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Some of the greatest movies ever made are fully animated, and the art form has garnered such prestige over time that a feature-length work is often expected to be more than just a long cartoon. Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves showcased that animated films could gain more commercial and critical success. Then came Fantasia In 1940, which showed that possibilities are more and less endless for the art form.
Ever since the 1995 release of Toy Story, when feature animation bounded from paper realms and into the digital domain, the world of animation has been to infinity and beyond in creative storytelling. We’ve traveled the sky by house and balloon (up), crossed different dimensions with Spiderman ( into the Spiderverse), and also visited the dead in Coco, and even our souls have left our bodies in Disney’s (soul).
Swam the deepest oceans just to find Nemo, while learning the value of family and that family is not a burden, all along with super glue (the Lego movie).In these worlds of animation, cars rule the world, and super heroes and villains can change their lives, showing us that we can also be better (The Incredibles and Despicable Me). It is where we come to believe in fairy tales again (frozen and brave) and get to enjoy ourselves to the fullest with joy and laughter (Shrek and the Kung Fu Panda Trilogy). We have also witnessed processed meats do weird things we would rather not speak of again at a sausage party.
Whole industries are supported by these animations, including Pixar, Blue Sky Studios, the owners of Ice Age, and Illumination, who induced fun in our lives by introducing to us the minions and later did it last year by presenting Migration. There are also many pictures of animation, presenting Hotel Transylvania,an epic film of monsters and humans. And it would be awful not to mention DreamWorks Animation, owners of films that are breaking box office records. They did it again this year by presenting Kung Fu Panda 4, and not to forget How to Train Your Dragon, which broke streaming records when it went straight to on demand, skipping theatrical.
Animations are ranked differently, depending on the messages and sales and their impact after release. Also, various animations have scored various Oscars, including Disney’s Finding Nemo, Coco, and many others.
Pixar showed gravitas to release Wall-E, a post-apocalyptic romantic comedy. It’s an epic about robots that’s completely wordless for long stretches. It’s quite astonishing how the twenty-first century was able to relate to and empathize with a robot who rarely says a word. Well, big-eyed, kind-hearted, sensitive, and romantic WALL-E is one of Pixar’s greatest wonders.
Also, his perilous journey through outer space for Eve, the robot with a female voice whom he loves, is nothing short of riveting. You can expect this movie to age as well as the great silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton; however, as a bonus, WALL-E is a genuinely provocative work of science fiction to boot.
Ig @mannu mwendwa.
