Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2019 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 film business: The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen II, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and The Secret Life of Pets 2 earned more than $1.6 billion at the domestic 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. But a number of films that seemed like sure-fire kick-offs for new franchises–or installments in ongoing ones—flopped ignominously. And Disney pretended their hit re-make of The Lion King was something other than animation.
But many films—even some successful ones–lacked vision and originality. Too often, the studio features felt like CG business as usual. Viewers looked to the work of foreign and independent artists for greater creativity in animation.
Sadly, the biggest news of the year was the attack of deranged arsonist Shinji Aoba on the Kyoto Animation Studio, which killed 35 people and injured 33 more. The victims were mainly women as the studio was known for hiring female artists. Among those killed were Yasuhiro Takemoto (director of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya) and Futoshi Nishiya (character designer and chief animation director on the Free! franchise and A Silent Voice). It was the deadliest crime in the history of animation.
Looking over a year that see-sawed between Light and Darkness, I’m presenting the 7th annual awards for the year’s best and worst, named for the ultimate animation APM, Mikiko “Kuromi” Oguro.
“Weathering With You”
SEASON OF LIGHT DEPARTMENT
Wabbit Season/Duck Season/Awards Season
Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse won the Golden Globe for animated feature, swept the Annies with 7 wins for 7 nominations and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Domme Shi’s Bao won the Oscar for Animated Short. Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai won the Annie for Independent Feature.
A record 32 films were submitted for consideration for the 92nd Academy Awards. China’s Ne Zha and Japan’s Weathering with You were also selected by their respective countries to compete for the International Feature Film Oscar.
Jérémy Clapin’s I Lost My Body (J’ai perdu mon corps) won the Nespresso Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week section. It was the only animated film among the seven competitors. It also garnered several critics’ awards for Best Animated Film.
In March, Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe became the first animated series to win the Outstanding Kids & Family Programming Award at the GLAAD Media Awards, which celebrate fair, accurate, and inclusive LGBTQ representation in media.
All the Way to the Bank
In January, Dragon Ball Super: Broly broke box office records, landing in the top ten nationally and internationally.
In February, How to Train Your Dragon 3 opened at $55 million, the best for the franchise. TAAF named director Dean DeBlois “Animated Person of the Year.”
In July, the remake of The Lion King opened with a record $185 million, the biggest launch ever for an animated film at the U.S. box office. The same weekend in Japan, Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You debuted with a three-day total of ¥1.540 billion ($14.3 million).
The Chinese CG epic Ne Zha took in $348 million in its opening two weeks, replacing Zootopia as the highest-grossing animated feature in Chinese box office history.
In June, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away received its first theatrical release in China, beating Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 4 there: $28.6 million to $13.7 million.
Cool Japan Fund, a public-private initiative that promotes Japanese culture overseas, put $30 million toward shares in Sentai Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Sentai Filmworks and its subsidiaries.
In August, the British Film Institute (BFI) announced the establishment of the Short Form Animation Fund to give grants of £30,000–£120,000 ($36,000–$146,000) to works under 15 minutes that aren’t primarily commercial. Filmmakers can use any technique and genre —as long as the work is narrative. (Imagine the American Film Institute doing something similar.)
More, Please!
NFL player-turned-director Matthew Cherry, Everett Downing Jr. and Bruce Smith charmed audiences with their crowd-funded short Hair Love in August.
OH CANADA!
The National Film Board of Canada achieved the gender-parity goals it established three years ago for the number of productions directed by women and for production budgets allocated to women. For 2018–2019, 48% of NFB works were directed by women (38% by men and 14% by mixed teams) and 44% of the NFB production budget was allocated to works created by women (41% for works by men and 15% for works by mixed teams).
The NFB also announced that its slate of 40 Indigenous-led works in development, production or recent release met its commitment to devote a minimum of 15% of its production spending to Indigenous works, one year ahead of schedule.
In March, the British Columbia Employment Standards Branch ordered Nitrogen Studios, now owned by Cinesite, to pay the overtime non-union animators sought in a 2016 complaint for their work on Sausage Party.
AND ABOUT TIME
The National Film Registry added Disney’s Sleeping Beauty to its list of films that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.
