Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2018 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
Once again, animated films accounted for a disproportionate share of the domestic film business: Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse dominated the December box office. Once again, animated films failed to get the respect they deserve from the greater film community–although more and more studios are eager to cash in on their popularity.
Brad Bird knocked it out of the park with Incredibles 2, as did Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman with Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. Mamoru Hosoda’s charming Mirai confirmed his position as one of the most interesting writer-directors working on either side of the Pacific. But many films lacked vision and originality—and failed to gain traction with audiences and critics. Too often, it felt like CG business as usual.
Looking over a year that see-sawed between Light and Darkness, I’m presenting the 6th annual awards for the year’s best and worst, named for the ultimate animation APM, Mikiko “Kuromi” Oguro.
AGE OF WISDOM DEPARTMENT
Wabbit season! /Duck season! /Awards season!
Ron Clements and John Musker received the William Cameron Menzies Award from the Art Directors Guild. The award recognized their innovative artistic work on numerous Disney animated features.
Mirai
In January, the Art Directors Guild announced its first slate of animated nominees and inducted Tyrus Wong into the ADG Hall of Fame posthumously.
Coco won the Golden Globe for Animated Feature, the 8th Pixar film to do so. It also swept the Annie awards with 11 wins. Los Angeles Councilmember Gil Cedillo declared Tuesday, February 27, “Coco Day in L.A,” when the film debuted on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Oscar nominees for animated feature were: The Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, Ferdinand and Loving Vincent; for animated short: Dear Basketball, Garden Party, Lou, Negative Space and Revolting Rhymes. The winners were Dear Basketball and Coco, which also won for Best Song.
Maasa Yuasa’s offbeat The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl won the Japanese Film Award for Animation, over Napping Princess and Mary and the Witch’s Flower.
Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai is the first Japanese film to be nominated for a Golden Globe for Animated Feature.
Glen Keane became the first animator to win the Reuben Award, the National Cartoonists’ Society’s top prize.
The GLAS festival presented their first animation grants to fund independent artists; the recipients were Jeron Braxton and Bronwyn Maloney.
“Adjust your veil and prepare” Dept.
In January, Saudi Arabia broke its 35-year ban on motion picture theaters by allowing screenings of The Emoji Movie and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie in a makeshift theater in Jeddah. The films were subject to state censorship, but maybe poop jokes aren’t considered a problem. During the summer, Hotel Transylvania 3 became the first animated film to be dubbed into Arabic there.
Hands Across the Water…
Hayao Miyazaki’s 15-minute short Boro the Caterpillar premiered March 21 at the Ghibli Museum. He’s now at work on a new feature.
Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai was chosen for the Director’s Fortnight, which runs parallel to the Cannes Festival, a first for a Japanese director.
The Iron Giant in “Ready Player One”
The Tokyo International Film Festival honored animation director Masaaki Yuasa with a five-part retrospective of his work.
Yay, Brad!
Steven Spielberg gave Brad Bird’s beloved Iron Giant a prominent cameo in Ready Player One. The Annecy Festival presented Bird with an Honorary Cristal award.
AT THE HOUSE OF MOUSE
In June, The Walt Disney Company announced Jennifer Lee and Pete Docter would succeed John Lasseter as heads of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, respectively. Both had been seen as the leading candidates to take those roles.
Mickey Mouse, the most popular animated character of all time, turned 90.
Yoicks!
You mean Mr. Gladstone the postman was really the Phantom all along? Scooby-Doo and the Gang appeared on the new forever stamps.
All the Way to the Bank
The Incredibles 2 smashed the all-time box office record for an animated film’s opening with $180 million for three days, eclipsing Finding Dory, which opened at $135 in 2016. In September, it passed $600 million to become the highest-grossing animation release of all time in the US.
Sony’s Hotel Transylvania 3 became the studio highest grossing film, passing $500 million worldwide in September—more than all three Sony releases from 2017 (The Emoji Movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village, and The Star) combined.
My Neighbor Totoro opened somewhat belated in China in December. It came in at #2, earning almost $13 million on 6,000 screens.
