An Animated End to 2009

The first twenty-first decade was marked with a great explosion in the CG scene. CG animation advanced at dizzying rates as industry giants like Pixar and Square Enix pushed the medium. The old ways of hand-drawn animation seemed over, even its founding father, Disney, had given up on it. Regardless of what seemed to be traditional animation's demise, new domains of animation also flourished. Flash animation by individuals dominated the web, and phenomena like Potter's Puppet Pals and Charlie the Unicorn graced every screen in all its sing-song obnoxious glory. Foreign indie studios also gained recognition for more serious animation such as the stark black-and-white Persepolis. New CG animation studios began popping up to challenge Pixar's domain.  Directors raved over motion capture, and people raged over Uncanny Valley (a symptom of eery undead people found in increasingly photorealistic animations; example: The Polar Express).

As the first decade prepared to pass by, movie enthusiasts and animation nuts were treated to a grand finale of stellar top-tier cinema and animation last 2009. For the first time since 1940, ten nomination slots will be open for Oscar's best picture. A record 20 animated films are under consideration for best animated feature, bringing up the nominations to a record of five slots. A wide variety of animation styles was also well-represented on the screen, when many had assumed the older forms were dead. Two strong contenders are stop-motion (very different styles of stop-motion, at that), and traditional makes a comeback with three strong films to support it. Many of these notable animated features are a first for some of these studios.

Coraline
Release:    Feb 06
Studio:    Laika
Distributor:    Focus Features
Directed by Henry Selick

Coraline, based on a novel by Neil Gaiman of the same name, follows the titular heroine who, dissatisfied with the dull grey-toned world and the lack of companions and parental attention, is lured into a more vibrant, warm version of her world. Coraline is a refreshing and realistic youthful lead whose mannerisms mirror those of a real inquisitive 11-year-old. The contrast between the dull, washed-out monotonous colors in the real world and the rich fanciful imagery in the parallel world is striking, and the dark, gothic undertones below the colorful, friendly surface creates a terse suspense that builds as Coraline's situation becomes increasingly dire. The film's look and feel is directed by the same man behind the equally-stylish Nightmare Before Christmas, with the same strange mixture of innocence and gothic. Coraline is the feature debut of Laika, a fairly young studio that has gained much recognition for its work on commercials. The studio has recently decided to focus on stop-motion animation, making this studio a possible stop-motion powerhouse in the near future.

Up
Release:    May 29
Studio:    Pixar
Distributor:     Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Pete Docter

Pixar delivers what many have called their most sophisticated animated feature as of yet, with a tale on letting go and learning to open the mind to what is yet to come. The tale is fairly unconventional, even for Pixar, with a grumpy square old man for its lead and its locale a remote location in South America. The grumpy old square is a recently-widowed Carl Frederickson, who, after the heartbreaking loss of his beloved and lovely wife Ellie has become reclusive and stubborn. Determined to carry out his promise to Ellie, Frederickson devises a means of escape via several balloons towards Paradise Falls. Along the way the lonely Russell, loveable Dug and quirky Kevin barge into Frederickson's life. The film is laden with imagery and symbols that poignantly expresses Frederickson's current frame of mind. For example, when Frederickson finally lets go of the house at the end, we feel as if a weight is lifted and it is clear that he has finally let go of the past. Especially notable is the emotional power of the opening sequence; in a compact wordless montage the character of Ellie and their love for each other plays in mere minutes, yet the emotional impact of that scene prevails throughout the film. Pixar proves once again that they are masters of storytelling with Up, and for the first time since Beauty and the Beast this animated feature may receive the elusive Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
Release:    July 19
Studio:    Ghibli Animation (Japan)
Distributor:    Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Mayazaki

