Introduction
Hey everybody! Are you ready to set sail for another animated movie adventure, folks? Great, well, given that it is June and I had seen some animated movies before creating this blog website, it is time to look back at some of the animated movies I watched for the past six months, from Seal Team to Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness. Today, it is time to explore the animated movies I watched during the first three months of 2022!
Seal Team
- Directors: Greig Cameron and Kane Croudace
- Animation Studio: Triggerfish Animation
- Country of Origin: South Africa
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 31 December 2021 (on Netflix)
Seal Team was a movie that came out on New Year’s Eve, but I literally watched it in one seating the next day, during New Year’s Day, and it was one of three animated movies Netflix releases onto their streaming platform. It is also Triggerfish’s third animated movie, but the first movie most viewers will see.
While the animation is quite choppy (going for a more stop-motion style that sometimes does not stick) and that not all the jokes landed, Seal Team makes up for its shortcomings with some great action sequences and fun characters, not to mention a decent main storyline about loss and working as a team, and a great conflict sequence that puts me over the hedge. The movie may not be for everyone, but I had a blast watching this little gem of a movie.
Low budget animated movies may have a terrible stigma for not being made by familiar animation giants, but Seal Team is not one of those movies that gives such movies a bad rep. Like any great dumb action movie, Seal Team possesses a range of talents, hilarious moments and some good old 80s action that makes it a fun watch.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 4.5/5
- Animation: 3.5/5
- Special sauce: 4/5
- Overall score: 12/15
Rating: Fuego
Riverdance: The Animated Adventure
- Directors: Eamonn Butler and Dave Rosenbaum
- Animation Studios: Cinesite, Aniventure
- Country of Origin: United Kingdom, Ireland
- Rating: G
- Release Date: 14 January 2022 (on Netflix)
Three animated movies came out in the same week, of which one already came out in certain countries last year. Riverdance: The Animated Adventure is another movie by newcomer Cinesite, who came off after dividing its viewers with Netflix’s Extinct and disappointing them with The Addams Family 2. They collaborated with another UK-based studio, Aniventure, who is working on their first solo project “Hitpig”, slated to come out later this year.
While the familiar and uneven adventure-style story leaves a lot to be desired, there are many other elements that made up for with the cultural nods to not just the global tap-dancing sensation that is Riverdance, but Irish folklore too. I mean, where would you find a movie with epic Irish music, hurling (a Gaelic sport native to Ireland) and even weirder: tap-dancing goats with unique antlers on each of them? Oh, and have I mentioned the gorgeous dance sequences throughout the movie?
Riverdance: The Animated Adventure may lack in narrative substance, but they made up for in its style, quirkiness and homage to the wonderful world of Irish culture and Riverdance. It is one acid trip I never expect I had fun with.
Rating:
- Story: 2.5/5
- Animation: 3.5/5
- Special sauce: 4/5
- Overall score: 10/15
Rating: Decent
The House
- Directors: Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roles (Segment 1: And Heard Within a Lie Is Spun), Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Segment 2: Then Lost Is Truth That Can’t Be Won), Paloma Baeza (Segment 3: Listen Again and Seek the Sun)
- Animation Studio: Nexus Studios
- Country of Origin: United Kingdom
- Rating: PG13
- Release Date: 14 January 2022 (on Netflix)
2022 is the year where stop-motion animation comes out and play, and there is a decent amount of stop-motion animated movies out this year, and of the three stop-motion flicks Netflix has acquired, their first one might be the most unconventional stop-motion flick.
A stop-motion anthology movie by stop-motion and animation specialists, it tells the tale of three stories that took place in the same house, in different time periods and while not all three land gracefully, The House expands on the potential capabilities of stop-motion animation. The intricate details of the puppets and the backgrounds are honestly satisfying to watch. I cannot imagine how much work the directors and their team had put their lives into to make these three stories turn into life. The first segment “And Heard Within a Lie Is Spun”, directed by the duo who brought us the stop-motion French movie “This Magnificent Cake!” will go out as one of the very few films or short films that could top Coraline as the scariest moment of animated movie history.
