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There are few things that make me happier than watching a well written animated film– some people may call me childish for it, but I honestly believe sometimes they’re more compelling than the other films you can stumble across when you’re looking for a good movie. I’ve decided to post the top 5 of bated-breath.net’s favourite Animated Films.

All lists are subjective, and this one is in no way concrete, as new movies come out every year and some will wiggle in when you’re least expecting it. I may get scoffs from people who find some of my choices to be ‘too recent’ and that ‘classic films’ are better, but I’m talking about replay value here– something I can watch over and over, without getting bored– and how it resonates with me as a person.

5. An American Tail

One of the first movies I ever fell in love with, and still resonates with me today– I don’t know why, I was never really separated from my family or anything like that– but somehow it manages to creep into me and make me happy in ways I can’t explain. It has some of my random favourite songs of any animated film like it, and it’s one of those films where the songs don’t seem forced into it. For some reason, it seems like every animated film feels the need to shove dozens of songs in for kids to relate to, but honestly I just find that as time passes they don’t stand up to the test of time, whereas with An American Tail, it totally does.

Something about following adorable little Fievel through his journey to locate his parents rekindles some kind of childishness in me where I just want to sing along with each song and cry at each sad part. It was my favourite movie as a child and still settles well within the top 5 animated today.

4. The Little Mermaid

This proves to anyone who questions it that I am, undeniably, a girl. For some reason this ends up being a lot of girl’s favourites– I don’t really dig the look of Eric, but somehow I still fell in love with him, and I wanted to be Ariel with her long, flowing red hair and her beautiful floatiness in the water (true story: I used to sing to myself and swim around in our pool at home pretending I was Ariel– if you tell anyone, I’ll hurt you.) The story itself is a bit whacked out and far removed from the actual fairy tail, but somehow the whole fantastical underwater scene, and even the music, drew me in, and it was one of the last Disney Animated Films I actually enjoyed before they fell into the dark years of badness.

3. Anastasia

Heart don’t fail me now, courage don’t desert me, don’t turn back now that we’re here~
Yes, I may be insane over this movie just a touch, but in the past few years its seen less replay with me than it used to– but, that doesn’t detract from the fact that the movie is one of my all-time favourites, and is another non-Disney title that just tugs at me in ways I can’t explain. I know all the songs by heart, even the ‘bad’ ones, and I absolutely adore everyone in this movie. Besides, you put John Cusack in the role of the love interest when he looks that cute? I’m all over it in a heartbeat. This movie had it all. <3

2. Tangled

Not only does Tangled boast two of the most amusing animal sidekick types ever, as well as a relatively strong and funny female lead, but it also has the hottest Disney ‘Prince’ (even though he’s not a prince… yet) ever.

Even without Flynn, this movie managed to rekindle my love for what Disney used to stand for– humour that even adults could love mixed in with a child’s film so the whole family could actually enjoy it. It didn’t feel pandering or anything of the like, and though the songs, as always, felt a bit over the top and forced, it still managed to get some of them stuck in my head. Also, Pascal and Maximus win for the best Disney Sidekicks ever– sorry Abu, you tried.

1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

There hasn’t been an animated movie in the last ten years that has made itself more rewatchable to me than CLoudy with a Chance of Meatballs. There’s something about it that is both funny and endearing and it somehow makes me feel at home. The humour is intelligent enough for adults to enjoy it, while still being appeasing to children. I have watched it more than a dozen times in the last three years and haven’t gotten bored of it yet. Between the dialogue between Sam and Flint, as well as his father’s crazy eyebrows, and Steve (Neil Patrick Harris, anyone?) being a dork, I can’t believe how anyone could really dislike this film, especially considering it wasn’t even really taking after the book it was ‘based’ on.

I know there are a lot of animated movies out there, and some of you might think I’m insane for this one being my top, but any movie that has a replay value like this one ends up being in my top 5, hands down, and this one took the top gracefully with its ability to be funny even after you know the jokes are coming. Good show, yeah?

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This is as definitive as it gets for bated-breath.net and its animated film choices, and I doubt even if it were anyone but just me that it would change. I have final vote, and this is just… the list, boys and girls. Anything you’d add? Anything you think shouldn’t be up there? Feel free to comment and I’ll try to reply in kind. <3 <3

Everything in the following post is the opinion of the writer, you may not feel that way about some of the subjects mentioned, let us leave it at that and just enjoy the post for what it might inspire you to do, watch, eat, boogie to, or whatever.

I’ve been going through movies for the last couple of weeks like most people go through… well, I’m trying to think of something people go through fast and all I can come up with is toilet paper, and that’s gross, so we’ll move on.

Regardless, there have been some very massive misses on the movie front with some things you’d expect to be good, at least in my experience. (see this post for another rant on bad movie experiences. )

Watchmen, for example, was a complete miss for me– I had such hopes for the potential of this film but more than anything I found myself bored with the entire thing– there were parts of it that were entertaining, and Rorschach’s character as a whole was intensely intriguing, but the rest of it felt forced and kind of drolling on for far too long (though the scene where they’re fighting in the prison was one of my favourites merely because of the fighting style). I had people telling me how utterly amazing this film was and how great the story was, and while it did have elements I thought were good, it just felt lackluster as a whole.

While I find Jack Black relatively funny, usually, I found Year One to be a massive disappointment as well. I honestly expected much more humour from a film boasting his talent, as well as all the other beautiful talent they had, but the jokes seemed kind of ‘meh’, and the overall feel wasn’t so much funny as it was waiting for it to get funny– I did chuckle a few times, but nothing that I can actually remember truly laughing hysterically at, which is what I was expecting.

Though, on a completely different subject, instead of a failure, Zombieland was probably one of the most amazing films I saw, humour and drama wise, because it had an utterly fresh concept on the whole zombie brigade thing, and the acting was fabulous, and the humour was the kind that you laughed at, but it also made you think at times– I’m tired of rudimentary slapstick comedy that just speaks blatantly of what it is. I want more movies like this, honestly, and it makes me want to see more of Jesse Eisenberg. (sans Adventureland which was also quite good.)

Though the most startling good film that no one seems to ever speak about, and that’s possibly because it was animated and not well known before, is Dragon Hunters. Let me start by explaining that the animation style is different from what you’d expect, and the whole ‘fanciful world’ is massively different from what you’d normally see in a movie such as this, but it all works in correlation with the story to make this massive achievement. The thing that truly sealed this movie into epic status, is the fact that the music, storyline, and animations all wove together to make a fully functioning, integrated world. The music was reminiscent of a mix of Chrono Trigger and Suikoden mixed together that drew emotions out of me for a film I had no idea about before I watched it.

Honestly, I can’t tell much about the story without spoiling a lot of the plot line that is just fun to find out while you’re actually watching it, but I do suggest watching it, at least giving it a shot, and I believe you will find yourself happily surprised.

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Top 5 Animated Films

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