HANDS ACROSS THE WATER
The LA Anime Expo broke it’s own records with more than 350,000 admissions. As the Expo has grown more popular, it’s also grown more inclusive: It’s thronged with people of all races, genders and ages.
The Coach x Michael B. Jordan, a capsule collection designed in partnership with the actor and featuring Naruto-inspired designs, debuted in October.
RESERVE TICKETS NOW:
*Disney-Pixar anounced that Pete Docter’s new film Soul will debut on June 19, 2020.
*Katsuhiro Otomo announced plans for a new feature Orbital Era and a new animated version of Akira.
*Sony Pictures Animation and Columbia Pictures will release the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on April 8, 2022.
*Arbelos Films will release a 4k digital restoration of Marcell Jankovics’ dazzling The White Mare’s Son in the US in 2020.
WAIT, THERE’S MORE
In July, Shout! Factory announced plans to distribute the shorts and features of independent animator Bill Plympton.
France’s Emile Cohl Art Academy opened a facility in downtown LA for a slate of fully-sponsored education programs for 40 students in March. Classes are slated to begin in September 2020.
TESTIFY!
“American remakes don’t seem to get why people like anime … There are many risks in Hollywood trying to do these anime remakes … many times the immersive, otherworldly quality is there for animation. That doesn’t necessarily transfer at all to live action.” –Tufts University professor of Japanese Studies Susane Napier
WINTER OF DESPAIR DEPARTMENT
Another Reason to Stay Home
With no credited director and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 31%, Wonder Park opened at a weak $16 million—on 3,838 screens. The Angry Birds Movie 2 opened at a weaker $10.5 million on 3,869 screens—less than half what its predecessor made. Despite tie-ins with McDonald’s, Hasbro, Walmart, and Pez, STX’s Ugly Dolls opened at #4 with an even weaker $8.5 million on 3,652 screens. Laika’s Missing Link opened to a dismal $5.9 million on 3,347 screens and a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Arctic Dogs opened in November at $3.1 million on 2,844 screens, setting a new record for the worst opening of any film in more than 2800 theaters. It almost lost that title: In December, Lino diSalvo’s The Playmobile Movie opened in 14th place at a pathetic $656, 530. The only wide release that weekend, it opened in 2,337 theaters or about $280 per screen. After 10 days, it had failed to make even $1 million—against a reported budget of $75 million. The selection committee for the Golden Raspberries will face some tough decisions.
Although both films opened at number one, The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Toy Story 4 were described as performing below studio and industry expectations.
The 3rd edition of the European Animation Awards was postponed until 2021, due to funding problems.
October Is Censorship Month
The South Park episode “Band in China” poked fun at Disney and other Hollywood studios acquiesing to the demands of Chinese censors to gain access to the vast Chinese market. It showed Randy in China meeting Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (who have been used to mock president Xi Jinping surreptitiously). Almost as soon as it aired, every mention of the series was scrubbed from the PRC’s internet.
In October, state media reported that Vietnam had pulled DreamWorks’ Abominable from cinemas because a scene showed a map with China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea, including large swathes of what Vietnam regards as its continental shelf.
The Seoul-based NGO the Public Welfare Committee filed a complaint with the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that Disney’s release of Frozen II in South Korea violated national antitrust laws by playing on 88% of the movie screens in the country.
There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner Dep’t.
*Hasbro and Mills Entertainment announced that “My Little Pony Live,” a musical production featuring the pony characters will tour North America in 2020.
*Warner Bros. announced that Taika Waititi’s live-action remake of Akira would open in 2021. Leonardo DiCaprio would produce the live-action film with Andrew Lazar. In July, the project was put on hold. (That was the good news.)
*Paramount Animation is working on an animated feature with all five Spice Girls.
*Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema and Flynn Picture Company announced plans for a “Hello Kitty” feature. They didn’t specify if it would be animation, live action or a combination.
*Netflix announced it ordered an adult animated action comedy series Agent King Elvis Presley.
*Kevin Smith revealed details plans for a new version of the He-Man series, Masters of the Universe for Netflix, based on Mattel’s 1980’s toy franchise.
*Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is slated for next April.
Did He Play for Free?
Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal released a video in August asking artists to create animation with no guarantee of payment to promote his upcoming docu-series Shaq Life. O’Neal invited animators to create short films about him in less than a month, with any shorts broadcast earning all of $500.—plus, of course, “exposure.” “That’s right animators, I’m going to make you famous.” A storm of angry Twitter posts ensued. O’Neal later tweeted, “To all my animators out there, I heard you. I love your work and want you to feel the love. If your cartoon is selected, you’ll be awarded $10,000 and your animation will be shown on my new show, Shaq Life.”
At the end of April, Paramount and Sega released a trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. On-line fans blasted the design for the title character. In response, director Jeff Fowler announced the character would be redesigned. It wasn’t clear what the redesign would add to the reported $90 million budget.
You’re Not Getting Better, You’re Getting Older
In an interview with Vulture in November, Pixar Animation Studios president Jim Morris, age 64, said that the studio’s most successful directors — Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, and Lee Unkrich (who’s left the studio) will be too old to direct films 10 years from now: “Those guys are all middle-aged or older now and they’re not going to be the filmmakers ten years from now. They’re not going to necessarily be the ones that have their finger on the zeitgeist. And we knew that. Animated films come from people of their time, if that makes any sense. Just as John was, and Andrew, Pete, and Lee were when they made their first films.” For the record: Andrew, Pete, and Lee will be younger in 2029 than Morris is now.
In August, Alf Clausen, who had composed music for The Simpsons for 27 years, sued Fox, Disney and Gracie Films, claiming age discrimation was the cause of his firing in 2017. He was 78 at the time.
The Bigotry Agenda
The conservative group One Million Moms called for a boycott of Pixar’s Toy Story 4 over a scene in which Bonnie is dropped off for her first day of kindergarten. In the background, two women drop off another girl—and give her a hug when they pick her up. On their website, the group stated, “…it is obvious that the child has two mothers, and they are parenting together.” They warned parents may be “blindsided” by the “subtle but obvious promotion of the LGBTQ lifestyle” and said it was there “strictly to push an agenda.”
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 2019
Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2019 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 film business: The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen II, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and The Secret Life of Pets 2 earned more than $1.6 billion at the domestic 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. But a number of films that seemed like sure-fire kick-offs for new franchises–or installments in ongoing ones—flopped ignominously. And Disney pretended their hit re-make of The Lion King was something other than animation.
But many films—even some successful ones–lacked vision and originality. Too often, the studio features felt like CG business as usual. Viewers looked to the work of foreign and independent artists for greater creativity in animation.
Sadly, the biggest news of the year was the attack of deranged arsonist Shinji Aoba on the Kyoto Animation Studio, which killed 35 people and injured 33 more. The victims were mainly women as the studio was known for hiring female artists. Among those killed were Yasuhiro Takemoto (director of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya) and Futoshi Nishiya (character designer and chief animation director on the Free! franchise and A Silent Voice). It was the deadliest crime in the history of animation.
Looking over a year that see-sawed between Light and Darkness, I’m presenting the 7th annual awards for the year’s best and worst, named for the ultimate animation APM, Mikiko “Kuromi” Oguro.
“Weathering With You”
SEASON OF LIGHT DEPARTMENT
Wabbit Season/Duck Season/Awards Season
Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse won the Golden Globe for animated feature, swept the Annies with 7 wins for 7 nominations and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Domme Shi’s Bao won the Oscar for Animated Short. Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai won the Annie for Independent Feature.
A record 32 films were submitted for consideration for the 92nd Academy Awards. China’s Ne Zha and Japan’s Weathering with You were also selected by their respective countries to compete for the International Feature Film Oscar.
Jérémy Clapin’s I Lost My Body (J’ai perdu mon corps) won the Nespresso Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week section. It was the only animated film among the seven competitors. It also garnered several critics’ awards for Best Animated Film.
In March, Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe became the first animated series to win the Outstanding Kids & Family Programming Award at the GLAAD Media Awards, which celebrate fair, accurate, and inclusive LGBTQ representation in media.
All the Way to the Bank
In January, Dragon Ball Super: Broly broke box office records, landing in the top ten nationally and internationally.
