Animation Evaluation: DreamWorks 1998-2006

Antz (1998) Kevin: Is it even possible to talk about DreamWorks’ first animated film without also talking about A Bug’s Life which was released that same year? Some part of me wants to say Antz is overrated, considering it got a fresh 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience reviews were not nearly as favorable, though,…

Dan’s Top 100 Everything: #58 How to Train Your Dragon

It’s almost unreal how good animated movies have been the past ten years. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that some individual years have had a better slate of animated movies than entire previous decades have. It’s almost an embarrassment of riches. So where have these films come from? A variety of places. Some…

Brian Terrill’s 100 Film Favorites – #49: “Shrek 2”

100 Film Favorites – #49: Shrek 2 (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, & Conrad Vernon, 2004) Already into the 40s! Yeah, that’s right. Today’s pick is a non-Pixar animated sequel. I live dangerously. Three less-than-universally acclaimed selections in a row. I promise that after this cluster of entries we’ll be getting back into films that are…

In which The Annie Awards lose all credibility

In the past I have praised the Annie Awards for providing a lens into the most important animated features from each year of the past couple decades. The largest mark against the awards came in 2008, when Kung-Fu Panda won Film of the Year against Wall-E, which was by far the most recognized and important…