Lurker > PrinceKaro

218

Leapt
Pious
Chirp
Crimp

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 185
Evillord: 170
Johnbobb: 131
Inviso: 117
Red: 108
Karo: 105

26. It's Such a Beautiful Day

Johnbobb: 1
Evillord: 1
Inviso: 28
Red: 38
Karo: 39
Ermine: 39

Total: 146

Johnbobb: I absolutely adore everything about this. Easily one of my favorite animated films of all time. Dark, incredibly written, unique and imaginative.

Evillord: The most moving film I've ever seen, animated or not.

Inviso: Thank goodness this film was as short as it was, because it really toed the line hard in terms of making me want to hate every aspect of it. The firstI want to say third to half was going to rank this right down at the bottom of my list, because it felt like the kind of wannabe edgey bullshit you might find in a mid-2000s flash video from Newgrounds. But then, while the movie doesnt completely change its tone, it seems to find its focus. Rather than a random collection of bullshit, the movie turns into a character study into a character with deteriorating health (both mental and physical), and it just became a little more interesting in some of the stylistic choices it made. I think it portrayed memory loss in a solid way, and even though the main character is kind of an asshole, I still felt sympathetic towards him as the film progressed. Now, the movie still wasnt anywhere near the best thing Ive ever seen, but it was semi-decent.

Red: Ugly stick figures have horrible life stacked on horrible life. If there is one thing pretty clear from these lists it is that movies that are indescribably bleak are not my thing. This is really not my thing, you never grow any real attachment to anything in this movie and it is just bad thing happening after bad thing and when it tries to tease you that something good may happen you already know from everything else that it is just trying to fake you out. When it hits that point, which it does very early, it is very hard to care about anything.

Karo: A series of three short films made by this one guy and linked together to form a sort of full length movie.
The story centers on a badly drawn mentally ill man named Bill, and his daily life as he struggles to function in the world. These are usually expressed in scenes so poorly animated they are often little more than GIFs, and filled with so much non sequitur nonsense that it would make even the writers of Family Guy cringe. Thuh piype is leeeking! Thuh piype is leeeking!
But the real problem lies in just how extremely unpleasant it is to watch. Not just because the story is sad or depressing (which it very is), but rather because there are an inordinate amount of flashing seizure lights, screen shaking effects, and random distorted noises that can even be loud enough to drown out the narration. Some scenes are even horrible enough to cause real physical illness.
Like maybe they were trying to make the viewers' brains explode so they could have more empathy for Bill's plight, but the narrative is difficult enough to watch as is without adding headaches in the mix.
Towards the end, the movie takes a thoughtful turn regarding life, the universe and everything, but it is a bit too late by now and I am just left wondering why the hell we needed a whole 50 minutes of mental agony just to get the story to this point.
It just ends up as another one of those experimental art films that is a little too much experiment and a lot too much LSD.

Ermine: There are some people I can imagine really enjoying a film like this. I am not one of them.

The humor rarely hits with me, and when it's firing off so many within such a short time span, it really gets old quick. And then you have scenes that go on FAR too long and make this film seem a lot longer than its hour run time.

"But it's so much more than that! It's sad and makes you think!"

Nah.

I get it. I just don't care. I don't care for the style of storytelling, nor the way they are trying to get their message across.

This was a huge miss and I'm surprised by all the raving reviews. I'm guessing because it's so vastly different from everything else we get in animation and the fact it has immense darker undertones. Different doesn't mean good. It feels like it's trying WAY too hard.

Meh.

I am only going to say this once, treat people in a respectful manner or you will be blocked from this topic. That is all.

You think we won't recognize Harle just because its a bad fanart of her?

sign

Odin the Allpawther

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 172
Evillord: 145
Inviso: 115
Johnbobb: 106
Red: 96
Karo: 92

27. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Ermine: 14
Inviso: 23
Red: 26
Karo: 27
Evillord: 29
Johnbobb: 34

Total: 153

Ermine: I'm still undecided if I like this one more... or less than the 2nd film. I still think the first is the strongest but this one still had some fun moments in it. It seems pretty clear that this is following the trend of the films just becoming more and more nonsense and whilst there isn't really much story or plot to care in the slightest about, it's still fun to see these characters get into stupid situations.

I WAS upset about Wayne being completely cut of the last third of the movie for a stupid ass reason. Dumb dumb dumb.

Inviso: I feel like Im very much grading on a curve here. This film was interesting enough to keep my attention, which is more than I can say of several films Ive watched. The plot was coherent and linear enough to feel like it wasnt ENTIRELY slapped together to make a quick buck (although it definitely fell into some pitfalls that several movies on this list have fallen into). And given that weve watched the first two films in the franchise before, this feels like it wasnt JUST thrown together to continue the story. It took the main character (Dracula) and gave him a new motivation in light of his daughter finding love, getting married, and having a child herself. Its interesting to see the story of a single father, trying to get back on the dating scene, and all the hang-ups that can arise, both from memories of his wife, to fears over how Mavis will feel, to a general lack of experience in the dating scene. Having everything tie back to the Van Helsing family felt a BIT hamfisted, but I think it worked well enough to round out the movie, even if things moved a bit too quickly for my tastes.

Red: While the previous two films in this franchise provided a bit of interest with monster/human world mixing, this film throws it out and we're full monsters and lots of Drac. It doesn't really work. Also hope you don't remember the prior movies because the really dumb concept of "zing" doesn't really mesh with anything we've seen prior. This movie could have been made without it and it would have likely been better off, with the whole concept ultimately being kind of creepy if you think too hard about it. But have no fear because this is probably a franchise they'll drag around for even more sequels.

Karo: This third installment in the extremely adequate monster resort film series sees everyone take an impromptu cruise trip because the writers have no clue what to do anymore.
But oh no! The cruise line is run by the Van Helsing family! Uh-oh, Dracula accidentally falls in love with the great-granddaughter of his arch nemesis! After a lot of marginally funny monster antics and Miss Van Helsing's repeated attempts at killing Dracula fail comically, the day is saved with the power of the macarena in a scene so self-consciously stupid that it almost isn't stupid. Almost.
Like all movies in the series, the animated 'takes' and expressions are top notch. Dennis and Winnie's misadventures are cute as usual. But did we really need another sequel just so we could randomly get Dracula laid? Dracula's romance is awkward and contrived and has zero chemistry from anyone involved. Even his grandson's puppy love has more chemistry than this 1000 year old manchild going goobety goobety goo while the object of his affection tries to murder him.
The Hotel Transylvania series is one that struggles to escape the bounds of mediocrity, and only the second film can really say it accomplished this. I feel they teach good messages to kids about bigotry beneath all the random idiocy, and this justifies their existence at least. Still, this is a textbook cashgrab sequel if I ever saw one.

Evillord: At first I was tempted to dismiss this one as obvious trash and just write "haha Jonathan, you are banging my daughter," but you know, that DJ Battle sequence from the end did make an impression on me. It's like a visual worm that tunneled into my brain. I can't stop seeing it. I think that does actually speak to the strength of the Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack vet director's understanding of motion in animation, which is what elevates this one above some of the others with similarly bad scripts and acting (Good god, Sandlers Dracula voice is terrible.)

