Lurker > PrinceKaro

Eevee

Espeon

Eevee

Espeon

Kitty Softpaws (Puss in Boots)
Ankha (Animal Crossing)
Tigress (Kung Fu Panda)
Marie (The Aristocats)
Bombalurina (Cats)

Husk (Hazbin Hotel)
Morgana (Persona 5)
Rosa (The House)
Elias (The House)
Jen (The House)

Felicia (Darkstalkers)
Hello Kitty (Hello Kitty)
Nyan Cat (Internet Meme)
Simba (The Lion King)
Luna (Sailor Moon)

Carol Tea (Freedom Planet)
Diona (Genshin Impact)
Nia (Xenoblade 2)
Car (Flow)
Merle (Vision of Escaflowne)

Espeon

5/16

People keep saying that the mapmaker helps out in the ant swarm fight but she didn't for me. I went to hunters path much later than most people, so maybe she only helps if you don't have dash yet?

Umbreon

Sprigatito

Umbreon

Sprigatito

watched 2 movies so far

Sprigatito

Teddiursa

Sprigatito

Fennekin

Sprigatito

Scyther

1
5
7
10
22
25
30
32
36
55

Dudunsparce

Gliscor

Gallade

Rowlet

Fuecoco

Chatot

Skarmory

Sigilyph

Sprigatito

Sprigatito.

Sprigatito

Anagram posted...

Do we need to have watched them all to participate?

Yes, that's how these work.

I've seen most of the early ones already and some are substantially better then others

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Thanks for running this list Karo! I can definitely send my write ups to you if you want them for record keeping purpose

yeah send them to me, thanks

Sprigatito

I thank you all for your participation, and I leave it to Lightning to tell us where we are going next.

also, Suprak, if you have any unposted writeups still sitting around for any of these movies

Migration
White Snake
Transformers One
The Rabbi's Cat
Unicorn Wars
Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Mars Express
Nimona
The Wild Robot
Flow

I should like to have them (either in the topic or sent to me) for record keeping purposes if that's not too much trouble

Final Outlier:

Suprak: 216
Evillord: 198
Paul: 196
Johnbobb: 196
Ermine: 180
Karo: 156
Inviso: 154
Red: 144
Mythiot: 108
Lightning: 108

Kinda crazy we ended with not one, but two ties.

Evillord: Flow is dope. I'm a Flow bro. I like to think that Flow can get a decent placement on this list, in the top half, maybe even the top 10. If I'm right about that, then a lot of writeups will already have been posted where I complain about how excessive dialog and blunt storytelling are the biggest recurring flaws of these films. It almost feels like a logical conclusion of that idea, then, that the films with no talking at all would top my list. But while I love Flow, there are just a handful of movies I enjoyed even more.
Not that I'm one to complain about furry content, but there is something so refreshing about Flow being a film with a cast entirely of animals, who are nevertheless almost completely non-anthropomorphised. Despite the total lack of dialog, there's still such a clear sense of the different personalities of the characters: the shy and curious cat, the open and loyal Labrador Retriever, the mischievous and greedy Lemur, the chill capybara, and the regal, distant secretarybird. A lot of the broad characterization shows these animals growing up and learning to work together, like the scene with the cat fishing for the rest of the squad or the pivotal moment in the ending where the lemur leaves behind his treasures and colony to show the cat the way to the crashed ship where their friends are stuck. The larger plot, though, delivers on the mystery and symbolism that tends to characterize my favorite film narratives. I think the most puzzling parts of the movie are the scene where the Secretarybird ascends to the stars while the cat is left behind, and the fate of the whale in the ending. Both scenes are alarming, but set to a mood of almost eerie calm - the former feels like a moment where the bird is ready to move on but the cat still needs to stay in this setting while the latter is such an interesting inversion of the mood of the film so far: where the whale was this invincible, benevolent force, utterly unimpeded by the apocalyptic flooding the others were experiencing, the seemingly-miraculous reversal of that flooding means death for the otherwise all-powerful sea beast.
First and foremost, though, Flow is a beautifully realized exercise in atmosphere. The Blender-made graphics evoke the Playstation 3 so strongly, specifically reminding me of the Team ICO remasters and Tokyo Jungle, and the watery atmosphere, imposing ruins, cat statues, and real-life animal noises provided by the sound designer's cat Miut add up to such a captivating vibe. Finally, there is just this entrancing aura of positivity and passion around the film - the use of open-source animation tech, the purposeful management of a clearly limited budget, it becoming the first Latvian film to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar, the statue of the cat in Riga - it's just one of those movies that makes you glad it exists. A beautiful experience.

