Sunday Top Ten - Animated films that didn't do it for me

Some months ago, I considered doing a top ten animated films list at the suggestion of some very animated readers (pun, unfortunately, intended). After a quick draft, it became immediately apparent that my list was redundant. Most of the films on there (which show an almost unfair leaning towards the works of Pixar) have already been praised by me on this blog, and countless others I imagine. Something that might be (only slightly) more unique to me is a list of cartoons which I regret to admit that I truly, madly, deeply hate. I've been meaning to blow off some pent up negativity anyway.

Don't think that I'm trying to be a dick here. I like animation... good animation, that is. But some people have a hard time realizing that some of their favourite cartoons are, in fact, crap. The following list is a cold shower on ten animated films, revered by many as childhood staples, that just didn't do it for me.

PGA nominees

Best Picture:
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit

Best Animated Feature:
Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3

No surprises here. Correctly guessed nine of the ten, only missing The Kids Are All Right in the thought that there may be one unexpected nominee. Not the case.

Although I will voice my displeasure at seeing the wonderful Tangled sidelined in favour of the obnoxious Despicable Me. How discouraging.

Recall that the previously announced nominees for Best Documentary are:
Client 9
Earth Made of Glass
Inside Job
Smash His Camera
The Tillman Story
Waiting for Superman

Review - Megamind

Megamind is the second animated feature we've received this year with the specific plot line of a super villain who comes to learn that

being good > being bad

The preceding one, of course, was Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me. The first question that immediately jumps to my mind is “did we really need two of these movies in one year?”. If Megamind had been released first, my answer would be a resounding “NO!”. But since it's a marked (if unremarkable) improvement over the treacly stickiness of Despicable Me, I can at least stifle an indifferent “I guess so”.

The film starts out almost like a Kryptonian version of Monty Python's Life of Brian, wherein the possible destiny of one child (future super villain Megamind, voiced by Will Ferrel) is unceremoniously snatched away by another (future superhero Metro Man, Brad Pitt channeling George Clooney). In predictable fashion, Megamind (and us) are eventually lead to the discovery that he's been capable of being a good guy all along, while Metro Man, however charismatic and God-like – the animators go so far as to have him walking on water at one point! – turns out to be vain and selfish. There's also a bumpy love interest with reporter Roxanne Ritchie (Tina Fey) and a rivalry for her affections with cameraman Hal (Jonah Hill).

To say Megamind is better than Despicable Me is not high praise (nor is it intended to be), but what puts it a notch above and makes it watchable is the humour, which is decidedly amusing if nothing else. A number of the one-liners tickled hearty guffaws out of me, as did the vocal performances and the crisp, comic animation, which DreamWorks has become quite practiced at. Laughs cannot, however, save the film entirely from its inconsistent characterizations, which sees principal characters jumping erratically from sincere and sympathetic to snarky and sarcastic (yay for alliterations!).

In a field of five, this might be good enough to scrape a Best Animated Feature nomination, but with the number of eligible entries hovering just below that magic number of 16, it doesn't look like there will be enough positions to accommodate more than one DreamWorks film (How to Train Your Dragon is obviously in).

**1/2 out of ****