Incredibles 2
In April, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro signed a multi-year exclusive deal with DreamWorks Animation to write, produce, and direct animated family films.
Tuppence a Bag
The Academy presented a stellar tribute to Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (1925-2012), whose songs graced Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Snoopy Come Home. Guests included Dick Van Dyke, Hayley Mills, Kenny Loggins and Lesley Ann Warren. Among the presenters: Pete Docter, Karen Dotrice, Michael Giacchino, Leonard Maltin, Bob Petersen and Jonas Rivera.
Disorder in the Court
In March, the California Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss actor Frank Sivero’s $250 million lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox and The Simpsons. Sivero, who played a mobster in the Godfather movies and Goodfellas, claimed that The Simpsons’ Louie, Fat Tony’s henchman, was based on him, and misappropriated his name and likeness.
What Would You Want with a Wabbit?
Warners Bros. announced it would produce 1,000 minutes of Looney Tunes short films for distribution across multiple platforms each “season.”
Thanks, I guess…
In a series of tweets, Kanye West called Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira “the greatest animation achievement in history.” Imagine Otomo animating the Kardashians.
Early Man
To ensure their studio’s continued independence Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton are transferring the majority of the company’s shares to a trust that will hold them on behalf of their workers. Although neither artist has plans to retire, having built their studio as an independent, Lord said, “the last thing we wanted to do was to just flog it off to someone.”
More Than Cartoons
Aardman created a film narrated by actor Hugh Laurie as part of the global campaign Malaria Must Die So Millions Can Live. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about the disease, which kills a child every two minutes.
After blasting Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson for telling viewers to believe the opposite of whatever they heard from every other news source, Seth MacFarlane donated $2 million to NPR and $500,000 to Southern California NPR station KPCC.
Students at CalArts Students worked with UN Women’s HeForShe movement creating short films to call on men around the world to stand in solidarity with each other and with women to end sexual harassment and promote gender equality.
In September, Cartoon Network unveiled six new animated PSA’s as part of its pro-social initiative “Stop Bullying: Speak Up.” A study by the Making Caring Common project and the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that 70% of 9 to 11-year olds said it would help kids their age be kinder if the adults in charge of our country set a better example for how to treat others.
Testify!
“You’re drawing people, not just ‘characters,’” Hayao Miyazaki to one of his animators in Kaku Arakawa’s documentary Never-Ending Man Hayao Miyazaki.
WINTER OF DESPAIR DEPARTMENT
The Emoji Movie
received four Golden Razzie nominations, a record for an animated film: worst picture, worst director (Tony Leondis), worst screenplay (Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel, Mike White), and worst screen combo (any two obnoxious Emojis). It won all four. Why were
Nut Job 2 and
The Star snubbed?
Don’t Ask Me Why
Wes Anderson won the best director prize for his stop-motion film Isle of Dogs at the Berlin Film Festival—a first for an animated film.
So Much for Inclusion
Despite his sharing an Oscar for Dear Basketball, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rescinded Kobe Bryant’s invitation to join the Short Films & Animation branch, saying he needed to show “some evidence of a larger career.” The lack of a “larger career” didn’t stop them from admitting Anna Paquin when she was 11.
Boop-Boop-A-Don’t
Torrid launched a line of plus-size fashions supposedly inspired by Betty Boop. King Features also signed multiple license deals for “Modern Classic Betty” with A Bathing Ape, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lancome and Yves Saint Laurent.
Modern classic?
We’re All Sorry
The filmmakers and Sony Pictures apologized for a scene in Peter Rabbit: “Food allergies are a serious issue. Our film should not have made light of Peter Rabbit’s archnemesis, Mr. McGregor, being allergic to blackberries, even in a cartoonish, slapstick way.” They failed to apologize for turning Beatrix Potter’s impish bunny into a wise-cracking sitcom character.
It’s Only Money
To get A Wrinkle in Time past the $100 million mark, Disney put it on a double bill with Incredibles 2 at drive-ins. The Studio still took a reported write down of between $86 million and $186 million on the film.
The independent feature Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero opened at #15, taking in only $1.3 million from 1,685 theaters.
There Are Bad Times Just around the Corner Dept.
