Animation 2008

14 October 2008

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When new animation movies are released the questions about the over saturated market and the below par movies are always raised but 2008 has been a great year, so far, for this genre of movie.

And it looks set to continue through until the end of the year with stop-motion animation film Igor, Madagascar: The Crate Escape and Waltz with Bashir all still to come.

This summer saw the rivalry between Pixar and Dreamworks continue as they both released movies within weeks of each other.

Stealing the limelight at the Cannes Film Festival was Kung Fu Panda, which boasted an impressive vocal cast of Jack Blank, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman, and it proved that it could be as successful as the jewel in Dreamworks' crown Shrek, with a sequel already in the pipeline for 2011.

It went on to be one of the most successful movies of the summer grossing over $620 million at the global box office and holding it's own well against the big budget blockbusters.

Less than twelve months after the release of Ratatouille the Pixar team were back with robot Wall-E, which was directed by Andrew Stanton who brought us Finding Nemo.

Wall-E is visually stunning and really does show the audience the potential that animation still has as Wall-E is, with no disrespect to the movies that have gone before it, the most ambitious picture for them since Toy Story.

Despite this it failed to overhaul Kung Fu Panda's impressive total going on to gross just over $453 million but it did win over the critics.

The competition for the best animation of 2008 is about to hot up starting this week with Igor, a stop motion animation picture.

Igor is a hilarious story of a talented hunchback who’s determined to prove his worth at the annual Evil Science Fair.

With help from his wise-cracking sidekicks Scamper, a grumpy lab rabbit, and the not so brainy Brain, he plans to create the greatest invention the world has ever seen and win first prize.

However the fiendish Dr Schadenfreude is also making plans: to steal Igor's crazy creation and take over the land. Can Igor and friends stop him and truly save the day?

However Igor has not been met well by the critics but it did enter the top ten in America.

The animation film to watch out for this year is Waltz with Bashir which has gained lots of critical support on the festival circuit in recent months.

The film shook up the Cannes Film Festival when it was showed as the Israeli picture depicts the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982.

The film’s main character is director Ari Folman himself who realises that there are major parts of his life, his experience as an Israeli soldier during the Lebanon war of the eighties, missing from his memory.

Ari decides to meet up with old friends and comrades to discover the truth about this time and about himself.

Folman unflinchingly depicts what young men do in a time of war and the atrocities of which humans are capable as well as pointing the finger at those he deems responsible. Waltz with Bashir could find itself a hot favourite for Best Animation Picture and Best Foreign Film come Oscar season.

Dreamworks are back in December with the release of Madagascar: The Crate Escape a sequel to the moderate hit Madagascar but this film will really have to perform well at the box office to justify a sequel.

Also getting a run on the big screen includes Disney's Bolt, which has been a troubled project and early reviews on the film are not overly positive, and the film adaptation of Kate DiCamillo's Newbery Medal-winning novel The Tale of Despereaux from Universal.

Igor is released 17th October

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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