The House is a stop-motion animated movie that, while not executed perfectly, is one of the most unique animated movies so far. Each segment brings a new and interesting life to the house that stands the test of time, even if the house has to endure the wear and tear of the occupants that once lived there.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 4/5
- Animation: 4.5/5
- Special sauce: 4.5/5
- Overall score: 13/15
Rating: Fuego
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
- Directors: Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska
- Animation Studio: Sony Pictures Animation
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 14 January 2022 (on Amazon Prime Video)
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (Also known as Hotel Transylvania 4) is the last movie of the HT franchise and with that, the end of the pre-Spiderverse era of Sony Pictures Animation. For some strange reason the animation community could not comprehend, Sony pulled the movie off the theatres, even if the three previous movies are box office shoe-ins, then initially place them into Netflix (like their 2021 animated movies), but something strange happened: Sony finally decided to move it… to Amazon Prime Video, which rarely host animated movies. Sure, they have Invincible, but Invincible is a series, not a movie.
Honestly, there is nothing much to be said about the final HT adventure: the similar plot to maybe Hotel Transylvania 2. Except now, Johnny turns into a dragon and Drac turned into a human, while some of the monsters went human too. It had the typical hijinks set-up for the movie, but fizzles out with a rather weird ending that did not tie the movie together. It did not help that the comedy tend to be one-note and that almost nothing interesting happens that was unique to this instalment compared to the other three. At least the animation, as per Sony Pictures Animation’s high standards, is colourful, dynamic and chaotic in a good way.
Hotel Transylvania 4 is a meek end to the old era of Sony Pictures Animation with a same but different plot, sometimes weak humour and a lack of personality, despite the unique characters that graced the entire series. While it has pretty animation, it is safe to say that the animation community is ready to embrace the new and exciting era of Sony Pictures Animation.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 2/5
- Animation: 3.5/5
- Special sauce: 2.5/5
- Overall score: 8/15
Rating: Ok
I Am What I Am
- Director: Sun Haipeng
- Animation Studio: Yi Animation
- Country of Origin: China
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 27 January 2022 (in Singapore theatres)
China is one of the most exciting places for animation in recent years. Sure, China as a country had committed many atrocities that I will not delve into, but when it comes to animation, specifically Donghua, they knew how to turn it up. After a few years struggling to produce good animation, we saw the sudden rise in Chinese animation, beautiful, exciting and above all, not like the typical cheap Chinese animation stuff. This is also the case for the obscure indie Donghua flick I Am What I Am (also known as Lion City Boy).
What makes it unique compared to other great Chinese animated movies like Ne Zha and Green Snake is that the story took place in modern China and not based on Chinese folklore, taking place in a 2000s Guangdong village. What is even special is that neither the two big Chinese animation studios (Beijing Enlight and Light Chaser) animated it, and is instead done by Sun Haipeng and his team and even more bizarrely, they produce an animated movie that is better than those two animation studios.
The story expresses the art of lion dancing at its most pristine with swift and graceful movements, intricate details on the “lions” and the best usage of Donghua animation in any Chinese animated movie. What surprised me was the even better writing than the animation. The writing is well-paced and had some impactful moments which hit the viewers hard, together with memorable characters that have a unique personality. As a bonus, it has an awesome soundtrack (though I could not find access to the soundtrack), with a great Mao Buyi song as an end credits song.
I Am What I Am continues to showcase the limitless potential of Chinese animation and is my most favourite Chinese animated movie ever. It is such a shame very few people outside of China care about it, because the entire package is on par with some of Pixar’s and DreamWorks’ best. It is worthy of getting a roaring applause from me.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 4.5/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 5/5
- Overall score: 14.5/15
Rating: Euphoria
Turning Red
- Director: Domee Shi
- Animation Studio: Pixar
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 10 March 2022 (On Disney+)
Throughout Pixar’s history of animation, they had never hired a female director in any of their amazing line-up of amazing, animated movies… until this year with Domee Shi’s “Turning Red”. This was coming off Domee winning Pixar an Oscar for Best Animated Short for “Bao” and it is all about a girl in Toronto who gains an ability to turn into a red panda if her emotions run high.
