Lurker > PrinceKaro

Ready Steady Go!
Wild Side

Rikku

Garnet

Hikaru Nara
ODDTAXI

Rikku

Garnet

We have not done Little Miss Sunshine yet. Roadtrip is really the only genre that it would fit in.

Ignore that link, the proper topic for next project can be found here:https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80543380

Sorry guys that one's on me.

I should have caught it before the topic was posted, but it was just such a forgettable movie and I didn't realize we had already done it until I started watching it and thought 'wow this seems familiar'.

Um, It Happened One Night was in Romcoms I just realized

tag

I know the list, but I will let the host be the one to officially reveal it when he posts the topic.

Rikku

Garnet

I mean ponyta;rapid

Mythiot posted...

Where the heck do Diane and Wolf's tails go when they're in their catsuits!? They just look wrong without them.

This bothered me too

Final Outlier:

Inviso: 254
Plasma: 212
Evillord: 194
Suprak: 192
Johnbobb: 188
Ermine: 184
Mythiot: 161
Red: 140
Karo: 122

Evillord: This movie got a surprising amount of buzz for being in the much loved Spider-Verse-Like genre. It sees Puss in Boots realize eight of his nine lives are gone and try to recuperate them by traveling through The Zone from Stalker. Despite some overlong emotional scenes the movie is a lot of fun. I wouldn't say I'm terribly impressed with the random cuts to choppy-framed alt animation style, which was more suited to a comic book movie than a Shrek spinoff, but there ARE a lot of creative sequences elsewhere, like the moping scene where Puss is framed in the boots of a shadow of his larger self or the red-and-blue fight scene against Death near the start. The supporting cast is surprisingly good - I like all the characters except the annoying dog, but wound up spending most of the movie waiting for the sexy Grim Reaper Wolf to show up, and he's one of the least present characters because as cool as he is, there is no deeper personality there to explore. I liked the Goldielocks + three bears crime family and their ending was cute, but they could have reached it at around the hour mark when the Zone shows them that they already have their wish - I was kind of hoping they would just give up at that point and let Puss in Boots take the wish-granting map so they could go home. The Zone changing forms depending on who had the map was a cool idea - it reflects the psyche of the characters through the fight scenes, like Puss confronting his past lives in the Fortress of Regret from Planescape: Torment. Jack Horner was a funny villain.
A trend that has arisen in modern, mainstream popular culture is the breakdown and mental examination of heroes. This movie is a minor example of this with Puss in Boots' story arc being about becoming afraid of death and learning how to live without being a "legend", but it's a relatively minor element compared to the devastation of say, Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, and only serves to give the film a few moments of introspection between moments of high octane adventure, including a return to basically the same lifestyle in the end, but with more friends. That's fine though, it's a fun movie, it doesn't have to be deep.

Johnbobb: maaaaan this is a really excellent movie with some really dumb stuff in it holding it back. like Perrito. and Perrito's face and Perrito's voice. and Puss' weird theme song that they won't stop playing. But like 95% of the movie is excellent so I'm mostly wiling to overlook its holdups. Some just absolutely phenomenal fight sequences.

Ermine: I don't think there was any ever doubt that this would be my #1. This is just an incredible film all around. I've seen it more than 8 times and have watched over 30 reaction videos to the film. For like a month straight after I watched the movie, I was injecting The Last Wish into my veins because I couldn't get enough of it.
I actually quite enjoy the first Puss in Boots film. I think it's charming, funny and cute. But hoo boy does the sequel improve on it in every single way. The animation and character designs alone are just huge steps up. Every time I see Puss, I'm like, fuck man, how does this cat look SO GOOD! What a handsome boy!
It's difficult to say what in particular this film excels at because it really does excel at everything. The nods to Spiderverse in their animation whilst still being something completely new was absolutely the best way to take the film. Every scene feels like it's out of a fairy tale book. The colors and action scenes are jaw-dropping.
Shrek films have always had good humor and that's no different here. You got stuff for kids of course, but also have that dark humor that the Shrek franchise is so good at, it really is the perfect blend.
One thing that stands out to me is how incredibly refreshing this film is. When you compare it to the crap that Disney has been putting out the last 5 years, it's just incredible to see what an actual good story with fantastic characters and motivations looks like.
In terms of characters, Perrito and Death are definite stand outs for me. I know everyone else will cover how great Death of a character is and I will agree, he is fantastic. The way he is used in tandem with Puss struggling with his mortality is flawless. The scene in the Cave of Lost Souls is perfect in every way and really is the turning point in Puss's character arc (along with the panic attack scene). Oh yeah, and the fight scenes. Both fight scenes with Death are incredible. Just wow.
Perrito! I knew I would love this little chihuahua as soon as I saw the trailers but I did NOT know they were actually going to implement him into the story and plot of the film so well! I figured he would mostly just be the comic relief sidekick. And he IS that, but he works so well because of the two characters he's paired with in Puss and Kitty. The foil he provides to them both is something the film greatly needs and benefits from as well as gives both Puss and Kitty that extra umph they need in becoming better people.
I've never seen such an accurate portrayal of a panic attack than we did in this film here and I LOVE the direction that they took with it. I saw SO many times in reaction videos, people saying that Perrito was going to ask Puss to rub his belly or something like that, because that's what people were expecting out of the character. But instead, they go the correct decision and have Perrito treat the situation as perfectly as possible. He just lays his head down on Puss' belly and waits. He waits and waits for Puss to catch his breath and calm down and even for him to speak first before asking what's going on. The music too is just so good. It's such a pivotal moment in the film.
Perrito is too good for us. He deserves all the love.
I think another one of the film's strengths is that there's something for everyone here. Reading opinions and reviews for the film, I've noticed that some people attach to and love specific other things. The insanity and hilarity of Jack Horner. The touching story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (They are all awesome as well! Baby, in particular, is my favorite), or even just thinking that Death is the best villain created in the last however many years.
I could honestly gush about this movie for hours and hours and hours. I'm not sure if it's my FAVORITE animated film of all time but hell it is damn close. It'd be top 3 for sure and on any given day, sure, it could probably top the list. It just does so many things right and I really really hope we get another Puss movie or at least Shrek 5 being in this similar style. If anything is for certain, I need more Perrito in my life.
<3

