Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks Animated Movies 3 - The Rankings

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

Never even heard of this one, but the rankings don't inspire much in the way of desire to sit through this

Glad that one finished low I was worried people would rank it higher. Most unlikable main character on the entire list(I could be forgetting something here).

I just wanted horrible things to happen to him because his personality deserved it but he never got what he deserved.

Worse was the film consistently trying to frame him as sympathetic.

Not one I have seen but always heard it was critically acclaimed.

I honestly think Anomalisa ranking this low is absurd, but I guess Red summed it up. There are some people who can't enjoy something with an unlikable main character even if he's consistently written and well-realized, and if you're one of those people you won't enjoy that movie.

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.

Outlier Rankings:

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

That one feels like a movie that will never be seen by its target audience (Poor people in Brazil).

Snake5555555555 posted...

Not one I have seen but always heard it was critically acclaimed.

I think you would appreciate it, and would definitely recommend seeing it once.

It's a movie that will stick with me for a while even though I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again.

It says a lot about Fritz the Cat that I was able to overlook how unpleasant and uncomfortable Anomalisa was in comparison to it. But yeah, that movie just disturbed me. Even removing the fact that the main character is shitty, you have a guy who buys an antique Japanese sex doll for his young son--who by sheer virtue of the Michael's mental illness, has the same face and voice as everyone else in the world, including multiple women that Michael either tries to sleep with, or DOES sleep with--and the movie ends with this exposed sex doll releasing like...stored up, antique semen at the kid's birthday party. That's the sort of imagery this movie felt comfortable providing, and I'm sorry, but there are certain things that just come across as exceptionally gross.

I'm actually mad lol, I can see Boy & the World not really resonating with some people, but it was at least made with some degree of genuine passion, inspiration, and creativity, and had one of the most unique animation styles on the list. It wound up placing lower than inane churned-out garbage like Abominable, Over the Moon, Croods 2, and Hotel Transylvania 3. I can't believe this! At least my shot at top outlier is looking a little more promising.

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.

Outlier Rankings:

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

Here comes a new challenger!

I feel like me and Evillord are gonna be not very compatible. >_>

The Illusionist, Anomalisa, and Boy and the World are all terrific films. Easily some of the best films on the overall list.

#27 will be My Life as a Zucchini, Inviso will call it "too artsy, looks and feels pretentious. Boring"

Keep fighting the good fight Evilord

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.

Outlier Rankings:

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

thesmark posted...

#27 will be My Life as a Zucchini, Inviso will call it "too artsy, looks and feels pretentious. Boring"

Keep fighting the good fight Evilord

Not to give too much away...but it IS possible for a movie to be "artistic" and NOT be so far up its own ass that it forgoes plot in favor of pretentiousness. Just saying.

i love when movies have plot

Inviso posted...

Not to give too much away...but it IS possible for a movie to be "artistic" and NOT be so far up its own ass that it forgoes plot in favor of pretentiousness. Just saying.

Sounds like projecting.

Also, not a single movie on this list forgoes plot. For christ's sake, you're not watching The Grand Bizarre, you had to watch a couple of movies with little dialogue and a movie with a guy who has Fregoli syndrome.

I wanted to join in on this ranking project since I've seen a lot of these, but I wasn't going to be roped into watching 10 Illumination/Blue Sky/Universal movies that I have absolutely no interest in

If you do another round of Westerns, I will be there and will probably be very salty over the results

I get people not liking all the artsy films in the list. What feels off is seeing so many of them go out when there's still so many mediocre generic kids movies left. I don't know, I guess I prefer how the pretentious movies are least trying to do something different.

thesmark posted...

I wanted to join in on this ranking project since I've seen a lot of these, but I wasn't going to be roped into watching 10 Illumination/Blue Sky/Universal movies that I have absolutely no interest in

If you do another round of Westerns, I will be there and will probably be very salty over the results

Yeah, I was thinking of participating myself but I hadn't seen like 10 or 15 of the movies and wasn't interested in contributing like 15 to 20 hours of time to watching like The Secret Life of Pets 2, Trolls World Tour, and like Despicable Me 3.

Would have been a cool series of movies if they replaced like half of them with like: Son of the White Mare, The Girl Without Hands, The Wolf House, Marona's Fantastic Tale, In This Corner of the World, Buuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Tower, Funan, Cryptozoo, American Pop, Johnny Corncob, The King and the Mockingbird. Some films that feel like they were actually made with the thought in mind that adults still watch movies.

Man, imagining you guys tackle Belladonna of Sadness would at least be more interesting, even after everyone hates it, than talking about the latest Illumination sequels or the talking animal movies or the latest kid befriends a magic creature feature.

It's in fact a good thing when a film challenges you.

Xeybozn posted...

I get people not liking all the artsy films in the list. What feels off is seeing so many of them go out when there's still so many mediocre generic kids movies left. I don't know, I guess I prefer how the pretentious movies are least trying to do something different.

to be fair, most adults enjoy mediocre generic kids movies (the mcu for example)

That's a good point.

rockus posted...