Johnbobb: I... never know how to feel about these movies. By all means they're objectively not very good movies. It's Adam Sandler and Kevin James and co. doing silly hijinks as wacky, kid-friendly versions of monsters. MANY of the jokes don't land, in this one or the ones to come before. But there's also a weird sort of charm to the movie. It made me laugh or at least smile a couple times.

217

Teams
Cried
Piety
Binge
Wince

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 159
Evillord: 143
Inviso: 111
Johnbobb: 99
Red: 95
Karo: 92

Here comes a new challenger!

28. The Illusionist

Evillord: 7
Ermine: 24
Red: 25
Johnbobb: 28
Karo: 32
Inviso: 38

Total: 154

Evillord: Sylvain Chomet's previous film The Triplets of Belleville was a masterpiece. It was deliberately gross yet somehow beautiful, with characters whose pure visual design and personality made them stick in my head for days. This movie has a more realistic art style that prevents it from having characters quite as fascinating as the titular trio or the slinky-like waiter of Triplets, and surprised me with a sweet and highly personal story about a friendship between two people who speak different languages, complimented by Chomet's dialog-free storytelling. Then it defied my expectations again with a heart-wrenching ending about art forms the world has left behind, which is fitting for a holdout of 2D animation. I loved it.

Ermine: These types of movies aren't quite my thing but I can appreciate them none the less. But they also leave me with almost nothing to talk about. Bittersweet ending and borderline depressing. But life moves on.

Also, when he was releasing the rabbit, I was like... you can't just release your bunny into the wild like this >_> but apparently there's a bunch of other bunnies there so it's fine.

Red: Want to watch a mostly bumbling illusionist realize hes bad at life and have his soul and will to live sucked out of him by the end of the movie? This is it. He blows all his money on a girl that looks less than half his age, practically works himself to death, and then realizes he still sucks and runs away. Hes not wrong, hes consistently shown to be pretty bad at everything. I was definitely interested in where this movie was going to go with the characters, if they'd have any improvement. But the girl stays naive and money hungry and the main character just falls harder than he began.

Johnbobb: I don't really know what to say about this one. It's good, by all means, and it feels like it SHOULD be impactful, but it just kind of isn't?

Karo: A mostly dialogue free movie that is sort of an anime slice-of-life thing, only french. Very very french.
So what happens is the titular illusionist buys a new pair of shoes for a poor cleaning girl, and so she follows him all over britain hoping for more handouts.
That is how it goes for the rest of the film, as this nice old man spends every cent he makes on this shallow spoiled girl that doesn't seem to realize you are generally supposed to sleep with your sugar daddy.
What eventually happens is that she runs off with some handsome chad who wouldn't ever have noticed her had the illusionist not bankrupted himself buying her all those pretty clothes. So then the illusionist sets his rabbit free, gives up on magic, and goes home presumably to hang himself. What a touching story.
Sylvain Chomet's weird humor is hit and miss like usual, and the movie tends to get kind of boring in places while you are waiting for the dumb scottish bitch to hopefully be hit by a bus while she is ogling another piece of overpriced frippery that the illusionist can't afford.
It is a movie that wants to be charming but instead ends up one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen. Like seriously, this story is about a kindhearted chap who we watch get continuously shit upon again and again by the entire world, until he is brutally knifed in the back by the one person he thought cared about him. Yeah I guess the point of the story is that life sucks and people are shit, but I really don't need a movie to tell me that.

Inviso: This film is AGGRESSIVELY French, in just how bleak and depressing its story is. The basic premise is that you have this older guy whos a washed-up magician, but he meets a manic pixie dream girl that thinks magic is real. They move in together, and the magician is so desperate to maintain their relationship that he spends every last dime to treat the girl. But in the end, she winds up ditching him for greener pastures, while the magician (along with several others) find their lives going down the drain. Its just really depressing, but its depressing in a boring fashion. Its practically a silent film, and it just drags on and on, watching this mans life erode, while the manic pixie dream girl seems completely detached from reality in a way that only serves to hurt him. There are dumber movies on this list, but boredom is usually a worse emotion than disgust when it comes to ranking these films.

Yes

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 155
Evillord: 122
Inviso: 101
Johnbobb: 99
Red: 92
Karo: 88

29. Boy and the World

Evillord: 4
Johnbobb: 16
Ermine: 30
Karo: 33
Red: 35
Inviso: 36

Total: 154

Evillord: I really liked this. There were a lot of cool little animation moments, like the colorful balls representing the parade music or the train tracks transforming into rain drops. It did a good job bringing across the kid's feelings when his dad went away, and I liked how much curiosity and enthusiasm the main character had for the world around him. The animation is so colorful and intelligently used that its a joy to watch, even if the storys kind of sad. The ending was beautiful. It left me feeling melancholy but simultaneously inspired.

Johnbobb: The movie manages to do a lot with a little, though it's hard to give it all that much credit for it given that there's another movie on this list that does even more with even less. It's beautiful in its simplicity and use of color. It does drag a touch at times, and it certainly doesn't leave you with happy feelings, but it's a memorable work of art.

Ermine: It takes a while for this movie to start getting interesting, but even when it does, it just doesn't quite do it for me. The older guy and the old man ending up being the boy, but just growing up was a nice touch. Visuals were overall distinct and different but not really my style.

I did raise an eyebrow when they had that like minute of real life footage. Like, I get the message, you don't have to show real life footage to demonstrate the impact. You can literally just use the unique art style that the whole movie's already been using. It just felt way off in general.

Karo: A strange Brazilian film about a young boy searching for his father. Maybe.
It has a unique visual look that is initially intriguing, but eventually loses a lot of its wonder as the film progresses. There are a lot pf pretty pictures but the stylization and mood is not really amazing enough to carry the movie on its own in absence of any real plot.
The movie is generally just the boy goes to an area and plays around a bit with the whimsical backgrounds, then goes somewhere else and does the whole thing again, usually with lengthy exploration of the south american textile industry for whatever reason.
Just like the title says, there is a boy and there is a world, but I want a little more than that. The movie didnt really connect with me until near the very end where it is revealed that the various adult traveling companions of the boy are actually the boy himself in various stages of his life.
It is a unique little film with a bittersweet but confusing message that could be interpreted as anything from 'american imperialism is bad' to 'being old sucks' to 'everyone should be a luddite', and I'm not really sure what I'm meant to take away from it.

Red: This is a boring colorful tale about how kid is stuck in an endless loop of being a cog in an capitalist industrial machine and his life is going to lead to nowhere and end up in the same situation as his father. Or something like that. This movie felt twice as long as it actually was and the grim message it leaves you off on isn't exactly fulfilling.

Inviso: Im still very early in watching movies for this list, but I can already tell Im going to be an outlier because of some of the films Im ranking above this one. Im sorry, but Im just not a fan of movies that come across as artistic for artistics sake. Im sure that, if I was from Brazil, this story might resonate more with me, but as it stands, it just doesnt hit with me the way its perhaps meant to. For starters, Im not a huge fan of the animation style, and it comes across as a little bit lazy. But more than that, I get the general story, but its just told in a very confusing fashion that doesnt really come across as intended without dialogue to at least guide the viewer through the plot. On paper, it seems like the story of a little kid leaving home to search for his father (who also left home, but in search of work), but he winds up meeting his future self and his FAR future self as he discovers the industrialization of Brazil. Its justartistic is the only word I can think to describe it, and the film fell flat for me in that regard.

