Completed Category: Animated Feature

 This is a bonus post! I didn't think I was going to be able to complete Animated Feature, but I was able to travel to a single solitary Wednesday evening showing of Robot Dreams. 

I have been trying to be lenient in my judgments of the Animateds because everybody knows they are Not For Me but what I've got this year is a clear divide between a top three that are like Awww, that's nice and a bottom two that are like Blarrrgh is this thing over yet!?

Also I am starting to feel like in a whole lot of Animated film more than even other styles one of my least favorite tropes occurs frequently, which is If This Character Would Just Tell That Character...  I am aware that this trope has also been heavily relied on in "great" comedies for years and sure it can be found in many genres, but I'm about to create a Bechdel-like test for Animated flickcs only it will be like, "Is a character keeping something secret that s/he doesn't have to?  If s/he would just spill it, could this entire movie end now because there's no actual other plot going on?:" 

THE BOY AND THE HERON: Exhibit A of the Is this thing over yet? My goodness this was interminable. Every character was a psychopath. Now we all know that I have been a Miyazaki heretic as long as there have been Miyazaki devotees - if heretics can be bored out of their minds, I mean. Let's apply my test:  Yes, there are MULTIPLE characters keeping things secret. No the boy's quest to figure it all out is not interesting, by the way. 

ELEMENTAL: Awwww I like this one. Not just because the main character is named Ember which is one of my nicknames for my cat! Interestingly, there were parts of this movie where she and her Waterboy did the OPPOSITE of my test, meaning, they just came out and said things instead of a bunch of hand-wringing as plot device, which may have contributed to me liking this so much. On the other hand, she was definitely keeping a secret or two from her dad, but not in the "If only I said this one thing all of this would go away" way. More complex things happened as people found things out, and this includes her finding out about herself. I like this one! 

NIMONA: I don't like this one. Not much, anyway. It was so frenetic. It was also built upon a foundation of "You don't understand my pain!"  OK, tell me about it. "Stop asking me questions!"  On and on and on like that for 2 hours. Or it felt like at least that long. .Lord godz though this girl shows up and is like "WOE is ME because no one knows who I AM or what HAPpened to me" but then she won't answer a goddamn thing she is asked, so honestly gal shut up please. 

ROBOT DREAMS:  Since I saw this last night it is very fresh in my head. It does not suffer exactly from my test criteria but it sure did infuriate me that the beach guard person couldn't let him back on the sand. Honestly, I can't believe how sad this movie actually made me because it kinda had weird vibes at first. It really managed to pull you in though.  Could have been a wee bit shorter. 

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE: I enjoyed this one for the most part, although my decidedly amateur opinion about superheroes probably makes no sense, but I thought there was fantastic animation. However, we are absolutely in Would-you-just-freaking-tell-him territory.  

And so...the order I want them to win: 
Elemental
Spider-Man:Across the Spider-Verse
Robot Dreams
<Enormous Gap>
Nimona
The Boy and the Heron
(those last two switch back and forth depending on the day as to which one annoys me more) 

Order I think they will win: 
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Boy and the Heron
Robot Dreams
Nimona
Elemental

I really have no idea, though. 

So tell me, Animated experts and fans!  Which one did you love?