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Red: Going to guess no one has their shocked face on that I again have a (mostly) animal movie ranked at the top. While most of this list has abandoned the idea of a true villain, The Last Wish kind of subverts this by making their villain a complete scummy jerk but also sneakily kind of making him a comedic portion to the more compelling stories happening around here. You have Goldie's group in parallel with Puss' crew coming to realize they all had a family with them all along, learning to deal with mortality, all far more serious and endearing than a fanciful wish or a ridiculous villain. We get a continued evolving of the style Dreamworks started with The Bad Guys but honestly looks done even better in The Last Wish. We also get what is by far the coolest depiction of death in the Wolf. Honestly, the concept of death is something that can make me extremely uncomfortable. I'm perfectly fine with deaths and them being glossed over, but getting deep on the subject is usually somewhere my brain prefers not to venture. But this death is pretty awesome. Just from a pure visual standpoint, this death, yeah, I have no problems with to say the least.

Plasma: A 90-minute explosion of creativity. This was a blast to watch, with tight animation, cool concepts, and four separate storylines weaving into a complex narrative. The Dark Forest and its map gimmick kept things fresh and unpredictable while fleshing out the characters and delivering tons of juicy visuals. Blink at your own risk.
Puss personal journey hit hard. After a lifetime of adventure and bravado, he faces down Death and gets humbled like never before. Then he has to retreat, correct his mistakes, and eventually accept change. Oh, and that panic attack scenedamn.
My only complaint is that I wanted more out of the story. Plot-wise, its basically Shrek 4 on steroids, and the script felt reluctant to take risks during the finale. Things ended a little too neat-and-tidily, and I wish (har har, see what I did there?) that someone had made a wish instead of destroying the map, which felt like a cop-out.

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

1. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Karo: 1
Inviso: 1
Ermine: 1
Suprak: 1
Red: 1
Plasma: 2
Mythiot: 4
Evillord: 9
Johnbobb: 13

Total: 33

Karo: What if I told you that Dreamworks recently made the best movie they ever created. Oh really, you might remark, but that is not a super high bar to jump over. Now what if I told you that if it were a Pixar movie, it would also be the best movie Pixar had ever created. That will probably get some chuckles of disbelief and 'press x to doubt' memes. What if I also told you that said movie was a sequel, and the film it was a sequel of was also a spinoff of the overdone and creatively bankrupt Shrek franchise.
Amazingly this is all true as Dreamworks delivers us an absolute surprise from a studio that is, to put it delicately, not really synonymous with quality in animation.
The characters here are not one-note jokes or cartoon extensions of comedians and celebrities, they are real individuals who develop over the course of the movie. The funny thing is that Puss was exactly this kind of shallow character in the Shrek movies, and for the first 10 minutes of The Last Wish it is the same song and dance. But after losing his eighth life he must face the unrelenting terror of his own mortality and what it means to truly live. No character is unneeded or irrelevant and the complex ties that bind them all together would take too long to go into here.
The visuals are breathtaking, not just from a technical standpoint but also an artistic one. Before you say 'omg it is just copying spiderverse!11!', to which I would reply not really, unless your definition of artistic plagiarism is simply low frame rate action scenes and not looking like shit. Regardless, what inspiration it does take from Spider-verse is not really the highlight so much as the beautiful... well, everything. Every frame looks like a vivid and gorgeous painting, and it may very well be the most visually impressive CGI movie I have ever seen.
Dreamworks does the unimaginable and lays an utter beatdown upon its storied competitors and does it not by trying to ape Disney or Pixar, but by rather just being themselves. This is a Dreamworks movie through and through, here they simply do the things they do best and do them better than anyone else. This is a lesson that every animation studio on the face of the planet should learn.
Puss in Boots 2 is the best movie in well over half a decade from the big five of American animation, so fear him, if you dare!