*The Spice Girls signed to voice themselves in an animated super heroine feature.
*Peter Jackson is planning a motion-capture “Tintin” film.
*Sony is working on a sequel to Peter Rabbit.
*Justin Beiber is developing an animated film in which he will voice Cupid.
*Legendary and Sunrise announced plans at Anime Expo for a live action Gundam feature.
*Boomerang will reboot of the Care Bears.
*Disney announced plans for a live action Lilo and Stitch.
*Alcon will produce a “Garfield” feature.
*Netflix unveiled plans for a live-action Cowboy Bebop.
*King Features released hideous designs for a new incarnation of Popeye.
Smallfoot
Although Warner Bros.’
Smallfoot didn’t do all that well at the box office, and Laika has
Missing Link in the works, Ben Stassen, founder of nWave Studios in Brussels, will direct
Bigfoot Superstar — the CG sequel to
Son of Bigfoot.
#Animation Too
In January, the Hollywood Reporter revealed Paramount Pictures had fired director Dylan Brown from the feature Amusement Park after investigating complaints of “inappropriate and unwanted conduct” from multiple women.
In March, Buzzfeed ran a detailed article in which Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice accused Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi of sexual misconduct, beginning when Byrd was only 16.
In May, the Animation Guild announced it was suspending The Loud House creator Chris Savino for a year. The ruling was part of plea bargain between the Guild and Savino. It marked the first time the Guild has taken this action against a member over allegations of sexual harassment.
Voice actress Rachel Butera, who’s taken on Carrie Fisher’s role as the voice of Leia Organa in the new Star Wars Resistance series, posted a video in which she mocked the voice of Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Oh bother
After the announcement of plans to permit President Xi to extend his rule beyond the constitutional 10 year limit, Chinese censors began deleting online references to “Winnie the Pooh.” Some social media users employed it as nickname/ euphemism for Xi, often derogatively. Users looking for “Winnie the Pooh” got “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies… search results are not displayed”.
And…
Finally, to this writer for being curmudgeonly above and beyond the call of duty at times.
Internationally known animation historian and critic, Charles Solomon has written over 15 books books including Enchanted Drawings: The History Of Animation, The Art of Disney's Frozen,The Making of Peanuts Animation, and Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast .
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Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2018
Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2018 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
Once again, animated films accounted for a disproportionate share of the domestic film business: Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse dominated the December box office. Once again, animated films failed to get the respect they deserve from the greater film community–although more and more studios are eager to cash in on their popularity.
Brad Bird knocked it out of the park with Incredibles 2, as did Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman with Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. Mamoru Hosoda’s charming Mirai confirmed his position as one of the most interesting writer-directors working on either side of the Pacific. But many films lacked vision and originality—and failed to gain traction with audiences and critics. Too often, it felt like CG business as usual.
Looking over a year that see-sawed between Light and Darkness, I’m presenting the 6th annual awards for the year’s best and worst, named for the ultimate animation APM, Mikiko “Kuromi” Oguro.
AGE OF WISDOM DEPARTMENT
Wabbit season! /Duck season! /Awards season!
Ron Clements and John Musker received the William Cameron Menzies Award from the Art Directors Guild. The award recognized their innovative artistic work on numerous Disney animated features.
Mirai
Coco won the Golden Globe for Animated Feature, the 8th Pixar film to do so. It also swept the Annie awards with 11 wins. Los Angeles Councilmember Gil Cedillo declared Tuesday, February 27, “Coco Day in L.A,” when the film debuted on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Oscar nominees for animated feature were: The Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, Ferdinand and Loving Vincent; for animated short: Dear Basketball, Garden Party, Lou, Negative Space and Revolting Rhymes. The winners were Dear Basketball and Coco, which also won for Best Song.
Maasa Yuasa’s offbeat The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl won the Japanese Film Award for Animation, over Napping Princess and Mary and the Witch’s Flower.
Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai is the first Japanese film to be nominated for a Golden Globe for Animated Feature.
Glen Keane became the first animator to win the Reuben Award, the National Cartoonists’ Society’s top prize.
