Use code SABERSPARK50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/48fuNPX! What did you all think was the WORST and BEST of 2023? Lemme know down in the comments!
Ever since Frozen did well on a thanksgiving release date, Disney’s been forcing their movies to that deadline even if they aren’t ready yet. Nimona was so good specifically *because* it had time to cook independently of that pressure. Great video as always Saber!
And that's why I admire Glitch Productions. They don't release Murder Drones episodes on holidays that only one country celebrates and the rest the world would have to wait and by the time they get it the pirates will have already won, they release them when they're done! Still can't believe we're on the final stretch here and I have no doubts about the Amazing Digital Circus doing equally as well.
The funny thing about that logic is the Mario Movie was originally going to have a holiday 2022 release date, but they delayed it. They keep delaying the movie until it released in April, but even so, still made a ton of money, and ended up turning out really good. So it goes to show that with a recognizable IP, it doesn’t matter when the movie releases, and thus Disney really could give their animators more time.
Execs want to credit success to literally anything besides good art, good acting, and good writing because they want to justify that they, the execs, are the ones who are REALLY responsible for a movie doing well. It's not about quality development, it's about the ad campaign, the release date, the merch! That's gotta be it, right?!
I thought it was more than that? He had the fruit of immortality (he only needed 1 but had like a hundred I think but I haven't read the book since I was 14) Went to the underworld and erased hin species including himself from the book of dearh Learned from the sage that taught him transforming for eternal youth (I guess technically diffrent) Took immortality pills Drank immortality wine Put in a magic oven. I remember wukong was attempted tk be killed a bunch prior to the oven and also had a competition after the oven but I don't think they changed the level of immortality in either
I love your new avatar design. The animation is really good. Also, it really says something that Illumination's video game adaptation did so much better than Disney's 100th anniversary celebration. How the tables have turned.
For me, it's a tie with atsv and Nimona. I can't say anything more about atsv that hasn't already been said so I'll just talk about Nimona. I love the smaller details in the animation which you can notice if you look carefully in the background and at other characters and how good the story is when you look at it. For example, and here is a spoiler alert, when Ballister is trying to show Ambrosius the evidence but he doesn't listen and turn on him, you can see in the background the look on Nimonas face which, without saying a word shows how she knows how this will play out because she's experienced it all herself but when it does play out as expected she is still disappointed in Ambrosius. Or how the director is willing to turn the cannons onto civilians threatening to killing millions and injuring many more even after Nimona shows that she is not a threat it proves that despite what she says, her main focus isn't protecting civilians, it's to kill what is different, remind you of anything? I also adore the character design, it's definitely one of the biggest improvements the film holds over the visual novel.
I absolutely agree. Atsv might be a little higher for me, but Nimona took me by surprise. I absolutely loved every second of it and cried like a baby during the end, which I don't usually do lol
what i also find amazing about it is not only is the lead openly gay and well represented, the entire plot of it has a lot to do with dealing with homophobia and the stuff surrounding that now thats layers, donkey
The objectively great animation and this story and others like it are definitely not conditioning us to believe, not reveal as fact, that Everyone Who has a Problem With Relationships And Identities Just Becasue They Are Not Traditional And No Other Reason according to their morality and the institutions that uphold them would be hellbent on being the first to evaporate the existence of the oPpressed who are Totally Innocent just following their hearts of personal morality if laws of civility ceased to function. We have faith treating no one as monsters and letting everyone pursue their happiness to the end will eventually get us to happy utopia somehow.
The original Japanese title for The Boy and the Heron is actually '君たちはどう生きるか' which translates to 'How do you live' - I remember hearing somewhere that the film also took inspiration from a book of the same title, so I like to think that some of the film comments on the ways different people choose to live their life and the choice that the protagonist must make on how he will live and view the rest of his life as well :)
I was kinda confused and a bit pissed when i heard about that. Why did they change such a good title? And what thought process got them at "The Boy and the Heron"? Ah yes, my favorite film "the bully and the deaf"
To be fair to The Monkey King, in the original Journey To The West, Sun Wukong does become like 5 different kinds of immortal all stacked on top of each other in just the first act before we ever even meet the main character of the story.
The live action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies are actually the best thing about the franchise. The actors and writing for the films bring a lot of charm, especially Devon Bostick (Rodrick.)
I haven't actually watched the new Monkey King story, so I don't know how it was handled exactly, BUT you pointed out that Sun Wukong's staff was too powerful and that he became immortal, and... yeah. He does that. The original story has him grow powerful enough to lift a huge undersea pillar and then shrinks it down to a staff, but it maintains the same weight. And then he goes and hangs out in heaven and become immortal like 3 times. Basically throughout the entirety of Journey to the West, Sun Wukong is extremely overpowered and stronger than every one of his traveling companions. The draw-backs are that he's a mischievous little shit who fucks around a lot and doesn't care about anyone else.
Like every year, 2023 had it's share of good and bad movies. But in my opinion movies especially the animated one's are some of the things that made 2023 bearable!
Seeing The Boy and the Heron in theaters was a magical experience. It was my first ever Studio Ghibli movie and I need to watch it again so I can truly understand the themes and imagery of this movie. Across the Spider Verse is easily my favorite movie of 2023 and it’s my most rewatched movie of 2023.
There are plenty of other great Studio Ghibli movies, “castle in the sky” and “from up on poppy hill” are two of my favourites. Highly recommend any of their films except for earwig and the witch, and tales of earthsea those two are quite unfortunate outliers
@@dreamguardian8320 I’d say it’s Miyazakis best, princess kaguya beats spirited away for me. I just wanted to recommend some movies that I love and aren’t recommended as often
Another movie you missed (that I would HIGHLY recommend) is the Chinese animated film Deep Sea. It only had a limited release in November and I’ve heard no one talk about it🥲 It doesn’t have and ENG dub yet, but the animation is STUNNING and the ending broke me😭
Dude I love nimona. Comedy is great, animations fun, characters are well done for their rolls, and the best part, for me, was how well nimona herself and to some extent bal, spoke to me as an outcast in life. Not to mention that when I saw it, I actually saw the girl that did the song at the beginning of the end credits (trex by kflay) just 3-4 days prior and I don't know many people that heard of her. That being said, I can't say there's a bad placement here.
i'm actually surprised that Nimona "only" made it to 4th place because that movie was such a rollercoaster for me. i cried so much, i laughed so hard, the animation was incredibly fun and beautiful, the characters were all so lovable and the story was incredibly good and unsettlingly close to reality, the way identity and othering were explored was so good, and the relationships felt realistic and not overly dramatized. i did not know what to expect from the movie and i was blown away.
I’m gonna miss the old avatar but this one is definitely great!! Love this channel and have always loved seeing your opinions on animated films. Keep up the fantastic work! I’d probably say spiderverse was my favorite of 2023 and if possible I’d throw puss in boots in there even tho it came out late 2022
The thing I love about your channel is that I learn about so many random movies I’ve never heard of, especially ones that make it so high up on the list. That DaVinci movie was completely unknown to me and looks BEAUTIFUL. I’ll be checking it out first, but it’s not the only one on your list I’m going to watch.
Im a little disappointed that Suzume wasn’t even mentioned in the list or as an exclusion. Yes, it initially released in Japan in 2022, but it came to NA theatres in 2023 and is part of the 2023 film award circuit, and it was def in my top 3 movies of the year. Wish you had touched on it similarly to Boy and the Heron, as I think Makoto Shinkai is being hailed as the new Miyazaki. It’s a completely original story, and is absolutely beautifully written and animated. i def recommend it!
I have never cried harder at a film than while watching Suzume, and I'm not usually one to get emotional lol. An absolute masterpiece, much like a lot of Shinkai's work
@@xunnamedxfrom what I've heard it's gonna have a theatrical release starting from January 24 in US, so possibly it's gonna get more love over here I hope
The Boy and the Heron and Across the Spider-Verse were my number 1 and number 2 favorite films of 2023. They were the greatest film achievements of the year in my opinion. The only 2023 movies I thought were 5/5 Star worthy
Venture bros movie felt like a pretty good conclusion to the venture bros story. Even through I would have liked a full season to flesh the ideas it presented, it unfortunately wasn’t in the cards.
@@N0Xcn Miyazaki is one of my top five favorite filmmakers of all time. Spirited Away is one of my top five favorite movies. So yes the boy and the hair was definitely made for me. If you try to analyze it like cinema sins you're not going to see or appreciate the films texture, atmosphere and symbolism. Also, both times that film made me weep. Especially in the way that the film deals with grief and how the film shows Miyazaki's perspective as an artist towards the end of his life
@@highwind1991 hey like I said, it was really pretty but it really didn't deal with grief that much. Main boy was just the same person from start to finish. Confident, brave, honest. except that he decided to start calling natsuko mom who was his aunt. It's an absolutely hilarious film with so many random moments that mean nothing or go nowhere
I’m glad someone finally shed some light on The Inventor! I saw it in theaters during a very limited run, was the only person in the whole movie theater, and thought it was really unique and charming. My biggest complaint is that it feels like the movie itself doesn’t know who it’s supposed to be for. Obviously I love it when animated films can be made with adults in mind while still being appropriate enough for younger viewers. But this movie constantly feels like its tone shifts from “silly kid stuff” to “philosophical adult movie” and then back again. I think movies like Soul and GDT’s Pinocchio handle that balance better. Nevertheless, I still liked this movie and hope more people can check it out!
Atsv also handled it better. It's a pg spiderman movie that deals with heavy adult themes about one's placement in the world. Miguel's 'You're an anomaly' attitude to Miles just REEKS of the racist discourse that happened when Miles' character was first introduced in the comics and is rightly portrayed AS A BAD THING. And then there's the fact that the Spider Society is effectively a cult.
Definitely agree with Across the Spider-verse being the best animated movie of 2023, it was simply phenomenal. My only nitpicky complaint is that because it's a two parter, the ending was sort of unsatisfying and hinges a lot on how well Beyond the Spider-verse sticks the landing. Like Saberspark, I do have faith that Beyond the Spider-verse WILL nail the ending of trilogy, but there's always a chance it won't, and if it doesn't that will slightly lessen my personal enjoyment of Across the Spider-verse.