Mantis
Rocket

216

Weird
Rains
Prick

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 151
Evillord: 97
Inviso: 94
Red: 86
Johnbobb: 86
Karo: 84

30. Anomalisa

Johnbobb: 12
Evillord: 14
Karo: 16
Red: 36
Ermine: 38
Inviso: 39

Total: 155

Johnbobb: Charlie Kaufman is one of my favorite writer/directors, and has made a handful of my all-time favorites. This... isn't quite one of them, but it's still really good! Of course when Kaufman attempts an animated movie, he does it by twisting the very nature of claymation, with characters' faces changing and even falling off, their voices not matching their characters, and... yeah, ok, claymation genitals.

Evillord: My main fear for this movie was that it would just be a Charlie Kaufman film in stop motion. That was mostly true, but this couldn't have been done in live-action since the identical faces and voices of everyone except Michael and Lisa are so important to helping the viewer understand the former's mental state. My feelings for the film followed the same arc as Michael's view of Lisa: I was completely entranced around the part where Lisa's singing Cindi Lauper but lost a lot of that interest as it was winding down and I could see where things were headed.

Karo: A misanthropic and mentally ill man who hears everyone's voice as sounding the same meets the one woman in the world with a unique voice on a business trip and it is love at first sound.
His awkward romance with this girl is both strange and sweet, though it is not to last, as her voice begins to change in Michael's head and we watch his inevitable spiral into madness culminating in a complete meltdown during his business presentation.
Lisa is not the only anomaly here, the movie itself is one. It uses the art of stop motion animation in such an unusually realistic way, and is (accurately) billed as a 'psychological horror romantic comedy'.
Standing out is hard in indie animation. Some directors take copious amounts of drugs and then shit all over their film for attention. But here we have a mature and subtle window into the souls of two very human characters and their beautiful and fleeting love. Adult animation that is actually, well, adult? Who would have ever thought.

Red: Spoiled rich dude comes to terms with his completely unfulfilling life and finds meaning by finding a girl. Great I feel so bad for him. The main character is the biggest jerk and I'm not sure what this movie is supposed to make us feel other than hoping he wont get anything he desires. It sort of is half true but also just weird and seems to have this tone where we are supposed to feel sympathetic for this jerk that we will never feel

Ermine: Nope, didn't care for that one bit. I don't even know what to say, this just isn't a movie that speaks to me in any sense at all. It's also listed as a comedy and I didn't smile or chuckle at anything. Not my type of humor it seems.

I do enjoy psychological things, just... not this kind I guess?

Inviso: Its weird, because this is one of those films that, in our previous animated lists, I wondered why it hadnt been included before. I actually remember the Oscar campaign for Anomalisa, and thought to myself This actually looks interesting. It turns out I was wrong. Most of the plot is just a boring, slice-of-life story about a successful (but unhappy) British man, looking to hook up in a hotel while hes away on a business trip. The only real twist is that he has some kind of mental disorder that makes everyone else look and sound like the same, weird-looking guy. Sure, he finds temporary happiness, but that fades as well, after some cringe-worthy sex scenes that look like theyre only a few steps removed from the puppets in Team America: World Police. This was just a really unpleasant movie to get through, and the main character was just so unlikable in his stubborn refusal to mention his mental problem to literally anyone. I didnt enjoy it beyond it being the kind of artistic film Im not the biggest fan of already.

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 143
Inviso: 85
Evillord: 81
Red: 80
Karo: 70
Johnbobb: 68

31. The Grinch

Ermine: 8
Karo: 21
Inviso: 22
Red: 29
Johnbobb: 36
Evillord: 39

Total: 155

Ermine: This movie plays it INCREDIBLY safe in a way that is almost shameless but the highs of this film are too much for me to pass up. I absolutely love Welcome Christmas as a song and really enjoy the versions of it in this movie. It dials up the emotion and just christmasy feel up to eleven whenever it plays and I wish they just went a BIT further with it in that way. That version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was actually pretty fun too, along with that scene.

This is also by far the best Max the dog has ever been. Holy moly did he steal the show for me. What an adorable pupper who deserves all the love. I would have loved to see his relationship with the Grinch a bit more but alas.

Cindy Lou sucks but she always has and the plot/subplot with the kids is just wholly uninteresting. It's a bit of a shame since there's a lot here that hits for me, but a ton that really doesn't and brings the rest of it down. Still fun.

Karo: The latest animated adaptation of the tale of the mean green guy with the undersized blood pump.
Things go pretty much how you would expect, the Grinch hates christmas, wants to steal it, etc, though they do a pretty good job making the Grinch seem human (or whatever he is supposed to be), rather than just some cackling cartoon villain.
The way the main characters behave quite similarly to certain individuals from Despicable Me is quite noticeable and somewhat distracting. You're a mean one, Mr Gru.
There is a lot of fluff in the middle of the movie to pad out the runtime of a story that wasnt really meant to be feature length, and this part of the film really drags on. It is neither original or exceptional, but it is still quite touching, and mercifully Jim Carrey is nowhere to be found.

Inviso: Obviously, the original Grinch (the short TV special based almost verbatim on the Dr. Seuss book) is a classic. This is fine, even though it does run into a lot of the pitfalls inherent in translating a short childrens book into a feature-length film. Theres a lot of filler in terms of building up Whoville as a Christmas village, or Cindy Lou Who as a character of ANY kind (and her subplot about trapping Santa to ask him to help her momwhich is fine in the context of a feature film I guess), or adding an unnecessary reindeer character. But ultimately, the movie is about the sentimentality of Christmas and the Grinch learning about the Christmas spirit and how its more about being with people you care about than the commercialism of the holiday. It is weird hearing them sing Christmas carols, because that implies that the world where these strange Whovillians exist is the same as our world, where Jesus Christ is a thing. Also, Max is absolutely adorable in this, and he is the goodest boy.

Red: In the land of sequels we have a remake. A remake of something that already had a remake even. Have you seen The Grinch before? Yeah, you have? Well congrats because you've seen this movie before. The big problem is that everything this brings new to the script ends up going nowhere and you get the exact ending you've probably seen a hundred times around Christmas before. They had a chance to leave us with more developed characters than either of the prior Grinch movies and then nope. The Grinch just isn't grinchy enough and it makes the ending feel weird and the Grinch less organic.

Johnbobb: why does this exist? who in their right mind thought this needed to exist? It's just How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but longer, uglier, and overall worse.

Evillord: Predictably, this feels like the 20-minute special stretched to feature length that it is, and the extra time is filled with Illumination's hackneyed and boring tropes. At the risk of overanalyzing something so stupid, the big problem with this (and the Jim Carrey Grinch) is that making the Grinch this sad and misunderstood villain is missing the point. The Grinch is a story about redemption that shows how even the world's biggest jerk can learn not to be so shitty if he tries. That doesn't work if he's a secretly nice guy who just needs love.