The GLAS festival presented their first animation grants to fund independent artists; the recipients were Jeron Braxton and Bronwyn Maloney.
“Adjust your veil and prepare” Dept.
In January, Saudi Arabia broke its 35-year ban on motion picture theaters by allowing screenings of The Emoji Movie and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie in a makeshift theater in Jeddah. The films were subject to state censorship, but maybe poop jokes aren’t considered a problem. During the summer, Hotel Transylvania 3 became the first animated film to be dubbed into Arabic there.
Hands Across the Water…
Hayao Miyazaki’s 15-minute short Boro the Caterpillar premiered March 21 at the Ghibli Museum. He’s now at work on a new feature.
Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai was chosen for the Director’s Fortnight, which runs parallel to the Cannes Festival, a first for a Japanese director.
The Iron Giant in “Ready Player One”
Yay, Brad!
Steven Spielberg gave Brad Bird’s beloved Iron Giant a prominent cameo in Ready Player One. The Annecy Festival presented Bird with an Honorary Cristal award.
AT THE HOUSE OF MOUSE
In June, The Walt Disney Company announced Jennifer Lee and Pete Docter would succeed John Lasseter as heads of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, respectively. Both had been seen as the leading candidates to take those roles.
Mickey Mouse, the most popular animated character of all time, turned 90.
Yoicks!
You mean Mr. Gladstone the postman was really the Phantom all along? Scooby-Doo and the Gang appeared on the new forever stamps.
All the Way to the Bank
The Incredibles 2 smashed the all-time box office record for an animated film’s opening with $180 million for three days, eclipsing Finding Dory, which opened at $135 in 2016. In September, it passed $600 million to become the highest-grossing animation release of all time in the US.
Sony’s Hotel Transylvania 3 became the studio highest grossing film, passing $500 million worldwide in September—more than all three Sony releases from 2017 (The Emoji Movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village, and The Star) combined.
My Neighbor Totoro opened somewhat belated in China in December. It came in at #2, earning almost $13 million on 6,000 screens.
Incredibles 2
In April, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro signed a multi-year exclusive deal with DreamWorks Animation to write, produce, and direct animated family films.
Tuppence a Bag
The Academy presented a stellar tribute to Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (1925-2012), whose songs graced Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Snoopy Come Home. Guests included Dick Van Dyke, Hayley Mills, Kenny Loggins and Lesley Ann Warren. Among the presenters: Pete Docter, Karen Dotrice, Michael Giacchino, Leonard Maltin, Bob Petersen and Jonas Rivera.
Disorder in the Court
In March, the California Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss actor Frank Sivero’s $250 million lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox and The Simpsons. Sivero, who played a mobster in the Godfather movies and Goodfellas, claimed that The Simpsons’ Louie, Fat Tony’s henchman, was based on him, and misappropriated his name and likeness.
What Would You Want with a Wabbit?
Warners Bros. announced it would produce 1,000 minutes of Looney Tunes short films for distribution across multiple platforms each “season.”
Thanks, I guess…
In a series of tweets, Kanye West called Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira “the greatest animation achievement in history.” Imagine Otomo animating the Kardashians.
Early Man
To ensure their studio’s continued independence Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton are transferring the majority of the company’s shares to a trust that will hold them on behalf of their workers. Although neither artist has plans to retire, having built their studio as an independent, Lord said, “the last thing we wanted to do was to just flog it off to someone.”
More Than Cartoons
Aardman created a film narrated by actor Hugh Laurie as part of the global campaign Malaria Must Die So Millions Can Live. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about the disease, which kills a child every two minutes.
After blasting Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson for telling viewers to believe the opposite of whatever they heard from every other news source, Seth MacFarlane donated $2 million to NPR and $500,000 to Southern California NPR station KPCC.
Students at CalArts Students worked with UN Women’s HeForShe movement creating short films to call on men around the world to stand in solidarity with each other and with women to end sexual harassment and promote gender equality.
In September, Cartoon Network unveiled six new animated PSA’s as part of its pro-social initiative “Stop Bullying: Speak Up.” A study by the Making Caring Common project and the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that 70% of 9 to 11-year olds said it would help kids their age be kinder if the adults in charge of our country set a better example for how to treat others.
