Part 2: The 1990s Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature Are Still Weird (1996-1999)

If you have not read the first part of this post, you can find that link here!

In case you missed the first part, I have a bug up my... sphincter, yeah let's use that word, about award shows, and even though I have a fondness for the Annie Awards, they are still an award show at the end of the day, and award shows are notorious for having weird, off the mark and sometimes just straight up wrong nominees and awards, and the Annie Award is no stranger to nominating stuff that just makes you go... "Eh?". So, inspired by Crash Thompson's Curse of the Best New Artist Grammy videos, which by the way you should absolutely check out, I figured I'd talk about the weird and almost befuddling beginning period of the Best Animated Feature Annie Award, from 1992 until 1999.

So basically, now I'm just gonna wrap up the 1990s, and how... odd the Best Animated Feature Nominees are this decade. I have nothing else to add (Unless there is something I missed in the previous part), so let's get started.

1996

So, a big problem with the Annie Awards in this decade was, like I stated previously, that they didn't really keep their nominees to just "The previous year", I do believe they did have a cut-off date, but because these award ceremonies were often held late in the year, often in November, it meant that they really did have little to no excuses for not nominating certain films. However, even if 1996 was a spectacular year for animated movies (Which we will discuss in a bit), 1995 had a movie that was massive, and changed animation for ever. 1995 was the year that a little animated feature was released to the public, a little animated feature by the name of...

Winner: Toy Story

I mean, come on... this is another case of Beauty and the Beast where literally nothing else could have won that award this year. Unlike 1992 though, there were some other good nominees in 1996, but none of them had the impact as Toy Story did, and the amazing this is, the impact this movie had on animation wouldn't be felt until the 2000s, so Toy Story won based off the quality of the movie alone, though the novelty of it being 3D probably helped a lot.

I'm not the biggest fan of Toy Story, I don't really like the kind of story it tells, but even I can't deny that it is a well-made movie that absolutely deserved the award. It's just that there was also a bit of competition this year.

The Other Nominees: Balto, Ghost in the Shell, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, James and the Giant Peach

Yeah, like Balto was going to have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning this award. Say what you want about the movie, standing between Toy Story and Ghost in the Shell is practically a death sentence to any movie, and yes, this makes Ghost in the Shell our second Anime film to be nominated for this award. Enjoy it while you can because it will take five years before another anime film is nominated and an extra year until one actually wins. If your math is correct, or you looked it up, you probably already know what the first Japanese film to win this award is. Honestly, major dark horse candidate Ghost in the Shell, if Toy Story wasn't in the race, I could imagine this one might have won instead, but then again it might have been too much of an out there choice.

Our contemporary nominees this year are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and James and the Giant Peach. Hunchback is definitely an odd candidate, as it was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award in 1997 for "Worst Written Film grossing Over $100 Million", even the joke award is an absolute joke sometimes, to be fair though, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was insanely popular at the Annie Awards, being nominated thirteen different times for nine different awards. It won zero awards that night, it had three nominees for Best Achievement in Voice Acting and still lost to Pinky and the Brain, that is just... sad, but don't feel too sad for the movie though, it did win eight awards in 1997 so it didn't finish the year empty handed.

James and the Giant Peach on the other hand, it was nominated for seven awards, again winning none of them, and honestly... I don't think it really warranted the nomination, it's an okay movie but surely there were better movies to nominate, right?

Snubs:

Well the problem is, both Pocahontas and A Goofy Movie were nominated in 1995, that doesn't leave a whole lot for this year right? Well, kind of, but like with the 1995 awards, the stuff that is available is really worth noting, especially in Japan. It makes total sense that Ghost in the Shell was nominated, but you know what else was released in 1995? There was the third Sailor Moon movie, Sailor Moon SuperS, Slayers - The Motion Picture, and this little movie called Whisper of the Heart. You know, it does sting when one of your favourite movies isn't nominated, I get that, but this one especially hurts.

Over on the American side of things, there isn't really too much. Don Bluth is still losing his magic with The Pebble and the Penguin, another movie that is on my "To do list", and there was also the Gumby movie that... are there any Gumby fans reading this? Overall, this year was pretty solid... as long as you lived in Japan. However, Toonami is just around the corner, so Anime will soon get its foot on American shores.