Inviso: With seven movies left going into this film, I was very worried that this list would end up below-average overall. Nothing prior to this point on this list had managed to reach the heights of the best movies on previous animated (or anime) lists, and that was worrying for me. But then, this movie opened brilliantly, giving a character scene that both establishes Puss for new fans (hes brash and bold and adventurous and heroicbut a lot of these traits are reflected in a very self-serving fashion). But then Puss dies at the end of a high-action opening scene, and the plot of the film is established: Puss has used up eight of his nine lives (seven of which are painted as stupid or frivolous, which again helps establish the character while simultaneously pushing the plot along). Next thing you know, Death shows up in the form of the Big Bad Wolf (who is as hot as furry artists have been drawing him since the movie came out), and scares Puss so bad he goes on the run, winding up at a crazy cat ladys house.
All of this is great in terms of setting up Puss as a character (kind of arrogant and overconfident), but also establishing the stakes of the film (for the first time in his life, he has to fear death, and it has led to him going the FAR other direction from not caring at all, to locking himself away from anything that could hurt him). But then the actual plot of the movie kicked in, and I was LIVING for it. You get this stylized intro to the NUMEROUS villains and anti-heroes of the film, and its at that point that you realize this is a heist/western movie, with a more kid-friendly version of the story structure from Smokin Aces.
The McGuffin of the movie is a single wish upon a star that can grant anyones greatest desire. Puss finds out about the wish and wants it to get his lives back. Goldilocks and the Three Bears (who come seeking out Puss for his criminal expertise) want the wish to bolster their criminal enterprisesbut really, Goldilocks secretly wants the wish to get herself a real, human family. The map to the wish is retrieved by Jack Horner, whos just this rich, self-centered jackass who wants the wish to steal all magic because one time he didnt get everything he wanted. And this is all interrupted by Kitty Softpaws (Puss ex) showing up, trying to steal the wish for herself and find someone she can trust. This leads to a heist film plot of varying groups all trying to steal the wish for themselves and slowly learning that perhaps they dont need the wish to achieve their goals. Except Jack, who is unequivocally a horrible person.
The villains really do a great job within the film, because I feel like it would have been SO easy to just load the movie up with characters and squander them all, but the various forces all feel different. Goldilocks and the Bear are rough-and-tumble, but theyre not awful people. The bears took Goldilocks in when she was orphaned, after all. Death (who shows up multiple times throughout the film) is this emotionless, unrelenting force, but hes not evil for the sake of evilhes just the villain in the context of Puss story. And Jack is cartoonishly evil, and theres no sympathetic motive justifying his actions. This is the cast of characters that Puss, and Kitty, and little Perrito (who is adorably nave and upbeat, no matter the circumstances) face off against in fun little set piece after set piece.
I think the climax of the film works extremely well too, because everyone feels like theyve learned a lesson from the journey, everyone except Jack gets a happy ending (even Death realizes that, because Puss isnt a self-centered jackass anymore, he doesnt need to go for the kill right then and there), and its just very sweet and fun overall. I just found the storytelling and story structure, plus the stylistic choices of the theme and the framing to be top notch, and Im glad I finally got around to watching this film.

2. Marona's Fantastic Tale

Evillord: 2
Ermine: 3
Red: 3
Karo: 4
Johnbobb: 4
Mythiot: 6
Plasma: 11
Suprak: 17
Inviso: 19

Total: 69

Evillord: The animation here is out of this world. I think the intent is to visually depict things the way our dog narrator, Neuf (later Ana, then Sara, then finally Marona), perceives them - thus the image of the acrobat Manole stretching to towering perportion as he raises her to the sky in his arms. Every scene with Manole is incredible, the way he slithers and morphs and soars, the red strings on his costume winding and wriggling around his body. It's fluid, highly creative, and achingly beautiful, and the wonderful music seals the deal on a nostalgic, sentimental movie. I love the scene where Marona goes to the home of her third owner, Istvan's mother, who is in such agony from illness at night that she becomes a terror, but then gets up and apologizes and makes crepes in the morning. The bright yellow of the park near Marona's forever home, the closing walls of a construction site where Istvan leaves her for the night, and Solange's mother with her torrent of flowing hair that peacefully engulfs Marona until she gets upset and ties it in a bun are all such beautiful, emotional images. It's difficult for words to do justice to something with such perfect mastery of the languages of sound and motion, but you have to see this movie. It's what every animated film should aspire to be.

Ermine: I think one of the strengths of this film is how the story is told. Right from the getgo we know what we are getting ourselves into. We know that at the end of everything, Marona will die. There's no beating around the bush or devastating surprise to be had. So rather than focus on that, we're able to fully appreciate the life that she had leading up until that moment. The animation style works wonders for this film and there's so many moments where I'm like, damn that looks cool, or... huh, this would be how a dog viewed this situation. It helps that Marona's design is very cute, what a sweet and very charming little pup!
This is an emotional film to be certain but I never felt it was hindered by this, whereas a few other films on this list may have been. Marona dies at the end, yes. But throughout the story you can see she had a long life, it wasn't cut short and she enjoyed all of her different owners in different ways.
There were only a few movies that made me FEEL on this list, and this is one of them. Good job, Marona! <3

Red: I'm going to be honest, I toyed with ranking this one considerably lower. I don't deal well with losing pets and the start of this was absolutely horrifying to me. I had to stop when I first started watching. I don't quite know exactly how I found the willpower to push through this knowing that the start was also the end. I probably would never be able to watch this again, and I probably would never willingly watch this if I didn't have to for the list. But, completely soulcrushing events side, it does a fantastic job of just showcasing how and why dogs can just be the absolute best. When I could ignore just how much it was going to crush my soul I could just feel it buttering up that soul to be crushed in such a good jway.

Karo: A magical and surreal journey through the life of a dog as she goes through multiple owners (most of which should not be allowed to own pets).
Many independent animated movies try to experiment with very bizarre stylization, but Marona is a rare example of one ascending beyond the 'wow this director takes way too many drugs' stage to become something truly spectacular.
Though the visuals are a treat, the real treasure is here is how it just so perfectly captures a canine viewpoint of the world. A simple cityscape becomes an incomprehensible nightmarish scene straight out of Madoka Magica though the eyes of a dog. Marona's special humans are just about the only things that are not drawn very abstractly in order to emphasize her single-minded devotion to them.
It is just really cute and unique and just the kind of thing I am looking for from independent animation. Just remember to always treat your four legged friends with love and kindness. <3

Johnbobb: I love the art style, I love the music, and my heart is entirely shattered. There's a level of creativity in the way that everything is portrayed that is just quite unlike what most animation ever even attempts.

