Animation 2013

[Stewball]

Pretty much a bust year. Only ten feature length movies that weren't shorts, not released in the US, made for TV, or postponed to next year. Of those, I rated 6 of them a 7 (my average) and the other four stepped down to a 3. Despicable Me 2 was the biggest disappointment. Frozen was ok but the music was written by someone with their brain up and locked on cookie cutter Broadway scores. Also it's the only recognizable movie that Criticker lists as a musical. If I had to pick a best one, I guess it'd be Epic, with an asterisk indicating it's from the front end of a weak field.

[edkrak]

Haven't seen any animation this year so far, but 2013 looks really promising:







And of course there's part animated part actor...ed "The Congress" [fanfares on]ENGLISH AUDIO[fanfares off]:

[MmzHrrdb]

I wouldn't quite say this has been a bust year for animation, but it was pretty weak, and especially disappointing coming off of 2012, which was one of the best years for animation in a while.

Monsters University was my favorite of the year, followed quickly by Frozen (I gave both an 8/10). DM2 was definitely a disappointment, but I enjoyed it all the same (low 7/10). Epic was passable (6/10), and The Croods was every Dreamworks movie from the last 3 years, but with a new coat of paint (4/10).

Still haven't seen Turbo or Planes, but I don't expect much of either.

[Stewball]

Haven't seen any animation this year so far, but 2013 looks really promising:

I assume you mean 2014.

I like Hayao Miyazaki's stuff a lot, on any scale, and it doesn't hurt that he uses English voice talent. Which begs the question, is it impurest to use voice talent (dubbing!) in animation instead of subtitles.

HAH!

(OK now, all you purists act ignorant about that magnificent point I just made.)

[Stewball]

I wouldn't quite say this has been a bust year for animation, but it was pretty weak, and especially disappointing coming off of 2012, which was one of the best years for animation in a while.

Monsters University was my favorite of the year, followed quickly by Frozen (I gave both an 8/10). DM2 was definitely a disappointment, but I enjoyed it all the same (low 7/10). Epic was passable (6/10), and The Croods was every Dreamworks movie from the last 3 years, but with a new coat of paint (4/10).

Still haven't seen Turbo or Planes, but I don't expect much of either.

MU was totally weak IMNTBHO!!! On the other hand, if it weren't for the Broadway crap, I'd have probably liked Frozen best.

[ShogunRua]

If you expect to see multiple quality animation films released in the same year from Hollywood, then unless you have really infantile tastes, prepare to be disappointed.

They're expensive to make, mass-produced, derivative, a major risk these days, and more cookie-cutter and bound to the formula (especially "Save the Cat") than ever. They're a small group of glossy monstrosities that are all virtually identical, thematically.

In terms of evaluating a year in animation as a whole, I can only attempt such a question a year or two down the line. The stuff from Europe and Japan takes a while to get subtitled, or even for people to be made aware of it.

[zae]

Saw The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter/Kaguya-hime no Monogatari this weekend, and it was absolutely fantastic. Movie of the year for me (and so far my only T10 of 2013, though 12 Years A Slave also has a T10 PSI. It doesn't open here until March 2014 though.)

Miyazaki's The Wind Rises was very good, too, but not among his stronger works, in my opinion. His first (and probably only, since he's now officially retired) non-fantasy film.

The only western 2013 animation I've seen so far is Monsters University, which got a 40/T2 from me.

I like Hayao Miyazaki's stuff a lot, on any scale, and it doesn't hurt that he uses English voice talent. Which begs the question, is it impurest to use voice talent (dubbing!) in animation instead of subtitles.

Miyazaki doesn't use English voice talent. Disney distributes his movies in America, and they handle the dubbing work.
For instance, for Spirited Away:

Pixar director John Lasseter, a fan of Miyazaki, was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to supervise an English-language translation for the film's North American release. Lasseter hired Kirk Wise as director and Donald W. Ernst as producer of the adaptation. Screenwriters Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt wrote the English-language dialogue, which they wrote to match the characters' original Japanese-language lip movements.

Anyway, I think that no, in most cases dubbing animated movies doesn't really detract from the movie, as long as it's well-made and sticks to the tone of the original. Disney's Ghibli dubs are usually pretty good, from what I've seen. After all, the original voice track is recorded and dubbed on afterwards anyway, just the same way the English dub is.
There are exceptions, though. Ghibli's Isao Takahata (Only Yesterday, Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) usually records the voices first, filming the voice actors in the progress, and then builds the animation around that. In a case like that I think that you'd miss out on a lot watching an English dub.

[Stewball]

If you expect to see multiple quality animation films released in the same year from Hollywood, then unless you have really infantile tastes, prepare to be disappointed.

They're expensive to make, mass-produced, derivative, a major risk these days, and more cookie-cutter and bound to the formula (especially "Save the Cat") than ever. They're a small group of glossy monstrosities that are all virtually identical, thematically.

In terms of evaluating a year in animation as a whole, I can only attempt such a question a year or two down the line. The stuff from Europe and Japan takes a while to get subtitled, or even for people to be made aware of it.

I've yet to rate one as a 10, but well done examples are especially worth seeing. They're one of the few places where music is given a prominent venue in film any more, and many of the stories are pretty inventive. Ponyo, Up, Tangled, The Princess and the Frog, Cars, Ratatouille, Monster House and Shrek are all excellent examples since 2000, IMNTBHO.

And I didn't think they were that much of a risk. They have the widest built in audience with guidance ratings to match.

[edkrak]

I assume you mean 2014.

I mean 2013, that's the year of premiere for every film I mentioned. Some of these films will never be made available on Polish market so using dates of release in my region would be pointless. Of course with many of them I'll have to wait for 2014 DVD/Blu release.

[ShogunRua]

And I didn't think they were that much of a risk. They have the widest built in audience with guidance ratings to match.

It doesn't matter what you "think". What matters are the realities of the box office. And since about 2006 or so, not only has state-of-the-art CGI cost a lot of money, but many of these movies end up failing at the box office. For instance, Mars Needs Moms was one of the biggest bombs of the last decade, and caused numerous lay-offs at a major studio, Buena Vista.

Oh, and Stewie, you would know that edkrak's movies were from 2013 if you bothered to care about animation outside of Hollywood's mass-produced CGI trash.