Introduction
Hello, hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for an exciting and special adventure, because after a well-needed break (and one awful 2024 Animated Movies Rundown to boot), it is now time we finally get to the more exciting stuff as there are just too many animated movies to cover for the rest of 2024. Fret not, because we are covering just five of 16 (that’s right, 16) animated movies for the rest of 2024, so let’s get to it, shall we?
The first movie, The Glassworker, is a Pakistani hand-drawn animated movie centring on a young glassblower apprentice working under the guidance of his father experiences his life being turned upside-down as a war looms in his hometown. For the past few years, India’s animation industry seems to be going backwards as its animation prospects are extremely terrible with it being home to so, so many terribly produced animated series and movies (except for Bombay Rose, that was the only exception), so much so that even the Indian citizens are tired of it. However, its bitter rival Pakistan managed to produce a decently produced animated movie in 2018’s The Donkey King, but still, they had bigger aspirations and this movie, featured as part of the Contrechamp category in this year’s Annecy International Film Festival. With it getting praises from its local population and it being Pakistan’s submission for next year’s Oscars for Best International Film, is The Glassworker worth the hype?
The second movie, Out of the Nest, is the second movie part of Annecy Presents, and set in ancient China, a goat barber was forced on an adventure to retrieve seven eggs containing the seven royal fledglings back to their royal parents before their coronation while fending off an evil force out to take over the kingdom. I know, it is yet another foreign CG animated movie, you said, and yes, it is. However, ever since I followed the movie’s official social media accounts, its popularity skyrocketed, especially in Thailand where its marketing campaign is one of the most extensive for any animated movie, even when compared to some of the biggest animated movies we had this year. With its insane popularity and fanfare as well as its impressive box office numbers, is the hype for real or is this yet another typical foreign CG animated movie that would be forgotten?
The third movie, Animal Tales of Christmas Magic, is an anthology animated movie with five stories that celebrate the love and joy of Christmas. With Christmas coming shortly, it felt poignant this movie gets a November release as part of the French Film Festival Singapore. In addition, this is one of the two movies in this Rundown that was part of Annecy’s new out-of-competition “Annecy Presents” section that focused more on its family-friendly fare (although bizarrely Look Back, a movie that I already covered and is among one of my most favourite animated movies of 2024 so far, is also in that category), so its Annecy endorsement is a good sign indeed. Will this helped me to gear up for the Christmas season?
The fourth movie, Spellbound, takes place in a fantasy world where a teenage princess must journey to the wild to reverse the curse that turned her parents into giant monsters before it is too late. If you are wondering based on the premise, then yes, it is a Disney-like animated movie from Skydance Animation, managed by the creep who shall not be named, and is a musical adventure with music by the legendary Alan Menken. That said, having covered the studio’s first movie Luck with not much to love for, will Spellbound reverse the curse set by Skydance Animation, or is it too little, too late to save this beleaguered animation studio?
The fifth and final movie, Hitpig, is based on a book series where a bounty hunter pig is tasked to capture a circus elephant, only for them to go on a crazy adventure together. Hitpig is animated by Cinesite and Aniventure, and if you are wondering where you had heard of these two studios before, that is because these two studios had produced a good number of animated movies for the past few years, including the two Addams Family animated movies, Riverdance: the Animated Adventure, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank and for Cinesite’s case, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem last year. Will Hitpig be like those other animated movies they had produced, or is this one bizarre cyberpunk adventure work looking out for?
Alright, without further ado, let the 16th 2024 Animated Movies Rundown begin!
The Glassworker
Key Information
- Director: Usman Riaz
- Animation Studio: Mano Animation Studios
- Country of Origin: Pakistan
- Rating: PG13
- Release Date: 9 November 2024 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
It honestly felt refreshing to see a PG13 animated movie as it means the writers are willing to be more mature in the writing and indeed, The Glassworker did not hold back with the writing.
In terms of the negatives so that we can get those out of the way, The Glassworker is not doing something new with its story and animation, which can be a negative of sorts, especially since some of the best animated movies from this year having more original and risk-taking plots that take their movies to a whole new level. In addition, there were times where it kind of lose its direction and steam, but thankfully, the movie managed to get back up when that happened.