Well said. That's why I understand when someone puts Boy & The Heron, Nimona or Mutant Mayhem over it. It's still my #1 tho. Hopefully they can start on part 2 soon and treat the animators a little better.
@@CrowTRobot Yeah, it REALLY sucks hearing how poorly the animators were treated while creating Across the Spider-verse. It's a masterpiece and they deserve immense praise for what they created. But, at the same time, I don't want them worked practically to death to create it. If it means the animators will be treated better, they can take as long as they need to on Beyond the Spider-verse.
@@SquashyButton Exactly. And people praising TMNT MM for how well the animators were treated is kind of sad, because that should be the norm. Crunch should be the exception.
I'm glad to see you doing an indie spotlight, as I'm following a couple indie animation staff on Twitter very happy to see you spotlighting these lesser known projects on such a large platform. I'd been keeping up with Monkey Wrench since episode 2, and I legitimately couldn't believe it was independent with how relentlessly expressive the animation and design-work is. I saw episode 3 when it premiered not too long ago, and I hope more people check it out too!
honestly i think the new trolls movie was the best out of all of the trolls movies so far. the purpose was to write a love letter to pop music, and i feel like they finally accomplished that with this one
Honestly this year in general was amazing for animation that I dont think I can rank movies this year! While we had some mehs, I feel like movies based on IPs or sequels really upped their game this year! I also loved the 3rd Trolls movie, TMNT, Mario, Nimona and ofc Spiderverse but in general I cannot pick a favorite!
Well Trolls Band Together was specifically a love letter to boy bands, they reference so many in the movie and it’s great xD Also Velvet and Veneer were the best part 😩💅✨
@@KingOfGaymes The Trolls movie is interesting. In Trolls 1, everyone got away from crapping over it, because it was Cringe to them. Then World Tour got enough fans that when Band Together was released, suddenly crapping over the trolls franchise came with a backlash from fans not there in the first movie. Its a strange journey to see take place and a lot of reviewers aren't getting away with the responses they used to. Its really showing that a large chunk of TH-cam reviewers just copied each other in the first film and jumped on the bandwagon of "yeah its bad" because it was the "in" thing to do. Its never going to be the best movie franchise out there, but its at least causing some people to look bad dissing it. Like I remember World Tour someone said it gave no technical advantages to DreamWorks and in terms of the technical side of things, it was BAD. But it was using the new engine DreamWorks had brought in since 2016 when Trolls 1 was released, and the animation was noticably improved. In addition, a huge amount of plug-ins had to be made for the models in the movie and DreamWorks gained hundreds of new textures. To say on a technical level it fail shows complete ignroance to animated movies. Its not like the Lego Movie where Ray Tracing was on screen for the first time and spotlight lighting was now rendered useless as a light-source in CGI except in places where that was the animation choice, but it showed off things like the Dreams own Ray Tracing render engine, etc. I am very tired as I write this so some thing may have been wrong in terms of names in that last paragraph, but I'm glad there are at least people defending the franchise. Also, people diss "cash grab" franchises but... they have the most support and are finically the most stable for a studio. They basically earn the money needed for the studio to take risks. The Cars movies do that for Pixar, they were making enough money at one point they covered the costs of the next two movies, so if they had failed, it wasn't as big of a deal.
Even though I didn’t plan to watch the movie I couldn’t stop admiring all the colors and especially textures of the models and landscapes while watching the trailer in theaters.
Dawn of the Nugget was a great and solid movie. As a person that watched the original religiously, I loved the horror it brought, It was like the uncanny valley, sorta Weirdcore. And I am in LOVE with how they portrayed Ginger and Molly’s relationship. I thought t was gonna be a Simba’s Pride scenario, but Ginger quickly understood what her daughter wanted. Most of the characters were properly used, the only exceptions were Fowler, the old guy, because he was just reduced to the funny old man, and Molly’s friend, I wish they did more with her. Another complaint was how slowly the characters were during high stakes action scenes, the most egregious example was the finale. But the amount of work and effort the team put into the movie was phenomenal. Plus they yassified Mrs Tweedy, and I love that for her.
It occurs to me that Diary of the Wimpy Kid is the one Disney film series where you can say the original _live-action_ films are (mostly) regarded as better than the _animated_ reboot.
I think it's tragic the Ruby Gillman was mid. I really like this movie, but yeah, it's a middling movie compared to everything else, but I would watch this over Wish b/c that Disney '100 Year Celebration' was soulless.
Ruby Gillman was robbed with how it developed. That movie was surprisingly enjoyable until That moment As a matter of fact, I went to watch Ruby Gillman Multiple times while needing to hide away from the Summer Heat
I haven't watched Ruby Gillman, yet, but... Yeah. I'll give it that much. It really seemed like a project people tried on, with actual passion. Just... not quite making it all work? But compared with Wish it actually has some freakin' personality and I'm going to remember Gillman exists in a year or two.
Glad to hear another who enjoyed Ruby Gilman. I enjoyed it very much, like many who have. While it's not great and had its flaws. I've rewatched it enough times to know, along with Trolls 3 were far more entertaining. WAY more then disneys recent works.
Another aspect of The Boy and the Heron that I don't see people really talking about: The movie is not just about the passing of Miyazaki's work, but also broadens this theme via taking place at the end of WWII and name-checking the Meiji Era. These were arguably the two greatest periods of change in Japanese history, where an old order died and a new one emerged. (The fascist parakeets are symptoms of how that old order usually desperately tries to cling to life.)
Yeah that’s so true but what I also think they’re talking about is the end of Ghibli itself. The Heron, the old man, and the boy all represent the main creatives at Disney, one of them is already dead. At some point they’re all gonna go and that studio they spearheaded is not gonna be the same. I saw a clip right before I saw the movie of Miyazaki talking about how Ghibli like all things will end and once I saw the end of the movie that really sank in for me.
There’s one French animated movie that release date confuses a lot of people and I think that Saber may take an interest in. It officially came out in 2023 but is apparently not releasing in America until this year and on the internet, it is credited as being released in 2022 which is when it was released to French film festivals. It is called “Epic Tails” (originally known as “Pattie et la colére de Posèidon”) AKA in places such as Australia “Argonuts”. For those who are interested, the movie takes place 80 years after the events of “Jason and the Argonuts” and it follows a mouse named Pattie who dreams of becoming a heroine like Jason who is her idol. After the city of Yolcos (based on Iolcos) builds a statue of Zeus, Poseidon threatens the city with a tsunami if they don’t build him one too. So, in order to find a trident for the statue, Pattie tags along with Jason (and the reanimated Argonauts) to find a mystical giant sapphire that resembles a trident. The animation is beautiful, the score is spectacular. The voice acting is… ok (its an English dubbed kids movie, you know how most them are). But yeah, I wonder what Saber would think of it?
For me, Nimona would sit directly under atsv, with the Mario movie sitting comfortably in 3rd. Nimona deserves all the praise it's been getting, especially after Disney threw the IP to the wayside. Watching Nimona, made me feel like I was watching the original Shrek again at times. With its energy, humor & a great message. It's a truly amazing movie. And atsv, the only sequel I'm probably more excited for this year, would be Sonic 3. It's always great seeing movies push the boundaries of what is considered "the norm" in pop culture. With Mario, it's great seeing him finally throw off the shackles that have weighing him down on the big screen after the original movie. And who didn't have a smile on their face when Charles Martine (sorry if I misspell his last name) made a cameo.
I'm really glad to hear you really liked Migration for what it was! And I agree that while it may not be spectacular on the same level of the best animated movies of 2023, it was nevertheless a cute, charming little family film and one that definitely makes me all the more interested in checking out Benjamin Renner's previous films such as Ernest and Celestine!
Boy and the Heron is primarily a metaphor about grief and passing on legacies, with a good dose of critiquing fascism (which ties in neatly to preserving the old ways, no matter their flaws) which imo makes it an amazing movie for rewatching and analysis. Its one of those movies where the more you sit and think about it, the more details you notice, and that's amazing. Ex, you have the metaphors about the uncle wanting to pass on his legacy, but you also have one about grief and escapism (ie, the fantasy world) and how its impossible to be in a world that is truly without suffering no matter how hard you try, so its better to embrace what you have now and try to better it than to grasp for an ideal you'll never achieve, all while remembering what you lost and not forgetting the past so that you could rebuild better in the future
26:26 Yeah no the Monkey King is literally immortal in like seven different ways. This is even true in the original story, and the rest of the Journey to the West has him mellow out over time; usually the stories end up being more about Sun Wukong having to outsmart his opponents rather than brute-force his way past them (though being so powerful he can usually easily cut straight to the point of most matters, and from there it just takes some figuring).
Wasn’t sure if you saw it this year but Suzume was also a great animated movie that came out this year! (Pretty sure it came out earlier in Japan but it was still very good)
So I saw Spiderverse a little after the hype for it died out. So the theater was empty when I went. But I was honestly happy for that because I was LOSING MY MIND. I was crying through like half of it. And not even because it was sad or emotional or whatever (which it could be at parts)…It was because as an animation student who had begun to loose some hope in the animation industry, and who was bitter…Spiderverse resparked my hope and my passion. It’s like a love letter to animation itself. It’s a masterpiece! I forced my whole family to watch it just so that they’d understand why I was suddenly so excited to animate again. It’s truly a fantastic movie. And I love that it’s inspired other studios to experiment more. I also think that’s why Disney is kinda falling behind. They’re not experimenting enough. They’re stuck between whether they want to stick to their old traditions or whether they want to move forward and do something new. And they can’t really decide, or quite find a way to do both that works yet. Meanwhile, other studios are figuring it out.
The imagery in Nimona in the final act pretty much trumps everything ive seen laat year. I cared so much for Nimonas safety and happiness that seeing her brought so low and nearly kill herself is so evocative and eye opening to me.
I love how this ranking not just a well know movie that We've been heard or watch,but some of not so well as the other ranking like Inspector Sun and The Inventor. Can't wait for Land Before Time video.
My favs this year was Trolls 3 and Leo. I wanted to see Migration but never got to. I greatly disagree with your take on Trolls 3 but I understand it from an objective standpoint. But as we know, animation done correctly is ART and art is subjective. Trolls 3 brings me back to a nostalgic headspace and makes my 30 Y/O ass feel JUST like a kid again watching it. I love Poppy and Branch and seeing Baby Branch makes my heart melt, the villains are so fun to watch I've watched the film I think about 3 or 4 times through (I'm childless BTW)... LEO WAS ALSO SO GOOD WTF. SPOILERS FOR LEO and also TW FOR DEATH The fact that he thinks he is dying for the entirety of the film only to learn he has another 30-50 years left reminds me a lot of how a lot of human being experience mid life crises. Which often get made fun of, because tbh, when you reach that point in your life, you tend to learn all you can really do is laugh about it and move on. I love how Adam Sandler uses comedy to connect with deeper more complex emotions, in a way children can understand too. Death and loss is probably one of the most inescapably scary things in life, and comedy when done correctly, is like it's antivenom. It takes the sting, and the pain out of it. And Leo gets loose with it in a fun and malleable way. Also I am SHOCKED I didn't see more memes of it floating around. If I may, I'll link a funny one my BF made after we got to one of our fav parts of the movie xD
Yessss I loved trolls 3 so much too, DreamWorks is always great at sneaking adult jokes into movies which just makes it more enjoyable for anyone, but yeah I get why it was ranked as it was
8:30 I think Ryder (like Hiro from Big Hero 6) graduated from school at a young age bc of his brilliant intelligence. I mean come on, I’m pretty sure he built all their stuff
The Boy and the Heron...oh my word. None of my friends like it, but I LOVED it. I tried to explain to them the significance of the building blocks for the tower. Which include everything from the stone he hurt himself with, to the one he picked up and kept with him. He mentioned to the uncle that he could tell there was malice in the blocks offered to him. And then, when he is given pure blocks, he decides that he doesn't want other people choosing his blocks for him, and he explains how is scar is evidence of choosing ones with malice too. The one he picked up he chose, and it wasn't full of malice. And, seriously, even further: The first stone, he hits himself because he's trying to build is life how he wants to build it. He doesn't want to go back to school. He picks up a 'building block' and uses it in a terrible way. But yeah, it still builds up his life. Once again, the second blocks are the ones offered where he sees malice, and he only knows that they have negativity because the first stone he picked up with brimming with it. The third he picks up himself and it feels good and right. The fourth are new ones offered that are pure, and he's like, 'nope, if I'm going to build something, it's going to be my own thing." And all the little bits and pieces strewn throughout the film. From the fire maiden being a fire maiden because she dies in a fire, to one of the things he decides to build into his own life is to enjoy having a mother again.
I'm so happy you talked about Monkey Wrench! It deserves so much love and attention! The third episode actually made me cry, which I was not expecting from what I saw in the first two episodes.
Its kinda sad for me than the only anime movie always featured on those lists are the ones made by studio ghibli, this year were also The First Slam Dunk, a beautiful adaptation one of the most important sport mangas
The mario movie may not have a big complex plot or what ever but there were many times were i laughted like the disterbed lumi that wanted death which was pretty dark for an illumination film so they dipped there toes a but in taking risk. Also loved when "the gaurd toads said the priceness is not in this castle try another one" also loved toad he was really fun. I also loved the brother bound theme; it felt heartfelt. I just wish there was more lugi espeacially since charlie days voice suits him so much. Also wish chris pratt was more consitante with his accent.
As an aside, that Batman horror movie was actually surprisingly good. I watched it on a flight and couldn't pull my eyes away, even with Ace Attorney running on my Switch at the time.
@@CrowTRobot I meant that the movie was so good I couldn't split my attention. Usually I'd put on something just for the noise because Ace Attorney doesn't have the most engaging audio.
@@KingOfGaymes The Doom That Came to Gotham is probably that Batman's gotten to being a horror movie. Not in terms of jumpscares but just general atmosphere.
It's disheartening to see Suzume slipping under the radar for so many reviewers and reward shows. It's now one of my all-time favourite films, alongside Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, another great film from 2023.
1:23 You need to review Craig Before the Creek, it's easily the best film that Cartoon Network Studios has ever produced, up there with Big Picture Show!! Maybe you could do it on your second channel! I just can't believe you missed out on it Saber?!?
Another big problem with Ruby Gillman is the trailers gave away the twist. We already knew the mermaid girl was evil from the trailers so why did they try to trick us in the movie to think that she wasn't actually evil?
Imma just say it: 1. Spiderman into the spider verse 2. Nimona (I didn't care for the heron or the inventor, but nimona is wonderfully amazing, story is perfect, it could've been slightly better in the visuals and pacing, but it was great) 3. Elemental 4.chicken run 5. Monkey king (I've never heard of seen it, but I'm not interested either) Honorable mentions: migration and trolls band together (I put these here as I haven't seen them, and intend on watching them EVENTUALLY, and won't decide on how it is until after I watched it) Won't do anymore, and that's my opinion on this list
“You’ve probably never heard of [Inspector Sun]” I work at my local theater. We play trailers on TVs in the lobby. I saw Inspector Sun’s trailer on loop for a month. We had the poster. We advertised the SHIT out of that movie for some reason. So YES I’ve heard of Inspector Sun 😵💫
That's a shame. The Doom that Came to Gotham was a fun movie. It has some writing flaws. But introducing Batman to the world of Lovecraft is just a fun concept.
I loved Myazaki's movie and I really hope it will win the Oscar for the animation. As an Italian, I was really touched by the references of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri that Myazaki put in the tower. Infact, if you look closely on the arch at the entrance of the tower (minute 36:06) you can read the inscription: "Facemi la divina potestate" which in Italian means "I was made by the divine authority". In the Divine Comedy this line is written on the entrance of the Hell and if you know Dante's magnum opus, you will notice all the recallings to the underworld he depicted. But Myazaki also gave a different interpretation of Dante's Line: the Tower symbolize's the imaginary world of the Studio Ghibli, and in this world the artist (Myazaki, represented by the old man in the movie) is a sort of Divine Authority that brought everything to life. Infact the first time we see the Old Man, he is among the celestial spheres, like God in Dante's Paradise. Facemi la divina potestate La somma sapienza e 'l primo amore Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create Se non etterne e io etterna duro I was made by the Divine Authority The highes wisdom and the primal love Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last. This lines, in Myazaki's interpretation, refer to his gorgeous work as an animator that will last in eternal.
While Across the Spiderverse is an easy number one, for me, Trolls Band Together is an easy second place (at least based on what I've seen so far). As for worst, I'd have to go with Ruby Gillman. It's not BAD, but it was just thoroughly okay.
its really not plot makes no sense spider friends all under used from the last movie over push of miles to retcon with canon events and anomaly to make him "special" for no good reason pregnant spider women is just stupidity but media pushes that cause empowering and baby's are disposable to them Miguel retcon just to devalue him and push a stupid narrative on canon cause meta writing on "miles isn't spidey" crowd just cause it has high visuals doesn't mean its quality just means they visually vomited on screen and hoped that was enough
I haven't seen The Boy and the Heron, but I strongly agree with your placements of the other four movies in your top 5. Man, the rest of this year was pretty eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh though.
The Boy and The Heron is absolutely worth seeing, the visuals are incredible but tbh storywise the movie is being allowed to skate entirely on the reputation and love of the studio.
That Venture Bros movie is a wonderful sendoff to the fans. It both answered so much about the characters of Venture Bros and left us asking even more questions. Highly recommended for any fan of the series.
25:34 When you say DBZ is to thank for "Western" audience's familiarity of Monkey King, you should narrow that down to just _American & Canadian_ audiences. In Australia, New Zealand & the UK we had *Monkey Magic* a Japanese show based on Journey to the West that ran from 1978-80 but also had dubbed reruns through the 90s & 00s. DBZ just added to that, rather than starting it.
Five of my favorite animated films of 2023 are: 1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie 🍄 2. Mavka: The Forest Song 🇺🇦 3. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie ☄ 4. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget 🐔 5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 🐢
This is awesome- the year was so stacked that there's still a bunch that I haven't seen. My top animated movies were: 1. Spider-verse 2. Boy & Heron 3. Nimona 4. TMNT Mutant Mayhem I haven't seen Chicken Run or Mavka, thanks for the recommendations!! I'll check them out!
I mean, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is great overall, the animation is fire, the characters seem cool and decent, but the storyline/plot has missed a potential, it deserves more depth and development to be honest. Edit: I also wished that Nerissa and Chelsea are separate characters because I wanna see how Chelsea could handle a situation where in her mother is holding her back from doing the good thing. And we could probably use a bit more tragedy, perhaps.
Glad to see that Nimona got top 5. A really good movie and based on an exceptional book. (If you liked the movie and would like something that follows a similar storyline and goes into more detail, I'd very much recommend the (graphic) novel.
Ngl the only movies on this list I watched were The Super Mario Bros Movie and Nimona. Both were astounding. As a longstanding Mario fan, I really loved how unseriously the movie took itself, and it felt like it did the whole franchise justice (at least for me). As for Nimona... there are no words to describe how amazing that movie was. To anyone who hasn't watched it, watch it. Like, seriously.
I agree with most of the things on this list, but I still can't believe there is no mention of the movie Peasants :') This is my second favorite movie of 2023 after Across the spider verse because of the beautiful animation and soundtrack!
