Year: 1995Film: Toy Story
Box Office Gross: $191,773,049
Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars (before Best Animated Feature was a category) including winning an award for Special Achievement for a feature length computer animated film
Actors:Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger
This movie holds up even though computer animation has made leaps and bounds since this movie was completed. It was an innovative concept as a script even before we were awed by the new techniques behind animation which most people only notice when they're bad, not that they're amazingly new. I just read that Joss Whedon helped write the screenplay, which was nominated for an Oscar which, with Finding Nemo, are the only animated films nominated for best original screenplay. The characters they created were iconic toys, but given voices that seemed totally appropriate (wouldn't you assume that Mr. Potato Head spoke like Don Rickles?) and then sent on an adventure to return to the little boy who loves them. It's a great story, and deserves the accolades heaped upon it. This description of Buzz Lightyear sums it up for me.
Year: 1992Film: Aladdin
Box Office Gross: $217,350,219
Awards: Nominated for 5 Oscars (before Best Animated Feature was a category) including winning 2 awards for Original Score and Best Original Song for "A Whole New World"
Actors: Scott Weingner, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, and Gilbert Gottfried
Aladdin was the first movie I saw in the theater more than once. I think I actually saw it 5 times in the theater (back when movies cost $2 for kids) I liked it so much. Robin Williams' comedy as the genie was terrific and started the trend of big stars voicing characters in animated movies. I'm not sure this movie holds up as well for grown-ups because I've only seen it once since I was a kid, and most of the other animated movies I love I still watch. I'm still surprised this movie was the highest grossing for 1992, even over Batman Returns (the one with Penguin and Catwoman), Home Alone 2, and Lethal Weapon 3. Okay, maybe I'm not surprised.
2 comments:
I love Aladdin. It's my favorite Disney movie. The music, the story, the cast. It all came together so perfectly. I know Beauty and the Beast was the first feature length film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but Aladdin has always been my most favorite.
Also, when I met Joss Whedon, I went in knowing that he had worked on the screenplay for Toy Story. I asked him since in Toy Story you have a cowboy doll getting along with a space toy, if Firefly and Serenity (a space western) was inspired by his work on Toy Story. He laughed and said he had never heard that before, but I should tell people that's exactly what happened.
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