By: Laura Duncan and Emily Graffam

  The 21st century has been full of amazing advances in the digital and animated world. A movie doesn’t need fancy animation to be an award winner, but it sure helps!

  In 2000, Pixar realized a movie called Bugs life. John Lasseter directed this film; he also directed movies such as Toy Story. This movie is good for all audiences and makes bugs seem very cute. The movie is about a young clumsy ant named Flik who leaves his home to find other larger bugs to help him and other ants fight against the grasshoppers. Flik thinks he finds help, not knowing that the bugs he found are actually in a circus and just want a job. Once these circus bugs realize they have to fight the grasshoppers they are very scared. The ants find out that they actually are not much of a help, and have to find another way to fight against the grasshoppers. Will they win?

  Although Shrek won the Academy award for best animated feature in 2001, we find that Monsters Inc., a nominee, was far better. Monsters Inc. is about a world of monsters, where power comes from scaring children. These monsters graded on how scary they could be. Some monsters such as the main characters, Mike and Sulley, did not want to scare the children any longer. They decide this after running into a “horrifying” monster named Boo, a five year old girl. Mike and Sulley have to protect Boo from other monsters that are against all humans, especially children.

  In 2002, although movies such as Ice Age, Lilo and Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of Comarron, and Treasure Planet, Spirited Away won the Academy award for best animated film. This film was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. This story is about a 10 year old girl named Chiniro. Some could say this movie is a bit out there in some regardes. Chinhiro is being forced to move to a new town and she, being spoiled is not happy. Chihiro goes on adventures and grows in wisdom and maturity. Spirits are very big in this movie as you can see in the title.

  In 2003, a true family movie Finding Nemo took home the Academy Award for best animated feature. Although it is merely about a fish named Marlin whose son Nemo goes out for a swim and ends up missing, it was entertaining and fun. The movie is about Marlin’s journey to Sydney, Australia with his new friend Dory, in search of his missing Nemo. Will Marlin be able to find Nemo before it’s too late? We would definitely recommend stopping by the movie store and picking up Finding Nemo.

  2004’s Academy Award winner for best Animated Feature was the Incredibles.  This is an adventure story about a former super hero family getting back into the business of saving people.  After Syndrome turned from his incredi-boy roots and a place in the evil society, Mr. Incredible is forced to act and save the world. The problem is that the world doesn’t want to be saved.  Syndrome had worked for many years to come up with a machine that will defeat Mr. Incredible, Mr. Incredible didn’t know he is actually testing it for its big premiere.  The supers unite and take down the machine just in time to save Jack Jack, the youngest of the supers.  This really is a true family movie teaching the values of trust and that a little bit of extraordinary talent and a hope goes a long way.

  In 2005 Warner Brothers came out with Tim Burtons’ Corpse Bride. This movie was a bit on the darker side for the typical animated film, the technique used was stop motion. Because it wasn’t so typical it keeps your attention. This story is about nervous Victor Van Dort, a forty year old man who still had not gotten married. His parents finally match him up with Victoria Everglot. She is a shy woman who comes from a poor family. Victor becomes so nervous on his wedding day he is asked by the pastor to step outside and practice what his vows. He goes out into the forest and while practicing he puts the ring on a tree. Unfortunately for Victor that tree turns into a dead decaying women who eagerly accepts the proposal. The setting changes to the underworld. The movie is full of fun songs and corpses. Victor winds up with a problem because he falls for both women, the dead one and the live one. What will happen to Victor? Find out by watching this excitingly brilliant film.

  2006’s nominee, and our favorite movie, was Pixar Animation Studio’s Cars staring Owen Wilson as the voice of Lightning McQueen.  This big shot race car, with an even bigger ego, is competing in the Piston Cup Series, for the rights to Dinaco.  On the road to California, Lightning falls asleep and rolls out of the car and ends up in a little piece of nowhere called Radiator Springs.  In the confusion, Lightning runs through town destroying the road and reeking havoc in the town.  Unable to leave until he fixes the roads which he had destroyed, Lightning begins unhappily redoing the road.  His attitude towards the town gets worse and worse until he befriends Mater, a rusty tow truck that has been in radiator springs his whole life.  After meeting Mater and realizing the history that is held in this tiny spec on the side of Route 66, he goes through to town fixing whatever he can to impress his Porsche-crush, Sally.  In the end, Lightning makes it to California for the race but can’t do his best because he never got to say goodbye to his friends because he was rushed by the paparazzi.  After seeing how horribly their new friend is doing, the cars of Radiator Springs go to the race track to support their friend. 

  The 2007 nominee Ratatouille is another excellent Pixar Animation Studio Film.  The movie’s plot is written around Remy, a young rat swooshed away from his home by a heavy rain.  After a long float, Remy ends up in the city of culinary delights, Paris, France.  After a great amount of work, Remy and his new friend, the human Linguini who is the garbage boy/star chef at his father’s restaurant, Gusto’s get the opportunity to cook for the best of critics.  Because of this brave rat and not so smart boy, they make history with “the soup”.  All the people in Paris think that Linguini is the new star chef of Gusto’s, when really the honor should go to Remy the rat.  Remy and his friends must work together to save the restaurant from a feared critic that could easily shut Gusto’s down. 

  Wall-E, with six Academy Award nominations in 2008, was a movie that was praised by some, but shunned by others.  For about the first half of the movie, there is no talking, there is just Wall-E on earth as the last “thing” left.  This was a major turn off for a lot of people, but the movie picked up pace substantially when Eve, Wall-E’s crush, took the last plant of earth as evidence that the planet is ready to support life, as it did many years ago.  Wall-E hooks on to Eve’s spaceship as it takes off and goes out to the BnL spaceship.  Here Wall-E follows Eve to the captain’s room where she is showing him the plant.  However, Auto, the ships mechanical pilot was programmed to never return to earth because it would never be fit for rehabitation.  The people of the ship must defeat the ship itself and get back to earth. 

  2009’s Pixar movie Up was excellent. The beginning of the movie is a tear jerker due to the death of Ellie, the main characters wife.  Carl Fredrickson, a whole life balloon salesman, has always wanted to go to paradise cove, a beautiful area in South America.  When Ellie dies, Carl is left alone in his old, small house and after all of the years, the house is now in the middle of the city.  The building workers all around him try to get him to sell his home, but Carl never agrees to do this. However because of his old age, he is eventually forced to leave his home for a retirement home.  When the people from the retirement home come to pick up Carl, he unleashes a great mass of balloons that makes his house float up above the city.  Carl’s plan is to go to Paradise Cove and set his house next to the waterfall that he and Ellie saw in pictures.  After flying for about an hour, Carl hears a knock at his door and opens it to see Russell, the neighborhood Wilderness Scout.  Carl lets Russell in and plans to get him back to the city; however, as Carl begins to let the house down, Russell points out a thunder storm ahead.  Carl tries to navigate the house out of the way but is sucked into the storm.  Carl is knocked out and when he wakes up, he finds himself on the wrong side of Paradise Country.  From this point the movie is about getting to the other side of the cliff.  Along the way the adventurers meet a dog named Doug that wants to capture Kevin, the rare bird that Russell has befriended.  Doug isn’t a very smart dog and so he only asks to capture Kevin again and again, but when Doug’s teammates get involved, the entire group is captured and brought to Charles Muntz’s balloon.  They group is chased by Muntz’s angry dogs because they refuse to give back Kevin.