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

Plasma: A pooch gets adopted by a series of Dr. Seuss characters in this trippy doggy memoir. The art style, emotion, and philosophical nuggets were great, but Id be lying if I didnt say the pacing dragged hard. Cutting this down by 15-20 minutes couldve made it special.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Inviso: This was a bit slow for me, largely because in essence, its a slice-of-life tale. Its telling the story of this dogs life as she is born to a dog that perhaps didnt want puppies, leading to her living on the streets and fleeing from homes when she feels that her presence isnt helping her humans. Ultimately, she ends up in a family where it seems that she lived a decent length life, as the little girl who adopted her grows into a teenager over the course of the final segment. Thats all fine, and Marona (formerly Sara, formerly Ana, formerly Nine) is a likable dog. Shes somewhat of a pushover, but I think shes going the route of dogs are meant to be loyal companions, no matter what the circumstances). Ultimately, if this was a little faster-paced, or honestly, if the majority of the film revolved around that final owner and the passage of time was less condensed, I think this wouldve ranked higher. As it stands, it was cute enough, and the story was a coherent character piece around a singular dog throughout her life.

Vis Cry Count 4: The curmudgeonly grandfather in that last segment, who was constantly shit-talking Marona, finally shows some care and affection, only to fall from a heart attack, and even though hes on the brink of death, dutiful Marona stands by him, and after pulling his soul back into his body, she actually saves his life.

uwu

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Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Well, whoever wins, this was a fun project! Thanks for putting it together Karo. I was shocked there were so many animated films I hadn't seen over the past couple of years and it got me to watch a bunch of stuff I just wouldn't have otherwise.

What/who is next btw?

roadtrip movies hosted by darkx

OP1 - Catch You Catch Me - GUMI - Cardcaptor Sakura
OP1 - Shinzou wo Sasageyo - Linked Horizon - Attack on Titan Season 2
OP 1 - God only knows Daisanmaku - Oratorio The World God Only Knows - The World God Only Knows
OP1 - Idol - YOSASOBI - Oshi No Ko

Rikku

Garnet

Outlier:

Inviso: 237
Plasma: 202
Evillord: 186
Ermine: 183
Suprak: 177
Johnbobb: 174
Mythiot: 154
Red: 139
Karo: 120

Evillord: I'm tempted to create some tortured reading of this film about the fading magic of a "family miracle" as a metaphor for the current state of Disney. In any case it does feel a little miraculous that they made a half-decent movie in 2021. It feels overlong in a couple segments, could use some more subtlety, and some of the musical numbers seem perfunctory, but there are a lot of scenes, a great example being the well-crafted tension and eventual joyous release of Antonio's power-granting ceremony, that seem like they're still carrying a spark of the Disney magic. With most of Disney's catalog, and even most kids' animated movies to this day, having an obvious centralizing villain, it's refreshing to see a story where every character is treated as a flawed person who deserves empathy, and the ending scenes where the family reconciles, especially the image of Bruno creeping back into the Madrigal home and his siblings welcoming him, genuinely are emotional. While the film eventually has the family's miracle and their powers restored, in some ways it might have been more powerful if they lost them for good and learned to live the normal and imperfect life the story calls for. There are some characters whose personalities and powers I'd like to see explored further, especially Camilo who I think is a funny character but hardly appears in the movie.
Oh yes, and of the two most recent mega-viral Disney songs "We Don't Talk About Bruno" is the one that genuinely deserves it, and is SO much better and more specific than the incredibly safe and pre-fab feeling "Let It Go." It basically summarizes the entire vibe of the film and communicates the personalities of all the characters in one four-minute segment. I love the interruption by Isabella midway through where she describes a positive vision she received from Bruno, which makes it clear that his prophecies were merely factual and the family were the ones to attach negative associations to it (though it could also be seen as foreshadowing about how Isabella's "perfect life" isn't what she really wants, though it then comes back around to being literal with the film's ending). The breakdown at the end where everyone's ideas about Bruno are playing out over each other, to musically convey how confusing only learning of him from second-hand accounts is (and not helped by Camilo's version blatantly just being intended to scare Mirabel for fun,) is also great, and stands out as a good example of how a musical film can use the composition of a song itself, not just the lyrics, to tell its story.

Ermine: The only thing saving this movie from being like a bottom 10 film (on this list) for me is that it has a couple really REALLY good songs.
Surface Pressure is a fantastic song and the whole sequence is super neat. It's actually a shame we didn't get more of Luisa because I feel like she was the most interesting character in this film.
Of course, We Don't Talk About Bruno is also really good. No complaints there at all.
I never have been and never will be a fan of the generational conflict trope and by god is it becoming a trope. I'll probably have talked about this a ton in other write ups that have come earlier (because I know this film is going to do really really well), but man I really just don't care for these stories in the slightest. Encanto does it better than most films, but it's still a trope I have zero interest in.
Seriously. I just. Don't. Care.
This film does nothing for me. I feel nothing. It looks pretty and sounds nice, that's it.
Oh, except the opening song. I hate that one. Trash opening song.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

3. Encanto

Karo: 2
Inviso: 2
Red: 2
Johnbobb: 5
Plasma: 9
Mythiot: 9
Evillord: 10
Ermine: 13
Suprak: 20

