Henry Turberfield, 26
The best-animated movie from the 2000s and 2010s is highly opinionated, with everyone having their own ranking. I wanted to make a collective ranking of the high school’s top 15 best-animated movies with an emphasis on the top 5. Thank you to everyone who participated and answered the survey. Here are the collective top 15 animated movies:
15. Zootopia
14. Lorax
13. Kung Fu
12. Frozen
11. Lion King
10. Coraline
9. Emperors New Groove
8. Moana
7. Ratatouille
6. Princess and the Frog
5. How to Train Your Dragon
Overall ranking in 5th place, How to Train Your Dragon received 4th of all 1st place votes. Released March 21, 2010, How to Train Your Dragon grossed over 500 million dollars, 499 million of which grossed on the release day. The movie was based on a book, published in 2003, by British author Cressida Cowell. It’s part of a 12-book series, with the last book released in 2015. Directed and written by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, two former Disney writers, the pair had tons of creative freedom while making the movie. The original version of the film followed the books strictly, but when Sanders and Deblois felt it was too childish, they changed the movie to have more of an appeal to older audiences. One of the most important changes was the appearance of Toothless. He was originally supposed to be a garden dragon, but Sanders and Deblois chose to make him the rarest dragon in the series. He was also supposed to be green and brown, but his appearance was changed to solid black after taking inspiration from Black Panther. The movie ended up being nominated for two Oscars.
4. Lego Batman
Lego Batman ranked 4th in the overall list, ranking 2nd in 2nd place choice and 9th place in top movie choice. It was released on February 10, 2017, by Warner Animation Group and DC. It was directed by Chris McKay, who wanted the movie to be a new spin on Batman. He took a lot of inspiration from older Batman movies and other movies in general. He described in an interview that he wanted the movie to be like if Jerry Maguire was directed by Michael Mann (who is known for his personalized crime drama). He also mentioned Airplane and The Naked Gun as inspirations. McKay went all out for the movie, despite being on edge about how well done the movie would turn out. To start, McKay wanted the set to be massive in order to represent Batman’s huge ego. If you took all the pieces of the Bat Cave and scaled it to regular legos, the set would be half a mile long end to end. Gotham would take up 6 ½ football fields. For the promotion of the film, a life-size replica of the Batmobile made of 350,000 Lego pieces was showcased at the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. McKay also sought to give closure to lifelong Batman fans. The existence of Robin was something McKay struggled with. Robin was based on Burt Ward’s Robin and combined him with Frank Miller-style Batman. The character got an in-depth backstory answering why a brightly colored child was running with a lone wolf such as Batman. The movie was a huge success, grossing 312 million worldwide, on a budget of 80 million.
3. Despicable Me
Despicable Me was a consistent favorite among the rankings. The Despicable Me franchise is one of Illumination’s biggest series. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, Despicable Me was released on July 9, 2010. It was a massive success, grossing 543.2 million worldwide on a budget of 69 million. The film was nominated for various awards, such as Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards, Annie Awards, and Kids’ Choice Awards. It won Favorite Animated Movie at the 2011 Kids’ Choice Awards. The movie produced 3 sequels and 2 prequels with one more on the way. Despicable Me 2 would end up breaking a billion dollars grossed, making it the third-highest-grossing movie in 2013. The movie was so wildly popular because of the different choices Coffin and Renaud would end up making. They chose to hire actors who could improvise lines, like Steve Caroll and Russell Brand. Melendari, the founder of Illumination Studios, brought writers and voice actors from Horton Hears a Who, which he had ties with due to his previous job at 20th Century Fox Animations. The directors also played a large role in the movie themselves. Coffin and Renaud ended up voicing the minions. The language the minions speak is a mix of French, English, and Spanish and all translate to actual words. Fun Fact- Gru is Gru’s last name; his actual first name is Felonious.
2. Tangled
Tangled ranked around 2nd place in all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place votes. Released November 24, 2010, and directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, the movie was problematic in the making. Glen Keane, a senior animator at Disney, pitched the idea back in 1996 but wouldn’t get the approval until 2001. Even then, the CEO had requests. The movie was to be computer-animated, similar to Shrek. In 2005, they announced that the film would be delayed until 2009, but it was shut down in 2006. A week later, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter would take over the project to get it back into production. And again in 2008, Howard and Greno took charge of the project. Keane eventually left the film, later revealing that he had a heart attack. Even the voice actors didn’t work well together, only ever meeting once. But the movie wasn’t all bad, on a budget of 260 million and grossing 592.5 million, the film would become the eighth highest-grossing film in 2010. The film was also nominated for a number of awards, like Best Original Song at the 83rd Academy Awards. Tangled was the first Disney princess movie to have a PG rating instead of G. After recent critics with movies like Princess and the Frog, the movie was geared more as a comedic adventure to appeal to young males. The movie ended up having a short film and a TV spin-off, which were both very successful.
1. Cars
Cars was the number one ranked movie by far. The Cars series is one of Disney’s most iconic. Released June 9, 2006, the first Cars movie grossed over 450 million dollars on a budget of 120 million. Cars was also nominated twice at the 79th Academy Awards but lost to Happy Feet. It eventually won the Annie Award and the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature. The movie was directed by John Lasseter. The project started in 1998 after the film Bug’s Life was finished but was later scrapped in favor of Toy Story 2. After some major changes to the script, it was resumed. The movie is said to be based on one of Lasseter’s country country road trips. Many characters in Cars are based on real things. For example, McQueen’s personality is based on Kid Rock. Doc Hudson is based on the 1951 Hudson Hornet. Luigi is a 1959 Fiat 500, and Sarge is a 1942 Willys Jeep. The Cars town, Radiator Springs, was also based off the Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, Texas. Cars was the first Pixar feature film to use a technique called “ray tracing” which is a 3d animation technique that renders light in a way that changes the way it interacts with surfaces. This made the movie super realistic for its time.