Johnbobb: Big respect for a film that can avoid any dialogue and still have a truly intriguing story to tell. I mean this poor fuckin cat, I was so worried for it the entire runtime. It feels a lot like the early act of Life of Pi, but if Pi never made it to the boat. I pretty thoroughly enjoyed it, but the best part about watching this movie was how absolutely locked in my cat was watching it with me.

Favorite 1/2 star Letterboxd review:
Came here to see CONCLAVE but theyre showing THIS JAPANESE anime crap

1. Flow

Inviso: 1
Mythiot: 1
Ermine: 2
Suprak: 3
Red: 3
Lightning: 4
Evillord: 4
Karo: 5
Paul: 7
Johnbobb: 9

Total: 39

Inviso: See? I CAN like an artistic movie. It just has to be a GOOD artistic movie. I had not heard of this movie at all before it won Best Animated Film last year, so I didnt know what to expect going in, and then it REALLY impressed me. For starters, theres no dialogue, so you effectively watch an entire movie of these animal characters who all largely come across as genuine animals. The cat ACTS like a cat, the dog ACTS like a dog, etc. Its not dumbed down and simplified for a child audience. But animals being animals is fine, and can be hit or miss in most scenarios. What really sold this was the fact that, alongside animals being animals, there was almost this feeling of humanity to the animals interwoven into their bestial natures. This felt like you could swap these animal characters out for humans and it would still make perfect sense in terms of the overall characterization we got.

Mythiot: 10

Ermine: An absolute masterpiece and completely deserving of the oscar it won. I do think The Wild Robot is a slight bit more enjoyable but I think it means so much more to have Flow take the prize. You dont need to have dialogue or talking animals to tell an important and captivating story and while I think Flow ISNT a perfect movie, it does what it sets out to do wonderfully.
The shortcomings with the film I think lie in the fact that I think they could have gone a bit further in developing the characters. You see a bit of it in The Cat and The Lemur, but you really dont get much else in any of the others.
I understand the importance of keeping them as just animals but I think the film could have benefited a bit more from some more character growth. As it is, I really enjoy how the Cat grows and would have loved to see more of that. More exploration of the environment they find themselves in and draw a bit more out of each animal would have gone miles for me. You get a bit of it with the Lemur as he learns not to be obsessed with just objects. It was a cool moment at the end of the film and I think they could have added more of these specific moments to make something really wonderful.
I think a good way to do this would have to present more obstacles for the animals to overcome. Maybe the movie would become too bloated? I dunno, I DID feel like there was one too many scenes of the cat just being silly and cute that a couple of these could have been sacrificed for more relevant and important moments.
Either way, Flow is an incredibly beautiful film. I really hope we start to get more of these stand out indie films that shake the foundation of the Animation world. Something that pulls Disney out of the rut they are in, or even make the other companies start to put more effort into their own projects. Only time will tell.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Red: This movie was torture and it took me a few days to get through the initial sequences. I've grown a pretty big aversion to watching bad things happen to animals or animal deaths(I think its because both of my pets are currently old and that scares me, but idk). The constant state of peril to the cat for the first maybe third of the movie or so basically broke me for a bit and it took me a bit to get back to it. It got much more enjoyable once the boat started gathering a larger crew and I was able to enjoy all of the animals coming together. We end up with kind of a weird ambiguous but also sad ending. I had a hard time watching this but am definitely glad I kind of suffered to watch it through to the end as I did enjoy the experience even if it made me way too sad to watch in one(or even two) sitting(s).

Lightning: Miaow!