It's in fact a good thing when a film challenges you.

"except I'm not willing to watch blah blah balh" lol.

thesmark posted...

#27 will be My Life as a Zucchini

lol, yeah there are a few films I'm worried for now, one in particular most of all. This is one of the nice things about being among the participants, if a movie I really liked gets the shaft at least I get points for it. I have a few choices left that I hope might make me competitive for the top spot!

Man I like most of the artsy films on the list, but I still wasn't really into The Illusionist

being popular doesn't make something a bad movie and being niche doesn't make it good

that being said I think we've gotten out most of the movies I actively disliked at this point

red13n posted...

"except I'm not willing to watch blah blah balh" lol.

Yeah, I'm confident in my assumptions that The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Trolls World Tour aren't going to challenge me. You might be missing the point, guy.

seems to me is the point is to whine about other people's taste in movies

That is undoubtedly the point.

Honestly, I think awful kids movies are an interesting challenge to analyze as a viewer. Yes, they are garbage. But what kind of garbage are they? How do the filmmakers choose which particular way to be stupid? Why do kids want to watch this shit, and why do parents keep paying for it? It's actually sort of interesting to look at these movies seriously.

I never said anything about taste, I'm saying that complaining about a movie for being pretentious when not willing to make any kind of effort is pretty shallow and that a film willing to challenge its viewers is, in fact, a good thing.

Sorry, I forgot. I just remembered that the point of discussing movies on a message board is to give everyone a pat on the back for having such great insights like:

"for a movie to be "artistic" and NOT be so far up its own ass that it forgoes plot in favor of pretentiousness."

Hate to break it to you, but if you're going to talk about movies on a message board designed to have conversations you should expect people to disagree with you. This is literally a topic about ranking (and rating) movies so I would assume a discussion on the merits of those movies, and by extension the comments about them, are going to be up for discussion. Is that not what this is?

Xeybozn posted...

Honestly, I think awful kids movies are an interesting challenge to analyze as a viewer. Yes, they are garbage. But what kind of garbage are they? How do the filmmakers choose which particular way to be stupid? Why do kids want to watch this shit, and why do parents keep paying for it? It's actually sort of interesting to look at these movies seriously.

Yeah, though that discussion would probably be more fruitful focusing on the studios themselves and why they recycle out the same kind of thing again and again and pump huge marketing campaigns behind them. To look at them seriously, and to get much out of it, you would have to look at them as a product designed to be consumed, like a can of soup, rather than as a piece of creative fiction because that's really what they are.

I mean, I'm not unwilling to watch bad movies altogether. I do so all the time. I just wasn't interested to spend last month watching like a dozen of them back-to-back-to-back when there are hundreds of other things I'd rather be watching.

rockus posted...

Yeah, I'm confident in my assumptions that The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Trolls World Tour aren't going to challenge me. You might be missing the point, guy.

"blah blah blah"

To use your own words on that, you have completely missed the point. To the point talking seriously with you doesn't serve much purpose.

yeah rockus the point is to have very boring, literal minded interpretations of movies. and to only watch extremely popular mainstream hollywood things so that your brain is wired to dislike anything out of the norm (aka interesting).

Gotta hivemind or everything is wrong.

red13n posted...

Gotta hivemind or everything is wrong.

ngl i feel like ppl who only like super popular stuff are the hivemind while i'm off doing my own thing

Zithers posted...

ngl i feel like ppl who only like super popular stuff are the hivemind while i'm off doing my own thing

Well, to put it simply. You are wrong.

red13n posted...

Well, to put it simply. You are wrong.

i guess there's a definition of hivemind that im not aware of lol

You are asking for us to hivemind.

Your interpreation of what is happening here is wrong.

Zithers posted...

ngl i feel like ppl who only like super popular stuff are the hivemind while i'm off doing my own thing

"Wake up sheeple!"

i think we're just asking you to grow out of your diapers and present something better than 7th grade book report criticism.

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.

Zithers posted...

i think we're just asking you to grow out of your diapers and present something better than 7th grade book report criticism.

Exactly what is it that you think you're doing

Zithers posted...

i think we're just asking you to grow out of your diapers and present something better than 7th grade book report criticism.

We're literally watching and ranking movies for fun and providing some token thoughts.

No one is asking anyone to provide a book report of any level.

I'm sorry, but I DID spend a month watching all of these movies, and I was FAR more entertained by the stupid-ass inanity of Blue Sky/Illumination than the uncomfortable production of Anomalisa/Fritz, or the utter boredom of Boy and the World/Illusionist/one other film that has yet to be ranked.

If an artistic movie provides entertainment on top of being artistic, then I'm more than happy to rank it highly (as I would consider at least two of my top ten). But this isn't some "objective" movie ranking where I'm obligated to rank things highly out of some cinema snob hipster sensibility.