Some years I like to give my takes on the Oscar nominees that I’ve seen, but since I’ve barely seen any this year (sadly I saw very few movies in 2024) I decided that I am not going to bother catching up. Disappointments over the last few years have convinced me that perhaps some hope for creativity and imagination lies with animation, so I decided to at least watch all the Animated Feature nominees. So here are my takes on the five nominated films: Flow, Memoirs of a Snail, The Wild Robot, Inside Out 2, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. (Apologies I that delayed writing this post, so now I’m writing this actually as I watch the Oscars, so we’ll pretty soon know who’s going to win this category but as this isn’t really a major category, I hope the anticipation and spoilage of the surprise is not a big deal.)

Let’s start with the tricky one: I did not like Inside Out 2. I also didn’t like Inside Out, the original movie, either and probably for very similar reasons. When I first heard about this idea where they would tell a story with emotions personified into characters, I thought it might be clever and interesting. Unfortunately, they didn’t really have a good storytelling solution to deal with what it means that these characters that walk and talk are supposedly representing a person’s emotions. They ended up oversimplifying everything, and making a relatively silly story. This time around for the sequel, Pixar has decided to add new characters/emotions and thought that the perfect opportunity would be when the main character (a girl named Riley, who is the one having all these emotions) was entering puberty. That’s the perfect time for them to add new emotions such as Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui? While Riley is preparing for the transition from junior high to high school, and changes in her friend group, she gets the opportunity to go to a hockey camp in order to try out for the high school team. Unfortunately, while the story tries to explain her behaviour through something happening with the emotion characters, this whole allegory (if it can be taken as one) of what happens to characters like Joy, Anger, Sadness, etc. is very contrived and it doesn’t sync up with the events in Riley’s life. So when Joy (just like in the first movie) goes on an adventure away from Riley’s control room, doesn’t that mean that Riley is not happy this entire time? How can that be true? It’s just that we don’t see any scenes of joy within the movie, but we aren’t seeing every one of Riley’s moments. Anyway, I realize that I’m making a bigger deal about all this storytelling and taking a kids’ movie too seriously, but unfortunately I do read about psychologists saying that this movie is a great representation of how the mind works, and I just can’t believe that a mental health profession worth their licence would actually say this. Tangent aside, the oversimplification of this story makes it a lot more juvenile than previous Pixar masterpieces (even kid-focused ones, like Monsters Inc or Toy Story) and I would have to lump this one together with other weak Pixar sequels like Cars 2, rather than the better sequels like Toy Story 2. Despite all that, Pixar animation is always visually top-notch, and this is no exception. While the real world scenes were ironically a bit too cartoonish, the allegorical scenes with the emotions looked appropriately so. The characters were well designed and voiced (I know she’s an acquired taste, but I love Awkwafina — there, I said it), the environments were vivid, spectacular and inventive. Unfortunately, as is true for most of the stuff coming out of the Disney factory these days, the story is weakest link and lets everything else down. (2.5 out of 5)

As a polar opposite, Memoirs of a Snail had, in my opinion, horrible animation (they even comment in the movie how the people look like potatoes). It was stop-motion, but lacked the fluidity and illusion of a Wallace & Gromit movie (which I’ll get to in a sec). On top of that, it was ugly — I’m thinking intentionally ugly. Or at least the aesthetic was meant to be unshiny in antithesis to Pixar. However, the story was incredibly sophisticated and complex, dealing with grief, depression, failure, and many other dark adult emotions and themes. Unfortunately, that also meant that most of the movie was quite a downer. We follow a young girl who has a twin brother, who are born and grow up in the 70s. Their lives are super unfortunate and they suffer so much loss and separation — more than almost any of us suffer in a lifetime. We follow these kids for most of their lives as they get into various situations even into adulthood that are far from easy. Have I tempted you to watch this yet? No parent would watch this with their kids for fear that they wouldn’t make it all the way to the end before either crying or becoming disengaged and bored. Those of us who do make it are rewarded with a lovely heartfelt ending which repaints the entire movie in a meaningful, almost uplifting way, but you need to play (all the way) to win. So while I admire this movie for its incredible story and storytelling, I did not have fun watching it, and I generally like my animated movies to be fun. I’m glad I experienced it, but find it hard to recommend. (3.5 out of 5)