However, once you look past the negatives, you will see the beauty and passion The Glassworker possesses. Besides the slight lack of momentum, the writing is strong with its strong and vital romantic plot between Victor (Sancha Dhawan) and Alliz (Anjli Mohindra), as well as Victor’s upbringing as a glassworker apprentice under his father that shaped this movie forward. The other characters are well developed enough and to my pleasant surprise, even though I watched the English dub instead of the original Urdu dub which I would have preferred, The Glassworker has one of the very few good English dubs of a foreign animated movie, which took me aback after complaining about bad English dubs of foreign animated movies for months.
The animation is also worth a special mention. I mentioned in my Americanization of Non-Mainstream Animated Movies essay that animation studios need to move away from just doing 3D CG animated movies and embrace other animation styles, and The Glassworker is one of the many reasons why. Despite its obvious influences from other Studio Ghibli animated movies with its clear European influences, the animators at Mano Animation Studios make that style their own. Character and backgrounds are both beautiful and devastating despite their simplicity. The animation sequences felt like paintings at one point, and it all showcases the craftsmanship of the animation just like the glassworks in this movie.
The music score is excellent with not much to say about its minor elements, and as for my level of enjoyment, I was blown away (pun intended) by both its simplicity and beauty and the final 30 minutes were nerve wrecking, but rewarding with its conclusion. It was an unexpected twist that hits me very hard and turns the movie on its head in the best way possible.
Overall, The Glassworker was worth the effort and despite its stumbles in the story, remains by far the best animated movie from the South Asia region. A heartfelt animated movie that, while not new by itself, is why we need more great quality non-mainstream animated movies that do not rely much on 3D CG animation. Despite its fumbles in the writing, The Glassworker has a great story with unexpected twists, a fantastic Ghibli-style animation that showcases the power of hand-drawn animation and a fantastic music score to boot. It is yet another great addition to the already stacked 2024 Annecy Film Festival line-up and proves that you do not need to rely on 3D CG animation to be an excellent animated movie.
In addition, The Glassworker, along with Bombay Rose, proves that there is still hope in South Asian animation despite constant negative perceptions about the lack of presence and quality in South Asian animation for the past few years. Obviously, you need to see the beauty in this one.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Out of the Nest
Key Information
- Director: Arturo A. Hernandez
- Animation Studios: Base FX, Shellhut Entertainment and Riff Animation Studio
- Country of Origin: Thailand, China
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 14 November 2024 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
If you had read my essay on the Americanisation of Non-Mainstream Animated Movies which I released in the middle of the year, I had explained on how some non-mainstream animated movies simply try to Americanise their animated movies to suit the tastes of the typical family audience with not much success and at the sacrifice at the quality of the movies themselves. While Out of the Nest uses most of the don’ts I mentioned from that essay in this movie, and with a hodgepodge of animation studios who worked on it and the bad English dub I had to deal with (more on the voice acting later)… I actually enjoyed it more than I should.
Starting with the negatives first, and yeah, this movie is quite conventional and cliched at the same time, especially if you had seen countless family-friendly foreign CG animated movies before. It has similar story beats that are not fully fleshed out such that you are invested into the story, the main character of Arthur is annoying at times (although thankfully the writers toned down his arrogance after the first act) and some of the characters are not well-developed enough, and the English dub voice acting is quite bad. Still, this is no surprise given the many, many bad English dubs of foreign animated movies I had to deal with for the past few years.
However, it is the positives that somehow turn this weird combination into an enjoyable mess. First off, despite its cliched storyline, Out of the Nest has a decent execution of its storyline despite it not being as comprehensive as I hoped and of course, the best part of this movie has to be the seven chicks Arthur has to care for. Seriously, their presence, their personalities and how they helped Arthur out during difficult situations single-handedly turn what should be yet another typical family-friendly foreign CG animated movie that would be forgotten into an enjoyable experience.
The positives do not stop here! Despite the animation style not adding new, the animation is very competent, which is not too surprising given the involvement of Base Animation who animated Wish Dragon and Riff Animation Studio who did Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons which I covered earlier. Some action sequences are very dynamic, and the lighting is surprisingly great. The colouring is well done without making the style feel nauseating and the character and background designs are on point with most good quality family-friendly foreign CG animated movies from this year.
