Mike's Musings: Top 5 Animated Films of All Time

 I love animation.  In some circles they are unfairly dismissed as "cartoons," but in the right hands they can be so much more than that.  A true artist knows that animation is simply another tool to tell stories.  It is not a genre with its own "rules."  In many cases, animation is key to making a story work.  Just compare the Disney animated classics to their live action counterparts.  Granted, "Mulan" and "The Lion King" weren't bad, but there is no denying that they paled in comparison to their animated predecessors.

What I love about animation is that perspective, color and emotion can be highlighted and toyed with in ways that are just not possible with live action.  Consider the scene in "Beauty and the Beast" where Belle first sees the monster.  In the animated classic, it was bold, dramatic and even scary.  But because of the limitations of live action, the remake's version of the same scene came and went with a whimper.  Or consider Times Square in "Oliver & Company."  The Big Apple has never looked that good in live action, but in animation, it conveys the sense of awe of being in a big city.

Walt Disney built his career and the eponymous company he founded on this realization.  He understood the power of animation to both enchant and to tell a story.  His successors pushed the boundaries even further, with his Japanese counterparts exploring how the form could be used to tell more adult stories.  Taken together, they've set some important landmarks that show the power of this style of filmmaking.

5.  Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.  Simply put, this film is the ultimate cool.  A futuristic film noir laced with some spectacular action and offbeat comedy, this movie shows that animation doesn't have to be "epic" to entertain.  The film is as laid back as its hero, the lackadaisical Spike Spiegel (smoothly voiced by the legendary Steve Blum with just the right amount of wit).  In many ways, this is a traditional summer action thriller.  It just happens to be animated.  Although not nearly as expressive as a Disney picture, that doesn't hamper its ability to entertain.  I confess that I struggled a bit as to whether to put "My Neighbor Totoro" in this slot instead, but I gave it to "Cowboy Bebop" because there's more great animation than Disney or Studio Ghibli.

4.  The Lion King.  Disney does Hamlet.  It's a crude oversimplification of what "The Lion King" has to offer, but that's the film in a nutshell.  Of course, this is a Disney animated film, so instead of everybody dying, the film takes the central idea and pushes it in a new direction.  What's so impressive about "The Lion King" is that it isn't afraid to get dark.  At least one death is infamously heartbreaking, and the climax is violent and dramatic.  Also interesting is that it pushes the form.  For the most part, Disney films were romantic comedies, telling their stories with cuddly characters and upbeat songs.  "The Lion King" is an epic with all the scope of a David Lean picture.

3.  Beauty and the Beast.  While "The Lion King" became an unlikely smash hit and a cultural touchstone for millennials, it's not the best in the Disney canon.  That distinction goes to an earlier film from the New Golden Age of Disney Animation: "Beauty and the Beast."  It isn't necessarily as grand as "The Lion King," but it's better made.  The animation is better and more daring, and while it is a romantic comedy like many other Disney animated movies, the chemistry between the two central characters is so strong and so carefully nurtured that it stands toe to toe with any great movie love story.  It was justifiably the first animated film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, losing to "The Silence of the Lambs" (had it been released a year later, it probably would have won).

2.  Grave of the Fireflies.  To anyone who believes that animation is strictly for kids, allow me to introduce you to Isao Takahata's 1988 masterpiece.  This film is as bleak and painful as any film I've ever seen.  Physically, this isn't a violent film; we see only the aftermath of the carnage.  It is also devoid of politics, complex plot lines, or any "meaning."  It is simply the story of two children trying to survive war.  They do not succeed.  Takahata never stylizes the story to shape it into a traditional narrative, but neither does he flinch from the pain.  He knows that the story does the job for him.  The fact that it is animated is why it inspires so much grief.  It reminds us of our childhood memories of innocent cartoons (indeed, the film does contain elements of joy, but they are seen with the knowledge of the terrible fate that awaits the characters) and is freed from the weight of special effects.  It makes you wish that other dramas would go down this route.

1.  Spirited Away.  Was there really any other choice?  "Spirited Away" is not only the finest animated film ever made, but one of the greatest films ever made.  Period.  Yes, in its own way, I'd compare it to "The Godfather," "Star Wars," "High Noon," or any classic film that you can list (no, I haven't seen "Citizen Kane" yet, but I can't imagine that "Spirited Away" wouldn't sit right next to it).  Narratively ambitious and visually stunning, it redefines what an animated film can be.  Every element synthesizes into a beautiful whole.  The plot shuns the traditional three-act structure that has confined so many other films, particularly animated ones.  In an age where computers have dominated the medium, it reminds us how hand drawn animation is the superior art form.  Even aside from that, "Spirited Away" achieves its legendary status simply because it is superb filmmaking.  This is the result of a cinematic titan working at the peak of his powers.