1997

Like I said, the actual domination of Computer Generated Animation would not be felt until the 2000s, so I can't imagine too many people were thinking about how Toy Story would change the animation industry, but if you were, I can't imagine the 1997 Annie Awards to be anything other than either hilarious or just... unimpressive. Like, the most important animated feature film of the entire decade just won the award, what could follow that?

Winner: Cats Don't Dance

Cats Don't Dance? Really!? This is... kind of an odd choice for them, like I haven't watched Cats Don't Dance yet, but my understanding is that it only really became popular with the advent of the animation community on Social Media. Like, it was a box-office failure, was not promoted at the time and it did not receive a Blu-Ray release until 2023, that is absurdly late for any movie to be given a Blu-Ray release. That all being said, the film has received a lot more praise in the modern era, so this was a very... oddly foretelling nomination... especially considering the other nominees this year.

The Other Nominees: Hercules, Space Jam

Straight up, I'm shocked Hercules did not win. Disney was on top, winning this award every year, except for this one, making this the first year that Disney did not win the Best Animated Feature award... It won't even be the last of this decade either. Even despite that though, if I had to guess why they chose Cats Don't Dance instead... Well, maybe the story and the homages to golden era Hollywood resonated more than... Gerald Scarfe and Michael Bolton being involved in a project Musker and Clements got in so they could do something better.

However, this does also mean that there technically is no "Best Animated Feature of 1996", because a movie from 1995 won in the 1996 awards, and a movie from 1997 won in the 1997 awards. However, considering the only contemporary nominee this year is Space Jam... yeah... I'm not shocked that didn't win. Was there anything else in 1996 that could've been nominated?

Snubs:

I mean... not really. Once again, most of the films that could've been nominated were foreign releases. Slayers Return and X are our big anime movies this year, and we actually have something from Brazil this time. Another early CG Animated Feature called Cassiopeia, it doesn't seem like it was ever released in America, but we are starting to see the effects of Toy Story on animation. Though, it does seem like this movie is to Toy Story as Fleischer Studio's Gulliver's Travels was to Disney's Snow White.

As for domestic films, believe it or not, there are only two that I think could have gotten nominated, and one of them is All Dogs Go to Heaven 2. Yeah, I was kinda surprised that this one was released theatrically, but it was. This was apparently the last animated feature released theatrically by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios until the late 2000s. I mean, I don't think it would have won, but it could have been eligible for a nomination. However, you know what movie I'm both really shocked, and absolutely not shocked that it wasn't nominated this year? Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. I mean, on the one hand, it's a pretty good movie, but on the other hand... I mean, it's Beavis and Butt-Head, I can't really imagine Beavis and Butt-Head at any kind of Award show.

I guess I can't really be to shocked that there was practically nothing released this year, while Disney was on top of the Animation world this decade, lots of others were trying to copy their success to mixed results. Speaking of Disney!

1998

The year is 1998, I was born, but more importantly... Okay I have nothing to introduce this year. That is a big problem with the Annie Awards being held late in the year and not keeping the nominees to movies from the previous year. You can't really talk about what was going on in animation, especially when you should be talking about animation in 1997, but the award winner is a movie from 1998.

Winner: Mulan

I'm going to be honest, I'm not surprised that Mulan won the award, but I'm also not impressed either. Like, it's kind of a Beauty and the Beast thing, where I feel they purposefully selected nominees nobody would vote for just so they could hand the award to Mulan, and when I say "Nobody would have voted for these nominees", folks... I really do mean nobody would have voted for these movies.

The Other Nominees: Anastasia, Quest for Camelot, I Married a Strange Person!

Okay, to be fair, I can imagine some people voting for Anastasia, Don Bluth was finally getting back on track with his films after a series of bizarre messes, and while I don't think it's a great movie, I can definitely say there are weirder choices, like the sophomore feature by Bill Plympton. I told you to remember that statement because I Married a Strange Person! was nominated for the award this year. This movie has been on my watchlist, but like... there's practically nothing on Wikipedia about this movie, just a literal one sentence introductory line, a plot summary and a cast list, no production history, no reception, no release history, it either says something about the impact of this movie, the fanbase, or just Wikipedia in general.

