Animated Films

(Japan) Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. Akira is regarded by many critics as a landmark anime film, one that influenced much of the art in the anime world that followed its release. This was one of the first Japanese anime films to have the character's voices recorded before they were animated. While this is the typical practice in U.S. animation, in Japan the animation is generally produced first.

(Disney) Won 2 Oscars & 3 Golden Globes. "Aladdin" became the 14th film (and the first animated movie) to gross more than $200,000,000. This was the first major animated film which was advertised on the strength of having a major movie star providing one of its voices.

(Disney) 1 Oscar nomination. The first Disney animated feature in which the voice talent is credited on-screen with the characters they each play. This would not occur again until The Jungle Book (1967).

(Home Vision Entertainment) (Italy) The film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, though possibly more of a challenge to Fantasia than parody status would imply.

(Disney) "There are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese."

(UK) "Four legs good, two legs bad". The CIA obtained the film rights to "Animal Farm" from Orwell's widow, Sonia, after his death and covertly funded the production as anti-Communist propaganda. Maurice Denham provided the voices for all the characters except the narrator.

(DreamWorks) "You da ant." Other voice actors include: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover & Jane Curtin.

(Disney) 3 Oscar Nominations. "If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all. " Voices were uncredited. Children voiced the parts of the young animals characters. The look of the film was inspired by the work of Tyrus Wong, a Chinese animator whose sketches used softened backgrounds. This meant that the focus was squarely on the beautifully drawn animals.

(Disney) The first (and currenty, only) animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar ('Silence of the Lambs' won it). Won 2 Oscars and 3 Baftas including Best Motion Picture. First animated film to be released in Imax format.

(Disney/Pixar) "An epic of miniature proportions. " Also starred Phyllis Diller and Madeline Kahn. Nominated for one Oscar.

(Disney/Pixar). Nominated for 2 Oscars incl. Best Animated Feature Film of the Year (won by Happy Feet). Won 1 Golden Globe for Best Animated Film. Paul Newman's last feature film.

Aka 'Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta'. Animage Anime Grand Prix winner

(Paramount) Directors: Charles A. Nichols & Iwao Takamoto. "Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print. "

(Aardman Animations) (UK) Stop motion animation. There was a major push to get the film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The failure to get the nomination, and the popularity of the film among Academy members led to the inclusion of Best Animated Feature for the next Academy Awards (2002) Also starred the voice of Lynn Ferguson as Mac.

(Disney) Nominated for 3 Oscars. "Once upon a time in a faraway land there was a tiny kingdom, peaceful, prosperous, and rich in romance and tradition."

(Warner Bros.) Director: Tim Burton. First feature movie shot with digital still cameras instead of film cameras. 1 Oscar nomination. Other voice actors include: Tracey Ullman, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Jane Horrocks & Danny Elfman.

(Disney) Won 1 Oscar. The only Disney animated feature film that has a title character who doesn't speak.

(Disney) First animated film to feature stereo sound as well as the first and only film recorded in Fantasound.

(Anchor Bay Entertainment) (France) Director: René Laloux . Aka 'La Planète Sauvage' Won the special Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival

(Columbia Pictures) All backgrounds are hand painted. The first computer-generated animated motion picture with photo-realistic characters.

(Disney/Pixar). Won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. "You know for a clownfish, he really isn't that funny ." Highest grossing computer animated film to date.

(Belgium) First Designed, created and released solely in 3D.

(NZ) The first full-length animated feature made by the New Zealand film industry.

The first animated film to receive an 'X' rating. "He's X-Rated and Animated!"

Aka 'Kôkaku kidôtai'. First Japanese anime film to win critical awards. In ordinary anime, characters would at least blink to create the feeling of "being animated", but in this movie, Motoko's eyes intentionally stayed unblinking many times. Director Mamoru Oshii's intention was to portray her as a "doll".

(Fleischer Studios) One of the few feature length animated movies made by Max Fleischer who invented the rotoscope to streamline the frame-by-frame copying process - it was a device used to overlay drawings on live-action film.

(Australia/USA) Won Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film and a BAFTA for Best Animated Feature Film. "I like big tails and I can't deny! " Other voice actors include: Brittany Murphy, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving & Steve Irwin

(Japan) Aka 'Hauru no ugoku shiro'. Nominated for an Oscar.

(Disney) 1 Oscar nomination. The highest critically acclaimed film of 1996.

(Fox Home Entertainment) One Oscar nomination. All the actors were encouraged to improvise as much as possible to help keep the animation spontaneous.

(Disney) Won 2 Oscars including Best Animated Feature Film. One of the longest completely computer animated film - 115 minutes.