A second unexpected Best Animated Feature Oscar winner in a row, this is a really impressive feat of low budget animation. Despite a relatively tiny budget and being made entirely in Blender by a first time director, this is an absolute visual feast of a film. The water effects first and foremost are stunning. I love the way it will often bisect the screen to show you both above and below. From outside the water you see it portrayed somewhat realistically, but once the cat ventures below you see it as a colourful bright blue world.
The animal animation is also incredible. The filmmakers made the brilliant decision to use realistic proportions with slightly exaggerated features, so you get animals that look real but have that extra bit of cartoonish fantasy to them. All of which is most evident in the cat protagonists outsized eyes. The other animals are well realised too, and the film uses that high degree of fidelity with that extra bit of expressiveness to make you care about them so when theyre all together at the end, it really works. The animators use the broad brush strokes to give things that stylistic feel while still adding enough detail that it seems photorealistic even though its not. There are also a lot of smart filmmaking techniques deployed here like that really impressive long take sequence where the cat is lifted by the secretarybird and lands back on the boat.
While this is largely a visual experience, there is an interesting story at play here too, without using any dialogue at all. It contains a lot of hints at a postapocalyptic world where humans lived until recently. Hints at supernatural goings on are plentiful as well. Also while there is not much actual serious loss or danger for our characters, they still make you feel genuine emotion. An example would be when the lemurs mirror gets broken, with another being the dogs running off near the end. Overall I was really impressed by this.

5/5

Karo: In a world slowly flooding from an unspecified cataclysm, a cat and his animal friends sail upon a drifting boat assumedly searching for dry land. It is magical and dreamlike, lacking any sort of real plot other then the trials of their journey, and lets be honest, it doesn't really need one.
There may be some metaphors buried deep within the goings on in this movie, but it is not necessary to go searching for them, just riding along and marveling at the beauty will suffice.
The film makes the most of what little it has to work with, and looks astoundingly good, even when matched up against some recent big studio offerings. Someone needs to tell Bob Iger or whoever the fuck is heading Disney nowadays that there's this one guy rendering animals in real time with Blender and it somehow has better visuals then your fucking 200 million dollar star princess movie. This is the biggest embarrassment to Disney Animation since the Black Cauldron was beaten at the box office by the Care Bears.
Flow is the first independent film to win best animated feature at the Oscars, and I hope that this trend will continue and push the major studios to come up with more original content.

Paul: The idea of animals attempting to survive a flash flood is really interesting. Watching them interact without any dialogue was neat. The biggest problem was that it made me dislike a group of dogs (especially a shiba)!

Evillord: I remember this film first being announced with this atmospheric trailer that had no dialog and thinking that it looked really cool. Then as I recall another trailer came out that had some cringey Dreamworks-isms in it and I among others got worried. Then the film was released to critical acclaim and became one of my most anticipated films of this project... only for me to actually watch the damn thing and see it as a major disappointment. Dreamworks strikes again!
I guess the only way to sum up how I feel about The Wild Robot is that I wish I could love it much more than I actually do. It starts off so well with this robot getting the absolute shit kicked out of her in a forest, not understanding why the animals are not receptive to the help she's offering as if they're human customers. There is a certain sense of how uncompromising nature is - Roz tries to "help" both a butterfly and a crab only for them to be eaten by predators in front of her eyes. It's so fun watching her trying to survive and adapt based on the animals, like when she crawls up a wall imitating a crab... but then she translates "animal language" and all the creatures start speaking English to her. It's really turning into a recurring facet of this list that when a film starts out with animals not talking and then they start to talk it's a bad sign. In contrast to that engaging opening where everyone was just trying to survive and even a creature Roz was invested in could get eaten, by the end of the film literally the entire forest has learned to cohabitate in a small building with their own predator species, during a harsh winter, with no exploration of how they actually survive and feed themselves during such an ordeal. I think this is an example of my biggest issue with the film: I feel like it doesn't know how to play to its own strengths, and that its most interesting aspects get pushed aside for generic and bombastic Hollywood animated film storytelling.
If the talking animal transition were mainly in service of the family drama with Roz, the fox, and the gosling, I would've probably still come away with a good impression of the film. I like the idea of a cute quiet film about a robot raising a found animal family in the forest. That drama could've been better - some of the beats with the gosling's adolescent angst feel kind of formulaic and most of the dialog isn't that good - but it had its charm. One highlight is the part where Roz is seemingly about to leave and has a heartfelt last talk with the fox, who wants to tell her that he loves her but can't bring himself to speak the words. But then for the final half-hour or so the focus switches to these big showdowns against the evil corporation that created Roz, which feel like a crutch that is employed to create a climax when the writers can't think of a more fitting one for this story. I guess the sequence of Roz and fox saving all the frozen animals is cute, and I liked how they incorporated the fox's ability to sense prey through snow, but I just was not into the big battles to get the geese out of the human city and against that tentacle robot that was trying to kidnap Roz, and I was also disappointed in how these big chase and rescue scenes were used as a shortcut through the character drama regarding Roz and the gosling trying to find acceptance: they are pariahs and then with these single huge shows of heroism they become totally loved by their communities.
Finally, I wasn't that big on how in your face most of the storytelling here was, with all the ideas and emotions the story's trying to convey being spelled out for you with dialog, whether it's the gosling whinging about how Roz isn't his real mom or him clarifying for the viewer how Roz should be forgiven for accidentally killing his family at the start of the film. At its worst, it gets downright corny with this type of thing, especially the scene where Roz gets her memory stolen and her power shut down but the gosling revives her with the power of love like it's Pokemon: The First Movie.
This was a pretty good list for Robot-type films in general but I think the two that actually have "Robot" in the title make for an interesting point of contrast. Two films based around the cute interpersonal relationships between a robot and two animals, both deal with the idea that the relationships we love don't always last forever in some way, but while Robot Dreams stays focused on the friendship between Dog and Robot and how the memory of that affects them both, and communicates its core themes clearly enough for kids to understand in its ending while still leaving the viewer with questions to think about (why, in the end, does Robot choose to hide himself from Dog?), it feels like The Wild Robot doesn't have as much faith in its audience to get the point, nor the same focus on the strongest parts of its narrative. It probably sounds like I'm coming at this film a little harder than I actually intend to. There are parts I like and I can see how it would be emotionally impactful for others, but the main feeling I came away with was disappointment.