However, I could still see someone, literally just one or two people, voting for it. I can't see anyone voting for the contemporary nominee that year. I mean, out of all the movies released in early and Mid 1998, why on Earth, with any sense of sincerity, nominate Quest for Camelot? Why?

Snubs:

Well, their might not have been much else to nominate that year. Literally everything I could find that could have been eligible, was also a foreign film that probably didn't see much of a major release in the United States, unless you want to count that direct-to-video Christmas Carol movie that I previously reviewed. There was Pippi Longstocking, which did get a theatrical release, but I doubt that got much attention from the folks at the Annie Awards. Of course, we also have our usual spattering of Anime films that probably would not have been nominated, The End of Evangelion, Princess Mononoke and Perfect Blue all being released in 1997.

Honestly, I think any of these would have probably been a better nominee than Quest for Camelot, but I guess this is just a case of hindsight being 20/20. Wait, no it isn't, Quest for Camelot was a commercial flop and a critical failure, nobody looked at Quest for Camelot and said "Hey, this movie is worthy of winning an award for being the best". Did they really pick it to guarantee Mulan won the award?

1999

Alright, finally, 1999, and I just have to comment, this year's nominees are all really solid. We don't have a case of "Well their just wasn't anything else to nominate" here, every single one of these movies, I feel, could have walked away with the award. So the winner of this award had to be something extra special, and was it?

Winner: The Iron Giant

It has been quite a while since I last watched The Iron Giant, but I can safely say... yeah, this movie earned the award. Frankly, this should have been the movie that made Warner Bros. bounce back from Quest for Camelot, but the box office was arguably worse on this movie. Still, I think this victory makes sense, even if it had some stiff competition.

The Other Nominees: A Bug's Life, The Prince of Egypt, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Tarzan

I'll start with the two movies from 1998 here, A Bug's Life and The Prince of Egypt. Starting with the least likely to win the award, A Bug's Life is honestly one that I'd be shocked if it won, but I'm also a tiny bit shocked didn't win. Again, the whole novelty of being a Computer Generated movie I think would have given it a small edge, but I guess this just goes to show that Toy Story was awarded for the story and not the animation. The Prince of Egypt on the other hand, like I said in my review, is practically an epic, but maybe it was a little bit much to win the award. The Prince of Egypt is a fantastic movie, but it's kind of a movie you really have to be in a proper mood to watch, not just something you throw on for sheer entertainment... honestly, I'd probably have given it the award for that factor alone, but maybe they wanted something a bit more middle ground.

As for the contemporary nominees, I think Tarzan would have been the least likely movie out of all of these to win the award. Not that it's a bad movie, honestly I really like Tarzan, but it's not anything special, like the previous three movies, in their own ways, were special, and even South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is special in some way. Tarzan is just a really solid movie. Though, on that same subject, I am really not at all shocked South Park didn't win the award either, I mean at 399 uses of the F-Bomb, this would have probably been a very controversial win, honestly I'm surprised it was even nominated, but if a movie is really that good, anything is possible I guess.

Snubs:

Frankly, I think all the movies that should have been nominated from 1998, were nominated. There really is not much else that could have been nominated from 1998, like what do we have leftover? Antz and The Rugrats Movie. That is really it on the American side.

Foreign Animated films don't really stand much better to be honest, I think the biggest release from outside of the United States would be Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back, considering this was when the show was starting to air in America, the movie being nominated would have been really confusing at the time. There is also an Italian film named Lucky and Zorba, and a French film called Kirikou and the Sorceress... I may have to give that a look sometime in the future.

But really, everything that should've been nominated from 1998, was nominated if not in 1999 than in 1998, y'know except for Quest for Camelot, yeah that definitely deserved a nod over Antz.

