Introduction
Happy 2023, fellow adventurers! Blaziker’s here to reflect on the animated movies released in 2022! It is safe to say that 2022 is a fascinating year for animation, especially with animated movies. Sure, that was the year certain streaming services cancel promising animation projects and certain executives did not treat the medium with enough respect, but that did not stop animation studios, whether major or minor, from putting out some of the best works of the 2020s so far.
From various stop-motion hits to surprise indie favourites and movies with a wide range of animation styles, 2022 is the year where animation thrived despite being gutted throughout the year. We might have a couple of stinkers released, but there were so many high-quality animated movies that the great animated movies outweigh the terrible ones.
I had watched 38 animated movies in 2022, and how do they fare? Tune in to find out with part 1, focusing on the bottom 12 animated movies of 2022 from 38th to 27th, so without further ado, let’s go!
(Note: The rating system is based on the old system used until the end of 2022)
38. Marmaduke
Story and characters: 0/5
Animation: 0/5
Special sauce: 0/5
Overall score: 0/15
Rating: Burn in Hell
What can I say about this cringe of a movie that Netflix should not pick up in the first place? In 2022, Netflix has been cancelling some promising animation projects and did not bother to promote the rest of their animated content despite evaluating that their original and acquired animated movie line-up for 2022 to be enjoyable on average. Still, Marmaduke is such a badly animated and poorly designed animated movie with horrendous writing and disgusting moments, that it should be unholy for them to pick up any animated movie without inspecting the level of quality first. Speaking of unholy, Netflix also released another terrible animated movie that degrades its overall experience…
37. The Soccer Football Movie
Story and characters: 0/5
Animation: 0/5
Special sauce: 0.5/5
Overall score: 0.5/15
Rating: Burn in Hell
The fact that Splash Entertainment animated this movie is already a good sign that this movie will not be good at all, and indeed, it is! Despite Netflix’s attempts at pretending this movie did not exist, it did not prevent viewers from witnessing equally cringeworthy animation and writing, not to mention the lacklustre voice-acting and the lack of cohesion, just like in the previous movie I talked about. The only reason this movie is slightly better than Marmaduke is that Weird Al is in this movie, and that was pretty much it.
36. Ice Age: The Adventures of Buck Wild
Story and characters: 0.5/5
Animation: 0.5/5
Special sauce: 0.5/5
Overall score: 1.5/15
Rating: Horrible
With the bankruptcy of Blue Sky Studios, Disney rushed to get that spin-off out of the way, and its tardiness resulted in this frozen mess. What shocked me is that the animation quality, especially when compared to Blue Sky’s previous movies, is shockingly bad and has continuity errors in terms of where the story was supposed to be. I will admit, while Buck Wild was terrible, at least it had stronger voice-acting (especially from Simon Pegg who returned to voice Buck) and has less gross moments, but for a movie associated with Disney, this is unacceptable for their standards.
35. Around the World in 80 Days
Story and characters: 1.5/5
Animation: 2/5
Special sauce: 2/5
Overall score: 5.5/15
Rating: Mediocre
The 2022 animated adaptation of the classic Jules Verne story may probably be one of the more annoying adaptations. This movie’s characters are mostly annoying and their designs are worse, not to mention having a badly written script with too much self-awareness. With that said, it brought forth some unintentionally hilarious scenes that make this movie more entertaining than it should be, and some stylised elements are well-executed. Still, this is one animated movie to miss out.
34. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Story and characters: 1.5/5
Animation: 2.5/5
Special sauce: 2/5
Overall score: 6/15
Rating: Mediocre
Formerly Blazing Samurai, Paws of Fury is an animated movie that had divided its audience, with the slight majority going towards the negative side. While the Blazing Saddles remake did not provide substance in terms of its writing, nor was it hilarious, the animation and a couple of jokes are better than expected. Given its troubled production, Paws of Fury turned out to be a better animated movie than what everyone had thought, but still, it was a total pass for me.
33. Goodbye Monster
Story and characters: 1/5
Animation: 4/5
Special sauce: 1.5/5
Overall score: 6.5/15
Rating: Mediocre
Perhaps one of the biggest disappointments of the year that are not Lightyear or Strange World (more on them in part 2), Goodbye Monster is a Chinese animated movie that had promise based on the trailer, but the final product was overall a big disappointment. Sure, the animation is one of the most spectacular of the year, but sadly, the writing isn’t. Typically, Chinese Donghua movies excel with the screenplay, but the lack of cohesiveness in Goodbye Monster’s script, not to mention a very annoying main character, makes it an absolute disappointment.
32. Luck
Story and characters: 2.5/5
Animation: 2.5/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 7.5/15
Rating: Ok
Skydance Animation’s debut on Apple TV Plus didn’t look hot, given that John Lasseter not only was in charge of this studio, but had also meddled with the development of Luck. This resulted in a fine, if not underwhelming, animated movie that felt rushed and not cohesive in terms of the story and its ideals. Given that 2022 produced some of the most creative animated movies, this is definitely not one of them.
31. Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania
Story and characters: 2/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 8/15
Rating: Ok
Not only is this movie marked the end of the Hotel Transylvania series, but also the end of the pre-Spiderverse era of Sony Pictures Animation. For some strange reason still yet to be explained, this somehow ended up on Amazon Prime Video instead of Netflix, like the three other Sony Pictures Animation movies that got Netflix releases. Then again, I think the reason was that its quality was not up to scratch compared to these three. Despite some great cartoony animation, the story did not surprise those that watched the series, and it lacks the punch compared to more recent movies made by this improved mainstream studio.
30. Pil’s Adventures (2021)
Story and characters: 2.5/5
Animation: 3/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 8/15
Rating: Ok
Pil’s Adventures added little, but it was a substantial animated movie that is worth more of a watch than the previous animated movies I mentioned on this list so far. I personally think with a more interesting script, I think TAT Productions can go far in terms of their animation prospects, and we shall see what else they can do when Argonauts (also known as Epic Tails) get released this year.
29. Tad the Lost Explorer and The Emerald Tablet
Story and characters: 2.5/5
Animation: 3/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 8/15
Rating: Ok
With slightly better animation compared to the previous two instalments of the Tad franchise, the third movie of the Tad franchise turned to be more fun than expected. While it does not divert completely from the formula of the Tad movies, the animation is slightly better and has its hilarious moments. With that said, given some European studios are stepping up in terms of the overall quality of its animation line-up, I need Lightbox to produce better and more original animated movies next time.
28. Fireheart
Story and characters: 3/5
Animation: 3/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 8.5/15
Rating: Ok
Its recent acquisition by Cinesite is a sign L’Atelier Animation has some promise with Fireheart. It might be only their second animated movie and their first after 2016’s Ballerina/Leap, but I feel their writing is better than most typical animated movies similar to this in terms of scale, and the animation has improved. I still think there is room to grow for this small Canadian studio, and Cinesite’s acquisition of them, who can provide more resources, will bode well for their future endeavours.
27. Koati (2021)
Story and characters: 3/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 9/15
Rating: Decent
I got a chance to explore animated movies that are hard to find occasionally, and this was one of them. With an extremely limited distribution, and produced by first-time animation studios, Koati is a decent 2D-animated movie that has better than expected animation, and while I had seen similar movies before, this was a decent introduction for these three small animation studios from Central America that worked to create this.
To Be Continued
And that’s it, that is part 1 of my worst to best animated movies of 2022! Tune in to part 2, where we count down the next 13 animated movies on this list, from 26th to 14th. I will see you on the next adventure and until then, k thanks bye!