Johnbobb: Dreamworks is always either straight garbage or the most heartbreaking thing you'll ever see. Or Kung Fu Panda. There's a lot of stuff here that's just egging you on to try and get you to tear up, but that "a bit worse for wear" line really got me. Legitimately funny, lovely animation with great voice acting, even if it does lose some steam in the back third or so.

Favorite 1/2 star Letterboxd review:
set against the cultural ubiquity of people using ChatGPT as a therapist/friend and the loss of women's autonomy over their own bodies, this film targeted towards children is deeply insidious. the film attempts to make socially conscious commentary about motherhood, community, and overcoming our inherent "programming". however, its earnest efforts to develop these themes over the course of the movie feel darksided given that its protagonist is a "female-coded" robot when real people who identify as women are losing their choice over child rearing and when American society is going through a friendship recession. felt an overwhelming feeling of disgust and hopelessness when Ros "gives birth" to Bright Bill in the lake a la Gravity (2013).

Karo: A castoff robot becomes the 'mother' to a goose hatchling who she must raise and teach the ways of the fowl before migration season in order for him to survive. This of course goes horribly wrong in the most hilarious ways possible starting off with Roz trying to feed a baby bird by ramming a pinecone down its throat.
The cast of characters is the film's strongest point, starting off with Roz, an AI helper robot who is woefully misaligned at raising baby animals, and who is (presumably) cut off from all her knowledge databases.Then there is Fink, a wiseguy fox who is surprisingly emotionally damaged and vulnerable, and whose need for friendship eventually overcomes his selfish nature. There is also a beleaguered mother possum, a highly underrated character who wasn't used nearly enough.
Easily the weakest link was the gosling Brightbill, hey another awkward teen trying to fit in who clashes with his parents? No thanks, guys.
There were a surprising number of jokes about child abuse that somehow were quite funny. For example, Fink recalls how his mother would 'rock' him to sleep by beating him senseless with a large rock and helpfully offers to do the same to the young gosling, at which Roz expresses concern that this would 'break' him. It just somehow all works.
The movie is not without its own flaws, for example the random attack from the robots at the end I felt was extraneous and unnecessary. Not every movie needs a requisite action sequence, least of all one like this.
It is a touching story featuring strong themes of friendship and family, which I guess is to be expected from the director of Lilo and Stitch (the good one, not the... other one).

