Top 6 Best Animated Films of 2016
- Olivia Armstrong
- Dec 31, 2016
- 10 min read
So, that’s another year gone and another series of animated films released throughout the seemingly never-ending era of 2016. Everyone has had their horror stories about this year, from the people lost throughout, the political decisions, natural disaster and tragedy, Tracer from Overwatch being confirmed as a gay lady (to the despair of many on message boards and laughter at this outpouring of salt from everyone else) and a dead gorilla.
But what’s the year been like for animation? Well, like all years, there have been great films that remind of the endless possibilities of the medium… and then there’s the others. Today, we’ll be looking at the best this year has had to offer. As this is a list as opposed to a review or analysis, it will be more opinionated and less objective than my usual work, as personal preference is inevitable when writing a list like this.
And yes, for all you negative nellies out there, there will be a Worst Of list as well and it should be up in the next few days. Here we go!
6. Doukyuusei
It’s been a surprisingly good year for LGBT+ media in the anime scene. Aside from the god-awful series Super Lovers (the less said, the better), two main titles released this year have earned praise for breaking past the uncomfortable clichés that tend to plague most titles featuring queer romance in anime. One is obviously Yuri On Ice, earning praise from many in the anime community as one of the best shows of 2016 for breaking past so many barriers without a second thought and delivering a passionate and expertly crafted love story through the backdrop of ice skating.
The other is Doukyuusei, an anime film adaption of the original manga by Asumiko Nakamura and produced by studio A-1 pictures. Directed by Shoko Nakamura, this adaptation of the romance between two classmates in an all-boys school is told with a finesse and gentle look at adolescent love in the years of high school. The interactions between the two lead characters are filled with tender apprehension as they both learn more about one another and what their feelings mean. While sexuality is discussed and thought of, it’s significantly played down compared to similar BL works and focuses itself rather on the central romance and how their opposite personality traits draw them closer together. Hikaru Kusakabe is a laid-back slacker who focuses most of his time practicing with his guitar for band practice, while Rihito Sajou is a serious, straight-laced student with minimal talent in music.
In a lesser film, this would cause conflict between the two and only halfway through would they realize their feelings for each other. But Doukyuusei has no time for these clichés and the story instead progresses with realism instead of forced and cheap writing. The art style takes directly from the original manga and all the better for it. The colours are muted and dreamlike and the character designs are all unique and stylized (I particularly like Kusakabe’s design. His messy long blond hair and the bags permanently stuck under his eyes tell a lot about his character even before he speaks).
It’s hard to explain but everything about Doukyuusei feels genuine. It captures adolescent love in a way many try but few succeed. Stories of young love don’t come much better.
5. Storks
I think the one thing that many people can agree about this movie is that it’s advertising was terrible (2016 in general just seemed to be the year of terrible advertising. But the less said about that certain ghost-hunting movie, the better). Many of the trailers featured a compilation of lame jokes and what looked like a boring and unoriginal set-up and I (like many) had no real interest in it.
So, you can only imagine my surprise eventually watching it and finding myself laughing harder than I did in any other movie this year. Believe it or not, Storks proved to have one of the wittiest scripts in an animated film for a long time. The comic timing is so fast and the comedic banter almost flies off the screen, with the wacky characters working off each other perfectly. For every joke that doesn’t work, there’s three others right after it that are hilarious. Even a lot of those weak jokes from the trailer became ten times funnier when seeing them in context (the wolves in particular steal the show every moment they’re onscreen. Being voiced by Key and Peele definitely helps).
But aside from its great comedic timing, Storks also has a surprising amount of heart to it. It’s no big Pixar tearjerker but there is a genuinely touching element to the story and the relationship between the two lead characters as they struggle to deliver a baby to a family despite the fact that Storks haven’t delivered babies for years. It’s no ambitious grand animated epic but it’s clearly not trying to be; it’s clearly meant to be heartfelt and hilarious comedy and that’s exactly what it is. It rose above my expectations and I highly recommend it.
4. Zootopia
When Zootopia (dubbed "Zootropolis" in the UK) began being advertised everywhere, it was hard to get a grasp on what it was going for. Many of the trailers primarily focused on the world created where all its animal characters live and function in their jobs and everyday lives. It was cute but didn’t tell much about the story or characters. In hindsight, this proved to be a genius move, as many walked into this movie thinking they were getting a cute film about animals living together in a big city and instead being treated to one of Disney’s most intelligent and strongly political films to date by taking the nature of prejudice and exploring it in every conceivable way.
While stories about prejudice in family films are as old as time itself, it’s nothing short of impressive how Zootopia actively goes much further into the root of how prejudice is caused and somehow manages to keep it understandable for a younger audience. The movie makes no direct parallels to specific real world issues, meaning it’s message can be applicable to many different forms of prejudice. While the morals are about as subtle as a brick to the face, the execution is so well done that it doesn’t matter in the long run. The characters are likeable and fairly complex, particularly the two leads Nick and Judy and just the right amount of comedy is employed to make it more than just a political allegory, rounding it up to an entertaining and extremely interesting entry from Disney.
While this year’s Moana is also an impressive Disney offering with its beautiful animation and Polynesian aesthetic as well as its culturally-rich story, Zootopia’s ambition and detailed world-building give it just enough of an edge to make it Disney’s best animated offering this year.
3. Your Name (Kimi no Na wa)
Your Name is currently the sixth film in director Makoto Shinkai’s filmography and has been released to an explosion of praise from both anime and non-anime fans alike. And as someone who is familiar with Makoto Shinkai’s style and having seen all his previous films, the praise is very much deserved here as he may finally have perfected his craft and delivered his best work yet.
