The Animated Movie Guide

THE ANIMATED MOVIE GUIDE Jerry Beck Contributing Writers Martin Goodman Andrew Leal W. R. Miller Fred Patten An A Cappella Book Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beck, Jerry. The animated movie guide / Jerry Beck.— 1st ed. p. cm. “An A Cappella book.” Includes index. ISBN 1-55652-591-5 1. Animated films—Catalogs. I. Title. NC1765.B367 2005 016.79143’75—dc22 2005008629 Front cover design: Leslie Cabarga Interior design: Rattray Design All images courtesy of Cartoon Research Inc. Front cover images (clockwise from top left): Photograph from the motion picture Shrek ™ & © 2001 DreamWorks L.L.C. and PDI, reprinted with permission by DreamWorks Animation; Photograph from the motion picture Ghost in the Shell 2 ™ & © 2004 DreamWorks L.L.C. and PDI, reprinted with permission by DreamWorks Animation; Mutant Aliens © Bill Plympton; Gulliver’s Travels. Back cover images (left to right): Johnny the Giant Killer, Gulliver’s Travels, The Snow Queen © 2005 by Jerry Beck All rights reserved First edition Published by A Cappella Books An Imprint of Chicago Review Press, Incorporated 814 North Franklin Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 ISBN 1-55652-591-5 Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1 For Marea Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix About the Author and Contributors’ Biographies xiii Chronological List of Animated Features xv Alphabetical Entries 1 Appendix 1: Limited Release Animated Features 325 Appendix 2: Top 60 Animated Features Never Theatrically Released in the United States 327 Appendix 3: Top 20 Live-Action Films Featuring Great Animation 333 Index 335 Acknowledgments his book would not be as complete, as accurate, or as fun without the help of my ded- icated friends and enthusiastic colleagues. He re’s the part where I get to mention Ttheir names and say thanks. My editor, Yuval Taylor, agreed to take on this project for A Cappella Books and has been generous in extending my deadline several times as well as accommodating my vision for the book. Helping me keep my sanity through all of this was my wife, Marea Boylan, who assisted me in eve ry phase of the project. Her contributions we re numerous. She double-checked facts, typed, and retyped much of the manuscript and had incredible patience with me dur- ing this difficult process. Thank you, my love. One simply cannot write books about animation history without the input, advice, and wisdom of Mark Kausler. He provided me with access to some of the rarest titles cataloged within. On behalf of cartoon historians everywhere, I salute you. This book also received generous assistance from Leonard Maltin, Howard Green, Amid Amidi, John Canemaker, Will Ryan, Leslie Cabarga, and Michael Barrier. All these guys were there when I needed them—and thus made this book more precise, a better read, and more fun to look at. The archival resources of Larry Edmunds Bookshop, the Internet Movie Database, Box Office Mojo, the Hollywood Book & Poster Company, Va r i e t y, the Ma r g a ret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and Asifa-Hollywood were invaluable. I don’t want to forget Rebecca Poole, Doug Ranney, and Eric Lurio, who were early contributors to my initial filmography. Sharon Burion compiled many of the film credits and was a first-class research associate on this project. She’s a good one. Stuart Fisher, David Bastian, and Daniel Goldmark were also contributing writers to this volume, each coming through for me when I was facing the dreaded deadline doom. Each provided wisdom, insights, and mighty fine writing. I’m very proud of my team of contributors, each of whom deserves major credit in helping me make this project a reality. Take a bow, Martin “Dr. Toon” Goodman, Andrew Leal, W. R. Miller, and Fred Patten. Each one was a pleasure to deal with and this book would not be as good without their incredible writing and researching talents. Thank you all! Jerry Beck vii Introduction n November 2004, an unusual event in the history of motion pictures occurred. Three of the top five films of the week, in box-office gross, we re animated feature films. The In c re d- Ii b l e s , The Polar Ex p re s s , and The SpongeBob Square Pants Mov i e we re huge blockbuster hits—all at the same time, for three different studios. I love the fact that each film used a different technique (CGI, motion capture, and cel, respectively) and that the subject matter of each (a superhero adventure, a