2. The Wild Robot

Ermine: 1
Red: 1
Suprak: 2
Lightning: 3
Mythiot: 3
Paul: 3
Inviso: 4
Johnbobb: 5
Karo: 7
Evillord: 21

Total: 50

Ermine: There was a chance that I didnt have The Wild Robot as my number 1 because I do think there are a couple flaws with the film, but nothing else stood out as even close to as good as this and Flow for me unfortunately.
The Wild Robot is absolutely GORGEOUS. There are so many scenes that are just pure eye candy for how beautiful they look and how fluid and expressive the animation is.
The characters are awesome. Roz, Brightbill and Fink are a fantastic trio.
The music is incredible!
There are so many different good things to say about this film so Im going to just try and stick to the things that stand out to me in particular. I absolutely love the Roz and Fink relationship and wish we could have gotten a bit more of it. Every scene that just had them talking to each other was just so perfect for me.
My favorite scene in the film is after Brightbill leaves and Roz is just sitting up on the mountain. Fink eventually goes up and tries to persuade her to stay and it just doesnt go well. Throughout the film we can see that Fink is desperate to be loved and wanted as he had never had that in his life. Its a subtle thing and Im sure some people not really paying attention would be confused as to why Fink ran off when Roz didnt answer the question the way he wanted, or hoped, rather, but for me it is such a powerful scene and is honestly the one that makes me tear up the most.
Other scenes that stand out to me are the rescue sequence when Roz and Fink are saving all the animals from the cold. The music here is outstanding and its just such a damn fucking awesome scene.
One thing I wanted to note is that I wish we could have spent a bit more time with baby Brightbill. The whole sequence from when he hatched to the timeskip of him growing up was another one of my favorite parts of the film. So much physical humor that just makes me laugh out loud every time with poor little Brightbill just doing his best. His little comments on things are so adorable.
That brings me to another one of my favorite scenes where they are in their newly built house and Brightbill is having difficulty sleeping so Fink tells a bedtime story! This is the first time we see a different side of Fink and the art style and animation in this sequence is just so freaking cute! The story, how the characters act and play their parts in it, is just top notch awesomeness.
The Wild Robot isnt a perfect movie though, as I mentioned in my opening statement. I think the first 15 minutes of the film are rather rushed and so hyper in a way thats overwhelming. I get that thats the point as the writers are trying to put us in Rozs shoes for how shes trying to adapt, but its overwhelming in a bad way, at least imo.
I think the sequence where the geese get trapped in the faculty is just kinda bad. It doesnt flow well and the characters all act rather weird during the whole thing. This scene definitely stands out in an otherwise nearly perfect film.
Then I would say maybe the ending has a few rough parts? I get you need an epic climax, but I dunno, the animals are all fighting robots and then luckily pushing a giant tree down in the perfect spot to put out all the fire is just In most other movies this would be fine, but it just feels a bit out of place in this film to have this kind of climax. When the rest of the film is so rooted in its main cast and relationships between them, such a high octane climax gives a bit too much tonal whiplash.
Otherwise, The Wild Robot is a fantastic film and I cant wait for more. I need more FINK!

Red: This is my standard talking animal movie at number 1 for this list. Dreamworks has kind of been on a roll when they really try(I think this roll might be stopped for a bit idk). The relationship with Roz/Brightbill/Fink is great and all 3 are kind of just great characters the whole time here(Fink is especially great). This was my favorite when I started watching this for list purposes and I don't think it really came close to being dethroned. This is probably not the best Dreamworks movie but that bar is surprisingly high. Definitely loses some points when everyone takes their break from the island. The little bits of characterization all the different animals on the island get really shows how much care was put in the movie and you really get a good feel for how everyone is viewed even with a little bit of screentime for some of them. Fun movie, great fox, probably no one is surprised that I have this at #1.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Lightning: A Rozzum always completes its task.

It must be said, Chris Sanders is one of the best, and most overlooked, animation directors of all time. What he does here with The Wild Robot only further cements that. In many ways this has that familiar Dreamworks feel with talking animals, funny snarky bits and an emotional core based around themes of family. What The Wild Robot adds to that is its setting, with some incredible uses of the natural world. This is a beautiful film visually, from its environments to the movements of the animal characters.
Aside from looks, the film also sounds great from its effects to its music. In particular the musical score stands out, and the song Kiss the Sky really makes one of the films emotional high points work. The voice work is also exceptional, and I really have to single out Lupita Nyongo as Roz and Pedro Pascal as Fink for praise, you would never guess that it was them. Really though the whole voice cast absolutely shines here and helps ease one of my worries about this, that it would be just another talking animal movie. They help make it so much better than that.
Overall though what we are here for is the story and the characters, and The Wild Robot gives us a really moving story about family which goes above and beyond the typical animated movie tropes. You really feel these characters bonds. I was moved during the initial flight scene, then the scene near the end where Roz flashes back to her time with Brightbill brought tears to my eyes. I also love the way the film gradually reveals its post-apocalyptic world to you. There is a similar sense of progression with the animal characters, they go from very animalistic to friendlier as the story goes on. This is an excellent animated film.