In February, How to Train Your Dragon 3 opened at $55 million, the best for the franchise. TAAF named director Dean DeBlois “Animated Person of the Year.”
In July, the remake of The Lion King opened with a record $185 million, the biggest launch ever for an animated film at the U.S. box office. The same weekend in Japan, Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You debuted with a three-day total of ¥1.540 billion ($14.3 million).
The Chinese CG epic Ne Zha took in $348 million in its opening two weeks, replacing Zootopia as the highest-grossing animated feature in Chinese box office history.
In June, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away received its first theatrical release in China, beating Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 4 there: $28.6 million to $13.7 million.
Cool Japan Fund, a public-private initiative that promotes Japanese culture overseas, put $30 million toward shares in Sentai Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Sentai Filmworks and its subsidiaries.
In August, the British Film Institute (BFI) announced the establishment of the Short Form Animation Fund to give grants of £30,000–£120,000 ($36,000–$146,000) to works under 15 minutes that aren’t primarily commercial. Filmmakers can use any technique and genre —as long as the work is narrative. (Imagine the American Film Institute doing something similar.)
More, Please!
NFL player-turned-director Matthew Cherry, Everett Downing Jr. and Bruce Smith charmed audiences with their crowd-funded short Hair Love in August.
OH CANADA!
The National Film Board of Canada achieved the gender-parity goals it established three years ago for the number of productions directed by women and for production budgets allocated to women. For 2018–2019, 48% of NFB works were directed by women (38% by men and 14% by mixed teams) and 44% of the NFB production budget was allocated to works created by women (41% for works by men and 15% for works by mixed teams).
The NFB also announced that its slate of 40 Indigenous-led works in development, production or recent release met its commitment to devote a minimum of 15% of its production spending to Indigenous works, one year ahead of schedule.
In March, the British Columbia Employment Standards Branch ordered Nitrogen Studios, now owned by Cinesite, to pay the overtime non-union animators sought in a 2016 complaint for their work on Sausage Party.
AND ABOUT TIME
The National Film Registry added Disney’s Sleeping Beauty to its list of films that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.
HANDS ACROSS THE WATER
The LA Anime Expo broke it’s own records with more than 350,000 admissions. As the Expo has grown more popular, it’s also grown more inclusive: It’s thronged with people of all races, genders and ages.
The Coach x Michael B. Jordan, a capsule collection designed in partnership with the actor and featuring Naruto-inspired designs, debuted in October.
RESERVE TICKETS NOW:
*Disney-Pixar anounced that Pete Docter’s new film Soul will debut on June 19, 2020.
*Katsuhiro Otomo announced plans for a new feature Orbital Era and a new animated version of Akira.
*Sony Pictures Animation and Columbia Pictures will release the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on April 8, 2022.
*Arbelos Films will release a 4k digital restoration of Marcell Jankovics’ dazzling The White Mare’s Son in the US in 2020.
WAIT, THERE’S MORE
In July, Shout! Factory announced plans to distribute the shorts and features of independent animator Bill Plympton.
France’s Emile Cohl Art Academy opened a facility in downtown LA for a slate of fully-sponsored education programs for 40 students in March. Classes are slated to begin in September 2020.
TESTIFY!
“American remakes don’t seem to get why people like anime … There are many risks in Hollywood trying to do these anime remakes … many times the immersive, otherworldly quality is there for animation. That doesn’t necessarily transfer at all to live action.” –Tufts University professor of Japanese Studies Susane Napier
WINTER OF DESPAIR DEPARTMENT
Another Reason to Stay Home
With no credited director and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 31%, Wonder Park opened at a weak $16 million—on 3,838 screens. The Angry Birds Movie 2 opened at a weaker $10.5 million on 3,869 screens—less than half what its predecessor made. Despite tie-ins with McDonald’s, Hasbro, Walmart, and Pez, STX’s Ugly Dolls opened at #4 with an even weaker $8.5 million on 3,652 screens. Laika’s Missing Link opened to a dismal $5.9 million on 3,347 screens and a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Arctic Dogs opened in November at $3.1 million on 2,844 screens, setting a new record for the worst opening of any film in more than 2800 theaters. It almost lost that title: In December, Lino diSalvo’s The Playmobile Movie opened in 14th place at a pathetic $656, 530. The only wide release that weekend, it opened in 2,337 theaters or about $280 per screen. After 10 days, it had failed to make even $1 million—against a reported budget of $75 million. The selection committee for the Golden Raspberries will face some tough decisions.