Total: 72

Karo: The tale of an ordinary girl who lives with her extraordinary family in a magical valley in Columbia and sings a whole lot.
Now, Disney has used Latin America as the setting for a handful of movies already, and lets just say they arent the best. Will this be the time that they finally capture the richness and spirit of latino culture, or at the very least have more positive representation then a sombrero wearing lunatic with no concept of gun safety.
The answer is a resounding yes. Encanto is a movie about the warmth of family connections and the importance of community, the setting and its people are woven beautifully into the story without it ever feeling forced.
Lin-Manuel Miranda composes a wonderful soundtrack for the film that can stand with the greatest that Disney has ever done, and fuck the Academy for screwing over Miranda by nominating only the worst song from the movie and nothing else.
The characters are delightful, each is unique and likable with extraordinary development of even the benchwarmers. Many other movies would have just portrayed someone like Luisa as just a joke for comic relief, but here she has real feelings and fears and even her own musical number.
Similarly they could have made Maribel's bitchy sister into nothing more than just that, a heel for the audience to boo and hiss at, but instead we end up with a heartfelt and cute resolution in a 'Let It Go'-esque scene.
The one we don't talk about is initially portrayed with the mannerisms of a stereotypical Disney villain but he's actually such a nice guy who everyone always assumes the worst about.
The film avoids stumbling into a pitfall that claims so many animated movies, in which it does not let Maribel's desire to be special consume the whole story. The fact is she doesnt really want a cool gift quite as much as she wants an important role in the family. Similarly, the reconciliation between the family is both organic and deserved, with a true redemption for Abuela and a true understanding of her actions, unlike in the similar storylines in Brave and Coco where it was just 'hey, suddenly I'm not a crazy bitch anymore. Who wants lunch?'
Encanto is one of the best movies of the Disney revival era, and its soundtrack is unequivocally far and away from everything else of that time.

Inviso: This is gonna sound lame, buttheres a reason why Disney is a juggernaut of the animation industry, and its because theyre able to come up with original content like this (Im not looking up if Encanto was based on a book or something) and do a DAMN good job of it. I feel like plot structure of the film works out great, starting with a song about how awesome the Madigal family is, before ending on the big reveal: Mirabel is powerless compared to the great and wondrous powers the rest of her family has going for them. Right off the bat, were given a song to make us like this character, and then immediately we learn how shes the odd one out. Belle (the song, not the characterbut also the Belle) could learn a lot from this song.
The plot continues with the characters worrying about the magic of their house, only for Mirabel to learn of a prophecy that alleges that shell be the death and destruction of the familys magic and their family home. Without magic, she feels like she needs to prove herself more than anyone else, and she cannot be the one to ruin everything, so she seeks out her Uncle Bruno, who came up with the prophecy in the first place. This is all great, and for a bit, it seems like Mirabel needs to help her two empowered sisters to overcome their own internal sadness over the cost their powers have come at. But then, twist, it turns out everything is falling apart as a result of their grandmotherthe woman whose love spawned the magic in the first placeholding so tightly to her magic that it quashes the love and life and soul of her grandchildren and their gifts.
The house is destroyed, but its not Mirabels fault, and its here that we get that cathartic moment when Alma finally has a heart-to-heart with her granddaughter. The two have seemed distant all movie, ever since we got a flashback of Mirabel failing to earn a gift from the miracles magic. But we finally see Almas side of things: she views the magic as the last gift she received from the love of her life, and shes desperate to maintain it and let his sacrifice be not in vain. Finally, theres an understanding, and the whole movies theme of characters getting too invested in maintaining their gift as a necessary lifestyle for the familys success is wrapped up, as the family comes together to solve their problems and rebuild their home. Its just a well-told story of a crisis arising, a family breaking apart, but then being brought back together. It ends very sweetly, and no one ends up coming across as a bad person. Thats delightful.

Vis Cry Count 5: The flashback retelling of Abuelo Pedros heroic sacrifice to protect his family.

Vis Cry Count 6: Possibly a continuation of 5, but that was more SAD, whereas this was more uplifting. When Mirabels family finishes building the house and reveals that they saved the final doorknob for her to complete the construction.

Red: I talk a good bit about how Disney is creatively bankrupt, and if this list touched outside their animated movies it'd show even harder, but Encanto is a weird outlier. We are still sticking with the family conflict and lack of true villain, which are two things they've overused to hell and back. But as someone with a large, relatively close extended family, Encanto kind of hit a bit I could relate to. The expectations of family and constantly having to feel like on the outside you don't exist for anything but to meet those expectations can kind of suck. Luckily for Disney, it seems their musicals have still consistently been on point, maybe they should stick in that lane a bit here. Pretty much all of the songs are good to great and there is just a bit of whimsy to the story to keep the family drama from feeling stale.

Johnbobb: Encanto is the rare mix of a hyper hyper popular kids movie that is legitimately as good as the little kid hype makes it out to be. Well, mostly. It's not a PERFECT movie, but it is a ton of fun with some of the best songs Disney has put out in a musical in a long time. And none of that family deserved to be forgiven by Mirabel and Bruno so fast.

Plasma: When this movie opened up with a Disney logo, I expected 90 minutes of pain and suffering. Instead, Encanto was a pleasant surprise thanks to its fun worldbuilding, a plucky-yet-flawed heroine, and crisp animation. The storys themes of finding self-acceptance and understanding others inner struggles resonated strongly and gave me something to chew on. Hell, even the songs were catchy, and I usually hate musicals.
Encanto isnt perfect, however, and the final act is its most glaring issue. The grandmothers backstory was tragic and engrossing, but beyond that, everything wrapped up way too abruptly and easily for my tastes. Its basically, Everybody forgives each other. The End. I wouldve liked to have seen the family struggle against an outside force and work together to show their strong bonds and their willingness to support each other. The actual finale that we got was underwhelming, especially considering all the flashy magic the story proved it could offer.

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

I have 1, 2 and 4 left.

Outlier:

Inviso: 236
Plasma: 196
Evillord: 179
Ermine: 173
Johnbobb: 172
Suprak: 160
Mythiot: 148
Red: 138
Karo: 119

Red: Okay lets start by getting the ugly out of the way. Making your entire cast loyal italian fascists does not make them particularly endearing characters. Even Pinocchio making fun of Mussolini is done more out of childish rebellion than some sort of moral code. You want to set your cast and location, fine, I'll take it, but I am going to continually look down on them because you put that in the back of my mind. Pinocchio spends a good chunk of this movie being absolutely insufferable. Someone should have killed him with fire immediately, as initial reaction should have been that hes a horrible wooden hellspawn to be killed at all costs. But then he cant die. And we're given a plot and some rules about how his deaths will take longer and he'll miss more of the world. Don't worry, we're never going to see this happen because the rules are broken immediately before ever showing Pinocchio any real impact. The only bit of plot that could have really made this a more unique story and its thrown out to rush us to the pretty standard Pinocchio ending that we all already know.