And that wraps up the Best Animated Feature Annie Award for the 1990s, honestly, this was kind of a fun little look back on the award, and the history of animated cinema. It was fun looking at what movies won, what else was nominated, what got snubbed and why. I definitely would like to carry on into the 2000s and 2010s, and maybe look at other awards as well, maybe also do some speculating on years previous for what movies could have been nominated, what movies might have won, and what movies I think should have won. Though, right now, I think I want a small break from the Annie Awards, so I'll see you next time.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) - An Oldie, but Absolutely a Goldie

 

You know, it seems rather fitting to do a review of this movie, after all Lotte Reiniger was one of the recent recipients of the Winsor McCay Awards at the Annie Awards. Beyond that however, animation history has always fascinated me, and there was one aspect that I have always wanted to talk about. The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film, it is not the first animated feature film, but as of today, it is the oldest surviving. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gets a lot of credit, but by nearly ten years, Prince Achmed has the lead over Disney. It's a movie that has been overlooked by most animation fans, in fact, the only animation reviewers I know of that have made videos about this movie are AniMat and Anim8Ball, so those who are more into animation history will know of this movie, but like with most other movies of similar significance, I have to ask, is it worth watching beyond the historical aspect?

So, a couple things of note before I get into the review proper, as the 1926 release year would suggest, this is a silent film. Silent films have a different pace to them than talkies do and they can be quite jarring for modern audiences, what also doesn't help is that because the movie is possibly Public Domain in the United States (Question Mark), you can find different prints online, including some that aren't translated, the one I watched for this review was uploaded by the channel Enhanced Cinema, but there is a translated version available from the channel Rueda Books & Arts, both of them are available for viewing in HD quality, though I'm not sure which is flipped properly. Before anyone asks, no the Enhanced Cinema upload does not have the translation in the Closed Captions.

The story is a loose adaptation of the One Thousand and One Nights stories, particularly, "The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Perī-Bānū", "The Ebony Horse", and "Aladdin". An African Sorcerer creates a flying horse and shows it to the Caliph on a celebration, and offers it in exchange for the Caliph's daughter, the princess Dinarsade. However, Prince Achmed objects to this, and the Sorcerer tricks him onto the horse and sends him away, where he lands on the magical island of Wak Wak and meets the Fairy Pari Banu. I would go on, but to describe the plot is to basically describe what happens in the entire movie. As someone who is partly familiar with silent cinema, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "The Phantom of the Opera" are two of my favourite movies of all time, they are quite different from modern cinema, but the plot is very well done here. If you are familiar with silent cinema, this shouldn't be to out of the ordinary for you, but if you are a newcomer, I can think of more jarring films to watch.

The animation of this movie is incredible. The animation style is Silhouette animation, which is pretty much stop motion with shadow puppets. Despite this, or maybe even because of this, the characters are distinct and well detailed, and while there are some choppy movements, I feel like that was an artistic choice to represent something specific, like speed or something, because the rest of the motion in the movie is very fluid. You can almost see some of the foundations of what would become the Twelve Principles of Animation, and there is even some really great depth in this movie. Reiniger used a very early form the the Multiplane Camera for this movie, and it looks spectacular. While Disney and his crew really mastered the Multiplane Camera, it's very clear that the instrument was already well used at the start. Plus, you also get a lot of effects made from wax, which offers some visual distinction from everything else, in fact I'm sure there were other materials used to create different effects in the movie, like the Genie from the lamp, who looks like they were drawn in with chalk to create that otherworld ghostly effect. I think the shadow puppet style works in favour of the film, as the plot is not unlike the old tales that would have been told through shadow puppetry.

With all this talk about the plot and animation, you may be wondering about the characters, and the truth is that the characters are pretty basic. Not that they're bad, especially Prince Achmed who is an identifiable and likeable character, but they don't get a whole lot of depth or nuance, and that is fine. Not every story needs a really deep character, not every story needs a Zuko. It's really weird to me that more basic characterization is stigmatized, especially in early cinema. I mean, it's great that we have nuanced looks at different characters, but at the core, this movie is a fairy-tale, a simpler story. So I don't see the basic characters as knock against the movie. We have our hero, our villain, our sidekick, our damsel, our mystical ally, it all works, and I do want to see these heroes succeed, the ending climactic battle was a very tense and exciting moment, and I wouldn't have been invested if the characters were bad. They're basic characters, but not bland or bad characters.