Although both films opened at number one, The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Toy Story 4 were described as performing below studio and industry expectations.
The 3rd edition of the European Animation Awards was postponed until 2021, due to funding problems.
October Is Censorship Month
The South Park episode “Band in China” poked fun at Disney and other Hollywood studios acquiesing to the demands of Chinese censors to gain access to the vast Chinese market. It showed Randy in China meeting Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (who have been used to mock president Xi Jinping surreptitiously). Almost as soon as it aired, every mention of the series was scrubbed from the PRC’s internet.
In October, state media reported that Vietnam had pulled DreamWorks’ Abominable from cinemas because a scene showed a map with China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea, including large swathes of what Vietnam regards as its continental shelf.
The Seoul-based NGO the Public Welfare Committee filed a complaint with the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that Disney’s release of Frozen II in South Korea violated national antitrust laws by playing on 88% of the movie screens in the country.
There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner Dep’t.
*Hasbro and Mills Entertainment announced that “My Little Pony Live,” a musical production featuring the pony characters will tour North America in 2020.
*Warner Bros. announced that Taika Waititi’s live-action remake of Akira would open in 2021. Leonardo DiCaprio would produce the live-action film with Andrew Lazar. In July, the project was put on hold. (That was the good news.)
*Paramount Animation is working on an animated feature with all five Spice Girls.
*Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema and Flynn Picture Company announced plans for a “Hello Kitty” feature. They didn’t specify if it would be animation, live action or a combination.
*Netflix announced it ordered an adult animated action comedy series Agent King Elvis Presley.
*Kevin Smith revealed details plans for a new version of the He-Man series, Masters of the Universe for Netflix, based on Mattel’s 1980’s toy franchise.
*Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is slated for next April.
Did He Play for Free?
Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal released a video in August asking artists to create animation with no guarantee of payment to promote his upcoming docu-series Shaq Life. O’Neal invited animators to create short films about him in less than a month, with any shorts broadcast earning all of $500.—plus, of course, “exposure.” “That’s right animators, I’m going to make you famous.” A storm of angry Twitter posts ensued. O’Neal later tweeted, “To all my animators out there, I heard you. I love your work and want you to feel the love. If your cartoon is selected, you’ll be awarded $10,000 and your animation will be shown on my new show, Shaq Life.”
At the end of April, Paramount and Sega released a trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. On-line fans blasted the design for the title character. In response, director Jeff Fowler announced the character would be redesigned. It wasn’t clear what the redesign would add to the reported $90 million budget.
You’re Not Getting Better, You’re Getting Older
In an interview with Vulture in November, Pixar Animation Studios president Jim Morris, age 64, said that the studio’s most successful directors — Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, and Lee Unkrich (who’s left the studio) will be too old to direct films 10 years from now: “Those guys are all middle-aged or older now and they’re not going to be the filmmakers ten years from now. They’re not going to necessarily be the ones that have their finger on the zeitgeist. And we knew that. Animated films come from people of their time, if that makes any sense. Just as John was, and Andrew, Pete, and Lee were when they made their first films.” For the record: Andrew, Pete, and Lee will be younger in 2029 than Morris is now.
In August, Alf Clausen, who had composed music for The Simpsons for 27 years, sued Fox, Disney and Gracie Films, claiming age discrimation was the cause of his firing in 2017. He was 78 at the time.
The Bigotry Agenda
The conservative group One Million Moms called for a boycott of Pixar’s Toy Story 4 over a scene in which Bonnie is dropped off for her first day of kindergarten. In the background, two women drop off another girl—and give her a hug when they pick her up. On their website, the group stated, “…it is obvious that the child has two mothers, and they are parenting together.” They warned parents may be “blindsided” by the “subtle but obvious promotion of the LGBTQ lifestyle” and said it was there “strictly to push an agenda.”
And…
Finally, to this writer for being curmudgeonly above and beyond the call of duty at times.