2023 was crazy af but still good, I graduated from high school, made new friends and made some short films of my own Anyways here are my picks 1. Spiderman Across the Spider-Verse (10/10) (Best movie of 2023 and favourite superhero movie next to The Incredibles) 2. Nimona (10/10) (the best animated movie about acceptance since Shrek) 3. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem (9/10) 4. The Super Mario Bros Movie (8/10) (I'm not the biggest mario fan around, but the movie was so good!!!, I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks) 5. Chicken Run 2 (7/10)
spiderverse is just bad - nothing of value happens - none of its plot threads are resolved by the end - emasculating peter in that terrible outfit and being put down throughout - spider friends from last movie not used at all - Migue retcon to make him a villain for no reason than to push miles - tokenism
I wish more people out there could see the positives of Ruby Gillman Sure, it doesn't do anything new or innovative, but it still wound up being one of my favorite films of the year regardless
I think the main issue is that because the trailers ALL revealed that the mermaid would be the main villain in the big final fight, everyone went in expecting some other big twist, and instead, they just realised that every single trailer of the movie spoiled the twist.
@@femoman I was actually hoping for a different twist myself, like the grandmother being the real villain and the kraken/mermaid conflict being not as black and white as it appeared. I was making predictions before it came out just from what I saw of the trailer and the announcements, but it doesn't seem like the final product lived up to that, instead going for the expected conclusion. Frankly, I think my idea would have been much better than what we got.
@@maniacaldudeidk about grandma being turned into an antagonist, but I’ve rewritten the movie a bit, it’s on AO3. It ends with ruby and Chelsea being on good terms but there’s so much more to it. If you’re interested I will send it
Nice update on your avatar Saber. I only saw one third of the movies on this list, so here's my thoughts on those I've seen: *Across the Spider-Verse* (a MIND-BLOWING experience with amazing storytelling and spectacular animation; I'm still sorry for what the animators had to deal with, though) *Nimona* (great commentary on its themes, wonderful main characters and striking visuals) *The Boy and the Heron* (a beautiful dream-like adventure with an entertaining heron) *Elemental* (lovely romance between its leads and creative use of its literal elements) *TMNT Mutant Mayhem* (solid take on the turtles and fun action) *Mario Movie* (an overall fun ride, but Luigi really should've lead a prison-break at some point) *Leo* (an otherwise sweet journey that could've taken out the Everglades detour) *The Magician's Elephant* (loved the elephant, hated the narration, and felt indifferent with everything else) *Wish* (a sloppy story with mostly dull characters, though the visuals, Star and some songs were pleasant)
My Top 5 favorite animated movies of 2023 are... 1) Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget 2) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 3) The Super Mario Bros. Movie 4) Wish 5) Elemental
23:29 fun fact: Tresi Gazal (the voice actress of Gwen, the little girl duck) got nominated for best voice acting at the Annie Awards! That’s gonna be hard bc she’s going up against Jack Black as Bowser and Chloë Grace Moretz as Nimona. Wish her luck tho, her voice performance as Gwen won me over in this film.
I honestly feel Wish is the most overhated movie of 2023. Sure it could’ve been better (ESPECIALLY for Disney’s 100th anniversary film) but I still had a decent experience with the movie
Look: in defense of Monkey King and plot armor, in the source material he was famously hard to defeat and had like 6 types of immortality on him. He’s born of a magic stone, erases his name from the list of souls that are collected upon death, he learns a shape shifting technique so that he can avoid death and judgement, he eats peaches of immortality, he eats pills of immortality, he’s baked in brazier used to make pills of immortality…
I've yet to watch this movie, but No Dogs or Italians Allowed was another stopmotion movie that came out in 2023. It's a French production. Not sure if that movie got a US release, but I recall seeing it being shown in cinemas over here.
Loved the Monkey Wrench shoutout! Just gave it a watch recently, and I was hooked as soon as I watched it. The good news is that they got enough funding for episode 4, so we'll have that to look forward to in 2024!
The boy and the heron was such a weird experience. Usually when I see modern animation movies, it’s the story that drives my interest but with this film it was the visuals. The story was a bit too cluttered for me to really gravitate towards it and stay captivated by it. But the animation was just so stunning that it kept me interested all the way through.
My personal problem of Trolls band together is that there is almost nothing in it/references from World Tour like there is a character here and there and like 1 line, but other than that there is nothing, which sucks because you can hardly tell that it is a 3rd movie because the second makes little to no impact on it
Across the Spider-verse is my favorite movie of the year. I *hated* Ruby Gillman though. It's colourful, sure, but it's by far one of DreamWorks weaker 3fforts as it's entirely predictable by literally flipping the villain/protagonist of the Disney film which made it entirely predictable. DreamWorks is at it's worst when it's flaunting how much it's not Disney. I can, however, suggest a small change to improve it. Make Chelsea the actual daughter of Narissa, and her motives pure. Actually have the Trident corrupt her. That way Ruby is fighting to save her friend and has to mother and grandmother to help.
I am so glad you've started doing the Indie Spotlight segment: I love getting to experience animation from creatives I've never heard of, but oftentimes I don't know where to look to find these gems. Having recommendations come from a reliable source (you) goes a long way to finding and vetting these choices a lot easier! Thanks Saber!
Nimona narrowly beat Across the Spider-Verse as my fave animated movie of 2023. And it actually became my favourite movie ever. Never before had a film made me feel so much emotion. I watched it 5 times last year and still cried as much the 5th time as I did the 1st time. It is such incredible storytelling. Honestly, I'd be scared of a sequel because I don't think they can recapture the themes that made the film so emotional.
To be fair, in Journey to the West, Sun Wukong is immortal like four times over, is practically indestructable, and beat the crap out of all the armies of Heaven. That's kinda the point -- the only one who could defeat him was the Buddha himself, and only a handful of entities can even give him a run for his money. It's not about how big a thing can he beat up -- the stories are about a 50-50 mix of figuring out the bad guy's sneaky trick or learning how to use his power wisely, carefully, and with kindness.
Yeah, I'm having trouble with "Pastacalypse" too. You have to awkwardly emphasize the second syllable in "Pasta" to make it work. Seems like should have gone with "Pastapocalypse".
24:10 the problem with those previous adaptations is they didn't embrace their source material, they were based on computer games but tried to be anything but those computer games, so the end product was a convoluted jumble that feels like a sloppy cash-grab. So glad it only took them 30 years to stop doing that shit. I guess we have the current trends of nostalgia and reference humour to thank for that.
well yeah in Journey to the west the monkey King is insanely powerful that he not only was like triple immortal but it took dropping a mountain over him to get him to stop additionally due to his insane strength his journey is emotional rather than physical and must learn empathy as well as prudence along the way
I ended up only seeing 3 of the animated films that came out in 2023, and they're all safely at least a 7.5/10 for me. My order from worst to best for them are: Mario, Nimona, Spider-Verse
Use code SABERSPARK50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/48fuNPX!
What did you all think was the WORST and BEST of 2023? Lemme know down in the comments!
I really like the new avatar :)
My farts are better than Saberspark and Saberfart’s farts 💨
I prefer the old avatar
𝔸𝕨𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠!
Worst is Wish.
Ever since Frozen did well on a thanksgiving release date, Disney’s been forcing their movies to that deadline even if they aren’t ready yet. Nimona was so good specifically *because* it had time to cook independently of that pressure. Great video as always Saber!
And that's why I admire Glitch Productions. They don't release Murder Drones episodes on holidays that only one country celebrates and the rest the world would have to wait and by the time they get it the pirates will have already won, they release them when they're done! Still can't believe we're on the final stretch here and I have no doubts about the Amazing Digital Circus doing equally as well.
We need to wait and see if they can survive to 2030.
The funny thing about that logic is the Mario Movie was originally going to have a holiday 2022 release date, but they delayed it. They keep delaying the movie until it released in April, but even so, still made a ton of money, and ended up turning out really good. So it goes to show that with a recognizable IP, it doesn’t matter when the movie releases, and thus Disney really could give their animators more time.
Execs want to credit success to literally anything besides good art, good acting, and good writing because they want to justify that they, the execs, are the ones who are REALLY responsible for a movie doing well. It's not about quality development, it's about the ad campaign, the release date, the merch! That's gotta be it, right?!
Well Nimona almost died from Disney beating up Blue Sky in a back alley
In defence of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong having a lot of plot armour is very accurate to the original tale (he becomes immortal 4 times over)
7. 7 times over.
I thought it was more than that?
He had the fruit of immortality (he only needed 1 but had like a hundred I think but I haven't read the book since I was 14)
Went to the underworld and erased hin species including himself from the book of dearh
Learned from the sage that taught him transforming for eternal youth (I guess technically diffrent)
Took immortality pills
Drank immortality wine
Put in a magic oven.
I remember wukong was attempted tk be killed a bunch prior to the oven and also had a competition after the oven but I don't think they changed the level of immortality in either
4 times if we don't count each immortality pill as its own layer of immortality
monkey king being OP is pretty lore accurate
Isen't that the whole part of his character?
I love your new avatar design. The animation is really good. Also, it really says something that Illumination's video game adaptation did so much better than Disney's 100th anniversary celebration. How the tables have turned.
When did it change? Or is this the first one?
Where is the animation? His avatar isn’t animated….
The avatar change is a bit…jarring. It’s not bad, just different. It’ll take some time to get used to.
do you even know what animation is
Why is everyone just talking about the animation sentence? They’re more than just that in the comment.
For me, it's a tie with atsv and Nimona. I can't say anything more about atsv that hasn't already been said so I'll just talk about Nimona. I love the smaller details in the animation which you can notice if you look carefully in the background and at other characters and how good the story is when you look at it. For example, and here is a spoiler alert, when Ballister is trying to show Ambrosius the evidence but he doesn't listen and turn on him, you can see in the background the look on Nimonas face which, without saying a word shows how she knows how this will play out because she's experienced it all herself but when it does play out as expected she is still disappointed in Ambrosius. Or how the director is willing to turn the cannons onto civilians threatening to killing millions and injuring many more even after Nimona shows that she is not a threat it proves that despite what she says, her main focus isn't protecting civilians, it's to kill what is different, remind you of anything? I also adore the character design, it's definitely one of the biggest improvements the film holds over the visual novel.
I absolutely agree. Atsv might be a little higher for me, but Nimona took me by surprise. I absolutely loved every second of it and cried like a baby during the end, which I don't usually do lol
what i also find amazing about it is not only is the lead openly gay and well represented, the entire plot of it has a lot to do with dealing with homophobia and the stuff surrounding that
now thats layers, donkey
The objectively great animation and this story and others like it are definitely not conditioning us to believe, not reveal as fact, that Everyone Who has a Problem With Relationships And Identities Just Becasue They Are Not Traditional And No Other Reason according to their morality and the institutions that uphold them would be hellbent on being the first to evaporate the existence of the oPpressed who are Totally Innocent just following their hearts of personal morality if laws of civility ceased to function. We have faith treating no one as monsters and letting everyone pursue their happiness to the end will eventually get us to happy utopia somehow.
There are so many little jokes in the background too.
Like when they try to oidnap the sword guy he gets knocked out and has the family guy pose
I did t like nimona for the fact that it's a pg move push gay views in kids. The animation looked great, just why make it a kids movie?
The original Japanese title for The Boy and the Heron is actually '君たちはどう生きるか' which translates to 'How do you live' - I remember hearing somewhere that the film also took inspiration from a book of the same title, so I like to think that some of the film comments on the ways different people choose to live their life and the choice that the protagonist must make on how he will live and view the rest of his life as well :)
I was kinda confused and a bit pissed when i heard about that. Why did they change such a good title? And what thought process got them at "The Boy and the Heron"?
Ah yes, my favorite film "the bully and the deaf"
@@Fantastic-rp3lc The title was changed because the Japanese producers told them to.
@@Fantastic-rp3lcBecause the movie had nothing to do with how people live.
That title would probably fit Soul better.
@@Fantastic-rp3lc They probably thought it wasn't a good marketing title.
@@me-myself-i787nah, to heavy of a tittle for disney
To be fair to The Monkey King, in the original Journey To The West, Sun Wukong does become like 5 different kinds of immortal all stacked on top of each other in just the first act before we ever even meet the main character of the story.
😂
The live action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies are actually the best thing about the franchise. The actors and writing for the films bring a lot of charm, especially Devon Bostick (Rodrick.)
His last name sounds so similar to his character's name.
Well, besides long haul
Rodrick*
I haven't actually watched the new Monkey King story, so I don't know how it was handled exactly, BUT you pointed out that Sun Wukong's staff was too powerful and that he became immortal, and... yeah. He does that. The original story has him grow powerful enough to lift a huge undersea pillar and then shrinks it down to a staff, but it maintains the same weight. And then he goes and hangs out in heaven and become immortal like 3 times. Basically throughout the entirety of Journey to the West, Sun Wukong is extremely overpowered and stronger than every one of his traveling companions. The draw-backs are that he's a mischievous little shit who fucks around a lot and doesn't care about anyone else.
Like every year, 2023 had it's share of good and bad movies. But in my opinion movies especially the animated one's are some of the things that made 2023 bearable!
@@valth3 1. How is that relavent?
2. Nobody cares.
Seeing The Boy and the Heron in theaters was a magical experience. It was my first ever Studio Ghibli movie and I need to watch it again so I can truly understand the themes and imagery of this movie. Across the Spider Verse is easily my favorite movie of 2023 and it’s my most rewatched movie of 2023.
There are plenty of other great Studio Ghibli movies, “castle in the sky” and “from up on poppy hill” are two of my favourites.
Highly recommend any of their films except for earwig and the witch, and tales of earthsea those two are quite unfortunate outliers
@@saranjago In my opinion, Spirited Away is the number 1 Studio Ghibli movie out of them all.
@@dreamguardian8320 I’d say it’s Miyazakis best, princess kaguya beats spirited away for me. I just wanted to recommend some movies that I love and aren’t recommended as often
Another movie you missed (that I would HIGHLY recommend) is the Chinese animated film Deep Sea. It only had a limited release in November and I’ve heard no one talk about it🥲 It doesn’t have and ENG dub yet, but the animation is STUNNING and the ending broke me😭
YES! I would love to see Saber breaking this one down. It has a few issues but it is really creative and has some big twists.
Yesss!! I've been meaning to see it for so long & can't wait for the dub!!
Dude I love nimona. Comedy is great, animations fun, characters are well done for their rolls, and the best part, for me, was how well nimona herself and to some extent bal, spoke to me as an outcast in life. Not to mention that when I saw it, I actually saw the girl that did the song at the beginning of the end credits (trex by kflay) just 3-4 days prior and I don't know many people that heard of her. That being said, I can't say there's a bad placement here.
i'm actually surprised that Nimona "only" made it to 4th place because that movie was such a rollercoaster for me. i cried so much, i laughed so hard, the animation was incredibly fun and beautiful, the characters were all so lovable and the story was incredibly good and unsettlingly close to reality, the way identity and othering were explored was so good, and the relationships felt realistic and not overly dramatized. i did not know what to expect from the movie and i was blown away.
I’m gonna miss the old avatar but this one is definitely great!! Love this channel and have always loved seeing your opinions on animated films. Keep up the fantastic work! I’d probably say spiderverse was my favorite of 2023 and if possible I’d throw puss in boots in there even tho it came out late 2022
Agreed. I’m sure I’ll get used to this one with time, but it is a bit jarring. It’s not bad, just different.
The thing I love about your channel is that I learn about so many random movies I’ve never heard of, especially ones that make it so high up on the list. That DaVinci movie was completely unknown to me and looks BEAUTIFUL. I’ll be checking it out first, but it’s not the only one on your list I’m going to watch.
Im a little disappointed that Suzume wasn’t even mentioned in the list or as an exclusion. Yes, it initially released in Japan in 2022, but it came to NA theatres in 2023 and is part of the 2023 film award circuit, and it was def in my top 3 movies of the year. Wish you had touched on it similarly to Boy and the Heron, as I think Makoto Shinkai is being hailed as the new Miyazaki. It’s a completely original story, and is absolutely beautifully written and animated. i def recommend it!
I have never cried harder at a film than while watching Suzume, and I'm not usually one to get emotional lol. An absolute masterpiece, much like a lot of Shinkai's work
I wish reviewers would include more international animated movies, I'm so sad The Peasants didn't receive any recognition in the USA.
@@xunnamedxfrom what I've heard it's gonna have a theatrical release starting from January 24 in US, so possibly it's gonna get more love over here I hope
OOOOH I LOVED SUZUME!
So glad someone’s mentioning it
The Boy and the Heron and Across the Spider-Verse were my number 1 and number 2 favorite films of 2023. They were the greatest film achievements of the year in my opinion. The only 2023 movies I thought were 5/5 Star worthy
100%
Venture bros movie felt like a pretty good conclusion to the venture bros story. Even through I would have liked a full season to flesh the ideas it presented, it unfortunately wasn’t in the cards.
Wait, you liked boy and the heron? I thought it was a bunch of pretty nonesense with zero character development 🤣
@@N0Xcn Miyazaki is one of my top five favorite filmmakers of all time. Spirited Away is one of my top five favorite movies. So yes the boy and the hair was definitely made for me. If you try to analyze it like cinema sins you're not going to see or appreciate the films texture, atmosphere and symbolism. Also, both times that film made me weep. Especially in the way that the film deals with grief and how the film shows Miyazaki's perspective as an artist towards the end of his life
@@highwind1991 hey like I said, it was really pretty but it really didn't deal with grief that much. Main boy was just the same person from start to finish. Confident, brave, honest. except that he decided to start calling natsuko mom who was his aunt. It's an absolutely hilarious film with so many random moments that mean nothing or go nowhere
I’m glad someone finally shed some light on The Inventor! I saw it in theaters during a very limited run, was the only person in the whole movie theater, and thought it was really unique and charming. My biggest complaint is that it feels like the movie itself doesn’t know who it’s supposed to be for. Obviously I love it when animated films can be made with adults in mind while still being appropriate enough for younger viewers. But this movie constantly feels like its tone shifts from “silly kid stuff” to “philosophical adult movie” and then back again. I think movies like Soul and GDT’s Pinocchio handle that balance better. Nevertheless, I still liked this movie and hope more people can check it out!
Atsv also handled it better. It's a pg spiderman movie that deals with heavy adult themes about one's placement in the world. Miguel's 'You're an anomaly' attitude to Miles just REEKS of the racist discourse that happened when Miles' character was first introduced in the comics and is rightly portrayed AS A BAD THING. And then there's the fact that the Spider Society is effectively a cult.
Definitely agree with Across the Spider-verse being the best animated movie of 2023, it was simply phenomenal. My only nitpicky complaint is that because it's a two parter, the ending was sort of unsatisfying and hinges a lot on how well Beyond the Spider-verse sticks the landing. Like Saberspark, I do have faith that Beyond the Spider-verse WILL nail the ending of trilogy, but there's always a chance it won't, and if it doesn't that will slightly lessen my personal enjoyment of Across the Spider-verse.
Same here
Well said. That's why I understand when someone puts Boy & The Heron, Nimona or Mutant Mayhem over it. It's still my #1 tho. Hopefully they can start on part 2 soon and treat the animators a little better.
@@CrowTRobot Yeah, it REALLY sucks hearing how poorly the animators were treated while creating Across the Spider-verse. It's a masterpiece and they deserve immense praise for what they created. But, at the same time, I don't want them worked practically to death to create it. If it means the animators will be treated better, they can take as long as they need to on Beyond the Spider-verse.
@@SquashyButton Exactly. And people praising TMNT MM for how well the animators were treated is kind of sad, because that should be the norm. Crunch should be the exception.
Nah, Boy and the Heron is much better. At least it has an ending.
I'm glad to see you doing an indie spotlight, as I'm following a couple indie animation staff on Twitter very happy to see you spotlighting these lesser known projects on such a large platform. I'd been keeping up with Monkey Wrench since episode 2, and I legitimately couldn't believe it was independent with how relentlessly expressive the animation and design-work is. I saw episode 3 when it premiered not too long ago, and I hope more people check it out too!
honestly i think the new trolls movie was the best out of all of the trolls movies so far. the purpose was to write a love letter to pop music, and i feel like they finally accomplished that with this one
Honestly this year in general was amazing for animation that I dont think I can rank movies this year! While we had some mehs, I feel like movies based on IPs or sequels really upped their game this year! I also loved the 3rd Trolls movie, TMNT, Mario, Nimona and ofc Spiderverse but in general I cannot pick a favorite!
Well Trolls Band Together was specifically a love letter to boy bands, they reference so many in the movie and it’s great xD
Also Velvet and Veneer were the best part 😩💅✨
@@KingOfGaymes The Trolls movie is interesting.
In Trolls 1, everyone got away from crapping over it, because it was Cringe to them. Then World Tour got enough fans that when Band Together was released, suddenly crapping over the trolls franchise came with a backlash from fans not there in the first movie.
Its a strange journey to see take place and a lot of reviewers aren't getting away with the responses they used to. Its really showing that a large chunk of TH-cam reviewers just copied each other in the first film and jumped on the bandwagon of "yeah its bad" because it was the "in" thing to do.
Its never going to be the best movie franchise out there, but its at least causing some people to look bad dissing it.
Like I remember World Tour someone said it gave no technical advantages to DreamWorks and in terms of the technical side of things, it was BAD. But it was using the new engine DreamWorks had brought in since 2016 when Trolls 1 was released, and the animation was noticably improved. In addition, a huge amount of plug-ins had to be made for the models in the movie and DreamWorks gained hundreds of new textures. To say on a technical level it fail shows complete ignroance to animated movies. Its not like the Lego Movie where Ray Tracing was on screen for the first time and spotlight lighting was now rendered useless as a light-source in CGI except in places where that was the animation choice, but it showed off things like the Dreams own Ray Tracing render engine, etc.
I am very tired as I write this so some thing may have been wrong in terms of names in that last paragraph, but I'm glad there are at least people defending the franchise.
Also, people diss "cash grab" franchises but... they have the most support and are finically the most stable for a studio. They basically earn the money needed for the studio to take risks. The Cars movies do that for Pixar, they were making enough money at one point they covered the costs of the next two movies, so if they had failed, it wasn't as big of a deal.
@@LocalTorchwoodIntern agreed!! i think the tmnt movie was my personal favorite :)
Even though I didn’t plan to watch the movie I couldn’t stop admiring all the colors and especially textures of the models and landscapes while watching the trailer in theaters.
Dawn of the Nugget was a great and solid movie. As a person that watched the original religiously, I loved the horror it brought, It was like the uncanny valley, sorta Weirdcore. And I am in LOVE with how they portrayed Ginger and Molly’s relationship. I thought t was gonna be a Simba’s Pride scenario, but Ginger quickly understood what her daughter wanted. Most of the characters were properly used, the only exceptions were Fowler, the old guy, because he was just reduced to the funny old man, and Molly’s friend, I wish they did more with her. Another complaint was how slowly the characters were during high stakes action scenes, the most egregious example was the finale. But the amount of work and effort the team put into the movie was phenomenal. Plus they yassified Mrs Tweedy, and I love that for her.
It occurs to me that Diary of the Wimpy Kid is the one Disney film series where you can say the original _live-action_ films are (mostly) regarded as better than the _animated_ reboot.
Forgot about those
The one and only time when live action manages to be more interesting than animation
I think it's tragic the Ruby Gillman was mid. I really like this movie, but yeah, it's a middling movie compared to everything else, but I would watch this over Wish b/c that Disney '100 Year Celebration' was soulless.
Ruby Gillman was robbed with how it developed. That movie was surprisingly enjoyable until That moment As a matter of fact, I went to watch Ruby Gillman Multiple times while needing to hide away from the Summer Heat
I haven't watched Ruby Gillman, yet, but... Yeah. I'll give it that much.
It really seemed like a project people tried on, with actual passion. Just... not quite making it all work? But compared with Wish it actually has some freakin' personality and I'm going to remember Gillman exists in a year or two.
@@LORDOFDORKNESS42 Original ideas are dead in the theaters.
Glad to hear another who enjoyed Ruby Gilman. I enjoyed it very much, like many who have. While it's not great and had its flaws. I've rewatched it enough times to know, along with Trolls 3 were far more entertaining. WAY more then disneys recent works.
@@nelsonguerrero1952 We need to wait and see if they can hold on in 2030.
Another aspect of The Boy and the Heron that I don't see people really talking about:
The movie is not just about the passing of Miyazaki's work, but also broadens this theme via taking place at the end of WWII and name-checking the Meiji Era. These were arguably the two greatest periods of change in Japanese history, where an old order died and a new one emerged. (The fascist parakeets are symptoms of how that old order usually desperately tries to cling to life.)
Yeah that’s so true but what I also think they’re talking about is the end of Ghibli itself. The Heron, the old man, and the boy all represent the main creatives at Disney, one of them is already dead. At some point they’re all gonna go and that studio they spearheaded is not gonna be the same. I saw a clip right before I saw the movie of Miyazaki talking about how Ghibli like all things will end and once I saw the end of the movie that really sank in for me.
There’s one French animated movie that release date confuses a lot of people and I think that Saber may take an interest in. It officially came out in 2023 but is apparently not releasing in America until this year and on the internet, it is credited as being released in 2022 which is when it was released to French film festivals. It is called “Epic Tails” (originally known as “Pattie et la colére de Posèidon”) AKA in places such as Australia “Argonuts”. For those who are interested, the movie takes place 80 years after the events of “Jason and the Argonuts” and it follows a mouse named Pattie who dreams of becoming a heroine like Jason who is her idol. After the city of Yolcos (based on Iolcos) builds a statue of Zeus, Poseidon threatens the city with a tsunami if they don’t build him one too. So, in order to find a trident for the statue, Pattie tags along with Jason (and the reanimated Argonauts) to find a mystical giant sapphire that resembles a trident. The animation is beautiful, the score is spectacular. The voice acting is… ok (its an English dubbed kids movie, you know how most them are). But yeah, I wonder what Saber would think of it?
That sounds very interesting
For me, Nimona would sit directly under atsv, with the Mario movie sitting comfortably in 3rd. Nimona deserves all the praise it's been getting, especially after Disney threw the IP to the wayside. Watching Nimona, made me feel like I was watching the original Shrek again at times. With its energy, humor & a great message. It's a truly amazing movie. And atsv, the only sequel I'm probably more excited for this year, would be Sonic 3. It's always great seeing movies push the boundaries of what is considered "the norm" in pop culture. With Mario, it's great seeing him finally throw off the shackles that have weighing him down on the big screen after the original movie. And who didn't have a smile on their face when Charles Martine (sorry if I misspell his last name) made a cameo.
Monkey wrench is amazing, but also amazingly underrated. Glad to see it get a brief spotlight here, tho a full video review would be even better
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse & TMNT: Mutant Mayhem has me excited for the future of stylized animation!
I'm really glad to hear you really liked Migration for what it was! And I agree that while it may not be spectacular on the same level of the best animated movies of 2023, it was nevertheless a cute, charming little family film and one that definitely makes me all the more interested in checking out Benjamin Renner's previous films such as Ernest and Celestine!
Saberspark: has Mario broke the video game to movie failure curse?
Sonic: am I a joke to you?
Pikachu: am i joke to you too
So glad you gave Monkey Wrench a shoutout, it deserves SO MUCH more attention!!
I recommend an award winning animated movie you forgot to mention, Robot Dreams, a silent 2D animated movie thats incredibly emotional
Mario Movie and Puss n Boots: The Last Wish were both my favorite movies of 2023. Hopefully movies in 2024 will be even better.
Puss in Boots came out in December of 2022 technically
@@potatohildynot for everyone for some reason, here in the UK it came out in February, even later in other places
@BassBanj0 Well it's still a 2022 movie since that's, when it was released first
Puss n Boots is not a 2023 movie.
Boy and the Heron is primarily a metaphor about grief and passing on legacies, with a good dose of critiquing fascism (which ties in neatly to preserving the old ways, no matter their flaws) which imo makes it an amazing movie for rewatching and analysis. Its one of those movies where the more you sit and think about it, the more details you notice, and that's amazing. Ex, you have the metaphors about the uncle wanting to pass on his legacy, but you also have one about grief and escapism (ie, the fantasy world) and how its impossible to be in a world that is truly without suffering no matter how hard you try, so its better to embrace what you have now and try to better it than to grasp for an ideal you'll never achieve, all while remembering what you lost and not forgetting the past so that you could rebuild better in the future
26:26 Yeah no the Monkey King is literally immortal in like seven different ways. This is even true in the original story, and the rest of the Journey to the West has him mellow out over time; usually the stories end up being more about Sun Wukong having to outsmart his opponents rather than brute-force his way past them (though being so powerful he can usually easily cut straight to the point of most matters, and from there it just takes some figuring).
My friends and I just recently watch Migration. We've enjoyed it. It was fun and wholesome. And we agreed that Gwen was the most funny character.
Wasn’t sure if you saw it this year but Suzume was also a great animated movie that came out this year! (Pretty sure it came out earlier in Japan but it was still very good)
So I saw Spiderverse a little after the hype for it died out. So the theater was empty when I went. But I was honestly happy for that because I was LOSING MY MIND. I was crying through like half of it. And not even because it was sad or emotional or whatever (which it could be at parts)…It was because as an animation student who had begun to loose some hope in the animation industry, and who was bitter…Spiderverse resparked my hope and my passion. It’s like a love letter to animation itself. It’s a masterpiece! I forced my whole family to watch it just so that they’d understand why I was suddenly so excited to animate again. It’s truly a fantastic movie. And I love that it’s inspired other studios to experiment more. I also think that’s why Disney is kinda falling behind. They’re not experimenting enough. They’re stuck between whether they want to stick to their old traditions or whether they want to move forward and do something new. And they can’t really decide, or quite find a way to do both that works yet. Meanwhile, other studios are figuring it out.
Fate will decide if Disney deserve to live another year. We need to wait and see until 2030.
The imagery in Nimona in the final act pretty much trumps everything ive seen laat year. I cared so much for Nimonas safety and happiness that seeing her brought so low and nearly kill herself is so evocative and eye opening to me.
I love how this ranking not just a well know movie that We've been heard or watch,but some of not so well as the other ranking like Inspector Sun and The Inventor. Can't wait for Land Before Time video.
Even if Disney fell off a mountain this year, at least they weren’t the bottom of the barrel of animated movies
You know things are bad when an Adam Sandler movie was better received than a Disney movie.
@@bearerofbadnews1375I don't get it. Why people are saying 'Leo is better than Wish'. This is the most stupid comparison I ever seen.
@@bearerofbadnews1375 I'm agree with the upper comment, I'm clueless about this comparison.
We need to wait and see if they can hold on to 2030.
My favs this year was Trolls 3 and Leo. I wanted to see Migration but never got to.
I greatly disagree with your take on Trolls 3 but I understand it from an objective standpoint. But as we know, animation done correctly is ART and art is subjective. Trolls 3 brings me back to a nostalgic headspace and makes my 30 Y/O ass feel JUST like a kid again watching it. I love Poppy and Branch and seeing Baby Branch makes my heart melt, the villains are so fun to watch I've watched the film I think about 3 or 4 times through (I'm childless BTW)... LEO WAS ALSO SO GOOD WTF.
SPOILERS FOR LEO and also TW FOR DEATH
The fact that he thinks he is dying for the entirety of the film only to learn he has another 30-50 years left reminds me a lot of how a lot of human being experience mid life crises. Which often get made fun of, because tbh, when you reach that point in your life, you tend to learn all you can really do is laugh about it and move on. I love how Adam Sandler uses comedy to connect with deeper more complex emotions, in a way children can understand too. Death and loss is probably one of the most inescapably scary things in life, and comedy when done correctly, is like it's antivenom. It takes the sting, and the pain out of it. And Leo gets loose with it in a fun and malleable way. Also I am SHOCKED I didn't see more memes of it floating around. If I may, I'll link a funny one my BF made after we got to one of our fav parts of the movie xD
Trolls is so so amazing and I glad you had a fun time watching it!
ong
Yessss I loved trolls 3 so much too, DreamWorks is always great at sneaking adult jokes into movies which just makes it more enjoyable for anyone, but yeah I get why it was ranked as it was
8:30 I think Ryder (like Hiro from Big Hero 6) graduated from school at a young age bc of his brilliant intelligence. I mean come on, I’m pretty sure he built all their stuff
He did. Its confirmed in the series. Though robodog and rock help him a lot.
@@jobkrabbendam7968 the part about graduation school early or building all the stuff?
building all the stuff. school is not mentioned@@JackTheWind
I feel like the Boy and the Heron also supports Myazaki's last efforts as you can see these scenes and connect them to his other works.
The Boy and the Heron...oh my word. None of my friends like it, but I LOVED it. I tried to explain to them the significance of the building blocks for the tower. Which include everything from the stone he hurt himself with, to the one he picked up and kept with him. He mentioned to the uncle that he could tell there was malice in the blocks offered to him. And then, when he is given pure blocks, he decides that he doesn't want other people choosing his blocks for him, and he explains how is scar is evidence of choosing ones with malice too. The one he picked up he chose, and it wasn't full of malice.
And, seriously, even further:
The first stone, he hits himself because he's trying to build is life how he wants to build it. He doesn't want to go back to school. He picks up a 'building block' and uses it in a terrible way. But yeah, it still builds up his life.
Once again, the second blocks are the ones offered where he sees malice, and he only knows that they have negativity because the first stone he picked up with brimming with it.
The third he picks up himself and it feels good and right.
The fourth are new ones offered that are pure, and he's like, 'nope, if I'm going to build something, it's going to be my own thing."
And all the little bits and pieces strewn throughout the film. From the fire maiden being a fire maiden because she dies in a fire, to one of the things he decides to build into his own life is to enjoy having a mother again.
I'm so happy you talked about Monkey Wrench! It deserves so much love and attention! The third episode actually made me cry, which I was not expecting from what I saw in the first two episodes.
Its kinda sad for me than the only anime movie always featured on those lists are the ones made by studio ghibli, this year were also The First Slam Dunk, a beautiful adaptation one of the most important sport mangas
The mario movie may not have a big complex plot or what ever but there were many times were i laughted like the disterbed lumi that wanted death which was pretty dark for an illumination film so they dipped there toes a but in taking risk. Also loved when "the gaurd toads said the priceness is not in this castle try another one" also loved toad he was really fun. I also loved the brother bound theme; it felt heartfelt. I just wish there was more lugi espeacially since charlie days voice suits him so much. Also wish chris pratt was more consitante with his accent.
As an aside, that Batman horror movie was actually surprisingly good. I watched it on a flight and couldn't pull my eyes away, even with Ace Attorney running on my Switch at the time.
Hol up, the what-?
@@KingOfGaymes "Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham" - based on a comic mini-series by Mike "Hellboy" Mignola :)
Ace Attorney is so story/dialogue heavy, how do you play that while watching something? I'm kind of impressed.
@@CrowTRobot I meant that the movie was so good I couldn't split my attention. Usually I'd put on something just for the noise because Ace Attorney doesn't have the most engaging audio.
@@KingOfGaymes The Doom That Came to Gotham is probably that Batman's gotten to being a horror movie. Not in terms of jumpscares but just general atmosphere.
It's disheartening to see Suzume slipping under the radar for so many reviewers and reward shows. It's now one of my all-time favourite films, alongside Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, another great film from 2023.
Last Wish is from 2022 and Sabre gave it a lot of praise back then 👍
1:23 You need to review Craig Before the Creek, it's easily the best film that Cartoon Network Studios has ever produced, up there with Big Picture Show!! Maybe you could do it on your second channel! I just can't believe you missed out on it Saber?!?
Oooo! Character redesign!
Looks great! The art style has really changed a lot!
New Year New You I guess lol
Another big problem with Ruby Gillman is the trailers gave away the twist. We already knew the mermaid girl was evil from the trailers so why did they try to trick us in the movie to think that she wasn't actually evil?
Imma just say it:
1. Spiderman into the spider verse
2. Nimona (I didn't care for the heron or the inventor, but nimona is wonderfully amazing, story is perfect, it could've been slightly better in the visuals and pacing, but it was great)
3. Elemental
4.chicken run
5. Monkey king (I've never heard of seen it, but I'm not interested either)
Honorable mentions: migration and trolls band together (I put these here as I haven't seen them, and intend on watching them EVENTUALLY, and won't decide on how it is until after I watched it)
Won't do anymore, and that's my opinion on this list
“You’ve probably never heard of [Inspector Sun]” I work at my local theater. We play trailers on TVs in the lobby. I saw Inspector Sun’s trailer on loop for a month. We had the poster. We advertised the SHIT out of that movie for some reason. So YES I’ve heard of Inspector Sun 😵💫
That's a shame. The Doom that Came to Gotham was a fun movie. It has some writing flaws. But introducing Batman to the world of Lovecraft is just a fun concept.
I loved Myazaki's movie and I really hope it will win the Oscar for the animation.
As an Italian, I was really touched by the references of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri that Myazaki put in the tower.
Infact, if you look closely on the arch at the entrance of the tower (minute 36:06) you can read the inscription: "Facemi la divina potestate" which in Italian means "I was made by the divine authority". In the Divine Comedy this line is written on the entrance of the Hell and if you know Dante's magnum opus, you will notice all the recallings to the underworld he depicted.
But Myazaki also gave a different interpretation of Dante's Line: the Tower symbolize's the imaginary world of the Studio Ghibli, and in this world the artist (Myazaki, represented by the old man in the movie) is a sort of Divine Authority that brought everything to life. Infact the first time we see the Old Man, he is among the celestial spheres, like God in Dante's Paradise.
Facemi la divina potestate
La somma sapienza e 'l primo amore
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
Se non etterne e io etterna duro
I was made by the Divine Authority
The highes wisdom and the primal love
Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
This lines, in Myazaki's interpretation, refer to his gorgeous work as an animator that will last in eternal.
While Across the Spiderverse is an easy number one, for me, Trolls Band Together is an easy second place (at least based on what I've seen so far).
As for worst, I'd have to go with Ruby Gillman. It's not BAD, but it was just thoroughly okay.
İkr? İt was too good for a Trolls movie
@@N0peto3 Honestly, I really liked the first two Trolls movies as well.
But yeah, this one was easily the best.
its really not
plot makes no sense
spider friends all under used from the last movie
over push of miles to retcon with canon events and anomaly to make him "special" for no good reason
pregnant spider women is just stupidity but media pushes that cause empowering and baby's are disposable to them
Miguel retcon just to devalue him and push a stupid narrative on canon cause meta writing on "miles isn't spidey" crowd
just cause it has high visuals doesn't mean its quality just means they visually vomited on screen and hoped that was enough
I haven't seen The Boy and the Heron, but I strongly agree with your placements of the other four movies in your top 5. Man, the rest of this year was pretty eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh though.
The Boy and The Heron is absolutely worth seeing, the visuals are incredible but tbh storywise the movie is being allowed to skate entirely on the reputation and love of the studio.
New avatar??
It looks a lot rounder but I definitely do like it
10:26 Surprised the London Museum didn't take the mummies to be honest.
That Venture Bros movie is a wonderful sendoff to the fans. It both answered so much about the characters of Venture Bros and left us asking even more questions.
Highly recommended for any fan of the series.
Agreed! I’ve been a long time fan since it first came out!
In order to catch up for the movie I am tempted to rewatch the series but didn't Warner recently delete it from Max?
I Been Watching and a Fan of The Venture Bros around 2019, Gosh, That Finale is Sooo Good! 🥺
Even That Post Credit GOT ME CRY!! 😭🥺
@@CrowTRobot It was on Max when the movie released in Max. Not sure what’s happened in the intervening months though.🤷♂️
25:34 When you say DBZ is to thank for "Western" audience's familiarity of Monkey King, you should narrow that down to just _American & Canadian_ audiences. In Australia, New Zealand & the UK we had *Monkey Magic* a Japanese show based on Journey to the West that ran from 1978-80 but also had dubbed reruns through the 90s & 00s.