Mantis
Rocket

Wordle 215

Reads
Rough
Rocky
Robot

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 120
Red: 78
Inviso: 76
Evillord: 73
Johnbobb: 63
Karo: 60

32. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Ermine: 6
Red: 22
Evillord: 27
Karo: 29
Inviso: 34
Johnbobb: 38

Total: 156

Ermine: I think it's safe to say that this is the best Ice Age movie. I think the first could give it a run for its money for sure, the heart and story of the first would definitely edge it out in those regards but this one actually has some damn good humor in it. It doesn't really care about having a good story and just puts the characters in a ton of funny and stupid scenarios which make you laugh more often than not. Sure there's plenty of duds in terms of jokes, but there's enough hits that I can forgive them for the misses.

Buck is a great character. I wasn't exactly sold on him at first, but good god that Crime Scene scene was incredible. "Leaving broccoli?... a vegetable." Best scene in the movie. A++

One thing that I think animated sequels do a lot is ruin their characters from their previous entries. Thankfully this isn't the case here and all of the main chars stay true to their character and even improve in some ways. I think the opossums were better than their introduction movie... though that might be the fault of the 2nd movie really not being that good at all. Ellie is a more entertaining character. Diego is good. Manny stays about the same and Sid is just Sid.

And then we have the Scrat story going on during the movie. This was fantastic as well. I literally gasped when Scrat pushed Acorn away. I wasn't ready for that kind of plot twist and I could feel Acorn's pain. That whole song and scene with Acorn being dejected and everything was great. Good stuff. I'm glad they got back together.

Red: Did you want more Ice Age? If you did, you got more ice age. The same characters are back, they meet an apparently not one-off character because a sequel releases soon with him in the title, have an adventure avoid death and then everyone is back to one happy family with a new kid. This is pretty standard inoffensive sequel fair for this list. Ice age is what it is; this doesn't try to be anything different; it doesn't really spit on itself; it is just another ice age movie. There are already two more of these, I'd be surprised if they were anything different.

Evillord: I couldn't help but catch this movie forcing itself into a cliched kids' movie plot, especially with the contrived fight between the Mammoth and the Sabertooth, but I wound up liking it more than expected. Buck was funny, and I liked the idea of a secret underground world where Dinosaurs continue to exist long past their time. The set-piece where they had to fight off dinosaurs at the same time as delivering a baby was cool too. The subplot about the two squirrels got kind of tiresome, but I liked how it ended.

Karo: The third Ice Age movie, and by this time they had pretty much given up on any sort of historical accuracy about the time period that these characters are living.
So what happens is Sid kidnaps some T-rex eggs so he can be a mommy, and when the mother dino comes to get them back Sid gets dragged along with them to this totally original underground cavern filled with prehistoric critters. The others want the useless sloth back for some reason, and so they all have to go to his rescue, including a heavily pregnant Ellie, which leads to them having to fight off bloodthirsty velociraptors during an impromptu bout of childbirth. Man, with parents like these no wonder the mammoths went extinct.
The movie is still quite funny, and there is a surprisingly amount of risque humor here for a kids flick. Most of the laughs this time come from the new character of Buck and his deranged hermit antics. Sid is not really that funny when separated from his two comic foils, and in fact most of the old characters don't really bring much to the table this time around. This is now just the Buck the weasel show, folks.
Still, there's something missing here that the first two movies had, the feeling of family between all these outcast weirdos and how they would playfully jibe each other but still care. Buck is a funny guy, but it never really felt like he fit in with all that, and the ending put an emphatic stamp on that notion.
It might not be as good as the first two, but still you could do a lot worse when it comes to animated movies from that decade.

Inviso: This movie was frustrating. Its not that the original Ice Age (or even the sequel) were high cinema or anything like that. But this movie just felt completely devoid of any sense of purpose whatsoever. The first two films had Manny as the main character, dealing with the loss of his family, and the slow re-establishment of Sid, Diego, and Ellie as his new family. Dawn of the Dinosaurs has no main character. All three of Manny, Sid and Diego have an overarching story of moving on in their lives, but all three of them are battling for central focus, which means none of them has a properly-established story. Mannys still a worrywart about his impending baby, Sid wants to have a family of his own and gets involved with a T-Rex mother, and Diego feels like hes losing his edge by hanging around with herbivores. None of this is ever developed enough to warrant its inclusion. Throw in the love story of Scrap and the flying squirrel girl, and you have a film that cares more about being wacky and appealing to children, than it cares about telling a compelling narrative.

Johnbobb: ICE AGE IS NOT A GOOD SERIES STOP MAKING THEM PLEASE I BEG YOU

Lets just say digestive acid doesn't do much for the complexion

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 94
Inviso: 75
Red: 69
Evillord: 68
Johnbobb: 57
Karo: 57

33. Spies in Disguise

Karo: 18
Inviso: 21
Red: 21
Evillord: 28
Ermine: 32
Johnbobb: 40

Total: 160

Karo: So the main character is a famed superspy who is basically Will Smith playing James Bond, who is an arrogant jackass to his supporting spy crew in just about every way possible. It actually calls to mind Smith's other animated voice role in that movie whose name shall not be spoken. However, the big difference here is that this movie openly acknowledges that his character is a twit, and never tries to force an artificial feeling of pulling for him.
Anyway, a series of events result in Agent Smith being transformed into a pigeon for silly and arbitrary reasons, and this unfortunate incident causes him to need to rely on his eccentric and unappreciated gadget man to both find a cure and to do all the things humans do, and much hilarity ensues as their opposite personalities and philosophies clash.
Blue Sky's last movie turns out to remarkably be one of their best, and despite how utterly stupid the premise of the plot seems at first glance we are given a funny and touching story with excellent performances from everyone involved.
It is a shame that Blue Sky got shut down, what with the decent nature of this film and the potential of the upcoming one, but Di$ney gonna dis I guess.

Inviso: Blue Sky is not exactly a high-minded company when it comes to the animated film products they produce (there is so much toilet humor and weird, gross-out humor in the first half of the film that its genuinely off-putting). However, the concept behind this film is SO weird and unique, and it manages to give a slightly different spin on your classic buddy cop movie plot, that I actually kind of enjoyed it. The back half is a lot stronger than the front half, at least aside from one scene (namely the scene after Sterling turns human again and sends Walter away so he can face the bad guy alonewhich feels poorly-placed in the timeline of the plot for that particular heel turn). I mean, I just appreciated the suave, stylish, popular Sterling having to get schooled by nerdy outcast Walter, all while dealing with life as a pigeon. I think it would only have been better (and admittedly, thats on a curve for sure) if Walter had learned to be cooler as the plot progressed, matching the change in Sterling. Ive been far too down on the movie in this write-up though; it was really interesting and fun for what it was.

Red: Going to take a moment to point out this title is a complete lie. There is a single spy, hes not really in disguise and hes transformed against his will. If I took it by the trailer I'd have assumed all the birds were spies but that was apparently a lie too they are just birds. Some of the actual spy and gadget stuff was actually kind of entertaining, but the main characters endlessly annoying each other is a match that just never feels like it works and drags on for far too long until it is plot convenient.

Evillord: This was another one I thought would be really bad but was actually fine. The plot was extremely predictable but both main characters had weaknesses that were relevant to the story and had changed by the end, so the overall writing was competent. Some of the spy hijinks were fun to watch too.