I am really glad I decided to give this movie a watch. The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a marvelous feat of animation and it holds up really well. Sure, if you're not into silent cinema, you might not get into this movie as much, but if you can respect a well done story with well done characters and fantastic animation and effects that helped shaped the history of animation, I would definitely give this movie a watch. Plus, even if you're not that into it, it's only just over an hour long. I can think of movies that are similar to this that came out much later that haven't held up quite as well (Cough Sleeping Beauty Cough), and you really do have to give some respect to this movie. It is the oldest surviving animated feature, just a shame we can't see the first ever animated feature... wouldn't that be something? Anyway, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is absolutely a fine piece of animated cinema, and Lotte Reiniger definitely deserved that Winsor McCay award, though honestly, she probably deserved it much sooner. I can absolutely give this a Recommendation.

Part 1: The 1990s Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature Are Weird (1992-1995)

So... Award Shows are stupid right? I mean we know at this point it's all just advertising so they can say "This was nominated for and/or won a prestigious award" and it's all just nonsense, yes even the Annie Awards are nonsense. I still got to love them though, this is often how I learn of many animated projects, movies to check out, shorts to look up, TV shows to... put on my back burner and ultimately never get around the watching them, but that does not change the fact that at the core, the Annie Awards are still just an award show, and it's all unnecessary and pointless. I made comments about how Across the Spider-Verse swept the award ceremony and that it was boring that it happened, but at the end of the day, I don't really care. Nimona is still the better movie, fight me, and we would still go flock to the theatres to see the next Spider-Verse movie, even if it didn't win a single award because that is just what we do.

But one of the things I do have to admire about award shows is that they are such a great window into the past. You look at the awards that were given to which movies or shows or music or what have you and you just have to think, "What made them pick this?". You notice this a lot with the really big awards, notably the Oscars and the Grammy Awards, they have some really big categories that everyone pays attention to because they always get it wrong and there was always something better they could have chosen. I hate to say it but... sometimes the Annie Awards are like that too, and I want to try something new. I'm going to look at the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, year by year, and kind of discuss why I think the films that won the award did so, what else was nominated and any movies that could have been nominated but weren't, and why they might not have been. Kind of like what Crash Thompson is doing with the Best New Artist Grammy, except not as funny.

With all of that said, let's start with the 1990s, because this is the year the Annie Awards began and... this is when the weirdest things happened. I'll be specifically looking at the "Best Animated Feature" category, but maybe in the future I'll look into the other categories. So, let's begin with 1990... my mistake, the Best Animated Feature Category didn't exist until the 20th Annie Awards in 1992... Even though the award has existed since 1972, this is a topic for another day, 1992!

1992

So, 1992 was the first year the Best Animated Feature award was a thing, so this very monumentous first award had to be given to a very special movie, a movie that really gives the medium of animation a good name, something big, important, high quality. Now, the good news is that a movie of that status was awarded that night, the problem is that the movie in question was released in 1991.

Winner: Beauty and the Beast

Now this isn't a knock against Beauty and the Beast, I mean I'm dumb but not dumb enough to anger a bunch of animation fans and invite them to trample me to death. Beauty and the Beast absolutely deserved this win, I mean it was the first animated movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was the first animated feature to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture in the Musical or Comedy category, I mean, this movie was a pretty big deal, so why is the 1991 release date a problem? Well, the other two nominees of that year, weren't 1991 releases, they were 1992 releases.

Stuff like this happens for multiple reasons, and in this case it's because the Annie Awards were usually held in November, but for the sake of simplicity, when I talk about the "Snubs", I'm only going to talk about movies from 1991. However, what were those two movies from 1992 that absolutely needed that "early" nomination?

The Other Nominees: Bebe's Kids, FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Does anyone else think that they picked these movies specifically to ensure that Beauty and the Beast won the award? I've never seen Bebe's Kids, but from my understanding it's one of those animated movies that... people forgot about, y'know until internet morons remembered it so we didn't have to, and as for FernGully, I've already reviewed that movie, so you know exactly my thoughts on the matter, but to summarize, FernGully is a boring, preachy, slog of a movie. What I'm saying is, I don't think these movies really deserved the nomination, I mean, wasn't there anything else from 1991 that could've been nominated?