Ermine: Hoo boy this is going to be an outlier for sure considering how much praise I've seen this get.
I'll be honest, I hate Pinocchio as a character and this film does nothing to change that. Any and all points this movie gets from me is how beautiful it looks. Really, it is incredibly pleasing to the eye, but that's as far as it gets to me. Ooooh it's a darker take on Pinocchio...! I don't care.
I think Sebastian Cricket is entirely underutilized. He had such a cool design and character and it's completely wasted because he's with Pinocchio for all of like 5 minutes. The rest of the film he's with Geppetto. And he's constantly injured and smacked around a bunch for gags that aren't funny. In a movie with the tone it's going for, it felt completely out of place and I felt the character was pointless, despite me wanting him to be much much more.
Then we've got Pinocchio himself and he's just a plain jerk.
This is fine and all... but then you have a really cool song fairly early on in the film where he's singing about his Pappa (Geppetto)... except neither of the two have had any solid emotional attachment to the two beforehand so the emotion that the song could have brought was completely lost. The movie never showed us at all a real solid connection between the two that would have brought Pinocchio to give us such a song. I was like, whoa, this song sounds really cool, cute and good, but it was not deserved in the slightest.
Then we get the added war plot... and yeah, I didn't care one bit about this. Complete throwaway additions that did nothing for the movie, and did nothing for me.
And then the ending is fairly the same. Go into the whale, do stuff and get out of the whale, woo.
I think the aspect of Pinocchio dying and meeting death and learning could have been an interesting plot point. But it's never really utilized all the well. It felt like it was really more used just to showcase a cool area with interesting and weird-looking characters, rather than actually have a point.
Maybe I just don't like Pinocchio. But yeah, this film didn't do it for me. Please end this era of Pinocchios because I'm just done with it.

4. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Johnbobb: 2
Mythiot: 2
Suprak: 2
Plasma: 3
Karo: 11
Evillord: 11
Inviso: 15
Red: 18
Ermine: 19

Total: 83

Johnbobb: It's really weird that it took this long for del Toro's first animated movie, given that he's shown a deep love for bizarre, complicated, practically-made creatures in almost all of his other projects. That dark and creative design from Hellboy, Cronos, Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth is all on display here. I feel like every time I watch a new stop-motion movie it blows me away in a completely new way (except Nick Park's work, which is comparably not even in the same playing field). Everything is gorgeous and intricate, but at its core it's also just a funny and sad and thrilling movie.

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Plasma: Ive never been a big Guillermo del Toro guy. Something about his style always misses the mark with me. His ideas are cool, but he tends to play things safe rather than send the plot in appropriately wild directions. While watching Pans Labyrinth or reading his book The Strain, I couldnt stop thinking, Man, this would be amazing if hed just let it rip.
That said, I enjoyed the hell out of his Pinocchio movie. Though it does play things safe at times (Crickets plot armor and Geppettos mid-story absence come to mind), I loved this dark and wacky reimagining. The emotional prologue did a great job establishing the WWII Italy setting, which distinguished this version from other Pinocchio tales. Then you have Pinocchio himself as this creepy-yet-endearing puppet whose nose grows like a literal tree branch when he lies (bonus points for it NOT growing during the hilarious scene when he roasts Mussolini). Also loved the Persona-esque afterlife sequences with the sister-creatures that oversee life and death. Those scenes added surrealism and intrigue without feeling tacked-on.
Ill admit that the second half of the movie feels rushed and contrived. Most notably, the ringmasters cliff-side death scene was a blatant excuse to get Pinocchio inside the whale, which was the most inorganic plot development in the entire story. The other issue I had was with Pinocchios climactic choice. He gave up his immortality to save Geppettos life, but the choice felt too obvious and easy. Theres no dilemma, no real stakes, nothing really to lose, and the drama suffers because of it.
But overall, this was a surprising and engaging remake.

Karo: First off I would like to begin by stating just how much I despise the story of Pinocchio, both the original book and the Disney adaptation. It is a tale of conformity and moralfuckery where having fun is evil and everyone should be an empty headed cretin who blindly follows the words of a talking cricket instead of thinking for themselves.
However, this version does some things differently that really change it up and challenge the oppressive moralism that usually plagues it. First off, the biggest change is that the setting is now 1940s Fascist Italy. Yes, a story where the moral is 'do what you are told because it is the right thing' now takes place in an era where that line of thought led to some famously horrible results. Also the plot arc I hate more than anything (pleasure island) mercifully is completely excised from the story.
It is a movie more mature and thoughtful than your standard American animated production, and despite the subject matter being adapted to all hell already it manages to be the definitive version of the wooden almost-boy.

