When You Wish Upon a Star

Believe it or not, today is Mickey Mouse’s eightieth birthday! On this day back in 1928, the leader of the gang that’s made for you and me debuted in the animated short STEAMBOAT WILLIE. The rest, of course, is history.

The dapper rodent looks pretty darned good for eighty (though between you and me, I think he’s had work done). So in honour of Walt’s favorite son, I thought I’d share some of my favorite cartoon delights. take a look below the jump for
Hatter’s Top Five Favorite Animated Movies
5. THE IRON GIANT (2000)… One of the last great 2-D animation features. Before he blew our minds with THE INCREDIBLES, director Brad Bird gave us this beautiful film about a boy who makes an extraordinary friend. It builds on themes from FRANKENSTEIN and E.T., and tells us about the sort of trust that only a child can find. It also includes the clever trick of animating the giant in CG while the rest of the characters are hand drawn (The Giant is supposed to be a sort of technology they’ve never seen before – makes sense, no?). Bonus points for casting Harry Connick Jr. as the voice of beatnik sculptor Dean.
4. SHREK (2001)… So. Darned. Clever. It’s rare that animated movies are as funny for adults as they are for kids, which was what made Shrek so impressive. Equally impressive for me was the gorgeous artwork. Grab your dvd (you know you own it), and go to the scene of Shrek & Donkey in the field of sunflowers. Tell me a still from this sequence wouldn’t look swell in a frame on the wall.Of course, the downside of the movie is the fact that Dreamworks hasn’t created anything nearly as great in the seven years since.
3. WALL-E (2008)… That’s right, I said it. It may only be five months old, but it deserves to be mentioned among the all-time greats. So sweet, so simple, so funny, so engaging. The theatre I saw it in was loaded with kids, and despite the fact that the first half is essentially a silent film, they were riveted. That, my friends, is feat of epic proportions.
2. PINOCCHIO (1940)… You didn’t think I was going to ignore old-school Disney entirely did you? Pinocchio will always have a special place in my heart, because it was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. My grandfather took me around the time I was five, and I can still remember being dazzled by The Blue Fairy, awe-struck by Monstro the Whale, and scared to death that my nose would grow if I told lies.Lots of animation fans I know swear by the early princess movies, but for me it always comes back to the little wooden boy. Side note – is this ever going to hit DVD??
1. SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT (1999)… Speaking as a Canadian, feel free to blame us. We’re good with it…really. Fun fact – this is one of the very few movies that makes me laugh every time I watch it. As clever a movie as you’ll ever see, it contains some really pointed messages about media and censorship in amongst all those dick and fart jokes. It gets bonus points for the fact that censors were so distracted by the content, that the sexual reference of the title slipped right past them. While it actually pales to the other four movies on this list as far as the craft of animation goes, it wins on the basis of some disgustingly funny lines, some inappropriately catchy tunes, and the message that “Deplorable violence is OK, as long as nobody says any naughty words!”
Did I miss any? Feel free to leave comments with your own animated favorites, as well as suggestions for next week’s top five.