The Sea 123. Steamboy 122. Street Fighter II: the Animated Movie 121
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Honorable Mention: 125. Gay Purr-ee 124. The Little Mermaid II: Return To The Sea 123. Steamboy 122. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie 121. Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest 120. Recess: School's Out 119. The Return Of Jafar 118. Ice Age 117. Appleseed 116. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted 115. The Sword and the Stone 114. Rio 113. The Aristocats 112. Fantasia 2000 111. Whisper Of The Heart 110. Wakko's Wish 109. The Rescuers Down Under 108. Batman: Under the Red Hood 107. Metropolis 106. Oliver and Company 105. Ponyo 104. Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island 103. Tokyo Godfathers 102. The Fantastic Mr. Fox 101. Meet the Robinsons The List: #100: Pokemon: The Movie 2000 (aka Pocket Monsters The Movie: Revelation Lugia) Year of Release: 1999 (original), 2000 (USA) Director: Kunihiko Yuyama The best of the Pokemon movies, Pokemon 2000 improved on its predecessor in pretty much every conceivable way, from the quality of the animation, to the epic battle in the endgame, to the music and the characters and pretty much everything else. I was very surprised to find out that critics hated it because it really is a quality film. In this film, the villain (Lawrence III in the American dub, Jirarudan in the original) attempts to capture the three legendary birds, which causes weather calamities all over the world. He's capturing them so that the mighty Lugia will emerge to quell the fighting and then he can capture Lugia as well. However, Lugia fails to stop the fighting and that's when Ash comes in, Ash has to gather the legendary treasures together (while avoiding getting killed by the birds and stormy weather) and use them (along with a special musical tune) to quell the birds' rage. The villain was rather cheesy but he WAS voiced by Chairman Kaga in the original, so that's to be expected. I also thought the character arc of Melody was quite nice, she starts out as this rather spoiled, ditzy girl but then turns out to be the key to saving everyone by playing that song at the end. The music, particularly the main theme (which got a great Donna Summer rendition in the American credits) was much more epic than the music in the previous film and we didn't have to deal with any of that cheesy "my brother" garbage from the first film. And we also got a Herman Cain meme out of it 11 years later, so it turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving. The fighting between the mystic birds was spectacular, much better than the final battle in the first movie. I know there's going to be some disagreement on the subject of "best Pokemon movie" (I've heard a lot of people really liked the third), but all the elements of this film really come together and ultimately we get the Pokemon adventure that the first film should have been. - #99: Epic Year of Release: 2013 Director: Chris Wedge A very recent film but one that really impressed me, Epic was a lot more than the sum of its parts and transcends what one would expect from the typical "person gets forced into a natural world and has to help the local denizens" type of film that we've seen in the past. There were comparisons to Fern Gully but instead, Epic just turned out to be a very well animated and well paced film. There weren't any overbearing environmental messages, the decay creatures weren't caused by human intrusions into the forest but were just the natural forces of decay personified and turned into an army of wicked and horrific creatures. So yeah, the story itself was quite good even if this film still had plenty of cliches to go around. The voice acting, while loaded with a star-studded celebrity cast, was very nice, with Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Colin Farrell, and even Beyonce standing out and giving good performances. The animation was utterly beautiful, the natural environments looked colorful and vivid and it was definitely one of the best looking animated films of all time. There were a lot of little moments that worked quite well, like the little plant girl who eventually became the new queen, and any of the scenes with MK and her dad. The snails didn't take over the film like comedy relief characters have done in so many other animated films as of late. Epic's biggest triumph was definitely the quality of its animation, had the entire film been as good as it looked it would have gotten a much higher spot on this list, but the film still stands out as one of the best animated films of this young decade. - #98: Cats Don't Dance Year of Release: 1997 Director: Mark Dindal "BIIIIIIIIIIG AAAAAAAND LOOOOOOOUD!" Released in the waning age of animated musicals, Cats Don't Dance was one of Warner Brothers' first forays into this field that had been so successful for Disney over the decade. The film follows a young cat named Danny from Kokomo, Indiana, who tries to make it big in Hollywood but finds out that the big city isn't what it seems and eventually runs afoul of the starlet Darla Dimple, best described as the spawn of Shirley Temple and Satan. Darla Dimple pretty much stole the show and credit to the casting department for putting a real little girl (in this case Ashley Peldon, though Lindsay Ridgeway was amazing as Darla's singing voice) in the role. Honestly, she could have been the top animated villain of that year if the year hadn't happened to be a banner year for great animated villain performances (more on that later). Danny and Sawyer's romance was pretty cliche, you expected them to get together, though their character interaction was still somewhat fun. The plot also attempted some social commentary, with the plight of the animal actors reflecting the plight of real minority actors in Hollywood at the time, which added a layer of complexity to the otherwise ordinary storyline. Cats Don't Dance was at its core a fun musical. Nothing too special but with a fantastic and memorable villain (and villain song), Cats Don't Dance secures its place as a true animated classic. - #97: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs Year of Release: 2009 Directors: Phil Lord and Chris Miller A silly and surprisingly touching animated film, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs took a lot of people (including me) by surprise when it was released back in 2009. Based on a children's book, the film expanded and transformed the world of the book and in this case it worked. Basically, Flint is an inventor who's become a pariah in the town due to all his failed inventions, but when he invents a machine that causes it to rain food, he instantly becomes a hero and his town becomes famous worldwide....but as to be expected with these types of things, there's a hitch in the device and only Flint can fix it before it destroys the town (and the world). One of the characters that really stood out for me was Sam Sparks, the weather girl reporter played by Anna Faris who turned out to be a massive weather nerd. Of particular note was the adorable scene where Flint makes a jello scrunchie for her and tells her she looks really beautiful when she's wearing it, it was a very funny and sweet scene and it was really adorable that he ended up having a thing for nerdy-looking girls, it helps that Sam really is cute when she's wearing the scrunchie. We also got a really nice performance out of James Caan as Flint's father, he had two stand-out scenes, one involving technology that's absolutely hilarious if you have a parent who's no good with computers, and then there's that scene at the end where Flint's dad tells him how much he really loves him. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs succeeds because of its great characters and the relationships between them. - #96: Titan A.E. Year of Release: 2000 Directors: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman The swan song for Don Bluth and for Fox Animation (at lleast until the Simpsons movie), Titan A.E. was a sci-fi animated film taking place after the destruction of Earth by energy beings known as the Drej. Its plot revolves around the protagonists' search for the Titan, a ship that can be used to create a new world for humans to call home. A lot of the controversy surrounding this film revolved around its marketing problems, people didn't know whether it was intended for kids or for adults and it ultimately bombed at the box office, ruining Don Bluth's career and signaling one of the first death rattles for 2-D animated movies in general. That said, the film was ultimately ahead of its time. The animation was quite good and better in a lot of ways than Treasure Planet while on significantly less of a budget. The cast of characters was quite lovable as well, Cale and Akima were fairly cliche but Korso (voiced excellently by Bill Pullman) turned out to be quite complex and had some great moments, particularly his heroic sacrifice. The voice acting in general was great, it was one of the first big celebrity casts but, as in Anastasia a few years before, the celebrities performed quite well.