5/5

Mythiot: 10

Paul: This movie was spectacular. The animation was so good and I was really invested in the characters here. I loved seeing them all work together and it's one of the few movies on this list that had me emotional.

Inviso: I would say the ONLY issue I have with this movie (and its the issue that keeps it from being even higher on this list than it is) is the pacing. And usually when I have issues with pacing, its because a movie is extremely slowbut thats not Wild Robots problem. I wish it was longer, and I wish it had more content and character development so were not introduced to Thunderbolt or Longneck out of nowhere (which would make Longnecks death actually feel the appropriate amount of emotional weight.) However, that pacing issue is the ONLY problem I have with this movie. I love the plot, because it feels original. You have a robot that gets lost in a storm and tries to fulfill her programming out in the wild, and in doing so, we get a very heartfelt story about learning to be a parent (and learning to accept help and friendship from those different than yourself). I teared up and outright cried several times watching this movie, and I think it did a very good job of balancing Roz as a weird, robotic outsider while also making her the emotional core of the film. Overall, it was just a really solid story, and this was actually my second time watching it, yet it held up all the same.

Meowscarada
Sylveon
Meowstic
Vulpix
Leafeon

I'm liking these smash-style reveals of the new megas

Outlier:

Suprak: 214
Paul: 189
Johnbobb: 185
Ermine: 178
Evillord: 176
Inviso: 152
Karo: 147
Red: 141
Mythiot: 107
Lightning: 104

Ermine: This movie is a bit difficult to place! I feel your mileage may vary on how much you enjoy the character of Nimona here.
I couldnt really stand her in the first half of the film. She was annoying, unfunny and just did whatever the hell she wanted without explaining anything. Very frustrating. BUT, there is a method to her madness and we get to see that in the second half of the film, which does a lot of heavy lifting. I really enjoy the use of her shapeshifting throughout the film. Its cool seeing all the different sorts of animals, despite, yknow, the knights being absolutely completely useless in 99% of the scenarios. I get that shes incredibly strong, past human levels of strength, but these knights cant be THIS incompetent.
I also have to suspend my disbelief for that one Knight dude being one of the most respected and leader of the troops. There is no way in hell someone that ignorant and downright disrespectful would EVER reach such a position. He was annoying as all hell and should have gotten more than a broken arm.
Another suspension of belief is the lie that theres only monsters and dangers beyond the walls. We see them broken down in the end and it being so beautiful and wonderful. Its the same problem that I had with Strange World where its like, theres no way that at least some people arent able to see what is past the walls. They have flying machines for gods sake. Where do they get all their resources?! It just doesnt make any sense.
Anyways, the heart of the film is Nimona and her tale, obviously, and it is decently told. The humor didnt quite hit for me but it had some good moments.
Not bad.