Given its 2000s Toronto setting, I relate to it considering I grew up in my 2000s and it not only had the references to boot (including the boy band craze, the Discmans and Asian kids being obedient to Asian parents, one of them being me), Turning Red is a hilarious laugh riot, with great comedy about living with Asian parents and Mei’s “red panda curse” acquired from her family. The animation blends in stylised and realism animation expertly (with a hint of CalArts to make certain people mad) and the characters brought in something different to the table, especially with Mei and her friends fantasising over 4*Town. Speaking of 4*Town, their songs are reminiscent of the likes of N8Sync, Backstreet Boys, Blue and many more iconic late 90s to 2000s boy bands that dominate the Billboard charts.
Turning Red is hilarious, heartfelt and truthful about growing up in the 2000s and going through phases that we teenagers reminisce about and look back to. The bonus of a mostly female crew for this production, plus the Asian family setting makes it an animated movie of many firsts, and of many highs as well. Turning Red is like red panda Mei: cute, fuzzy and full of personality.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 5/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 5/5
- Overall score: 15/15
Fireheart
- Directors: Theodore Ty and Laurent Zeitoun
- Animation Studio: L’Atelier Animation
- Country of Origin: Canada
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 10 March 2022 (in Singapore theatres)
Six years after releasing Ballerina (also known as Leap!) across theatres around the world, Canadian studio L’Atelier Animation is back for a second serving with “Fireheart”. Taking place in early 20th century New York City, the story centres about a daughter of a firefighter disguising as a man hoping to follow her father’s footsteps of being the first ever firewoman in history.
Paying homage to historic female firewomen across the world, Fireheart is a better attempt than Ballerina/Leap as a female empowerment movie. Even though it follows a typical adventure animated movie of breaking through female stereotypes, it is a decent animated movie that does the minimum of telling this story. While it is a typical generic animated movie, it is a generic animated movie done right. In addition, I reckon the animation is much better than Ballerina/Leap with decent background designs and special effects, but the same could not be said for the stale comedy.
Fireheart is a perfectly fine animated movie and a much better attempt from L’Atelier Animation. Good animation, ok writing and kind of worse comedy, but given that many animation studios are getting better with their animation, being just fine in a crowded market does not cut in. At best, it is a great distraction for kids and at worst, it is kind of forgettable, but not terrible enough to be bothered about.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 3/5
- Animation: 3/5
- Special sauce: 2.5/5
- Overall score: 8.5/15
Rating: Ok
Around the World in 80 Days
- Director: Samuel Tourneux
- Animation Studios: Circus, Mac Guff Ligne
- Country of Origin: Belgium, France
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 24 March 2022 (in Singapore theatres)
Around the World in 80 Days is the non-Illumination outing for Mac Guff, who together with Circus worked on the 2022 animated movie take on the Jules Verne classic. In this version, an adventurous marmoset embarks on a journey around the world in 80 days with a greedy, showboating frog getting away from the rat inspector out to arrest him.
Well, I do not know whether I have much to say about this movie, but before its release, whenever I have to watch an animated movie, the trailer of Around the World in 80 Days plays every time, and almost every time I had to cover my eyes and ears. That is already a bad sign. When I watched it, however, I found out being bored out of this movie. This is because Around the World in 80 Days is more problematic than I thought, with some plot holes and cliché plots, not to mention the lacklustre humour and ugly character designs that amplify its mediocrity. It is also worth noting that the uneven pacing makes this movie a slog fest to sit through.
Around the World in 80 Days is an animated movie that tries so hard, but almost nothing substantive came out of it, and when other, small foreign animation studios are stepping up, being boring will never cut it in the crowded animation field. The only reason to watch it was to watch its many nonsensical moments, but seriously, there are similar animated movies with better writing and entertaining than this one.
Rating:
- Story and characters: 1.5/5
- Animation: 1.5/5
- Special sauce: 2/5
- Overall score: 5/15
Rating: Mediocre
That’s it for the first half of my 2022 animated movie rundown! I will most likely look through three more animated movies that are coming out soon, before doing a part 2 in August. The next three movies are:
- Minions: The Rise of Gru
- The Sea Beast
- Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (aka Blazing Samurai)
I will see you on the next adventure and until then, k thanks bye!