Ermine: This movie has a LOT of misses and disgusting crap that made it difficult to watch, but there were actually a couple funny and enjoyable moments, which is more than I can say about the movies I ranked below this. Normally I hate slow mo moments since I feel they are overdone, but this movie takes it to the extreme and does them like at least 100 times in the movie that it becomes hilarious. One in particular in the car chase scene was actually pretty great.

I'm focusing on the good stuff because the bad stuff I don't even want to think about. *Shudder*

Johnbobb: this is more will smith butthole than I ever thought I'd have to bother with

Mantis
Rocket

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 93
Inviso: 63
Evillord: 63
Red: 56
Johnbobb: 50
Karo: 42

OhMyDog

34. The Secret Life of Pets 2

Ermine: 2
Red: 18
Inviso: 31
Karo: 35
Johnbobb: 37
Evillord: 37

Total: 160

Ermine: I loved the first film and this one is no exception either. Max is adorable and I love him and Rooster was a fantastic addition to the movie.

I actually think that the idea of a dog going through the stress of having a little kid to look after is a really cool and I WISH that this was more explored throughout the film. What I mean by that is I wish that the whole movie's focus was just on that and got rid of the other side stories that we had to watch. It made the movie feel disjointed and that the writers just wanted to give screen time to the other characters from the first film.

If you take Max's story at the farm with Rooster and make that the whole film, I think it would be awesome... but also likely miss the target audience then. Ah well.

Still, this film makes Max a much more likable character than the first (even though I liked him there too) and Secret Life of Pets is by far and away Illumination's best series, I hope they continue with them, despite how mindless they can be at times! Give me all the dogs.

Red: Secret Life of Pets was one of the more surprisingly decent movies from the last list. The sequel, not so much. We're going on more absurd adventures, we're going to pretend the bunny wasn't a villain and change his character for plot convenience, and everyone is going to get split up because oh god we have to make a sequel and don't know what to do. The characters are still likeable from the first, and that goes a long way to not being low on this list, but we're still suffering some sequelitis like almost half the list.

Inviso: Having made it 3/4 of the way through this list as of this write-up, Ive found that a lot of the sequels from lesser companies (see: not Pixar, kinda Disney/Dreamworks) arethey often feel like quick cash grabs. In the case of Pets 2, the plot feels like its completely all over the place. The first movie was almost entirely around Max feeling like his position was being usurped by a new dog. It was a straight-forward story, with some wackiness and side characters thrown in. Pets 2 felt the need to craft stories for three main characters, and kinda had them come together at the end of the moviebut none of them really feel like they concluded in a decent way.

Max starts out with a story about his owners new kidbut that gets almost completely dropped as the story turns into him overcoming his anxiety. He goes to a farm and meets a sheep dog who trains him, and then the sheep dog leaves with like two thirds of the movie left to go. No real conclusion to HIS story arc other than feeling sad that Max is leaving. Meanwhile, Snowball is pretending to be a superhero and gets enlisted to rescue a captive tiger from the circus, with help from Tiffany Haddish dog. They succeed, but the tiger is tracked down and recaptured, so Snowball (with Max, who is suddenly onboard with this plot after learning of it in the SAME scene as his enlistment) go to rescue the tiger. Much like the sheep dog, Tiffany Haddishs character is missing from the ending, which is weird, given that shes one of the main characters in the film. And finally, Gidget has a whole thing about needing to infiltrate a cat ladys house, so she learns to be a catbut then her plot wraps up easily, and barely needed that whole training sequence, since she uses another solution.

While the plot is super-convoluted, I will give the movie a ton of credit for characterizing the animal characters in a very satisfying fashion (a lot like the original movie). The pets feel like real pets, and the little character moments of animalistic actions are fun and add personality to a film that doesnt hit the plot beats I typically want in a film. The characters are likable, which is more than you can say in a lot of the dumber kids movies on this list.

Karo: The sequel to Illuminations hit-and-miss city animal adventure movie.
Much like the first film, there are three main plots going on simultaneously. One is Gidget trying to recover a lost squeaky toy from the crazy cat lady's apartment, and even though the scenario is kind of arbitrary our little pomeranian puffball again shows why she is the best character in the series.
There also is this extremely dumb story of Snowball becoming a superhero and trying to save a captive circus tiger. While the little bunny has never really been all there mentally, now he has become a complete imbecile on the level of the Minions, and watching him do anything here is extremely excruciating.
But it is the third tale of Max's random farm trip that really makes me uncomfortable, largely due to the introduction of the new character of Rooster the farm dog. Let's just say that if dogs could vote this one would certainly vote for Donald Trump. This wonderful character constantly complains about all the liberal pansy bullshit that the newcomers bring to his farm, such as how they refuse to let a preschooler run around unsupervised and fall off the giant fucking cliff that is apparently right next door.
In one atrocious scene that has aged as well as rancid milk, Rooster literally rips off Max's doggy cone because he thinks protective medical equipment is for pussies.
But the thing that is really bad here is the way the film pushes the idea that Rooster is so cool and awesome and admirable onto the impressible minds of the kids watching the movie. When the main moral of the story is seemingly that our slightly effeminate canine protagonist needs to man up and stop being a little bitch, that is of course going to rub me very the wrong way.
All in all it is an extremely poor followup that learns nothing from what it did wrong and what it did right in the first movie, all while deciding to double down on mostly doing the wrong things, and these parts of the pets lives should have honestly remained secret.

Johnbobb: The first Secret Life of Pets wasn't great. Not terrible, but mostly whatever. But this cash-in, insubstantial sequel is significantly worse, and barely qualifies as a movie. This feels like they tried to make an animated series pilot about Kevin Hart's bunny, but that failed, so they had to squeeze an entire movie runtime out of it. So the literal main character of the movie is sent away on a boring, insignificant B-plot. And Gidget, the funny dog that was really the best part of the first film? She ALSO gets an even more insignificant B-plot.

Evillord: This movie is by Illumination.

I can't wait for the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3.1415926535 Re:Hashed

Wordle 214 2/6




Being
Point

lol

I am not bothered by the sex scenes in Fritz, they are laughably tame for today's internet standards. It's just feels like it is made by these edgelords who just want to stuff a blunderbuss full of erotica and stereotyping and fire it as the screen trying to be as offensive as possible but lacking in any direction or purpose. It's just cringey and doesn't work. See South Park for how to do something like this that works a lot better.

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 61
Inviso: 60
Evillord: 60
Johnbobb: 47
Karo: 41
Red: 41

lol

35. Fritz the Cat

Evillord: 8
Ermine: 10
Johnbobb: 32
Karo: 38
Red: 39
Inviso: 40

Total: 167

Evillord: This shit paved the way for American Adult Animation. Everything from the Simpsons and South Park, to maybe even the furry fandom, owes something to this. It fits into the best kind of satire, where it makes fun of everyone and everything it portrays. This didn't just piss off overprotective parents, it upset everyone, even the creator of its own source material, who thought it was too critical of leftist politics. It's probably the most culturally significant film on the list. As for me, I think it's pretty good.

Ermine: What in the fuck did I just watch?

No seriously.