Snubs:

So, 1991 wasn't an absolutely barren year for animated movies, but... it wasn't a particularly great one. I think the biggest snubs from this year were mostly movies that were released in Japan, stuff like Only Yesterday, which didn't get any release outside of Japan until 2006, and Roujin Z, which would not be released outside of Japan until 1994. Otherwise, there is a Ranma ½ movie, a Doraemon movie, and a couple Dragon Ball Z movies, I dunno, are Cooler's Revenge and Lord Slug considered high points in the DBZ movie series?

Outside of Japan though... it's pretty slim pickings, Don Bluth fully looses control of what made his work so great with Rock-a-Doodle, another movie I reviewed, Rover Dangerfield was also released that year, and it's another movie people forgot about until some critic reviewed way back when, and as far as I can tell, the only other movies that anyone might know anything about from '91, were The Princess and the Goblin, a Hungarian and British co-production based on a book from 1872, and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West... I mean, this one might have been a nominee, but you only know of this one if you had it on VHS because your Mom thought the first movie was too much for you as a kid.

So really, Beauty and the Beast was like, the only pick for 1991. Maybe if they released them in the U.S. earlier, Only Yesterday and Roujin Z could have been nominated, I guess An American Tail: Fievel Goes West could have gotten a nod to, but it sure as hay would not have walked away with that award. I'm also really confused at why they didn't nominate any other movie from 1991, I mean... what does that leave for next year?

1993

Okay, it is now 1993, we had out big inaugural award to give out, now we gotta actually start taking this category a bit more seriously, right? Right?

Winner: Aladdin

Okay, I'm not going to say Aladdin is a bad choice, it's not my favourite of the Disney animated canon, or even of the Disney Renaissance, but it's a solid movie, I like it fine. I dunno, they'd really have to have nominated some really lesser movies to make me think this was the only choice.

The Other Nominees: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Once Upon a Forest

Okay, for those of you who are thinking "But Little Nemo was originally released in 1989", you're right, but this is a technicality, Japanese animation wasn't as big in the nineties as it is now, so it took a while for their movies to cross over, so while Little Nemo was a 1989 release in Japan, in the United States it was released in 1992, so it is a bit "rules lawyering" but by technicality it counts. Otherwise, I haven't seen this movie either, I've heard it's not good, even from a fan of the Little Nemo comics, it is on my list of movies to review.

What I have seen is Once Upon a Forest and... I mean it's not the worst movie ever but... it's not very good. Also, it's a 1993 release, get used to this because the Annie Awards wouldn't have consistency in this department until 2004, I wish I was kidding.

Snubs:

1992 was also a slow year in terms of animated movies, like I can't think of very many "Big" animated movies from this year, there was Porco Rosso, which wouldn't hit the U.S. Shores until 2005, and there was the Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation movie, but that was Direct-to-Video so it probably wouldn't count anyway.

I think the only other "Well known" movies from this year would be Ralph Bakshi's Cool World, which... boy would that have been a wild choice, and Freddie as F.R.O. 7 which... you only know because small time animation reviewers talked about it, if you know it at all. Otherwise, there was a Japanese and Indian co-production called Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, might add that to the watchlist, Comet in Moominland , the first full-length Moomin film, but it doesn't seem like it was released in America at all, and there's a Bill Plympton musical-comedy called The Tune. Boy would I love to see the day Bill Plympton is nominated. Remember that statement.

So, 1992 was a bit of a bad year for animated movies, but still, I can imagine the Tiny Toon Adventures movie could have been nominated if they took direct-to-video films into account, Cool World would have been such an "out there" choice, and again some foreign films that never seemed to make it to the U.S., but surely the next year has to be better, right?

1994

The year is 1994, we're looking at the movies of 1993, there might not be much, but surely we can keep some kind of consistency here right? 1992 had a movie from 1991, 1993 had a movie from 1992, so 1994 has to have a movie from 1993 win the award, right?

Winner: The Lion King

Oh you are kidding me, right? Okay, well I guess The Lion King fell into the parameters of being eligible for this year, even if it's not at all consistent with the established norm, but again, an established norm wouldn't happen until 2004 so... bear with me here. I mean, I guess it's fair that this movie won the award, but if we're looking for movies from 1993, you had two really good choices alongside this one!