Evillord: Nimona is a very critically acclaimed film, but I wasn't really looking forward to it. I think the big reason for that is... I'm gay. Now that probably sounds funny. Memoir of a Snail has a good depiction of a gay deuteragonist in Gilbert and Robot Dreams can be interpreted as being about a gay male relationship if you want to interpret it that way badly enough, but Nimona is the only film on the list where the main protagonist, whose goals and motives the viewer is supposed to be on board with, is definitely, undeniably portrayed as a gay man, and whose boyfriend is a crucial character. They even kiss onscreen in the ending! For a family-friendly American film, this is remarkable and will be held up as a high bar for representation for a long time. The secondary protagonist in Nimona also has a story with some relevant things to say regarding LGBT issues, particularly her backstory of a doomed romance with the woman who would go on to portray her as a demon. And yet, it's not necessarily a depiction of homosexuality that I love in the same way as something like Moonlight or Car Seat Headrest's Twin Fantasy, or at least not something I'd be likely to put on for a date. Much of the appeal of the film, and the element that was most emphasized in its marketing, is watching the cute wacky hijinks of a manic pixie dream girl type character. That sort of thing is just naturally not going to resonate as much with a guy like me. I did enjoy the fight scenes with Nimona, where there is all this energy coming out of her rapid-fire transformations and the sense of release she gets from no longer having to hide, but the scene-to-scene back and forth between her and Ballister, exhaustively repeating the same argument about whether they should try to subvert the system peacefully or rebel openly and violently - wasn't doing as much for me.
I guess my general feeling of the film is that for everything I liked, there was something I found tedious. I liked how it opened up with the introduction of the unlikely, commoner-turned-Knight Ballister and the cocky, golden boy prodigy Ambriosius, deliberately very much the type of character one would expect to act like an elitist bully to Ballister, and then subvert that by showing that the two deeply respect one another and are in fact dating - but then they just introduce that cliche bully guy as a separate character whose presence in the film continually drags things down. The themes are definitely relevant in a time where Fascism is on the rise in a lot of countries, but they're also kind of metaphorized in a way that oversimplifies them until they don't say much of greater substance or really anything actionable you can take away from the film and use to fight the power. The villains are kind of wimpy which is on point for the messages but also makes them not as engaging to watch (though I do like the scene where they trick the Director lady into confessing all her crimes, reveal the recording to the public, and she just goes "fake news, that was a deepfake" and that actually works.) There is a particularly manipulative instance of that cliche in animated films where the characters are mad at each other for a bit around the start of the third act. Ballister spends the whole movie learning to trust Nimona and that see her as misunderstood, then his BF comes and shows him an old scroll that says she's evil, which fine, I can buy that leading to a conversation between them, but he acts so untrusting and confrontational toward her for so little reason when the entire film up to that point has been him learning that the mythology of his culture around demons and Nimona is a lie, seemingly just to force a climax where Nimona has a breakdown and they have to reconcile to save the city. I think this will cruise to an easy top 5 placement on the aggregate list but for me it's kind of the "The Sea Beast" of this project, a film that I thought had a lot of potential but where the execution wasn't enough to really actualize it.

3. Nimona

Karo: 1
Red: 2
Inviso: 3
Johnbobb: 4
Paul: 4
Lightning: 8
Mythiot: 8
Suprak: 11
Ermine: 15
Evillord: 17

Total: 73

Karo: In a retro-futuristic semi-dystopian world, a disgraced knight and his silly shapeshifing sidekick track down the origins of a conspiracy that robbed him of his honor, something that is complicated by the fact that the task force hunting the two of them down is led by the knight's boyfriend. Wait, boyfriend? Like that kind of boyfriend? Did we finally get a plot relevant gay relationship in a mainstream animated movie?
That is correct. Sir Goldenloin is constantly torn between love and duty, and this makes him a far deeper character than just some guy questioning the morality of his authority. In fact, both the movie and the inhabitants of this world treat gayness as the most normal thing ever, and honestly that is pretty damn refreshing. It's so uncommon to have a gay main character who deals with trials and struggles that are NOT directly related to his sexuality.
Though knightroplis here might be progressive in this way, it is quite a different story when it comes to 'monsters', a poorly understood bogeyman this society has a fanatical obsession with, powered by medieval witch hunts, 24 hour cable news, and fascism.
The city is fortified with a ridiculous wall to keep such beasts out, complete with gigantic death laser turrets certain to reduce whatever might make people feel uncomfortable to a fine atomic powder. This world's children are brainwashed with toys and cartoons normalizing violence towards anything different, which are as hilarious as they are horrifying.
As great as the satire is, the true heart of the movie is our main duo. They play off each other so perfectly, Ballister is kind of this stick in the mud who just wants to lay low and work to clear his name, and to steer far clear of any more murderey misunderstandings. Nimona is this wild anarchist who wants to cause mayhem and who is disappointed in her boss' lack of big supervillain energy. It just works so well, and I daresay that this is the greatest character chemistry in an animated movie since Zootopia.
I have to give them props for resisting the urge to turn Nimona into an archetypical funny sidekick character, while it is true she has more of that vibe then her comic counterpart (as well as a toned down bloodlust) it never gets overbearing. Rather, she is a complex and tormented character who wants to be accepted in a world which hates and rejects her for no reason. Seriously, the scene of her backstory is the most heartwrenching depiction of the hurt caused by bigotry since... well, Zootopia again.
This was to be Blue Sky's magnum opus, up until they got bought out and Disney killed the movie for being too gay. And killed the studio itself for good measure.
This is better than anything their two main studios have put out in almost a decade, and if that isn't good enough for The Mouse it can go choke to death on its scuffed wishing stars along with its entire board of directors.

