Best Animated Film: 2008

[Okri]

In 2008, the other major critically acclaimed animated film was Waltz with Bashir. It won the National Society's best picture award and was an early litmus test about where the boundaries for animated film were for AMPAS. To be honest, I didn't love the film, but I probably would've nominated it in this field.

That said, I don't object to Bolt or Kung Fu Panda. Both are solid efforts. Bolt finds a fun way to tell it's story. As Sabin mentions, it balances the kids side with the adult side fairly well (though as an adult, I was surprisingly irritated at the production that triggers the climax). All the felines are deliciously scripted (the ones that mock Bolt to start.... amazing); indeed, all the animals outside of Bolt (those pigeons!) were genuine delights. I also give credit to anything this briskly paced. Kung Fu Panda generally works - no real desire to rewatch it or engage in the franchise, but it's certainly enjoyable on it's own terms.

But WALL.E is the best film of the line-up by a country mile. If the film was only as good as it's second half, I would still vote for it. But the first half is one of the great glories of English language filmmaking of the 21st Century. Thomas Newman's rarely bettered himself. The animation is so vivid. 15 years from its release as we exist in our own permacrisis, it's optimism is a necessary tonic for me. It gets my vote with relish.

[Sabin]

I made a mistake and listed this one in the 8th decade. Can we bump it to the 9th? [EDIT: THX]

Just watched Bolt. It's cute. I'm a sucker for any film about the bond between humans and their pets and Bolt brings a fresh take on it by presenting a Buzz Lightyear narrative of a deluded hero (a not-so "method dog") who comes to understand his reality. I found myself thinking of Surf's Up in how much better Bolt does in balancing kid-friendly material and adult ingredients, by which I mean the amount of industry humor. There's a lot of cute winking industry humor, like a pigeon who introduces his pigeon-writing partner plus his pigeon assistant, as well as sort of framing the motion picture industry as the antagonist. But it's never inaccessible to a young audience nor does it overtake the plot. I also admired how Bolt used its screen-time. Usually, when a film takes the entire first act to launch the hero on his/her journey, it results in the movie feeling small. Bolt is certainly a minor achievement but it uses its time wisely, makes the most of its premise, and steps pretty confidently while avoiding retreading all of Toy Story's plot points.

A few things that aren't great. The lead voice performance by John Travolta is very boring, especially compared to Susie Essman and whoever voices that hilarious hamster. But it's a pretty good three star effort.

WALL*E it is.

[OscarGuy]

John Travolta being associated with Bolt kept me from seeing it. Screw that guy.

WALL-E is really great up to a point. That point would be the point with the humans. Then it becomes fairly standard Pixar stuff.

I love Kung Fu Panda and it's a worthy 2nd place, but WALL-E is still great for most of its length.

[gunnar]

I was a bit underhwelmed with Wall*E when I saw it. It wasn't bad, but perhaps my expectations going in were too high. Bolt and Kung Fu Panda were each a lot of fun and it was basically a coin flip for me between the two films. I went with Kung Fu Panda, but Bolt is also deserving.

[Sabin]

The Incredibles justly received every vote in 2004 and I wonder if WALL*E will do the same this year.

Unfortunately because I haven't seen Bolt, I'm going to withhold from voting for a little bit. Bolt is a pretty forgotten film with a very significant footnote. It marks the start of the John Lasseter era at Disney. This has special relevance this week as Bob Iger has returned as Disney's CEO. One of Iger's greatest achievements was arranging for Disney's purchase of PIXAR. Bolt was a troubled production that by all accounts Lasseter rescued and streamlined into... whatever current shape it ended up. I'll be watching it soon but crazy as it may seem the first seven years of this category saw very few Disney features contending (Lilo & Stich, Treasure Planet, and Brother Bear; none of them true classics) and zero wins. That may not look too embarrassing but let's look at the Walt Disney Features that were passed over: Home on the Range, Chicken Little, The Wild, Meet the Robinsons, and (if we include their "Disneytoon" productions) Return to Neverland, The Jungle Book 2, and Piglet's Big Movie. That's a disastrous showing. After Lasseter took over, Disney would be in competition every year and post-Toy Story 3 they would largely supersede PIXAR commercially and in the zeitgeist. Now that Lasseter is out at Disney and Strange World is officially a bust, it remains to be seen how they can do without him. But the Lasseter era begins with Bolt.

Kung Fu Panda also has special resonance this week because it marks the 25th anniversary of Dreamworks Animation. For a long while, Dreamworks Animation was the Sega Genesis to Disney/PIXAR's Super Nintendo. The latter provided more classical (and classically beautiful) characters and storylines while Dreamworks chased modern sensibilities. Kung Fu Panda is one of the three franchises has really defined the studio (the others being Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon). I haven't seen it in ages but I remember it being quite a bit of fun. A good fish out of water story that generally works. It has character designs that are always fun to look at it. The voice work is strong. The action is a good selling point. And while I'm exhausted of "being yourself" messages, this one generally works. Kung Fu Panda is probably everything we should expect from an animated film.

In that sense, WALL*E is the opposite. It's nothing we expect from an animated film, or American filmmaking. A return to silent filmmaking, a sad glimpse into the future, and a wordless love story that marks as one of PIXAR's finest moments, if not the finest moment. On a recent rewatch, I've found a few things to quibble with. I don't love the humans. I wish they had found a more appropriate antagonist than that wheel thing to contrast WALL*E. And the environmental message awkwardly overtakes the film a bit too much. But -- barring an upset by Bolt -- this is the obvious winner in this category. It is currently (and justly) tied with Beauty and the Beast with six nominations. A Best Picture nomination would have made it the most nominated animated film ever, a deserving honor for this bold film.