Like this takes vulgarity to a whole new level I've never experienced before. Puts Sausage Party to shame... but I sorta like it? Well... I mean I hate it, but I also kinda like it. Some of the dialog and back and forth between the characters was actually really funny. I laughed out loud at least ten times.

But things like... "Get the Fuck off my Car!" or... "Hey guys... that's uncool, don't do that.", when that girl was getting attacked with the chain. Comedic timing was there for sure. Fucking Fritz man. Just uncool huh? That's all?

Also he literally got blown up by a bomb and then was okay because those babes came back to say hi? How did he do that!?

Seriously though? If you remove all the booba and sexy time stuff, what's left is a pretty interesting film to me. I mean sure, you have to have that stuff because Fritz is fucking zonked out of his mind, but I really don't need to see that shit for minutes and minutes on end.

I think the most revolted I was was when that dog guy or whatever smashed up all his chickens with his plank + nail. That was seriously messed up.

Yeah, I have no idea how to rank this, like at all. It's so incredibly different from every other animated film I've watched so uh... it can go wherever it ends up. Who knows?

Also how did they fit so many people in that tub at the beginning! That was a bit unrealistic.

Oh one last thing. I actually think I was starting to like Fritz as a character in the last 20 mins of the movie.

Far out.

Johnbobb: I have respect for some of what this film attempted. At its core, there's a really good story there: the story of a white, naive college kid running off a high of sex and drugs into situations he doesn't understand, trying to lead a revolution that doesn't involve him mostly out of boredom and disillusionment. Its influence on the genre is undeniable, and there's some real excellence here; Duke's death stands out as a brilliantly shot scene, with the bounce of the pool balls matching his heartbeat as he dies trying to save Fritz from his own mistakes. There is something smart in the writing here in terms of racial and political relations... and it's bogged down by unironic racist stereotypes and bizarre sexual violence played off for laughs. It's like someone took a political philsophy degree and drew horny doodles on it.

Karo: A dubious film adaptation of the exploits of underground comix artist R. Crumb's fursona.
Some of the scenes are taken from the various short comic strips starring the character, generally extended unnaturally or fused together awkwardly, which only adds more confusion to movie that already sees far too many hallucinogenic drugs taken by both the characters and the writers.
The jokes that actually land are few and far between, and the plot is the usual patchwork quilt of idiocy from Ralph Bakshi, who generally has his head so far up his own ass he is in danger of suffocation.
The story is literally as follows: Fritz has an orgy in the bathroom and then wanders off and meets racist depictions of black people (and fucks one of them) then he goes on a roadtrip and everything blows up and he ends up in the hospital where he fucks everyone again.
The film is a thoroughly unpleasant experience featuring amateurish animation that looks pulled from one of the CD-i zelda games, incoherent and mumbly voice acting, and many unattractive animal girls who have their boobs randomly pop out of their shirts for no reason. Like seriously, if you are going to make half of your movie furry porn at least make it GOOD furry porn.
When you make a film adaptation so bad that original creator kills off the main character solely because of it, you truly know you have fucked everything sideways in a bathtub.

Red: I'm pretty sure this movie is just here to bait us all into putting a movie in dead last. Weird furry sex fantasy made in the 70s for some reason. Every character is made to be unlikable and it succeeds. There aren't a whole lot of redeeming qualities to this movie, it is exactly what it presents itself to be and at the end of the day that isn't very good. If there is one redeeming, if you want it that, factor it is the weird cynical take on the world is oddly still applicable in 2022, complete with nazis. The Disney characters cheering on the bombing got a good laugh from me too. But this is still mostly trash.

Inviso: This is one of the worst films Ive ever watched. Im a furry, and this was utterly aggravating. Obviously, we have to talk about the animation choices, namely how this whole film feels like the School House Rock animators decided to draw a porno with cats. The visual aesthetic is horrific, and I hate every aspect of it. I do not need to see poorly-drawn, early seventies boob animation from every character, none of whom are the kind of animation youd WANT to see au naturale. But beyond the visuals, the story sucks, and Fritz is an obnoxious fucking douchebag. Hes an over-the-top caricature of a hippie white boy from the late sixties who thinks hes hot shit, but really just drifts along in life. He gets a crow (by the way, way to be racist as hell, movie) killed with his call to arms, then fucks off and ultimately faces no consequences. Despite being involved in the bombing of a power plant, he ends the movie having a fucking orgy. This movies is AWFUL. Across the board.

Mantis
Rocket

Outlier Rankings:

Inviso: 55
Johnbobb: 44
Karo: 38
Red: 37
Ermine: 36
Evillord: 33

Things tightening up a bit

36. Trolls World Tour

Karo: 19
Inviso: 24
Evillord: 24
Johnbobb: 31
Ermine: 37
Red: 37

Total: 171

Karo: Everyone discovers suddenly that they are living in one of the six kingdoms of troll land that are each based off a type of music and the rock troll queen is trying to collect the six infinity strings so she can use their cosmic power to make all the other trolls shop at Hot Topic.
Poppy enthusiastically embarks on a quest to unite all the kingdoms against this villain, only to discover that the others actually hate the pop trolls because they steal everyones music. This is kind of ironic because every other musical genre featured in the movie's soundtrack has generally been popified to all hell.
The first problem with the film lies with the character of Branch, who is no longer the misanthropic hermit he used to be, yet they still try and duplicate the humor between him and Poppy that was central to the first movie. They go with a sort of 'wah, my girlfriend won't listen to me' thing to try and artificially generate conflict between the duo but it is not the same. They try to fill the void with singing, and I mean a LOT of singing. Like in the first movie they had songs in structured places to help enhance the impact of the story. Here it is just everyone constantly spewing out a diarrhetic deluge of random pop songs so much it is almost masturbatory.
This is very much the textbook example of a safe sequel, and the wonder of their world and its craft project backgrounds is somewhat blunted because I have seen it all before. It is certainly not offensive, but it is like eating a whole bag of candy. It may be a great experience in the moment but it has no substance and so it doesnt really stay with you.
However, its central message of togetherness is something the world could use right about now, and it is certainly not the worst thing we could be putting into kids' brains.

Inviso: Full disclosure: way back when we did the Dreamworks ranking, I liked Trolls 1 so much that I put it in my top ten. I bring this up, because I wouldnt be even remotely surprised if this film ends up in the bottom three of our collective lists, just based on previous opinions of likely rankers. So yeah, I didnt outright hate Trolls 2, even though I will admit that it is an extremely dumb movie. It manages to get a lot of points from me by nailing the jukebox musical aspect of its design. Having known, recognizable songs in flashy and colorful sequences was entertaining to me, personally. That being said, the first movie at least had a solid plot from beginning to end, whereas this movie felt like a very similar rehash, only without any of the coherent narrative and justification behind the villains motivations.

Also, you introduce the concept of six troll kingdoms, yet two only get a single scene in which the protagonists arent even around, two get a single scene where the protagonists are around, and Im pretty sure that, aside from the Techno Trolls, every single defeat by the Rock Trolls is completely off-screen. I dont even remember the Country Trolls getting captured or having their string taken away; they just show up in captivity at the end of the movie. But yeah, Poppy is still really annoying in her naivete, and Barbs whole I have no friends thing is REALLY weirdly shoehorned into the plot for like, two scenes where its relevant. If it wasnt for the fun music, Id rank this a lot lower, because it does nothing with the concept.

