December 15 2008

Best 2008 Animated Movies I

It’s almost the end of year 2008, heehee. In this posting, I will make a list of 10 best animated movie *in my humble opinion* in 2008.  I came up with the list by considering these factors: 1) How much I like them personally, 2) How long this movie stayed in the cinema at my country, 3) How ‘deep’ is the story, 4). How entertaining is the movie, and 5). How good is the picture quality… . That is my criteria, so, it’s OK if you are likely to disagree with me :D . Here is the list :

1. Bolt
Bolt-poster-final-fullsizeThe story about friendship between A girl named Penny and a dog named Bolt, an American White Shepherd, who has lived his whole life on the set of his action TV show, where he believes he has various superpowers. To gain a more realistic performance, the TV show’s producers have deceived Bolt his entire life, arranging the filming in such a way that Bolt believes the television show is real and he really has superpowers. When separated from the studio by accident, he meets a female alley cat named Mittens and an overweight hamster in a plastic ball named Rhino. Along the way, he learns that he doesn’t have superpowers and that the show is not real. This becomes something of a hindrance when he is accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New York City. From there he has to make his way home with Mitten and Rhino’s help. Well, quite an interesting story, since 3 main character in this movie are ‘enemy’ in the real world (a DOG, a CAT, and a MOUSE), heeheehee…

2. Kungfu Panda
This movie is about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda named Po, who works in a noodle restaurant owned by his goosekung_fu_panda father, Mr. Ping. Po is the biggest fan of Kung Fu…which doesn’t exactly come in handy while working every day in his family’s noodle shop, he has a dream of becoming a Kung Fu Master and defend his hometown, Valley of Peace, from the foes. When The tortoise Master Oogway, the owner of a kungfu school on Po’s town, has a premonition that the evil snow leopard warrior Tai Lung, former student of his kungfu school, will escape from prison and return to threaten the Valley of Peace, Po unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy, become a dragon warrior and stops Tai Lung!… Po’s dreams suddenly become reality and when he joins the world of Kung Fu, he studies alongside his idols, the legendary Furious Five — Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey — under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. But before they know it, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung is headed their way, and it’s up to Po to defend everyone from the oncoming threat. Can he turn his dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master into reality and defeat Tai Lung? :D . This movie sure is funny, but the story’s not so ‘deep’, so I put it in number 2 :p.

3. Star Wars : The Clone War
star-wars-clone-wars-posterAs the Clone Wars sweep through the galaxy, the heroical Jedi Knights fight to defend order and rejuvenate peace. More and more systems are falling prey to the forces of the dark side as the Galactic Republic slips further and further under the sway of the Separatists and their never-ending droid army. Anakin Skywalker, in his movie has a spunky wisp padawan girl sidekick named Ahsoka Tano,  find themselves on a mission with far-reaching consequences, one that brings them face-to-face with crime lord Jabba the Hutt, that’s not easy though, regarding Anakin’s selfish behaviour, and Ahsoka’s rough manner, made them squabble a lot like 10-year-olds kids at the first time, but slowly, Anakin begin to understand his duty as a master for Ahsoka, and trained her well. In the mean time, Count Dooku and his sinister agents, including the nefarious Asajj Ventress, will stop at nothing to ensure that Anakin and Ahsoka fail at their quest. While on the front lines of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda lead the massive clone army in a valiant effort to resist the forces of the dark side, their forces are decreased immensely because of the dark side’s attack, and it depends on Anakin and Ahsoka’s mission to regain their victory again. The Action is great, the story is good, but the 3D picture is a little….weird… I put it in number 3.

4. Madagascar 2 : Escape 2 Africa
This is the 2005’s “Madagascar”’s sequel. The movie begins with a retelling of how a young Lion, Alakai (now namedmadagascar2_v Alex) ended up in New York. Alex’s father, Zuba, is the alpha lion of an animal reserve in Africa. He is trying to teach his son how be a fighter, but it looks like Alex is more inclined to dance, perform and entertain, which makes him famous at the zoo. While Zuba is fighting a lion rival, Makunga, Alex is lured off the reserve by hunters. During an effectively exciting but too brief chase by Zuba, Alex’s crate falls off the hunters’ truck into a river and floats to New York, where is adopted by the zoo. This introductory sequence sets the stage for the telegraphed reunion with his parents and introduces the film’s primary bad guy, Makunga. Now the scene changed in New York Zoo animals, where Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo, the 5 main character on “Madagascar”, are still stranded on Madagascar, and wants to leave the island. By the help of the clumsy Penguins of Madagascar, All of a sudden, they land in the wilderness of Africa, where Alex meets the rest of his family, but has trouble communicating with them after spending so much time at the Central Park Zoo. Alex suddenly have to fight face to face with the strongest Lion in their territorry to prove that he is not only able to entertain, but also good at fighting. This movie sells fun and fun, and a friendship story…. this movie goes to number 4.

5. Wall-e
wall-eAround 700 years future, in a not so unrealistic environment, the earth is over-run with garbage and devoid of plant and animal life, because of that,  humans are now living on the spaceship Axiom after vacating Earth centuries earlier. That’s the consequence of years of environmental degradation and thoughtless consumerism that human must bear.  The original plan was for humans to live in outer space temporarily while cleaning robots prepared Earth for recolonization. However, after 700 years, only one cleaning robot remains : WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class). One day, an enormous space ship lands and deposits another robot, EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), the objective is to take the remaining original live plant into a special containment capsule within her body, sends a signal to the mother ship, and goes into hibernation mode. WALL-E falls in love with Eve, rescues Eve from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. WALL-E is so confused when he saw Eve on hibernation mode and try to wake her up. The true adventure begin when the main space ship takes Eve to the space and the autopilot wants to destroy the plan to avoid the people comeback to earth.

Well, I think I wrote too long, heehee… I’m afraid that you’ll get bored, so I’ll continue with the next 5 on my next post.

C U on the next post…

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