Some Recent Animated Films

Have you seen any animated films lately?

We went through a dry spot last year where a lot of 3D films got past us.

So We're renting them on NetFlix now:

Over the Hedge – Interesting, as it is a bit of a departure from the artistic style and even the topic and humor of the comic strip. There are truly some hilarious moments, though, especially when they use effects. This is my third favorite in the list.

Open Season – Slightly interesting. I found this mostly annoying with a few amusing parts. I don’t think that Martin and Ashton can carry a film. It needed more story and more interesting characters.

Monster House – I finished this one last night. It was really good! The story concept is lacking (“House that is a monster”) but the script was really well done. The characters were very detailed and enjoyable. I can see why Spielberg and Zemeckis produced it. It was also written by the http://www.channel101.com/ founders. I think this is my second favorite of these. They also used a Norman Roxwell style on their characters. This definitely deserved the nomination it got for the Academy Award for best animated film.

Barnyard – Not bad. Steve Oedekerk (Jimmy Neutron, Kung Pow) returns to direct his first 3D animation. This is silly, fun, and it has a good story. You can lose yourself in this story rather easily. However, nothing is overly impressive about this movie.

Ant Bully – This was also decent; it's from the director of Jimmy Neutron, John A. Davis. It has a good story, and the characters are fun. However, we really didn't need a third ant movie. There's nothing here that Bug's Life and Over the Hedge didn't do better.

Older recommendation:

Hoodwinked – Poor quality of animation due to the budget, but the story is very interesting and hilarious. It makes you wonder why nobody else has done a “story from different perspectives” type of movie. By far this is my favorite on this list.