It's kind of hard to make great animation. You got to not only craft some handsome looking stuff but you also have to put some heart into the story and have us -the audience- suspend our disbelief while watching what is essentially drawn out characters. However I have stated over and over again the pat few years that we live currently in the golden age of animation. Classic after classic gets released on a yearly basis. Astonishing art that will surely last a life time. Lately we've however been in a rut. 2011 was the first year in which I couldn't even find one animated film that I thought was exceptional. Many found lot to like in Rango, a tripped out ode to spaghetti-westerns with a main character in the form of a chameleon-cowboy voiced by Johnny Depp. Got that? many did, I didn't. Rango was -in these eyes- too self involved to work out on screen yet it was one of three animated films that got a "best animated film" nom for the Oscars. Pixar also struck out for the first time in their short 16 year history with Cars 2, a devastatingly dull sequel to a good, solid 2006 treat.
The other nominees? Kung Fu Panda 2? A follow-up to a decent 2008 movie that wasn't necessarily deserving to get made into a sequel. Puss In Boots? A movie based on a character introduced in the Shrek series? mixed reviews greeted it and I didn't even bother to watch it based on .. well just based on the fact that there was much more promising stuff to watch. Rounding out the nominees is Chico and Rita + A Cat In Paris, the academy's justifiable attempt to support hand drawn animation but these two films aren't the ones to rally behind a practically lost art form. Tin Tin -reviewed HERE- justifiably failed to get a nomination and proved once again that animated quality was quasi dead in 2011. Further proof had the prestigious New York Film Critic Circle erase the Best Animated Film category from their ballot based on a weak playing field.
However, ending on a positive here's the truly great movies in animation of the past 15 years of cinema. Most of these are ground breakers that have evolved over time into true classics.
1) Spirited Away
2)Wall E
3) Ratatouille
4) Les Triplettes De Belleville
5) The Fantastic Mr. Fox
6) Up
7) Waking Life
8) The Incredibles
9) Finding Nemo
10) Toy Story 2
11) South Park
12) Toy Story 3
13) The Iron Giant
14) Chicken Run
15) Shrek