While I had some beef with the music score using a generic end credits song for this movie for the English dub version, the music score is surprisingly great, using more traditional and wood instruments to produce a more time-appropriate score for this movie, and the theme song for the Thai dub version (“Smash or Pass” by the Thai pop group 4EVE) is a banger of sorts. However, it is the marketing campaign that puts it above even most mainstream animated movies from this year. Seriously, the amount of marketing and promotion this movie is doing, especially in its home country of Thailand, is staggering, both in terms of quality and scope, to where Out of the Nest ended up becoming a box office hit in Thailand for a few weeks, even ending up at the top of the Thai box office during some weeks.
As for my level of enjoyment, when this movie was announced for release in Singapore, I was like, “Oh, here we go again”, knowing how many family-friendly foreign CG animated movies I had covered for this year so far. However, the weird combination of its elements, especially with the seven chicks, somehow resulted in one of the most enjoyable messes of any animated movie this year. If you have seen my previous review of Dino Time, it has a similar enjoyable feel, but unlike Dino Time, Out of the Nest is way more competent in its technical elements, especially with its physical comedy and animation quality. Despite basically using the wrong formula, Out of the Nest somehow is very enjoyable!
In conclusion, I do not know how they did it, but somehow, Arthur and the Seven Chicks pulled out one of my biggest guilty pleasures of the year so far. It pretty much used almost everything I recommended against in my essay about the Americanisation of Non-Mainstream Animated Movies, but somehow got the answers right. Maybe I should have been more professional in my judgement, but unfortunately, the cuteness and presence of the seven chicks that carried this movie had sold me real good…
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Animal Tales of Christmas Magic
Key Information
- Directors: Camille Alméras, Ceylan Beyoglu, Natalia Chernysheva, Haruna Kishi, Caroline Attia Larivière and Olesya Shchukina
- Animation Studio: Les Valseurs
- Country of Origin: France
- Rating: Exempted from Classification
- Release date: 16 November 2024 (in Singapore as part of the French Film Festival Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
I am not going to beat around the bush for this one, because I have little to complain about this one, so let’s get straight to the point.
Despite the movie’s simplicity and minimal dialogue (which is a welcome change from the bad English dub from the English dub of Out of the Nest earlier on), Animal Tales of Christmas Magic executed its five Christmas inspired stories very well. Sure, it is not flashy, but the writers flesh out the story very well without trying too hard to do so.
The same thing goes with the animation. I am yearning for non-3D CG animated movies these days, especially if the execution of the style is great, and thankfully, the hand-drawn animation style does its job very well to convey the Christmas spirit. It might not be the most detailed animated movie of the year so far, but the simple textures, character and background designs and the animation sequences are just a delight to behold.
The music score definitely screams “Christmas” in the best way possible even though it is not the most imaginative score of any animated movie this year, and as for my level of enjoyment, I love it when a movie does a simple but effective animated movie. It is clear Animal Tales of Christmas Magic does not need to be flashy or out there, and simply work wonders with its simple but heartwarming concept and animation style that I am sure the intended family audience will appreciate a lot.
In conclusion, I do not have much to say about Animal Tales of Christmas Magic because it serves its purpose very well. A simple, but well-executed and cosy Christmas themed animated anthology movie that, while not the most unique stories of any animated movie this year, still holds this festive charm that is very hard to ignore. Easily the best animated movie that is part of the Annecy Presents line-up from this year’s Annecy Film Festival that is not Look Back.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Spellbound
Key Information
- Animation Studio: Skydance Animation (with Skydance Animation Madrid)
- Country of Origin: United States, Spain
- Country of Origin: France, Belgium
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 22 November 2024 (on Netflix)
Trailer
The Review
Coming to this movie, especially two years after Luck, I am sceptical over the success of Spellbound and I almost immediately ate my words when I started watching Spellbound, because I will admit, Spellbound is genuinely good.
Obviously, Spellbound will not win awards for originality, given the story is something we had seen many, many times before. With that said, execution is more important than concept, and the writing is way better than first thought. Even with the similar story beats, the pacing is great and there are not many boring moments throughout the movie. It also helped that the character development is decent and the voice acting overall is solid. Despite the uninteresting comedy, the writing is solid enough, especially in the final act where it went deeper than expected, which helps to bring all the elements together.
