Top Ten Animated Movies

By: Biplob Kishore Deb

Animation has been a new dimension in the Movies and the animated movies can easily attract children and also adults. Having seen the growing popularity of the animated movies, new section for best animated movie was introduced from 2002 in the Academy Awards. I found ten most popular animated movies which have been succeeded financially.

If you find something to have been included in this article then please let me know in the comment section.

The Lion King

The Lion King is one of the greatest productions of Walt Disney Pictures and the highest-grossing animated film of all time in the USA. Its initial earning was $312.8 million. The film was released in 1994. The estimated budget of this film is $79,300,000. The story was not something exceptional but the implementation of the story in the life of the wild animals deserves credit. The story was based on the kingdom of Pride lands in Africa. The king of this kingdom is named Mufasa, a lion, where lions rule over other animals. The central character of this film is King Mufasa’s young child Simba who would be the next king of the pride land. Scar, the brother of the king Mufasa, fells jealous of it. So, he starts making plan to kill both the king and his son to clear the way of his being the next king. He then kills the king strategically but Simba can be able to flee from the kingdom. Scar makes a lame excuse that Simba is responsible for his father’s death. Later Simba could regain the throne after some battle with Scar. Here, in this film one thing for which film makers should be credited is the implementation of the real life of wild animals and to do this, film makers went to notice the proper habitat of the animals. In this movie wild characters were made in a 3D computer program. Cell Shades of the characters make the appearance of a drawn animation. This film was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. The producer is Don Hahn. In this movie all of the background voices of the animated characters were highly features movie stars including Matthew Broderick for adult Simba, Jonathan Taylor Thomas for child Simba, James Earl Jones for Mufasa. The song of this film ‘Circle of Life’ became very popular in that time. Elton John composed the songs and Tim Rice gave the vocal in the songs. This film was re-released in the giant-screen in the IMAX format in 2002.

Image Link: Wikipedia

Shrek

This animated movie is the production of Dream Works Animation SKG. The story, Shrek was based on the fairy tale picture book by William Steig. This famous computer animated movie was the firs Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Feature in 2002. This is the second highest grossing animated movie of all time in USA. It earns $267.6 million and its budget was $60 million. The story is based on the relativity of love where a true love is seen between an ogre, Shrek and a human lady, Princess Fiona. They both thought themselves that they are ugly and not eligible for opposite but the inner truth is that they both have love to each other. After being appointed by the lord Farquaad, Shrek goes to save the princess from the grasp of Dragon. Shrek and Princess Fiona both fall in love to each other in the way of their returning after Fiona being saved by Shrek. A talkative donkey is accompanied with them. There are some other supernatural ideas in the movie which make the movie more eventful and climatic. Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz were in the background voice of Shrek and Fiona respectively. The movie was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson.

Image Link: Wkipedia



Monsters, Inc

This famous Pixar Animation Studio production and the third highest grossing animated movie in the USA has been the fastest entering animated movie in the list of top ten animated movies of all time. Its gross domestic earning is $255,873,250 and world wide gross earning is $525,366,597. The movie, Monsters was released in 2001. The story is very funny and based on the Monsters of Monstropolis. James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski are the two workers of the Monsters Incorporation, a power energy plant where power is generated from the scream of Childs. However, it has been a great problem to cause children scream and as a result monsters are facing a power shortage. Monsters are much feared of the children. In that time a human child enters in their city who is called Boom by Sully and Mike. Boom seems harmless to Sully and Mike and that is why they help Boom when she is encountered by some of the Monsters. Later, Monsters with the help of Boom find the newest way of energy making where they make children happy which resulted the laughter of the children. From the laughter of the children they can get ten times higher energy than that of their scream. Here, it is proved that laughing is more powerful than screaming. The voices of Sully, Mike and Boo are provided by John Goodman, Billy Crystal and Mary Gibbs respectively.

