Animated Movies

I have a 16 year old son, so I've seen a lot of animated movies over the last 15 years. Without a doubt, the 2 favorite animated movies for both my son and I are "Hoodwinked" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox". Both are incredibly witty and are worthy of multiple viewings.

Most of the posts here list the common Pixar animated movies, which are excellent. However, I only saw one posting for "Final Fantasy". The actual movie name is "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". For an animated movie done back in 2001, it is incredibly detailed and realistic. The shapes, textures and shadows are just excellent (especially for 2001). It matched up to a lot of first person shooter games today, and other animated games such as "Life is Strange". I actually have not seen another movie done like this since. Most of the movies are the standard Pixar or Disney type approach. If you have Netflix, there is a series called "Love Death + Robots" that has some amazing animations as well.

Actually, some of the motion and movement done in Final Fantasy is so realistic, you would almost think you were watching live filmed events.

a scanner darkly is technically 'rotoscope'...known in kindergarten as 'tracing'...cool though....nice catch on 'jules verne'..very unique to this day.

Hanaleimike,

Once that movie was over I went outside for a while! It freaked me out, no way I was going to watch the bonus footage!

Kennyt, scanner darkly was filmed, then each frame was drawn, animated by human hands, it took a lot of people about 1 1/2 years of drawing after it was shot, come'on man watch the bonus footage :)

I for got about "Fantasia 2000"!!!! A must watch....and LISTEN!

Pixar/Dreamworks movies.
Akira
Appleseed
Afro Samurai
Ghost In The Shell
X
Wonderful Days (Korean)
Vampire Hunter D (Both)
Blood
Original Spawn series
Spirited Away
Howl's Moving Castle
Prince Mononoke
Metropolis
Grave of the Fireflies
Anything by Ralph Bakshi-Wizards!!
Ninja Scroll
Aeon Flux series
Paprika
Fantasia
Final Fantasy

I second, "Fantastic Planet". I'd also recommend a Jules Verne-based piece from the '60s. Not conventional animation, also sort of a collage from various Jules Verne stories/novesl. Sorry I can't remember the name ("The Amazing World of Jules Verne"???).

More for kids, consider, "Astro Boy" and "Beanie & Cecil" if these are now available.

Elizabeth, great call on Tekkonkinkreeto (which for you non-Japanese speakers is a play on 'tekkin konkreeto' which is the pronunciation for "steel-reinforced concrete" in Japanese). I think the movie is masterly.

I agree with above posters that the Incredibles, Triplets of Belleville, and Cars have great audio and animation. I am surprised that noone has mentioned Fantasia, which to me is the original animation set to music movie.

"American Pop" is one of my animated favorites. Great story and great soundtrack! I also own "Akira" which is a cool/trippy story.

Disney's "Dinosaur" is pretty awesome on a front-projector system esp. the teradactyl's flight sequence near the start of the movie.

Jax2...i love the brothers quay....add 'fritz the cat' too..just for a reference of 'pushing the envelope'.

Jaybo - good call. I remember seeing Fantastic Planet when it first came out. My recomendation was neither computer nor rotoscope, BTW. Another great one is any of the Wallace & Grommet films. Also, anything by The Brothers Quay.

so far, everything mentioned looks to be computer animation or rotoscope(a scanner darkly). that said, there are many hundreds of great animated classics which have been painstakingly restored for DVD. if you have kids, just buy the one's they like, and be done. otherwise, buy the one's you like.....recommendation 'the fantastic planet'.

A Scanner Darkly isn't truly animation, it is actually filmed and computer altered to appear that way, as can be seen by the occasional transition to real film shots.

DEFINITELY not a kids film! Philips K. Dick doesn't write kids stories!

My favorites are the Pixar films. Finding Nemo, Cars, Incredibles, Monsters Inc, and A bug's life, and hopefully UP. My son likes them too. Another two are "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly", not kids movies, but very good, as are all of Richard Linklater's films.

I can second Hayao Miyazaki's work. I don't know much about Anime, but these films are amazing!

The Pixar films are true works of art. The image and sound are world class, with great stories.

I also liked the "Animatrix", which is a DVD that revolves around the "Matrix". I'm not a fan of the "Matrix" movies, but the "Animatrix" is very cool. It also gives the story behind how the "Matrix" came to be. Far more interesting than the movies, IMHO.

Hope this helps....

Thanks for the recommendation! I am definitely going to check out "Triplets of Belville" in the future.

ghost in the shell. awesome. happy feet, cars, again, ghost in the shell.

My all-time favorite is a live-animation feature which may be really a matter of taste as it is perhaps a more artistic approach than anything mentioned above. I would not highlight it as having amazing audio or video qualities, but it most certainly is visually amazing. "Alice" by Czech filmmaker, Jan Svankmajer. There are a few clips on YouTube you can watch to see if it may float your boat. Here's 6 minutes that includes a link where you can order the film if you like what you see. There will be further links to other clips from the film on that page as well.

If you want to stick with Hollywood, you could add Toy Story, Ratatouille,Wall-E,Ice Age...hell, you pretty much can't go wrong with Pixar and Dreamworks if you like that realm of animation.

PS Of the above, a hearty second to Triplets of Belville

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'The Incredibles' have great sound and is an excellent movie.

'Mulan' and 'Kung Fu Panda' are good also.
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"Tripplets of Belleville" is pretty cool.
Great soundtrack, and the movie has some great surrealistic artwork.

Monster House is visually a great movie too, IMHO.
(A kid's movie that is actually somewhat scary.)

Most of the Hayao Miyazaki's films are pretty great from a visual and conceptual standpoint, (although whether they are from an audio standpoint is debatable.) My favorites include: Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away, which is pretty awesome.

My two cents worth.