Evillord: I couldn't believe this fucking movie. It's your typical dreamworks garbage substituting dance parties, celebrity voice performances, and licensed music for creativity, but the villains are pretty much explicitly fascist and the subplot about the Funk Trolls has vibes of critical race theory. At that part where the troll doll princess is staring in despair at the flaming wreckage of her conquered kingdom something broke in me and I started laughing my head off. It doesn't come close to being a good movie, but I'm kind of glad I watched this.

Johnbobb: Better than the disastrous first movie in every single way. It's still Trolls, which is bad, and still features James Corden, which is worse, but it also delves oddly into the Trolls lore and features Rachel Bloom as the captivating main antagonist? The movie works better than it should've, which is not at all.

Ermine: Better than the first... but not by much. Poppy is still an insufferable character and despite hearing many people actually enjoyed Barb as a character, I absolutely hated her as well. There was one part I laughed which again, is more than the first movie provided but yeah, Trolls movies will always be shit.

Red: Do you remember the first Trolls movie? No? Well good because this movie doesn't either. I'm pretty sure that movie had a plot and this movie makes near 0 reference to that. Poppy is queen and that's all you need to know. And if you didn't know that you will when this movie grinds it into your head repeatedly. Characters from the first movie hopped dimensions and now the world is comprised just of Trolls attached to a few genres of music and you are going to be bombarded with easily recognizable songs for an hour and a half. I don't know if I could even talk about the plot because it just creates one big plot hole that will be handwaved off for another song.

Agatha

Outlier Rankings:

Inviso: 43
Johnbobb: 39
Red: 36
Ermine: 35
Karo: 21
Evillord: 21

37. Ferdinand

Inviso: 19
Ermine: 22
Red: 23
Johnbobb: 33
Karo: 36
Evillord: 40

Total: 173

Inviso: This was actually the second time Id watched this, and somehow, I didnt hate it. It definitely has some dumb moments that feel like they were included solely to fill the runtime of the film (looking at the dance-off with the horses), but at the same time, its largely a sweet movie. John Cena does a good job of selling the character of a pacifist bull who just wants to sniff flowers and relax, and its interesting enough to me to have a large cast of characters who have their distinct personalities, and all slowly come around to Ferdinands way of thinking due to his shows of kindness. Even in the dumbest movies, if you give me a group of characters that I can distinctly separate, I will enjoy the film more, because that appeals to the categorical part of my brain. Now, maybe Im grading on a curve, but this was still nice enough to warrant this ranking.

Ermine: Definitely a mixed bag with this one here. I really wish that the movie focused more on the first quarter and dived into the relationships there. Like with the dog, Paco... who was one of the only interesting characteres. I think there could have been a fun and cool story there... but instead, our attention is turned to the most obnoxious goat character I've EVER seen. Thank god the rest of the characters treat her poorly because god she deserves it. Ferdinand himself is alright... and the story is how you would expect it to go, but man the supporting cast after the first like 20 minutes is just so lackluster. There are a couple of ridiculous scenes that actually do more for the movie than hurt it but eh, there's really not much here to care about.

Give me more Paco.

Red: Bull that really likes flowers has to come to terms with other bulls that no matter what they do in life they are destined to die. Characters are pretty generic and the movie is middling. Ferdinand goes on an adventure, had too many characters left at home to never return, and then is of course the bull chosen to fight because duh. This is pretty standard animated movie fair but on this list that is good enough to be middling by virtue of not being a crappy sequel.

Johnbobb: Why are the horses German? Why are the bulls American (except the one that is Scottish)? I know the real answer is that even in a movie taking place in Spain, the voice cast still needs to be mostly white for some reason, but it's just one of the many little things that keep this from being a better movie. Unfunny jokes (including a dance battle that goes on way too long and features dabbing stallions) fill a bland, by-the-numbers story that looks and feels like it belongs in the early 2000s despite coming out less than 5 years ago. It's inoffensive. It's colorful and has an obnoxious supporting character that squanders Kate McKinnon's comedic talents in an attempt to basically recreate the popularity of Dory in Finding Nemo, but without proper writing.

Karo: The story of Ferdinand comes from an old children's book (and subsequent disney short) about an effeminate bull who dislikes roughhousing and who would much rather just smell flowers. It was a sort of an 'it's ok to be gay' fable from a time where one had to be very cagey about saying those kinds of things.
So lets fast forward to 2017, where we get this new movie adaptation of the story. This is a time where gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, and LGBTQ representation in entertainment is fairly widespread, even now reaching into places such as children's cartoons.
So hey, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, lets start with the casting decisions. The lead role of Ferdinand is given to... wait for it... WWE superstar John Cena. Because when you think of a sensitive girly boy kind of character, the first name that comes to mind is clearly John fucking Cena. He makes Ferdinand come across more as a friendly doofus, and like pretty much every other character in the film he gets real irritating real fast.
They go in hard on pacifism being Ferdinand's chief motivation, along with some super safe 'just be yourself' morals to weave a toothless narrative that is sure not to offend anyone, not even if you are an inbred bible-humping troglodyte from Alabama.
I feel there was a great opportunity here to tell this story though a modern lens, but instead we just get this pitiful lump of bullshit. A mediocre dreamworks-styled movie full of uncharming characters and bull dance-offs that can find no real justification of its existence.

Evillord: I hated that fucking goat so much

Mantis
Rocket Raccoon

Outlier Rankings:

Johnbobb: 35
Inviso: 25
Red: 22
Karo: 20
Ermine: 20
Evillord: 18

38. The Polar Express

Johnbobb: 19
Inviso: 27
Karo: 28
Ermine: 31
Evillord: 34
Red: 40

Total: 179

Johnbobb: This has always been my go-to Christmas classic, although I'm admittedly not a Christmas movie classic kind of a guy. But Polar Express has always been the one least likely to make me groan in true humbug fashion, because everything about this janky-ass uncanny valley Tom Hanks pajama dance-off is just fun the whole way through

Inviso: This didnt have much in the way of plot, largely because it was telling a whimsical tale of childhood wonderment and keeping the Christmas spirit. That being said, its a fine movie. Its nice and saccharine, and thats what you want for a Christmas movie, I guess. I wouldve preferred some plot, but at least it had some maturity to it, rather than going full bore on the childishness some writers think of when writing animated films. I will say that the plot goes off the rails (pun intended) when the train stops, and the characters are just moving around Santas village. Yeah, theres not a LOT of substance to this film, but the style is decent enough. I hate the know-it-all kid, but at least Tom Hanks is largely awesome in his various roles.

