My Favorite Animated Films

Animation has a certain magic that keeps us watching, pondering, dreaming and wondering what really is in the end of the rainbow. It also has the ability to make us grit our teeth as we see clashing steel and spurting blood. In any case (since you don't read this part ANYWAY and would like to just go on with the pics), here are my personal favorite Animated features! Enjoy.


"The Animatrix"

This series of animated shorts compiled by the Wachowski Bros. were the finest works of the best Japanese, American and Korean animators in the biz. Squaresoft, makers of Final Fantasy, made the CGI short "Final Flight of the Osiris" ( my favorite part), which was a critical plot point for the succeeding Matrix sequels.


"Beauty and the Beast"

There is a reason why this was the first and ONLY Animated feature nominated Best Picture by the Academy Awards.For some reason, the emotions conveyed by this Disney classic were more realistic that that of their other features. The ballroom scene was a pioneering feat in the animation world as that it was the first CGI-generated "room" where the camera seemed to be swooping from one side of the room to the other. Plus, Belle was kinda cute too.


"Princess Mononoke"("Mononoke Hime")

My friend Joach of zentanglement.com introduced me to this movie and told me how great it was. Of course, I had to look for a copy of my own. Just like all of Miyazaki's animated masterpieces, this one deals with the effects of modernization to the environment, with a touch of demon-gods and spirits to add into the mix to make a freakishly-terrifying and wonderfully magical experience.


"Wonderful Days"

Before the "My Sassy Girl" madness swept the Philippine teen and young adult market. Anime enthusiasts were already familiar with the most elaborate animated feature Korea has ever produced, "Wonderful Days". This wonder ful depiction of how the skies were clouded by immense pollution to be used as a power source was 7 years in the making! The motorcycle sequences are enough to get you hooked!


"Tarzan"

This is Disney's guy movie! If Mulan has it's appeal lean more towards teenage girls. This one appeals more to the dudes who dig the sky-surfing, bungee jumping, ninja-flying moves of the buff, toned, longhaired king of the jungle! Plus Jane is the most "curvaceous" of all Disney chicks! Move over, Ariel!


"Blood"

I saw this one in WOWOW Japan TV. Even without subtitles, it's still a treat. This violent cartoon feature about a "Vampire Slayer" in an American military base in Okinawa featured the most realistic physics established in a cartoon at that time. Plus a lot of blood!!!


"The Prince of Egypt"

I'm always game for anything biblical. Being practically raised in our Sunday School room my whole life, I always tried to imagine visually how miracles were wrought about by ancient prohpets, the most spectacular of which would be the parting of the Red Sea. By today's jaded standards, this scene will probably be considered crude and "unrealistic". But it capured the potential of God's power through the hands of a chosen servant.


"Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within"

When I was watching this movie with my friend Mhayet, she didn't think that she was watching a CGI animated movie, she thought she was watching "actors" playing in real life!
My favorite scene was the battle sequence in the desert where they were looking for the "sixth" spirit found in a soldier's backpack.


"The Transformers: The Movie"

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This is the defining animated movie of my life.
As a boy, I was all about the Transformers. I looked up to Optimus Prime as a leadership figure. To see him banged up and
damaged like he was in the movie made me want to cry. (hey, I was 9 ok?) Then came Hot Rod, this cocky, immature, irresponsible Autobot, who was put in the mix to save what was left of the Autobot legacy and battered and bruised by the trials that beset him in the process. He proves himself an individual of great potential and rose up to become the Autobot he was supposed to be...the next leader of the Autobots. Its a coming of age tale with microchips and photon chargers.

The succeeding episodes of the transformers destroyed this magnificent premise, of course, by reviving Prime and turning him into a zombie. However, this remains the most influential animated feature for me.

"Spirited Away"

To anyone who hasn't seen "Spirited Away" I beg you. Go to your nearest Muslim bangketa and get the DVD.
Watching this movie is like drifting into a dream and going into a very long, long ,long adventure (its a 2 hour plus animated movie!), so long that you get to know the characters like close friends and get familiar with the sights and sounds (and smells, even) of the place. Then suddenly, you wake up and wonder where everybody was and thinkhow much you miss them. "Sob!! If I could have dreams like that every night" you wonder. Now you can. Just plug it in.
The train sequence is probably going to be a cinema classic. It's very nostalgic and trippy at the same time.