Should traditional animation truly die out in America, great masters like Mayazaki will continue to preserve and develop the artform overseas. Although the film was technically released in Japan the year before, the dubbed version was released for America last year in August. The film has been compared to Miyazaki's Totoro in its return to a completely hand-drawn approach and its focus on the viewpoints of its children leads. Ponyo is a youthful twist on the classic little mermaid tale, with the titular female fish who, in her innocent love for Sousuke, disregards her father's warnings to become human. Her disregard of her father's warnings sends the balance of the world off-kilter, and a giant tsunami floods the area. Sousuke and Ponyo then make their way through a Japan transformed through flooding waters and imagination to find Sousuke's mother. Though Ponyo lacks the level of complexity and subtle character interactions in Totoro Ponyo still contains the same level of child-inspired creativity. The tone of the film is also significantly lighter and highly playful with more emphasis placed on the hyper-imaginative point-of-views of the children. Whereas Totoro focused on how the children coped with their mother's illness and absence, and the actual existance of Totoro is left open to debate, Ponyo meshes the worlds of reality and the child's imagination to the point that they become one. Ponyo is a simple trip back to childhood and youthful innocence without the heavier social or psychological underpinnings found in some of Mayazaki's other more-well-known fare.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Release:    September 18
Studio:    Sony Pictures Animation
Distributor:    Columbia (Sony)
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs takes a refreshingly different route from the usual increasingly realistic aesthetic of most CG today to hearken back to the days of rubber-hose animation and the ridiculously impossible. The film throws all notions of physics out the window, and the whole film is a visual gymnastics. The film's protagonist is the failure-of-an-aspring-inventor Flint Lockwood, whose small-fishing-town is suffering from the declining demand for sardines. With newfound determination, Flint finally succeeds to create the solution to the town's problem, the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (aka FLDSMDFR). With the FLDSMDFR water is (somehow) transformed into any kind of food the customer desires. With the FLDSMDFR both Flint Lockwood and obligatory female lead Sam Sparks enjoy a rise in their career. Unfortunately over-abuse of the machine causes malfunction: Flint must find it in himself to use an inventer's prowess to stop the machine and Sam Sparks must learn to let out her true nerdy self. The story is not complex or revolutionary, but it does set things up effectively for future events in the story to create a satisfying film in addition to the over-the-top eye candy.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Release:    November 13
Studio:    Indian Paintbrush
Distributor:     20th Century Fox
Directed by Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson makes his debut in animation with the second stop-motion contender for an Oscar nomination. Unlike most stop-motion fare, however, Fantastic Mr. Fox takes advantage of the quirky jittery qualities of the medium instead of glossing over them. The result is a refreshing truly original film experience that melds perfectly the directing style of Anderson and the quirky storyteling of Dahl. The feel of the film is very organic in its raw treatment of animation and the semi-realistic designs of the characters makes the character's identity as wild animals transparent. The dry sense of humour and thoroughly-machinated cinematography Anderson's films are known for also work extremely well with the medium. The fantastic Mr. Fox and his companions are also humanly flawed like most Anderson characters, and the charisma and wit of the titular character helps keep the character's flaws from becoming repulsive. Mr. Fox's desire to pull one last stunt despite the danger it could pose to his established family and his friends is upon examination selfish and self-serving. Nevertheless Mr. Fox coerces his friends and family to help him pull a final magnum opus of a stunt, and the animals begin a battle of the wits with the three farmers they are targeting. Fantastic Mr. Fox utilizes a new, fresh approach to animation, and executes that approach so well many critics have cried out that it's fantastic. Fantastic Mr. Fox may be Up's most serious competition for the animation Oscar, and Wes Anderson may have found his perfect medium in stop-motion.

Princess and the Frog
Release:    December 11
Studio:    Disney Feature Animation
Distributor:    Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

Disney's Princess and the Frog endured numerous obstacles and bumps in the road before its final premiere, starring the first black Disney princess and the first Disney princess in while. Due to numerous entanglements involving political correctness and a reboot of Disney's traditional animation system, the film has changed from the original title, The Frog Princess to its current title, and its strong female lead's name was originally Maddie. Disney's return to traditional animation was mostly engineered by the chief creative officer of Pixar and now also Disney, John Lasseter, who believed that of all the animation studios in the world, "the studio that started it all" should be doing traditional animation. The Pixar motive, that "story is king", transferred to Disney via Lasseter. This emphasized that it is not animation type that makes a film, but the story, an idea that clashes with Disney's infamous decision in 2004 to go all digital, because "traditional animation isn't relevant anymore." Princess and the Frog follows in the veins of past Disney animated classics, and for that there is nothing groundbreaking in its approach to storytelling or animation. Tiana plays the princess who in the end falls for the prince Naveen after triumphing over the machinations of a charismatic, deliciously evil villain. As a triumphant return to hand-drawn animation, however, the familiarity serves as a warm reminder of the classic animated musicals that enchanted many of us in our youth.

Avatar
Release:    December 18
Studio:    Lightstorm Entertainment
Distributor:    20th Century Fox
Directed by James Cameron

Although Avatar does not qualify as an animated feature, the groundbreaking work in realistic animation, effective use of motion capture and phenomenal box-office performance lands it a place on this list. Cameron's Avatar retells the tale of two lovers from opposing factions in a new intricately-realized sci-fi epic. The lush, fully-realized world of Pandora houses peaceful sentients known as Na'vi whose way of life is threatened by the humans who have come to mine the rich land. Through the romance between titular leads Jake and Neytiri, Jake learns of the disruptive nature of the human's acts and takes a stance against the humans with the Na'vi. The story and writing itself is lacking, with strong similarities to Disney's Pochahontas. Nevertheless the immersive level of detail put into creating the believable environment and the impressive ground-breaking use of motion capture launches Avatar to become one of the most important films of 2009 and significant in bringing the industry closer to obtaining photorealistic animation. Also notable is the film's claim to the second highest-grossing film of all time, below James Cameron's other phenomenon, Titanic.

A significant number of new comers surprise the animation scene with features that push the medium and bring fresh visual ideas to the screen, and Disney returns to its roots with a 2D traditional feature. James Cameron takes CG animation and drives it nearly to the other edge of Uncanny Valley, to that elusive goal of perfect realism. And Pixar releases what may be the first animated nomination for Best Picture since Beauty and the Beast. Animation continues to grow ever-more-ubiquitous and increasingly advanced, gracing the screens via film, commercials and video games. In this new decade of 201X, that Holy Grail of completely believable photorealistic human animation is near touching distance, and the traditional animation many of us grew up with will continue to flourish as well.

Animated features to look out for this year:
Pixar's Toy Story 3
Disney's Rapunzel
Dreamwork's How to Train Your Dragon
Cartoon Saloon's Secret of Kells