On to the other stop-motion movie: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. As is true with pretty much every Aardman Studios film, this was cute and a lot of fun. We get the return of hapless inventor Wallace (no, I don’t know how someone so clueless could also invent so many amazing things) and his silent canine sidekick, Gromit. This instalment in the W&G saga is another genre-blender. It’s a quirky tale of technology gone awry when Wallace invents a garden gnome, Norbot, that is actually a hyper-sophisticated robot, capable of doing almost any task requested (though apparently everyone in this sleepy British town just wants someone else to do their yard work). The second plot of this film focuses on Feathers McGraw, the nemesis of Wallace and Gromit going back over 30 years to the short film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, a genius-level criminal mastermind penguin — yes, an actual penguin, not some Gotham City rich guy with a monocle and an umbrella. Feathers wants to break out of the zoo/penitentiary where he has been held ever since he was prevented from stealing a precious diamond by Wallace and Gromit, and he wants to finish the job plus get some payback on our dynamic duo. In a way that’s a bit contrived, the two stories converge and come together in a Mission Impossible style action movie, made from clay. I am always impressed by the way so many ordinary events and actions that we normally take for granted are successfully animated by Aardman in stop-motion, including a pretty thrilling climax that would have Tom Cruise raising an impressed eyebrow. After so many Wallace & Gromit movies, however, they do tend to feel very similar to each other. Plus, the characters are more about consistency and routine than growth and evolution; so even though you’re never too surprised by anything that happens, it’s a pretty comfortable and fun ride (and since it’s on Netflix, it doesn’t really take a lot of time or effort to view). (3.5 out of 5)

The Wild Robot was the movie that Pixar should have made. The story of a service robot that ends up marooned on an island populated by wild animals is charming, beautifully-rendered, and fun. At first the robot (named Roz) is outcast from the animals, even though she learns to speak with them. Eventually, Roz meets (under tragic conditions) a duck who is also an outcast due to its malformed wing. But once Roz takes on the mission to help this little duck (named Brightbill) to learn to fly well enough to migrate south for the winter, they start to bond and form a kind of family relationship. The story becomes one of belonging, determination, and acceptance. I won’t spoil any more of the movie, but if that sounds like a nice (but kind of common) story arc, and you don’t feel like it’s enough to really draw you to watch, I will add that that’s only about half of the story. After that initial mission to get Brightbill flying south is achieved, all the characters go through events and circumstances that make it an even more engaging story. I think this movie does a wonderful job of getting the viewer to feel immersed in the gorgeous scenery and environment of this forest island, but even more importantly, to care about these characters. Those both used to be Pixar’s specialties, but I think other studios are really taking the crown away and doing it all even better. The visuals are impressive, and of all of these movies, I think this is the only one that I wish I had seen in the theatre (rather than on Amazon Prime). Regardless, it is an excellent movie and uplifting the way good animated films should be (4 out of 5)

Finally, the Oscar goes to … Flow. The Latvian animated film with no dialogue, which features a cat as its protagonist, is the surprise hit of this list (and Oscar voters agree). When a black cat living in the forest tries to survive the harassment of dogs and other natural enemies, everything changes when a sudden flood raises the water level. The cat finds its way onto a small boat as it floats by, and the cat makes friends with other animals that also find refuge from the rising waters aboard this boat. A capybara, a lemur, more dogs, and other animals feature throughout this somewhat meditative adventure. The animation is stunning, especially the soaring camera views and the impressive scenery. The flood and water animation is very realistic, and you feel immersed in the environment and the situation of these animals above and below the surface. Plus, the animals behave like realistic animals, nothing Disney about them. They neither sing, dance, nor make human expressions. However, when they interact with each other and form relationships, it is wonderful how you actually see each animal as a distinct character. They get into many challenging survival situations, and solve problems in a way that animals might actually do, and the best part is, we really root for them. If you are someone who loves your pet (and maybe you give your pet your surname, and imagine it going on its own adventures) then you will love this movie. I had no idea what this film was about prior to watching it, but I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable and how artistic it was. I’m delighted to know that this movie won the Oscar for best animated feature, and I hope that it encourages future filmmakers to produce movies as fresh and fun and thought-provoking as this one. (4.5 out of 5)