(Warner Home Video)Won a Bafta for Best Feature Film. First traditionally-animated feature to have a major character - the title character - who is fully computer-generated.

(Disney) 1 Oscar nomination. The last film personally overseen by Walt Disney because he died during the filming. The xerographic system, which had been used since 101 Dalmatians (1961), was further refined to combine both Xeroxed cels with hand inked details.

(USA) One Oscar nomination (Result to be announced). The opening scene is an homage to Japanese anime, as both directors are big fan of the genre. They wanted to distinguish the opening dream sequence, so they faked 3D into 2D.

(Disney) First cinemascope (widescreen) movie (2.55:1). Made simultaneously in both a widescreen CinemaScope version and a standard Academy ratio version. It's also the widest film the company has ever created.

(Disney) Nominated for 1 Oscar. Although it uses computer-colored (but hand-drawn) digital cels instead of hand-painted ones, this was the first Disney animated feature to use watercolor-painted backgrounds since Dumbo (1941). A conscious effort was made to give the film a warmer, more old-fashioned look than most other modern Disney films

(Disney) Won 2 Oscars & 3 Golden Globes.The first of 3 Disney movies to win a Golden Globe for Best Picture. The best selling home video of all time, with more than 55 million copies sold to date. Other voice actors included: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Moira Kelly, Ernie Sabella, Rowan Atkinson & Whoopi Goldberg

(Disney) Won 2 Oscars. The first animated film to win an Academy Award in a competitive category. This was the first Disney feature available on DVD. This was the last Disney animated feature to use hand-painted cels and analog camera and film work. The wedding scene at the close of the film marked one of the first use of CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) in a Disney feature. CAPS is a digital ink-and-paint and animation production system that colours the animators' drawings digitally.

(USA) Directed by Ralph Bakshi. Filmed with live actors in black-and-white and rotoscoped, each animation cel drawn over a film frame of an actor. This was the first entirely rotoscoped animated feature.

(DreamWorks) The look of the jungles in Madagascar is based on the paintings of Henri Rousseau. Other voice actors include: Jada Pinkett Smith & Sacha Baron Cohen.

(Columbia Pictures) Nominated for 1 Oscar. The film's characters are animated primarily utilizing performance capture, making it the second film to use the technology so extensively, following producer Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express.

(Disney/Pixar) "We Scare Because We Care." Won 1 Oscar & 1 Bafta. "No monsters were harmed in the making of this movie." It normally took 11 to 12 hours to render a single frame of Sulley because of his 2.3 million individually animated hair strands.

(Japan) Aka 'Tonari no Totoro'. Animage Anime Grand Prix winner

(Disney) English version. Aka 'Tonari no Totoro'. Animage Anime Grand Prix winner. The English cast. The dubbed version of the 1988 Japanese film

(Disney) Directed by Tim Burton. 1 Oscar nomination. This was the first movie to ever be fully animated using the stop-motion technique that was favoured by Tim Burton for special effects in some of his other movies for its surreal quality.

(Disney) Won a Bafta for Best Animated Film. The first Disney feature film to use photocopying technology (Xerography )to replace hand-inking, which made an animated film with this much visual complexity possible at a reasonable cost. It also set the visual style of Disney animation (a scratchy, hard outline look) for years until the technology advanced enough (with the production of The Rescuers (1977)) to allow a softer look.

I Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and won the Jury prize at Cannes Film Festival. The film is black and white in the style of the original graphic novels. The "present day" scenes are shown in color, while sections of the historic narrative resemble a shadow theatre show.

(Disney) This film marked two "lasts" for Disney: - 1) This was the final Disney film in which all nine members of the Nine Old Men worked together on it as directing animators. - 2) It was the last full-length Disney animated film distributed by RKO. All of Disney's films after early 1954 would be distributed by Buena Vista, as well as all of the post-1954 re-releases of his earlier films.

(Disney) Won 2 Oscars. The first animated film to win an Academy Award in a competitive category. This was the first Disney feature available on DVD. With the exception of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988) (where he only provided the voices of the Warner Bros. cartoon characters), this was the only time Mel Blanc contributed a voice for a Disney film. The voice actors were uncredited in this film.

(Disney) Won 2 Oscars & 1 Golden Globe. Other voice actors were: Russell Means, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly and Judy Kuhn (Pochohontas' singing voice). In their quest for authenticity, the Disney studios hired mostly Native American actors to do the voices. They also employed Native American consultants and had a session with a real shaman. Despite these efforts, prominent Native American activists issued an open letter condemning the film for its historical inaccuracies and stereotyping of the Indian people.