DBZ just added to that, rather than starting it.
Five of my favorite animated films of 2023 are:
1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie 🍄
2. Mavka: The Forest Song 🇺🇦
3. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie ☄
4. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget 🐔
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 🐢
This is awesome- the year was so stacked that there's still a bunch that I haven't seen. My top animated movies were:
1. Spider-verse
2. Boy & Heron
3. Nimona
4. TMNT Mutant Mayhem
I haven't seen Chicken Run or Mavka, thanks for the recommendations!! I'll check them out!
Bro is 11
I mean, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is great overall, the animation is fire, the characters seem cool and decent, but the storyline/plot has missed a potential, it deserves more depth and development to be honest.
Edit: I also wished that Nerissa and Chelsea are separate characters because I wanna see how Chelsea could handle a situation where in her mother is holding her back from doing the good thing. And we could probably use a bit more tragedy, perhaps.
Glad to see that Nimona got top 5. A really good movie and based on an exceptional book. (If you liked the movie and would like something that follows a similar storyline and goes into more detail, I'd very much recommend the (graphic) novel.
Ngl the only movies on this list I watched were The Super Mario Bros Movie and Nimona. Both were astounding. As a longstanding Mario fan, I really loved how unseriously the movie took itself, and it felt like it did the whole franchise justice (at least for me). As for Nimona... there are no words to describe how amazing that movie was. To anyone who hasn't watched it, watch it. Like, seriously.
I agree with most of the things on this list, but I still can't believe there is no mention of the movie Peasants :') This is my second favorite movie of 2023 after Across the spider verse because of the beautiful animation and soundtrack!
2023 was crazy af but still good, I graduated from high school, made new friends and made some short films of my own
Anyways here are my picks
1. Spiderman Across the Spider-Verse (10/10) (Best movie of 2023 and favourite superhero movie next to The Incredibles)
2. Nimona (10/10) (the best animated movie about acceptance since Shrek)
3. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem (9/10)
4. The Super Mario Bros Movie (8/10) (I'm not the biggest mario fan around, but the movie was so good!!!, I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks)
5. Chicken Run 2 (7/10)
spiderverse is just bad
- nothing of value happens
- none of its plot threads are resolved by the end
- emasculating peter in that terrible outfit and being put down throughout
- spider friends from last movie not used at all
- Migue retcon to make him a villain for no reason than to push miles
- tokenism
this is stupid
I wish more people out there could see the positives of Ruby Gillman
Sure, it doesn't do anything new or innovative, but it still wound up being one of my favorite films of the year regardless
I think the main issue is that because the trailers ALL revealed that the mermaid would be the main villain in the big final fight, everyone went in expecting some other big twist, and instead, they just realised that every single trailer of the movie spoiled the twist.
@@femomanAlso some people believe that the movie would have been better if Chelsea and Ruby wind up as friends in the end
@@femoman I was actually hoping for a different twist myself, like the grandmother being the real villain and the kraken/mermaid conflict being not as black and white as it appeared. I was making predictions before it came out just from what I saw of the trailer and the announcements, but it doesn't seem like the final product lived up to that, instead going for the expected conclusion. Frankly, I think my idea would have been much better than what we got.
It was too gay for me. And demonized redheads.
@@maniacaldudeidk about grandma being turned into an antagonist, but I’ve rewritten the movie a bit, it’s on AO3. It ends with ruby and Chelsea being on good terms but there’s so much more to it. If you’re interested I will send it
Nice update on your avatar Saber.
I only saw one third of the movies on this list, so here's my thoughts on those I've seen:
*Across the Spider-Verse* (a MIND-BLOWING experience with amazing storytelling and spectacular animation; I'm still sorry for what the animators had to deal with, though)
*Nimona* (great commentary on its themes, wonderful main characters and striking visuals)
*The Boy and the Heron* (a beautiful dream-like adventure with an entertaining heron)
*Elemental* (lovely romance between its leads and creative use of its literal elements)
*TMNT Mutant Mayhem* (solid take on the turtles and fun action)
*Mario Movie* (an overall fun ride, but Luigi really should've lead a prison-break at some point)
*Leo* (an otherwise sweet journey that could've taken out the Everglades detour)
*The Magician's Elephant* (loved the elephant, hated the narration, and felt indifferent with everything else)
*Wish* (a sloppy story with mostly dull characters, though the visuals, Star and some songs were pleasant)
My Top 5 favorite animated movies of 2023 are...
1) Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
2) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
3) The Super Mario Bros. Movie
4) Wish
5) Elemental
23:29 fun fact: Tresi Gazal (the voice actress of Gwen, the little girl duck) got nominated for best voice acting at the Annie Awards! That’s gonna be hard bc she’s going up against Jack Black as Bowser and Chloë Grace Moretz as Nimona. Wish her luck tho, her voice performance as Gwen won me over in this film.
I honestly feel Wish is the most overhated movie of 2023. Sure it could’ve been better (ESPECIALLY for Disney’s 100th anniversary film) but I still had a decent experience with the movie
damn I forgot Spiderverse even came out in 2023. that year felt like 5 years.
Its satisfying to watch disney not be on top with their abyssmal films as of late
Look: in defense of Monkey King and plot armor, in the source material he was famously hard to defeat and had like 6 types of immortality on him. He’s born of a magic stone, erases his name from the list of souls that are collected upon death, he learns a shape shifting technique so that he can avoid death and judgement, he eats peaches of immortality, he eats pills of immortality, he’s baked in brazier used to make pills of immortality…
Missed out on Suzume for sure. I think you would’ve enjoyed it and ranked it around Nimona as well.
I've yet to watch this movie, but No Dogs or Italians Allowed was another stopmotion movie that came out in 2023. It's a French production. Not sure if that movie got a US release, but I recall seeing it being shown in cinemas over here.
I Love ur New Avatar design!!!
It's much more clean and gives us a fresh breeze to 2024!❤❤❤
Loved the Monkey Wrench shoutout! Just gave it a watch recently, and I was hooked as soon as I watched it. The good news is that they got enough funding for episode 4, so we'll have that to look forward to in 2024!
The boy and the heron was such a weird experience. Usually when I see modern animation movies, it’s the story that drives my interest but with this film it was the visuals. The story was a bit too cluttered for me to really gravitate towards it and stay captivated by it. But the animation was just so stunning that it kept me interested all the way through.
My personal problem of Trolls band together is that there is almost nothing in it/references from World Tour like there is a character here and there and like 1 line, but other than that there is nothing, which sucks because you can hardly tell that it is a 3rd movie because the second makes little to no impact on it
Fantastic. I’m not the only one who saw The Inventor! That’s the kind of film we need more of in this day and age.
Across the Spider-verse is my favorite movie of the year.
I *hated* Ruby Gillman though. It's colourful, sure, but it's by far one of DreamWorks weaker 3fforts as it's entirely predictable by literally flipping the villain/protagonist of the Disney film which made it entirely predictable. DreamWorks is at it's worst when it's flaunting how much it's not Disney.
I can, however, suggest a small change to improve it. Make Chelsea the actual daughter of Narissa, and her motives pure. Actually have the Trident corrupt her. That way Ruby is fighting to save her friend and has to mother and grandmother to help.
It's crazy seeing the new design for your oc after years
I am so glad you've started doing the Indie Spotlight segment: I love getting to experience animation from creatives I've never heard of, but oftentimes I don't know where to look to find these gems. Having recommendations come from a reliable source (you) goes a long way to finding and vetting these choices a lot easier! Thanks Saber!
Nimona narrowly beat Across the Spider-Verse as my fave animated movie of 2023. And it actually became my favourite movie ever. Never before had a film made me feel so much emotion. I watched it 5 times last year and still cried as much the 5th time as I did the 1st time. It is such incredible storytelling. Honestly, I'd be scared of a sequel because I don't think they can recapture the themes that made the film so emotional.
I liked both movies, but I really loved the spiderverse movie. I loved both art styles and storylines, but I did like the nimona comic a bit better
Spider verse made me realize I wasn’t tired of super hero movies. I was tired of BAD super hero movies.
2023 was a good case study on the duality of Illumination films. Surprise hits and duck farts.
There are no farts in Migration.
To be fair, in Journey to the West, Sun Wukong is immortal like four times over, is practically indestructable, and beat the crap out of all the armies of Heaven. That's kinda the point -- the only one who could defeat him was the Buddha himself, and only a handful of entities can even give him a run for his money. It's not about how big a thing can he beat up -- the stories are about a 50-50 mix of figuring out the bad guy's sneaky trick or learning how to use his power wisely, carefully, and with kindness.
That new saber spark is the level of the new Pringles logo
(also can we get him to 2mil)
Yeah, I'm having trouble with "Pastacalypse" too. You have to awkwardly emphasize the second syllable in "Pasta" to make it work. Seems like should have gone with "Pastapocalypse".
Pas-TA-Calypse.
@@normanclatcher Yes, that is the aforementioned awkward emphasis of the second syllable.
My favorite movie of 2023 was definitely Mario, in my opinion it was the best video game movie I've seen.
I am loving the new avatar! while the old one will be missed this is great!
24:10 the problem with those previous adaptations is they didn't embrace their source material, they were based on computer games but tried to be anything but those computer games, so the end product was a convoluted jumble that feels like a sloppy cash-grab.
So glad it only took them 30 years to stop doing that shit. I guess we have the current trends of nostalgia and reference humour to thank for that.
There were just so many great animated movies this year that like four or five of them could win the Oscar and I wouldn't be mad.
well yeah in Journey to the west the monkey King is insanely powerful that he not only was like triple immortal but it took dropping a mountain over him to get him to stop
additionally due to his insane strength his journey is emotional rather than physical and must learn empathy as well as prudence along the way
I ended up only seeing 3 of the animated films that came out in 2023, and they're all safely at least a 7.5/10 for me. My order from worst to best for them are: Mario, Nimona, Spider-Verse
Yeah I wish Mario had better writing and story but it looked BEAUTIFUL. Nimona, TMNT and Spider-verse were definitely better.