Red: A fairly unique world with a memorable pair of main character and good animation to go with it? Absolutely a fun movie and was one of my favorites that I'd seen before we had this list to watch. The plot gets a tad bit predictable but the characters all work well together and the animation is always exciting enough that even though you kind of have it in the back of your head where it is going it doesn't really detract much from the experience. Also for whatever reason Disney for a very brief time had this movie in their hands and chose to attempt to kill it rather than find some way to release it. Such a bad decision for a movie that I generally hear nothing but praise for. But really goes along with most of the disdain I expect most people to have for Disney on this list.

Inviso: As an adult, I watch this and I just see ALL of the metaphors on full-display, but theyre delivered in a way that doesnt feel heavy-handed or anything like that. Were introduced to Ballister as this upstart from the streets who put in the hard work to become the first ever commoner knight, so right off the bat, hes established as a figure of goodness in this plot, only for him to be accused of murder and set on the run. This makes him the perfect ally for Nimona, whos a fun little chaos gremlin and thinks Ballister is instinctively a bad guy. I think the uptight/chaotic buddy-cop dynamic works to tell a story that leads into Nimona becoming the central figure, with her whole backstory about being isolated and treated like a monster. And slowly, we see the rot and corruption in the system exposed, and realize that (though we already kinda figured) Nimonas not really a monster after all. But of course, shit hits the fan and we really play out Nimonas transformative metaphor and where she wants to just kill herself rather than be outcast and alone; that suicide attempt is such a powerful scene, and Im really stunned that something like that was included in a kids movie. But yeah, this was just a solid watch from start to finish, and the message was really well-told.

Johnbobb:: I feel like a lot of animated family movies, way too many of them, arguably a majority of them, feature an annoying side character (usually an animal or other easily merchandisable creature ala Olaf) whose whole thing is that they bug the main character repeatedly in a way to catch the attention of the kids in the audience by being loud and especially cartoonish, ultimately getting some end-of-movie "their friendship is valuable" moment to justify all of their behavior. And I was really worried that was what Nimona was ultimately going to be when she first appeared on screen. But unlike being 95% annoying with one redeeming moment, she's 95% a well-developed, well acted and heavily allegorical character, with a couple annoying moments. This movie is exciting, catchy music with beautiful action visuals and artistic design and an openly gay main character! Nimona is fantastic.

Favorite 1/2 star Letterboxd review:
shrek for steven universe fans

Paul: This one was a really pleasant surprise. I had no knowledge of this movie before this project and it was excellent. Nimona, Ballister, and Ambrosius were all great characters and it was hard to see them pitted against each other.

Lightning: Arm-chopping is not a love language!

First of all, this films production story is fantastic, starting at Blue Sky before being killed in the Disney purchase and seemingly like it would never release but then rescued by Annapurna and Netflix leading to critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination. One that was very well deserved at that. It is so fortunate that we got this film and sad that we nearly didnt. Makes you wonder what other films dropped by studios might have been like.
This is a great audiovisual experience. The animation is really impressive and one of the better examples of an animated film trying to build on what Spider-Verse introduced a few years before. The voice cast featuring Chloe Grace Moretz as Nimona and Riz Ahmed as Ballister is great too. Even if this film had nothing backing it up but the way it looks and sounds, it would be a great film.
Good for this film then that the story is great. It is an entertaining subversion of typical heroic fantasy tropes. I also really have to praise the use of LGBTQ+ themes, this is not a tacked on easy to edit out inclusion like some Disney films, this is a full exploration both literally and metaphorically. If I had an issue with it, its that the film takes the easy way out a bit by having Nimona live at the end, though I understand why they would in a childrens film. Overall this is still a great film that really pushes its audience in a good way.

4/5

Mythiot: 9

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*