3 Oscar nominations. The film used 3D motion capture techniques to digitally record the physical performances of the actors before "skinning" them with their animated forms. This was the first mainstream film to be simultaneously released as a 3D IMAX presentation. It is the first movie to use the Imagemotion technology.

(Disney/Pixar) Won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Every PIXAR film has had a reference to room A-113 from the California Institute of the Arts. A number of animators began their CalArts career in this room, including John Lasseter and Brad Bird. A-113 appears on a little tag clipped to the ear of a rat named Git.

(Disney) Used the new computerised CAPS process. The animation and backgrounds were done traditionally but all of the colouring, many effects and the final film printing was all done digitally.

(USA) 1 Oscar nomination. Other voice actors include Renée Zellweger, Martin Scorsese & Angelina Jolie. For each international release, the role of the news reporter "Katie Current" was recast to a prominent female news anchor of that country: In the U.S. it is Katie Couric, in the Australian version it is Tracy Grimshaw, former co-anchor of the Australian "Today" (1982) show; in the UK version it is 'Fiona Phillips', presenter of "GMTV" (1993)

(DreamWorks) 2 Oscar nominations and won the Kids' Vote Bafta. This was the first sequel ever nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Feature.

(DreamWorks) "The greatest fairy tale never told." Won the inaugural Oscar for Best Animated Feature. There are 36 unique locations in Shrek - more than any other computer-animated film at the time.

(USA) "Spider Pig, Spider Pig, Does whatever a Spider Pig does". Groening rejected making either a live-action or a CGI film, calling the film's animation "deliberately imperfect" and "a tribute to the art of hand-drawn animation".

(Disney) 1 Oscar nomination. The first Disney animated feature to be created for the 70mm format. This was the last Disney feature to have cels inked by hand. From 101 Dalmatians (1961) on, the pencil drawings were Xeroxed onto the cels. However, some of the scenes in this movie did use the Xerox process

(Disney) Nominated for 1 Oscar and earned Walt Disney an honorary Oscar. First American feature length animated movie and the first to use Technicolor. Peludópolis (1931) was the first animated feature with sound but all copies were lost in a fire.

(Disney) The movie Disney tried to bury for years, despite it being technically very good, because it was considered to be racist in places. It won an Oscar for Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, a nomination for the Score and an Honorary Award for James Baskett for playing 'Uncle Remus'.

(English version) Aka 'Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi'. Oscar for the Best Animated Feature. It also has the longest runtime of any other film nominated or winning in the Best Animated Feature category (125 minutes). Also features David Ogden-Spiers & Susan Egan."

(Japan) Aka 'Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi'. Oscar for the Best Animated Feature but it got no other nominations, not even Best Foreign Language film. This is the first film to earn $200 million in grosses before opening in the U.S.

(USA) 1 Oscar nomination. The layout department used a special motion-capture camera system mounted on an old Sony video camera to give the illusion that the movie was actually being made with a real hand-held video camera. This was used to make the film look like a documentary.

(Disney/Pixar) 1 Oscar nomination. One of 3 Disney movies to win a Golden Globe for Best Picture.

(Disney/Pixar) 3 Oscar nominations and a Special Achievement Award for John Lasseter. First fully computer-generated full-length feature film.

Includes some live action. All the live action that occurred inside the computer was filmed in black and white, and colorized later with photographic and rotoscopic techniques. While computer animation was used in several scenes, the technology did not exist for a shot to contain both live actors and computer animation. Live-action shots were combined with hand-drawn animation.

The film combines the use of traditional animation and live action. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame. This technique is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of 1970s filmmaker Ralph Bakshi, which was invented in the 1920s.

(UK/USA) Nominated for 2 Oscars. The first stop-motion claymation movie to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Also won 2 Baftas. The film required 2.8 tons of Plasticine in 42 colours and 1000 baby-wipes per week to wipe it off animators' fingers."

(USA) Nominated for 6 Oscars (Yet to be announced). Won Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. First instance of a Pixar feature-length film using live-action."

(Warner Studios) After the genesis story rendered in a narrated simplistic cartoon fashion, the animation style changes to a detailed, naturalist one, with concessions to render the animals anthropomorphic only to suggest they have human voices and minds. The animation backgrounds are watercolours. the arcade video game based on it proved to be a tremendous hit and actually out-grossed the film.

(Disney) Won 3 Oscars & 1 Bafta. The film combines the use of traditional animation and live action. No computer animation was used. Also starred live actors: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd & Joanna Cassidy.

(MGM/UA Studios) The only Beatles feature film to be animated. The Beatles appear in a short live action epilogue to the film.