Christmas fairy tale, and a zany cartoon comedy) was just as diverse. Add to it that the biggest moneymaking movie of 2004, Shrek 2, was also an animated film, and there can only be one conclusion—the animated feature has come of age. Na r r a t i ve fiction animated features have been around since 1926, but the medium’s grow t h in quantity and quality came about only in the last 20 years. Be f o re that, the animated fea- t u re was primarily the domain of the Walt Disney Company. Competition from the 1930s t h r ough the 1980s followed Di s n e y’s superior lead, most without that studio’s ambition, style, or heart. Many competing studios simply churned out second-rate childre n’s films, further eroding the development of the medium, and allowing Disney to further dominate the landscape. Serious competition began to emerge in the late 1980s as a younger generation of anima- tors broke Disney’s mold (moldy in more ways than one), expanding the storytelling possi- bilities, and using the medium in bold new ways by reinventing the tools and techniques themselves. In 1994, I was working for Nickelodeon Movies developing new ideas for animated features. The Lion King had just become the biggest hit in history, and every studio was jump- ing onto the cartoon feature bandwagon. A question was raised about the grosses for pre v i o u s animated features and, being the historian I am, I decided to dive into the research. To my surprise I learned there was ve ry little published on the history of animated feature s . There were book-length filmographies devoted to animated television series (Hal Erickson’s is the best) and animated television specials (George Wo l l e r y’s is highly recommended), much about Disney features (Leonard Ma l t i n’s The Disney Fi l m s is vital), and theatrical cart o o n shorts (see Maltin’s Of Mice & Magic). The few tomes that covered animated features did not do it as thoroughly as I would have liked. Bruno Ed e r a’s 1976 book (Full Length Animated Fe a t u re Fi l m s) was woefully out of date, incomplete, and filled with problems. Just how many animated features were made? Who made them? Which ones were worth seeing? I needed to know, and decided I had to com- pile the information myself. ix x I n t r o d u c t i o n I began collecting data on animated features while at Nick Movies and kept doing it after I left the department. I started a work-in-progress list of titles in chronological order—first on paper, then online as part of my “Cartoon Research” Web site. Doing so allowed me to add new titles as they came to light. I also began, in earnest, keeping close tabs of new animated films as they were released. I set up criteria for what films to include and exclude, creating a purely subjective list of what qualified for a theatrical release and what an animated feature really is—my opinions, of course, but I think I’m right. First, I decided to start small—just list animated features that we re released to movie theaters in the United States. T h e re are literally thousands of animated f e a t u res from all parts of the globe (though Japan certainly holds the world’s re c o rd). This was my first line in the sand—limit the list to U.S. releases. If it was a Japanese feature released only to television, bypassing theater showings—titles like Jack & the Wi t c h (1967) or The Li t- tle Norse Pr i n c e (1965)—it was excluded. Fo reign titles that went direct to video—like Mi y a z a k i’s K i k i’s De l i ve ry Se r v i c e (1989) or It a l y’s The Magic Voy a g e ( 1 9 9 2 ) — we re also e xcluded. But if a foreign-made animated film was given a U.S. theatrical release, then it’s doc- umented here. Made-for-television features, such as The Point (1971) or The Flintstones Meet the Jetsons (1987), were not included on my list. Nor were the dozens of animated films made specifi- cally for home video, from The Animatrix (2002) and Lil’ Pimp (2005) to all the Land Before Time movies and numerous Disney “sequels.” An animated feature had to follow in the pattern established by Snow White and the Seven D w a rf s (1937). A theatrical release must have played in legitimate movie theaters (college cam- pus showings, museum, and film festival screenings do not count) and should have some re s i d- ual evidence of its release: distribution accessories such as a movie trailer, a one-sheet poster, a pressbook, presskit, or publicity still photos.

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