Karo: A cynical young boy gets taken aboard a magical train ride up north to meet Santa, with a short detour through the uncanny valley.
Once on board, he meets several other children, one of whom is like this most offensive stereotype of a 'nerd' that you could possibly imagine and oh god it hurts please throw him under the train already, the pain, the pain.
After a surprisingly eventful choo-choo trip, we end up at the north pole and learn about the true meaning of Christmas, which is apparently getting lots of presents and blindly believing in the existence of a fat old guy.
In most aspects it is one of the most impressive looking CGI movies of its era, but there is one area that mars this pretty christmas postcard, and mars it so badly that it bleeds out magic like a deflating balloon. I am of course, talking about the children.
Nothing quite ruins all the wonder and escapism like seeing all these weird hyper-realistic motion capture kids and watching their soulless faces stare blankly off into the void between dimensional space. Because these eldrich mannequin children were not nearly creepy enough already, someone thought it would be a good idea to have most of them motion captured by adult actors.
If the people were in live action this movie would be an instant holiday classic, instead of relying on sketchy fad technology that looks more dated with every passing year.
The film is a magical ride that I still hold a lot of fondness for despite it seeming worse and worse every time I see it. It is best watched with the mindset of a little kid, or even better, with an actual little kid. Just be sure to keep a large bottle of holy water nearby to flick at the TV to make certain the children of satan stay safely in the screen.

Ermine: A fun idea, plagued by the awful characters and overall design and animation. At times it looks quite nice, but god the characters just look off.

There are moments in this film where I think it actually could have been quite good, but before we even get a chance, we have guys jumping around pouring hot chocolate for everyone, or ugly ass engineers being completely incompetent. I want less of the "fun" and more of the "spirit". The balance was like 95-5 and the result is just a waste of my time.

Most of the music in this film is just christmas songs or original tracks that really don't do it for me, but 'Seeing is Believing' is actually really really good. Too bad it's never quite used properly. Like, imagine this film going harder on the darker undertones and tossing out most of the silly shenanigans, and then throw this theme on top of these quintessential moments. That's what I want.

Oh well.

Evillord: This movie looks good coming right off of Jimmy Neutron, but it feels like a case where talking about 3D Animation means noting technological progress rather than artistic inspiration. Its real problem is that it doesn't know when to chill out and develop its characters, so most of the run-time is a sequence of disconnected perilous escapades that don't mean anything and end up being boring. The ending was kind of cute though.

Red: This is a movie I'd probably "seen" a bunch prior to this list. It is always on TV. Somewhere, someone thinks very highly of this movie. It is aired all the time around Christmas like it is some Christmas special classic. But despite all those times I'd watched it, I'd never once seen it from start to finish. Or start to middle, or middle to finish, or really anywhere to finish. I'm pretty sure I'd tuned it out every time by the ending. I hate this movie. This movie has no business being an animated movie, they don't want to be an animated movie. Everything is made to try to look real at a time when animation wasn't really good enough to pull that off and even when they do it is typically pointless to begin with. But the most grating thing, every time I've ever watched this movie, why the hell does the very realistic human kid have a mandark voice. It drives me crazy. Every time he speaks I hope something will come rip his throat out and save us from the terrible voice. Oh and every character is inexplicably Tom Hanks. It doesn't even make narrative sense. They are just all Tom Hanks because did you know Tom Hanks is in this movie so you should all like this movie because it has Tom Hanks. This is also listed as a musical. All the musical numbers are awful. Some of them are completely out of place.

Outlier Rankings:

Red: 20
Johnbobb: 16
Inviso: 14
Evillord: 14
Ermine: 13
Karo: 10

39. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

Johnbobb: 24
Ermine: 26
Red: 28
Evillord: 30
Inviso: 33
Karo: 40

Total: 181

Johnbobb: man this is one of the most early 2000s animated movies out there. The soundtrack is about as good as you could hope for it to be, the animation is just horrifying enough while not being unpleasant to watch, the comedy is low-brow and goofy but still funny. Making the various theme park rides into spaceships is still a stroke of creative genius (even moreso by making the rides continue to act as they would on earth, even if that makes no logical sense). The movie, much like the show that later follows it, throws reason out the window in favor of goofball antics, and it's just a good, dumb time.

Ermine: The robot dog is very cute.

I laughed once. When the slime guy was trying to take apart robot dog and Jimmy is on speaker saying that Goddard was going to explode and he's like oops my bad. Good delivery.

Rest is very unremarkable.

How do kids breathe in space?

???

Also, for being such a genius, why did it take Jimmy over 24 hours to realize his parents were abducted and didn't just go to Florida?

Red: Generic children characters with generic genius but also incredibly stupid main character go on an adventure to save their parents from mind controlling aliens. Nothing is particularly awful here, but also none of the characters are stand outs at all. The aliens eventually are super incompetent and Jimmy about as generic an animated movie main as you could get. His apparent super intelligence becomes harder to buy when he is also insufferably dumb at the same time.

Evillord: I think I had this on VHS as a kid. A lot of the humor is honestly really dumb and juvenile, which is a funny contrast with its big-brained main character but doesn't make it a lot of fun to watch as an adult. Between the stiff 3D animation and the shitty soundtrack, it ends up feeling low-energy, even when the kids are partying or fighting. Still, characters like Hugh and Carl Wheezer have their charm, and I liked the part where the kids were hung over from going on the 10-year-old version of a bender.

Inviso: This was bad. There are some animated films that cater to kids, but are still mature enough to make them palatable to the adults taking their kids to the movies. This is not one of those. Every aspect of this film is childish and filled with plot holes that no kid is going to care about. But as an adult, its extremely frustrating, and its made worse by a cast of elementary school children who piss me off with their over-the-top eccentricities. Jimmy is annoying, but not as much as Carl or Sheen, and Cindy is literally there to be the female rival. Its just really obnoxious, and the only reason it ranks as high as it does is because the plot kept moving forward at a decent pace, and at least the concept is interesting, even if the execution was godawful.

Karo: Jimmy is this young genius who is for some reason is still in elementary school when he is knowledgeable enough to be able to build like a fucking robot dog and shit. His parents don't seen particularly concerned how their son launches himself into the stratosphere or plays around with hazardous technology on a regular basis.
So the story is that Jimmy tries to contact extraterrestrial life by sending a toaster into orbit, and ends up getting every adult in town abducted by aliens. So all the kids go into space without spacesuits and defeat an entire alien civilization, and the film ends on the touching note of everyone belching for like two minutes straight.
The film wants you so so much to see Jimmy as an endearing character, the problem is that he is just not endearing in any conceivable way. He is an obnoxious tool who seems to get off on showing up all the other kids in school with his superior intelligence, and it is hard to feel sympathy for him even when he gets bullied.
As for the supporting brats, you've got the fat, stupid, asthmatic kid whose entire character is being one of those three things, the horrible abusive girl who spews verbal bile whenever she opens her mouth, the skinny stupid kid who is somehow even stupider then the fat one, and the juvenile delinquent who feels a bit too old for his class and seems to exist solely to impart to the children watching the film just how cool it is to be a juvenile delinquent. Jesus fucking Christ, you wouldnt think there would be group of characters so terrible that they would make the cast of Chicken Little seem lovable, but we just may have done it here.
It is not helping that youve got an idiotic plot accompanied by irritating music and some of the worst CGI animation to ever grace a theater screen. Everyone is misshapen blobs of human flesh that are so grotesque that even the slimy alien vomit pile people are far more pleasant to look at.
I do give Nickelodeon a lot of guff, but their strength lies in unique art styling. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it always seems different. But then they go and make this, which is the most generic, white bread, I want to suck Pixar's dick early 2000's CGI trash ever.
This is nothing more than a cheap cashgrab targeted at CG-mania, and you don't need to be a genius to figure that out, boy or otherwise.

Seong