy who is just his messenger.

Anyway, that's why I personally didn't like it and why I don't like other movies and books that do similar things. Obviously, others don't care about that kind of thing and like those movies and books, given how many have become successful.

What's your favorite Biblical story Groucho?

And that's also the problem with Exodus: Gods and Kings. Bad writing.

The story of Jesus would be a good one -- common man working to fight for justice and all that. Noah could be a good story about a vengeful god and how people had to deal with it.

It all depends on how they're told, of course. Any story can work if told well. And what makes a story good are characters we care about who affect the plot of the story.

The Bible, however, isn't meant to be "good story telling." That's not its purpose. Many of the stories in the Bible don't work as good stories.

Man, Noah also had an awful script.