Evillord: Of the three unrelated Pinocchio movies that came out in 2022, this is generally considered to be the only acceptable one, as hilarious as certain clips from the Pauly Shore version with the worldussy (which was actually a dub of a Russian film,) may be. It's beautifully stop-motion animated, apart from the water effects which I did not like the look of, and I appreciate the creepy aspects of the aesthetic, like the film's kaiju-esque take on the Giant Dogfish and especially Pinocchio himself. The scene where he first comes to life, moving in jilted wooden contortions and throwing knives around, so innocent it's threatening, is a lot of fun.
While Pinocchio is among the most adapted stories in the world, I get the impression that most versions are inspired by Disney's film rather than the 19th Century Italian book. While Del Toro adds some elements inspired by Collodi, like the rabbits playing Poker in Hell, he also repeats the same crucial bullet points Disney used in their movie and no others, while adding a storyline about Pinocchio being a rebel in Fascist Italy whose necessity to the broader narrative I don't really understand, even though I liked the bonding scenes with the Fascist guy's son a lot. I was also left kind of scratching my head about how the story gave Pinocchio the curse of immortality, but then undid it, but then maybe gave it back again? It felt like something that was building up to be explored in more depth than it ultimately was. Then again, a retelling of Pinocchio focused on the idea of immortality as a curse is sickeningly reminiscent of Spielberg's repugnant A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, so maybe it dodged a bullet. I felt some parts where rather unsubtle - there's a 10 minute intro with Ghepetto's son (who the film warns you will die,) where you're just waiting for some hilarious tragedy to end their picturesque life together, and then Ghepetto becomes a drunk who constantly cries and swears about his loss but instantly sobers up when Pinocchio comes to life. There are also two back-to-back scenes of a villain ranting about how evil he is while his henchman who Pinocchio befriended gradually builds up the courage to stop listening to the bad guy's abuse and then kill him, which made me feel like the movie was working from a formula. Still, for all that grousing it's a really good-looking movie that brings some of the weird back to this story after Disney sanitized it, and has some nice emotional scenes.

Inviso: So, I can totally admit that this was a well-crafted movie, and its certainly better than the Disney version of the story. However, I just have never been the biggest fan of the Pinocchio story in general, so as a result, this movie didnt do as much for me as perhaps it should have. That being said, I think the expansion of Pinocchios time with the carnival was fun. Even though Honest John was the only good character in the Disney version, having a Christoph Waltz version of the character was much appreciated, because at least he feels like he got a proper villain ending (as did the fascist Coachman equivalent). Also, the island storyline feels like it has much more value to the plot, rather than being a random non-sequitur. I just found like the film flowed really well, and I think Pinocchio works better as a character this time. Yes, hes an annoying brat at the start, but he grows and evolves in a solid way, and its actually satisfying character development. I just wish I cared more about the basic story.

The Good:
-Heavy focus on the uniqueness of characters (and there are a lot of them), each girl starts with a unique weapon that no one else can get and three unique skills that do not take up a passive slot.
-Weapon fusion system is superior to the weapon evolution in VS.
-It's fucking cute.

The Bad:
-Questionable gameplay decisions that often force you to dodge practically unbeatable mosnters when you can barely see the screen due to all the shit on it.
-Most stages feel cramped.

All in all its is probably the best VS clone out there

New topic: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80539188

Outlier:

Inviso: 225
Plasma: 195
Evillord: 172
Johnbobb: 170
Ermine: 158
Suprak: 158
Mythiot: 147
Red: 124
Karo: 112

5. The Bad Guys

Plasma: 1
Inviso: 3
Suprak: 3
Red: 4
Karo: 6
Ermine: 6
Mythiot: 16
Evillord: 21
Johnbobb: 29

Total: 89

Plasma: Now were talking! This one grabbed me right upfront with stylish characters, slick humor, and charming animation (Wolfs eye/facial expressions never get old). From there, the story kept me guessing with clever plot developments, satisfying twists, and dynamic characters that were worth caring about.
Much like the Shrek movies, The Bad Guys knows how to balance satire and emotion. The meta-jokes and references made me smile while the story itself had me genuinely rooting for Wolf not to push the button at the midpoint and then to turn back and rescue Snake at the end. I loved the twists with Innocent Professor Gerbil being the baddie and Governor Fox Lady being a legendary thief. The story pulses with energy, and every member of the cast contributes in meaningful ways. Such a fantastic movie. Hope we get sequels.

Inviso: Its so weird to think that within the same one-year span, Dreamworks put out two separate anthropomorphic animal heist movies. And yet, because Im me, perhaps I rank this a little higher than it otherwise deserves. But I dont care, because this was a fun movie throughout. I enjoy heist films, and I enjoy the general feeling associated with having a large cast of distinct characters who all play a role in the overarching plot. Plus, the film itself feels like a loving send-up to classic, live-action heist movies. Youve got the non sequitur discussions between Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake that feel like a loving homage to Quentin Tarantinos crime movie conversations from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Youve got the general heist planning, with everyone playing a role and the complications that the characters have to think their way out of, a la the Oceans franchise. Heck, they even use Clooney as a verb, putting a fine point right on the nose. Throw in Diane Foxington as a gorgeous furry icon (who, admittedly, couldve done with a bit more hair, since I tend to prefer my furries with hairstyles), and this was a great watch.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Red: Oddly not the only movie on this list with an evil guinea pig. A fun heist movie of animals trying to sort of subvert their typical stereotypes. Falters a bit with some of the character turns not feeling completely natural, characters feeling a bit dickish to each other at times, tbh. But mostly just a fun movie and it was nice to see a more experimental animation style, taking a bit of the technique from spider-verse but not wholly being a carbon copy. With 3D animation we'd really been stuck with the "Disney proven safe" thing for awhile and Dreamworks of all studios moving away from that was quite surprising and refreshing.