Testify!
“You’re drawing people, not just ‘characters,’” Hayao Miyazaki to one of his animators in Kaku Arakawa’s documentary Never-Ending Man Hayao Miyazaki.
WINTER OF DESPAIR DEPARTMENT
The Emoji Movie
The Emoji Movie received four Golden Razzie nominations, a record for an animated film: worst picture, worst director (Tony Leondis), worst screenplay (Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel, Mike White), and worst screen combo (any two obnoxious Emojis). It won all four. Why were Nut Job 2 and The Star snubbed?
Don’t Ask Me Why
Wes Anderson won the best director prize for his stop-motion film Isle of Dogs at the Berlin Film Festival—a first for an animated film.
So Much for Inclusion
Despite his sharing an Oscar for Dear Basketball, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rescinded Kobe Bryant’s invitation to join the Short Films & Animation branch, saying he needed to show “some evidence of a larger career.” The lack of a “larger career” didn’t stop them from admitting Anna Paquin when she was 11.
Boop-Boop-A-Don’t
Torrid launched a line of plus-size fashions supposedly inspired by Betty Boop. King Features also signed multiple license deals for “Modern Classic Betty” with A Bathing Ape, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lancome and Yves Saint Laurent.
Modern classic?
We’re All Sorry
The filmmakers and Sony Pictures apologized for a scene in Peter Rabbit: “Food allergies are a serious issue. Our film should not have made light of Peter Rabbit’s archnemesis, Mr. McGregor, being allergic to blackberries, even in a cartoonish, slapstick way.” They failed to apologize for turning Beatrix Potter’s impish bunny into a wise-cracking sitcom character.
It’s Only Money
To get A Wrinkle in Time past the $100 million mark, Disney put it on a double bill with Incredibles 2 at drive-ins. The Studio still took a reported write down of between $86 million and $186 million on the film.
The independent feature Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero opened at #15, taking in only $1.3 million from 1,685 theaters.
There Are Bad Times Just around the Corner Dept.
*The Spice Girls signed to voice themselves in an animated super heroine feature.
*Peter Jackson is planning a motion-capture “Tintin” film.
*Sony is working on a sequel to Peter Rabbit.
*Justin Beiber is developing an animated film in which he will voice Cupid.
*Legendary and Sunrise announced plans at Anime Expo for a live action Gundam feature.
*Boomerang will reboot of the Care Bears.
*Disney announced plans for a live action Lilo and Stitch.
*Alcon will produce a “Garfield” feature.
*Netflix unveiled plans for a live-action Cowboy Bebop.
*King Features released hideous designs for a new incarnation of Popeye.
Smallfoot
Although Warner Bros.’ Smallfoot didn’t do all that well at the box office, and Laika has Missing Link in the works, Ben Stassen, founder of nWave Studios in Brussels, will direct Bigfoot Superstar — the CG sequel to Son of Bigfoot.
#Animation Too
In January, the Hollywood Reporter revealed Paramount Pictures had fired director Dylan Brown from the feature Amusement Park after investigating complaints of “inappropriate and unwanted conduct” from multiple women.
In March, Buzzfeed ran a detailed article in which Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice accused Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi of sexual misconduct, beginning when Byrd was only 16.
In May, the Animation Guild announced it was suspending The Loud House creator Chris Savino for a year. The ruling was part of plea bargain between the Guild and Savino. It marked the first time the Guild has taken this action against a member over allegations of sexual harassment.
Voice actress Rachel Butera, who’s taken on Carrie Fisher’s role as the voice of Leia Organa in the new Star Wars Resistance series, posted a video in which she mocked the voice of Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Oh bother
After the announcement of plans to permit President Xi to extend his rule beyond the constitutional 10 year limit, Chinese censors began deleting online references to “Winnie the Pooh.” Some social media users employed it as nickname/ euphemism for Xi, often derogatively. Users looking for “Winnie the Pooh” got “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies… search results are not displayed”.
And…
Finally, to this writer for being curmudgeonly above and beyond the call of duty at times.