It should go without saying to anyone familiar with Shinkai’s work that the visuals are absolutely stunning and artistically, very few directors equal him. His fascination with detail and his skill for animating light and landscapes create everyday worlds that are all too easy to get lost in. But what makes it an improvement on his previous work is how full of motion and alive his character animation feels in this film compared to his previous work. While his previous character animation was never poor, there were times where it felt like his character designs and movement took a backseat to his beautiful background work (this is more noticeable in his earlier works). However, the characters move and emote along with the visuals around with much more flow, making the experience feel much more alive than some of this previous work.
The story to Your Name is so simple, it can be summed up as such; a high school girl and boy swap bodies as a comet passes the earth. It seems like a simple body swap story done many times. But the devil is in the details and execution and no one does detail quite like Makoto Shinkai. To say any more would ruin the experience but the execution of the emotion, exploration of grief in a country that has suffered many natural disasters and story through visual means strike a perfect balance of Shinkai’s talents. He revels in small stories but the ambition here is slightly out of his comfort zone in a good way (unlike Journey to Agartha, which is by far the least of his films despite its beautiful animation because the high fantasy elements don’t gel with his directorial style).
It’s a simple story, perfectly executed with all the emotions and details exactly where they should be. Marry that off to some of the most stunning artistry of even Shinkai’s career and we have what could be his strongest work thus far.
2. The Little Prince
It’s one thing to adapt a story or a source material. It’s quite another to create a showcase of pure admiration and love for those who hold it close to their hearts.
Based on the 1943 children’s book by French Aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince is a 2016 adaption of what the author described as a philosophical work under the guise of childrens storytelling.
Instead of simply adapting the stories, this film adaption expands on it to show the love and admiration for the original source material. The stories are framed via a story of its own, about a young girl trapped with an overbearing mother who insists on planning every aspect of her life who befriends an old aviator and listens to his stories about the little prince. As the two form a strong friendship, she begins to wonder and question what becoming an adult actually implies and what it does and doesn’t have to be.
This is juxtaposed with two completely different styles, with the “real” world of the girl and her friend represented by top-tier 3D animation with excellent uses of colour scheme (everything representing the girl’s mother and her home is plagued in white and dirt-under-the-fingernails grey. The aviators house and garden is filled with colourful clutter and warm glows as the stories of the prince begin to seep into her reality). The style of storytelling for The Little Prince as told by the aviator is done with beautiful paper model stop-motion animation. It keeps true to the style of the original book while adding dimension and colour to breathe new life into it.
That’s what makes it good. What makes it great, however, is the last third when the story shifts from simply telling the story of the little prince and actually showing the impact of them. The story is beloved by many who grew up with it and to see it realized this way brings a sense of weight to its simple messages and how they should be kept throughout adulthood. “Growing up isn’t the problem,” the aviator tells the girl. “Forgetting is.” The framing device of the girl and her relationship with the world around her via her escape through the story becomes the films emotional centre and presents a quiet meditation on adulthood and the process of growing up.
Instead of simply telling a story, The Little Prince goes one step further to show the imprint a story can leave, even from the simplest of places. It was overlooked by many and rushed onto Netflix after being dropped by Paramount but it shouldn’t be missed and the hard work and dedication put forward by the crew behind it to show what storytelling can mean to so many people should not be overlooked. It’s without a doubt one of the best of the year.
1. Kubo and the Two Strings
"If you must blink, do it now. Pay careful attention to everything you see no matter how unusual it may seem. If you look away, even for an instant, then our hero will surely perish."
Anyone familiar with me or my Tumblr blog probably saw this one coming. But really, it’s only fair to give credit where it’s rightfully due and Kubo and the Two Strings deserves all the credit that has been heaped upon it since its release. Out of all animated films released this year, this was the one I was most excited for and it succeeded my expectations and delighted me in every way it could have.
This is the fourth film from stop-motion animation studio Laika and it is without a doubt their best and most complex work to date. The painstaking attention to detail paid to the visual storytelling and the importance of its themes are always front and centre. The craftsmanship of the animatronics and puppets used to tell this story completely engulf the film in the cultural setting of the story, making it feel like a fable being passed down through audiences. The stop-motion is some of the best and most stylized used in any film I’ve seen to date (I can only give the advice that the film itself gives at the beginning; if you must blink, do it now). I particularly love the designs of Kubo’s aunts, the moon sisters.
Perhaps the best thing about the film is how well it earns the impact of experience. It earns its emotional resonance, it earns every moment of weight the story gives via its flawless presentation. From the very first scene, it is apparent that Kubo and the Two Strings holds no intention of talking down to its audience, consisting of both children and adults (it can be easy to forget that many “adult” films, particularly in animation, are equally capable of not respecting their audience and prefer to talk down to them instead of offering any attempt to challenge). Pure effort is felt in every moment, not just in the art and animation department but the story and characters as well.
The story is told in such a timeless fashion and doesn’t lose its sense of maturity for a cheap cop-out or contradicting itself. There is a strong pacifistic undercurrent throughout the narrative that is no better showcased than in its conclusion, which is both powerful and, most importantly, doesn’t take the easy route. I don’t intend to ruin the experience for those who haven’t had it but Kubo and the Two Strings is Studio Laika’s biggest achievement thus far.
It’s visually stunning, complex, timeless and without a doubt the best animated film of 2016.
And that marks another year gone and a whole new year ahead. Here’s to the hope that it’ll be full of surprises in the animation world and we’ll finally be able to judge what the heck was up with that trailer for Cars 3. Happy New Year, everyone!
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