Karo: When a heist goes wrong, the city's most notorious criminal gang must try and reform to avoid a lengthy jail sentence (or at least pretend to).
They really made an effort to shrug off the usual 'Dreamworks style' here and create something that is very unique and visually stunning that almost brings to mind Lupin the Third in its exaggerated character motions and I really like it.
The principal characters of the story (Wolf, Snake and Foxington) are among the best Dreamworks has ever created, but unfortunately the company has the tendency to fill their movies with side characters that are both useless and awful, and here it is no different. You'd think after hearing the phrase 'Awkwafina as a talking spider' things couldn't get any worse, but let me introduce you to Mr. Piranha. Piranha is this stereotypical 'crazy Mexican' character who is easily enraged, lacks all self control and shouts out random phrases in Spanish. He is also incredibly flatulent because of course he is.
One thing I found weird is like most of the main characters are anthropomorphic animals, but all the background mooks are human for some reason. Also there's a non-talking cat who they rescue from a tree. Professor Marmalade is a talking sapient creature, but all the other guinea pigs are just normal animals... who are experimented on en masse in an animal testing lab. Yikes.
It is confusing, and a little bit disturbing. It would have been much better to just make everyone talking animals like in Zootopia.
All in all it was an incredibly enjoyable experience that felt fresh in a way few modern CGI films do. There are nods to Tarantino, hot foxy ladies *rimshot*, and a level of character development you rarely see in these kinds of kids movies. It is the best Dreamworks movie since the original HTTYD, a distinction it held for all of a mere seven months because, well, you know.

Ermine: I had this film a few places higher up but I think it is starting to sour ever so slightly with me. Not that I don't still really enjoy it, but when I think about this film now, I just think about how I really enjoy Mr. Snake and then don't care about any of the other characters. Wolf is alright, a pretty decent and enjoyable character, but I can't say I really like any of the others.
The animation and art style are fantastic, that's another positive and I will say I LOVED the ending sequence where Mr. Snake reveals what actually ended up going down.
I think Mr. Snake and Mr. Wolf's relationship throughout the film is what lands this still fairly high for me. Without it, I don't think this film could really stand and walk.
Either way though, it's a fun, exciting, but somewhat predictable film.
Also, please stop casting Awkwafina in any roles, thank you! Thankfully she's not TOO offensive here.

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

Evillord: Besides 20 year old memories of the Hobbit, so decayed they were unrecognizable, this was the only movie on the list I had seen when I started. I gave it a shot when the ads were circulating because the characters look so charmingly smug on posters, especially Mr. Snake winding his way through his Hawaiian shirt. There are some cute scenes of these charismatic characters just interacting near the start, like the opening riff on Reservoir Dogs where the snake and wolf argue about birthdays or the car chase squad intro that follows, but it also has a farting piranha as one of the main characters. It starts to get tiresome as the story progresses and the superficial charm gives way to juvenile Dreamworks-brand comedy, a rote narrative about the crew breaking good with the obligatory midsection plot point where they have a fight for five minutes, and an incredibly predictable twist villain played by Moss from IT Crowd (though it is, probably unintentionally, hilarious to hear this obviously evil character's goodness described as "second only to that of Mother Theresa"). A big disappointment. The Sam Rockwell wolf is pretty hot though ngl.

Johnbobb: Movie starts out, some rude but friendly banter between conmen at a restaurant, pretty cool. They turn to reveal the rest of the building is terrified, not because they're criminals but because they're a wolf and a snake dressed up like people in a world of humans, legitimately funny (that later turned out to not be true). The movie goes into a "yep, this is just my crazy life" self-narration character introduction, and I couldn't help but groan. Then 5 minutes in we get our first (not last) giant fart joke, and that pretty much set the direction of the film. Some funny lines, some fun moments, and some great voice acting, but it's dragged down by a Minions-level sense of lazy humor. One nice thing I can say about it: animation has been doing a cool thing lately where it utilizes a combination of fluid and choppy animation to give a comic-y snap to action scenes. You see a lot of it in Mitchells vs. the Machines, and there's a couple moments of it here

The list so far:

30. The Angry Birds Movie
29. Sita Sings the Blues
28. Lightyear
27. The Hobbit
26. Strange World
25. Ne Zha
24. Yellow Submarine
23. Sing 2
22. The Willoughbys
21. DC League of Super-Pets
20. Early Man
19. Vivo
18. Turning Red
17. The Girl Without Hands
16. The Sea Beast
15. Waltz with Bashir
14. Wendell and Wild
13. Ron's Gone Wrong
12. My Father's Dragon
11. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood
10. Flee
9. Birdboy: The Forgotten Children
8. The Little Prince
7. The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
6. The House

vulpix;ninetales

is this right

I will say this was the movie I was most surprised to not make the top 5

art film + furries should be a overpowered combination

Outlier:

Inviso: 223
Plasma: 191
Ermine: 157
Evillord: 156
Suprak: 156
Johnbobb: 146
Mythiot: 136
Red: 123
Karo: 111

Inviso: This is an anthology movie, and its very much a case of diminishing returns in terms of the chronological progression of the film. The first story is actually somewhat interesting, as it builds up this weird, horror vibe with a pair of parents slowly going insane as they become overwhelmed by the assumed beauty of their new home. Meanwhile, their children are the only ones who sense that somethings wrong, and yet theyre powerless to do anything about it. The whole story gets more and more sinister, culminating in their parents becoming a chair and curtains, respectively. Its a weird horror story, but it works in a kind of animation makes it more of a Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sort of way.
Unfortunately, after a strong opening, the other two segments are far worse. The second vignette is about a rat realtor (the anthropomorphization of the second and third segments feels weird and unnecessary, btw), slowly going crazy as he realizes the house he invested his lifes savings into is infested with bugs, and then the few buyers hes able to attract turn out to be weird, rat-oid (as opposed to humanoid) bugs themselves. And after THAT unsettling tale (which Ill give credit for it at least being unsettling), we get a weird story about a house caught in a flood, and the cat landlady is getting increasingly annoyed at her deadbeat tenants, who are also her only friends. And the end result is everyone getting on a boat and sailing out to sea? Its a whole lotta nonsense, IMO, and its just an extremely weak ending to cap of a weak middle, which is disappointing after the strong opener.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*