Friday, October 12, 2007

Best Animated Feature Of 2007


The year of 2007 produced a slightly smaller animated feature vortex than the preceding year. The normal players were edging for a piece of the box office pie this year. Pixar, the reigning king of animated films, released Ratatouille. Disney gave us Meet the Robinsons. Dreamworks released Shrek the Third. Vangaurd opened Happily Never After. Warner Brothers revived the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And Sony decided to make another penguin movie called Surf's Up, and will also release Beowulf next month. Of these films, I have yet to see Meet the Robinsons, Happily Never After, and of course Beowulf. With that in mind, I still will venture out to pick the best animated film of the year.

I argue that Pixar, although edging out many a film in the box office, did not produce the best animated film this year. My pick goes to Sony's very own Surf's Up. This film is entertaining, funny, edgy, smart, relevant, and exciting. It is very obvious that the actors were recording their dialogue together. This is a huge advantage for believable interaction. It may sound strange, but this is not the norm when capturing voices for animated characters, although it very well should be.

Surf's Up also impressed me with its exceptional animation and fantastic water simulations. While watching the movie, I actually feel like I am surfing, and it makes me want to catch a real wave of my own. Surfers around globe cringe at the thought that a movie may have inspired regular joes to surf. I have been told by a surfer friend of mine that surfers have a saying, "If you surf, never quit. If you don't surf, never start." This stems from a selfish desire to have the beaches all to themselves rather than a warning of danger.

Expect surfers to flock to Sony in riot-like protest to remove this fun film from the shelves. Get your copy on DVD before they succeed!

2 comments:

Alex Fleisig said...

even though I know it won't win...
the movie I enjoyed the most out of all of them... was TMNT... it was so true to the personalities of the characters... and I just loved it... great action... and so fun... if I had a vote, I would vote for TMNT

tonymation said...

I actually enjoyed TMNT more than I expected. I also was impressed with the physical animation.