The Other Nominees: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Nightmare Before Christmas

Okay, so I've reviewed both of these movies, Mask of the Phantasm is an absolutely fantastic Batman adventure, and it's kind of a shame it didn't win the award, but I mean if you're going up against the Highest Grossing Animated Movie of the time, of course you're gonna lose, especially if you didn't even make your budget back at the box office. However, if there was no Lion King nomination for that year, I am absolutely certain the award would have gone to The Nightmare Before Christmas, because of just how unique it was at the time. Alas, The Lion King managed to eek in there, so it practically got handed the golden zoetrope on a silver plate.

Snubs:

Okay, straight up, 1993 was actually not a good year for animated movies. Yes, Mask of the Phantasm and Nightmare Before Christmas we're released, but you know what else was released in 1993? The Thief and the Cobbler, at least the version that was released as "The Princess and the Cobbler", the version that I reviewed, which was released as "Arabian Knight", was released in 1995, so the worst version wouldn't be up for nomination this year, but still. Also released in 1993 was We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, also on my "to review" list, and two other infamous movies that I have also previously reviewed we're also released this year, in America anyway. 1993 was the year that American audiences we're able to see the glorious garbage fires known as The Magic Voyage and Tom and Jerry: The Movie. Yeah, I know all sources say it Tom and Jerry was released in 1992, but that was in Germany and it didn't reach U.S. shores until 1993.

Was there anything good released in '93 outside of what was nominated? Well, there was Ninja Scroll, which I've heard good things about, but again it wouldn't be released in America that year, so it's tough to really consider it as a nominee. It's actually kind of dumb that the Annie Awards wouldn't really incorporate foreign animation until later, but I guess that is just what happens when world-wide communication is not at its peak yet.

1995

Okay, so 1995, the year that The Lion King should have been the winner, which technically means that there is no "best animated feature of 1993", but hey it's a new year, and a bunch of new movies are bound to get some attention. So, if The Lion King doesn't the award this year, what movie from 1994 does get it?

Winner: Pocahontas

Oh... so our second winner that is actually from the year the ceremony is held. Really, Pocahontas? This movie has a bit of a reputation to it, and frankly... it's kind of one that I don't want to review, because I am really not prepared to talk about this movie. Let's move on before I say something stupid.

The Other Nominees: A Goofy Movie, The Swan Princess

A Goofy Movie is also from 1995, so you would think this year would be when they finally decided to have some consistency with this, but it's not. Still, A Goofy Movie is an interesting choice here, it's actually kind of like the opposite of Pocahontas, with Pocahontas becoming less popular overtime, while A Goofy Movie has kind of become more beloved. So, I'd say good on them for nominating this, but it's also kind of like the only good choice this year because the only nominee from 1994 is The Swan Princess, and that movie sucks.

Snubs:

To be absolutely fair, it's not like 1994 had a killer line-up, but it had some good stuff that... if they were able to nominate them, would've been really cool to be nominated. Pom Poko was released in 1994, though stay tuned folks, it won't be long for a second anime film to get a nomination, though it won't be from Studio Ghibli. There was an Asterix movie this year, Asterix Conquers America, mostly a direct-to-video release in Europe but it was a thing. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was also released this year, though even if that was nominated, I wouldn't have put money on it winning. Speaking of movies that definitely would not have won the award even if they were nominated, 1994 was the year that a little German animated movie called Felidae was released, and quite frankly, if I were making my own list of nominees, you'd better believe I would be behind this movie one-hundred percent.

However, 1994 was also the year of Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park and The Pagemaster, so it obviously wasn't that great a year. Still, there was a good selection of films released in 1994, it's just that none of them were released in America, or at least not released in that year. Which is a shame because, I absolutely would have loved it if Felidae got a nomination.

And I think I'm gonna stop it here for now, trust me we still have a lot of weird stuff to go over, so I'm not done. However, I do need to keep this to a reasonable length, and four years is the half-way point for the Annie Awards in the 1990s, again they didn't have this category in 1990 or 1991, so what could have been the nominees for those years, we just have to speculate. Actually, put a pin in that idea, I may do that speculating some day in the future. As for now, let's put this little blast from the past on hold. See you guys for 1996 to 1999.

Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure (2006) - A Wonderful and Respectable Adventure For Young Kids

 

Hey, It's Franklin! Yeah, I wanted to do something else that was relatively easy to review because, movie review last week, but I'm getting back on schedule, as a bonus for me it's another movie based on a property for preschoolers. I remember watching Franklin growing up, if I remember correctly I even had a Build-a-Bear turtle that I named Franklin, I think I preferred Franklin over Little Bear as a kid, but I don't actually remember too much about it now, I remember some episodes, but I think Little Bear just kind of stayed with me longer. To be fair though, Franklin had the better theme song, sung by Canadian icon, Bruce Cockburn (pronounced KOH-burn). Anyway, I wanted something familiar to review this week, so I chose Franklin, and as another bonus, this movie is available on YouTube via the officialfranklin YouTube channel and the Treehouse Direct YouTube channel.

Franklin finds his Aunt Lucy has returned to Woodland, and brought her Goddaughter, Sam along. Wanting a real adventure before the summer ends, Franklin and Sam are given an old map drawn by Franklin's Grandmother that lead to a small time capsule she buried when she was a kid. Seeing the old map causes her to remember a tragic event in her childhood. When she later falls ill, Franklin, Sam, Aunt Lucy and his friends Beaver, Bear and Snail, travel to Turtle Lake to find the time capsule, and the talisman that was inside of it. I really have to respect this movie a lot, beyond the fact that the plot is well structured with few diversions from the main plot, and even then they keep in the spirit of the theme so they aren't that big. The fact that the story does go to such a dark place, it does not hide the fact that Franklin's Great Grandparents didn't make it out of the fire. I admired The Little Bear Movie because it did not shy away from the dangers the characters could face on their journey, and similar can be said about this movie.

I feel like I should talk about things like this because, animation has a reputation amongst certain audiences as solely being for kids, unless it specifically goes out of its way to be raunchy and violent, and that does lead to a certain kind of image. I've ranted about this in the past, movies like Mummies, UglyDolls, Robinson Crusoe, Open Season, movies that are just uninterested in being anything other safe entertainment for children, stuff that doesn't stick with them as they grow up. Now, I'm not saying we should be letting children watch Felidae or anything, but there are plenty of kids movies that take risks, that go into darker places, and it always irritates me when a movie like Open Season or UglyDolls is made, because here is a movie for the same, arguably a younger demographic, and it takes more risks, it makes children experience harsher emotions, possibly more confusing ones. If Franklin the Turtle can take more risks and go darker places than your kids movie, you better hope that movie has some other strength to it, because that is frankly embarrassing.

The characters are charming, Franklin, Bear, Sam, they feel like genuine kids, and they have problems like kids too. Bear has a moment where he feels Franklin is putting someone else over their friendship, and it comes from an understandable place. I also like all the odd characters they meet, they all have their charm and even some kind of magic to them. If you are familiar with the old cartoon, I don't believe there is much difference between the characterizations. Also, Snail is just really adorable. What I can also praise this movie for is the animation. I'll be honest, I do like it when an animation style is polished for a movie, and the movie just has a warm and visually pleasing look to it. The only downside is that both official YouTube uploads are locked at low quality rates, with the Treehouse Direct upload only being 480p. So I would recommend finding this movie on DVD if possible, but if you don't mind 480p YouTube quality, the movie still looks good, just not as good as it could look.

I really was surprised by Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure when I first watched it, I love watching movies like this because they really do shoot the whole idea that these movies have nothing good for anyone after a certain age in the foot. Sure, kids will absolutely love the adventure and the pretty visuals, but I feel grown ups will have an appreciation for the story, the character moments, the theme, and the artistry. It really is one of those movies that I believe children that grow up watching will have an appreciation for animation afterwards. Put it up there with The Little Bear Movie and Blue's Big Musical Movie as something perfect to show really young kids. I would probably put this under Blue's Clues, but above Little Bear. All in all, Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure is a wonderful movie for kids, and I absolutely recommend it for kids and parents.