I also have little to complain about the animation style. It is not the most interesting animation style of any 2024 animated movie, but the animation quality is solid. Character and backgrounds are great even despite their generic designs, the execution of the said style is solid enough to carry the movie’s animation.
Of course, given the Alan Menken soundtrack, the musical numbers are solid, but because I watched Wicked the day before seeing it, it might be why the musical numbers are not that memorable enough for me, and as for my level of enjoyment, even with its generic concept and limited marketing (which is on par with my complaints about Netflix’s animation division in a nutshell), I genuinely liked this movie. Yes, there are many animated movies this year that are higher quality and more memorable, but considering I did not like Luck that much, Spellbound is a solid movie from a troubled animation studio like Skydance Animation.
I have to be fair and give studios credit when they do something good and, despite the presence of that creep in charge of this studio, Spellbound was thankfully a good enough animated movie that delivered on its execution. Despite its familiar plot and musical numbers, the execution of these elements turns out to be better than expected, the animation is decent, and the soundtrack is great.
It definitely lags behind compared to other mainstream animated movies that do more than what Spellbound does, but Skydance Animation made a turnaround with this one after this not-so-ideal debut. Let’s hope they maintain this standard or improve from there, or else they will continue to get lost in translation.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Hitpig!
Key Information
- Directors: Cinzia Angelini and David Feiss
- Animation Studios: Cinesite and Aniventure
- Country of Origin: United Kingdom
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 21 November 2024 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
It felt like a sense of déjà vu, given that I watched Hitpig in the same cinema hall as Out of the Nest the week earlier, and just like with that movie… I find Hitpig to be an entertaining mess, and a good one at that!
Obviously, Hitpig has similar story beats, it over-relies on typical animated movie tropes as almost every family-friendly foreign CG animated movie I had covered this year and some of the song choices are shall we say “choices”, but while it lacks in surprises, it made up for in the slapstick and the bizarre. Just to get this out of the way, this movie is freaking bizarre in terms of the concept alone, but the execution is as bonkers as what I would expect from an Aniventure and Cinesite animated movie. I talked about how bizarrely entertaining Riverdance: The Animated Adventure is, Hitpig is as bizarrely entertaining, but the elements in Hitpig are slightly better.
One big reason Hitpig works goes down to the slapstick comedy. While not jokes land, the slapstick comedy and gags between Hitpig (Jason Sudeikis, aka Ted Lasso), Pickles (Lily Singh) and the cast of bizarre, but well-developed characters turn what is yet another family-friendly foreign CG animated movie that would be forgotten within a few hours into a bizarrely entertaining mess that you want to watch further. It is to no wonder that some of the audience genuinely enjoyed its bizarre nature, especially with Hitpig himself.
It also helped that the other elements are fairly competent. The animation is not that flashy but just like with the animation quality in Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, it is an acceptable quality for theatrical animation standards as it embraced a crazy animation design to fit to the bizarreness of this movie. Apart from the questionable song choices, the score is decent enough, but I was enjoying this movie so much that I cared little about its flaws due to how bizarrely entertaining this movie was. Yes, it is not that coherent, but Hitpig excels in throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Overall, in a similar fashion to Out of the Nest, Hitpig is the entertaining mess that audience will either like or hate it, but the fact that some reviewers genuinely enjoyed this movie already makes it one of the best animated movie distributed by Viva Kids this year (alongside The Inseparables which they were supposed to distribute but it still had no release in the United States this year, strangely enough). It is a low bar to be a good Viva Kids distributed animated movie, but given the number of Ls they got this year, I think Viva Kids deserve a small W this time.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
Well, that was a great series of bites into some of the new animated movies in November and honestly, in a stark contrast to the previous Rundown, I had a great time with the five animated movie adventures I venture to. They each offer something interesting to the table and do things in their own style, whether that style works or not. Honestly, this is a great start to the end of the year animated movies!
Well, just as I was about to relax and move on to more animated movie adventures, one Adam Elliot decided to interfere and bring us back from the future to the past for perhaps the only animated movie this year that could rival Flow for the best animated movie of 2024. We will see if his work of 15 years delivers on its high expectations, and until next time, see you on the next adventure!