Image Link: Wkipedia

Beauty and the Beast

This film is based on a fairytale where it is seen that a woman can turn a beast into a human being with his love. The climatic scene of the film is when the Beauty desires the life of the Beast who she was refused to be her wife beforehand. It is only when she understands that the Beast has the desire to get her as his wife and fall in love with the beast and then the Beast turns into a Prince. So, it is seen here that Woman can make a person more civilized. Actually this story was told to the young girls who were to marry older persons in their early age in the medieval period with their wish. Through this fairytale their other could make the girls inspire that a woman can turn the happiness even in a worst situation. Based on this story, Walt Disney Pictures produced this animated movie in 1991 and in the same year, Beauty and Beast was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar for the first time as an animated movie. Beauty and Beast was directed by Jena Cocteau. This story was also showed in television and in Stage.

Image Link: Wkipedia

Toy Story 2

This animated film is one of the famous productions of Pixar Animation Studio which has been the fourth highest grossing animated film of all time in USA. The estimated budget of this movie was $90,000,000 and its domestic earning is $245.8 million and the world wide earning is $485,015,179. Troy 2 was released in 1999. The story is about some toys who act like human being. One of the toys named Wheezy is set to sell and eh was saved by another toy named Woody but he has been then in the selling box and was stolen by a Toy collector, Al McWiggin. Now the mission of Buzz and his toy team to save Woody from being sold in Japan. This exciting movie could easily attract Children. Woody, Buzz and Wheezy were voiced by Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joe Ranft respectively.

Image Link: Wkipedia

Bambi

Bambi is one of the earlier productions of Walt Disney Pictures. The movie is based on the book named “Bambi, A Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten. The movie is based on a young Deer who is known to be the ‘Prince of the Forest’. He has friends form another animals and he learns how to survive in the forest. He leans that men sometimes come in the jungle to hunt animal and a heartbreaking scene can be figured out in the film when Bambi’s mother is killed by hunters and his father tells him that his mother will not be with him any more and Bambi cries that I can guess make the audience cries. The story could easily show the grief of the animal who have ties with their family and their kinship. In the story I found the habitat of the animal especially the Deer in their point of view. The movie was released in 1942 and directed by David Hand.

Toy Story

Toy Story is the first feature film of Pixar Animation Studio. This movie is in the sixth position of the list of the highest grossing animated films of all time in USA. The budget was $30 million and its earning in domestic level is 191.8 million and world wide earning is $358,100,000. The movie was released in 1995. The film is about the toys of 6 years old boy, Andy. His favorite toy is Woody and that is why Woody is the leader of other toys but when Andy gets another toy in his birthday, Andy became keen to that toy named Buzz. So, Woody and Buzz start fighting one day and Buzz fall through the window and other toys blames Woody for killing Buzz and then he find Buzz in the ground. However, when these toys become departs from each other they feel an attraction to come to the home. For this movie, the director, John Lasseter got Academy Special Award in 1996. The background voices are same to the Toy Story 2.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This film was produced by Walt Disney and has been the first feature film in Disney animated feature canon. This movie became the first animated feature film to get popularity world wide. This movie is the seventh highest grossing animated movie of all time in USA. The budget of this film was $1,488,000 USD and it earned $178 million domestically. The story is about a princess who is saved from step mother’s grasp and this impossible task becomes possible by seven dwarfs. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937. This movie is the pioneer of the animated movies.

Ice Age

This computer animated film was produced by Blue Sky Studios and has been in the number eight position in the list of the highest grossing animated movies of all time in USA. Its budget was $60,000,000 and its earning is $ 176.2 million. Ice Age was released in 2002. This film was released by 20^th Century Fox. The story is backed to the Ice Age when animal where animals were moving to the South seeking more warm. Two animals take the responsibility of a baby to take the baby to his father but Diego, a tigers, demand the baby to them. A battle happened among them. The movie was directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha.

A Bug’s Life

This computer animated movie is another famous production of Pixar Animation Studios. The film was released in 1998 and made a decent earning over its budget $45 million. The movie could make $162 million dollar in USA. The story is based on a popular Aesop’ Fable named ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’. Flick is an ant who leads other ants to be free from the grasp of Grasshoppers. Ants are to give food for the Grasshoppers from their earnings and they have been doing it for years until Flick makes a plan to fight with Grasshoppers. Flick finds some Bugs to fight with Grasshoppers. The climax starts then when Flick finds some circus Bugs. A Bug’s Life was directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton.