Ramble: Non-Disney Animated Movies

I'm so perplexed that someone with such a low threshold for disgusting things could love the Saw franchise haha I mean seriously, how!?

All Dogs go to Heaven was a pretty sweet film. I think you'd like it if you rewatched it through adult eyes. It's about a mobster (bad person) learning to be good through the power of love. Sounds corny, but I like how it doesn't talk down to the children for whom it was made. Also, I'm pretty sure Charlie is the deadbeat dad of all those impoverished puppies to whom he brings pizza in that one scene?

The first SpongeBob movie actually was pretty good. It was the last hurrah of the original animators and show writers before they handed the show off and you can tell it’s the last SpongeBob thing that had the original tone and humor.

HTTYD 3 is fantastic and i also didnt like the 2nd movie. I was convinced to watch the whole series from watching the last five minutes of the third movie while i was babysitting so if thats not a glowing endorsement i dont know what its. The Bad Guys is surprisingly good and im very excited for the second movie. Puss in boots the last wish is also amazing. The peanuts movie is so good. I was initially put off by the animation cause its 3d, but it was wonderful and it has like the best ratings ever. Highly reccomend.

Sing is whatever but Sing 2? Absolutely garbage film. But its *my* garbage film.

Calling Kung Fu Panda a nothing movie after all that buildup really left me crestfallen. Had previously thought all of Jenny's opinions were correct

Really late but... Yeah, you are not wrong about Sing. It really is kind of just that. That being said, i do think its one of the better Illumination movies just because its executed competently enough that its mostly fine. I feel like people praise it because its better then a lot of Illumination's other stuff, but that's really not saying much, its still like the kids movie equivalent of plain, lukewarm, oatmeal. I guess at least its edible.

I actually enjoyed how the frequent dismissiveness became its own running joke. "Haven't seen that one... F." 🤣

Exceptionally late to this post, but I was shocked by the complete lack of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. In my mind it's in the same realm of early 90s non-Disney animated film as We're Back.

shrek 2 is infinitely better than shrek and i think it’s watched more alone than the original 😭

I love Laika, but I can tell you that the reason some of their stories fall flat even tho the artistry is there is at least partly due to nepotism. Laika’s studio and Nike’s headquarters are both located just outside of Portland, Oregon, and Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, basically bought Laika for his son, Travis Knight, when it was still Will Vinton Studios (the makers of those dancing raisin commercials in the 80’s). Nepo baby Travis has directed and/or produced every Laika film that came after Coraline (which was directed by Henry Selick) and it really shows. I’m optimistic about their 2025 film, Wildwood, tho because like Coraline it’s based on a children’s book that already has a strong story. Edit: to be a little more fair to Laika, an alternative reason for the story weakness is also just the painstaking nature of stop motion. If they’ve already begun to animate, it’s expensive and time-consuming to implement rewrites by deleting and reanimating finished scenes. It already takes longer to animate in this medium, so if they want to finish the film on time and start making money off it, they might feel like it’s better to release what they’ve already got instead of letting it languish in production.

I feel like All Dogs Go to Heaven is ‘just a dog who likes gambling’ in the same way that Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is ‘just a horse who likes running’, or The Little Mermaid is ‘just a girl with really bad FOMO.’

C- for Croods? Moving on.

Totally disagree on Kung Fu Panda. Should be a solid B.

Shrek 2 would be in A or S tier for me especially because it IS a sequel. I like it better than the first one tbh.

Shrek 2 not good in it's own right? Jenny. Shrek 2 has one of THE greatest scenes in movie history, in Shrek storming the castle

Still havent seen kung fu panda. My cousin raves about it and the series as a whole that it’s great. Im afraid i’ll have the same reaction as you did when i get around to watching it. Of course she’s seen spirit untamed. Kubo was such beautifully animated for stop motion and good story from what i remember. Shame you didnt see it. About halfway through and kind of shocked by all your hot takes on these animated films. We’re back was a wild film

This made me go search the weird Soviet animations I watched as a kid, apparently made by studio Soyuzmultfilm. I remember their version of Cinderella with the weird dancing in air scene, and then this utterly horrible story where a dog saves a little boy from the river and then dies which traumatized me as a kid.

Definitely a Don Bluth fan, mainly the earlier ones. I loved All Dogs go to Heaven as a kid. The pocket watch representing Charlie's mortality always freaked me out for some reason.

Idk if you even look at these BUT you absolutely SHOULD watch Looney Tunes Back In Action!!!!! It's kind of crazy how much better it is than Space Jam while still having the same spirit - also Brendan Fraiser is the lead!

This video made me remember that I actively hate the movie Home, F-

Damn, you didn't mention Ghibli at all

Sing is OK but not great, too many characters, an over-familiar plot. Sing 2 is a distinct improvement with more contemporary songs and more poignancy: a B compared to the original's C- for me.

I completely forgot about We’re Back and I also watched it like a ton as a kid so I guess my brain tucked it away for some reason and you unearthed it.

i would enjoy a ghibli studios rating

I paused and watched HTTYD. Now, I'm back to finish the video.

just watched this vid from the master post and had to scroll down just to say that shrek 2 is good on its own merit and is, in fact, better than the first.

Titan A.E. was soooooo underrated. The movie is beautiful and the soundtrack is still one of my favorites

I'm 7:35 minutes in and in fact I *would* watch Shrek 2 by itself, often, I loved prince Arthur in it, I think kind of teenage boy characters like that (Hiccup, Hercules, Arthur, Jim) who had a thirst for adventure and purpose appealed to me a lot as a kid. We had the VHS of it and I absolutely loved how it was set in high school and I loved how that girl unapologetically had a crush on the ogre because of his disgustingness **Scratch that, that was Shrek the 3rd

I very much think you should watch Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was directed by Wes Anderson so it has a unique vibe to it. It’s very funny and charming in a strange way and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

sinbad is so special to me, very nostalgic and worth the watch i think. sinbad and his little prince friend are so in love no question

Kubo and the two strings was SO good you should watch it. I’m always sad it didn’t do very well

Spirit Stallion of the Cimmaron is definitely a damn good non disney animated film 🔥😭😭😭 i still get shocked that hardly no ones seen it or remembers it, just us horse girls lol Im probably the only person who likes both the original and the reboot lol in the show she keeps the horse but I remember they changed it for the movie and it ends with them saying goodbye, so sweet but the original is far better, i still get chills with the ending scene. “Cats dont dance, i think alot of furries like this movie” personally attacked lolol its so good i still have the vhs tape of that movie thats how much i love it, Balto is also a top for me 😭😭 Im noticing now i have a pattern lolol The first Swan Princess is another childhood favorite, but rewatching it as an adult and realizing how horrible the main love interest it lolol the sequels are terrible.

A glaring Last Unicorn omission!

I recognize that I'm commenting on this months after and that you're definitely not still checking the notes on this, but you should definitely check out the Irish company Cartoon Saloon because they're films are absolute works of art that I think you'd enjoy. Song of the Sea is genuinely so beautiful and it makes me cry every time.

Anomalisa is fantastic! Not a kids movie at all, but brilliantly existential, very Charlie Kaufman.

GIRL HOW HAVE YOU NOT SEEN THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE ITS A CLASSIC

I love Boxtrolls but I do think it was made for only me and my brother because I've never met anyone else who likes it let alone has watched it.

I genuinely love Ice Age. We are all Scrat.

Shrek really is perfectly structured. Also great soundtrack.

I've never seen anyone who shared my claymation opinions, it makes me sick to my stomach. ((I didn't like chicken run, to this day I can't watch it cause I think it's so disturbing))

Sin bad is soooo good! That and treasure planet have similar feelings to me

I know I am very late to this ramble....... But Shrek 2 is way more iconic than Shrek. Don't even get me started on Shrek 2 the videogame. Masterpiece

One of my professors in art school previously worked for Laika, including on Missing Link. He told us students to watch it with the caveat of “the story is not all there, but the visuals are amazing”. He actually worked on a scene with a pot of goop being stirred, and he told us it’s the hardest task he’s been given! (Liquids in stop motion are really hard, a lot of it is CG). So… Jenny’s sensory feelings really cracks me up. I would recommend Missing Link to anyone who just loves the artistry and animation. Learning how to do miniature set design under that prof was one of my favorite and most informative classes!

I had some sort of full-body perk up when you said you marathonned all the Swan Princess movies. God that series was pretty unhinged from jump and just kept getting more and more with every sequel 😂 I hope you talk about it someday!! the way they seem to change everything about the world from movie to movie was wild to me, it was a beloved one as a child but similar to your jimmy neutron reaction it became one of the first movies i thought about in a critical way

the guy who wrote gravity falls (alex hirsch) was both a voice actor and a creative consultant on the mitchells vs the machines! I actually haven't seen the mitchells vs the machines, and I don't know how I know this, but it just tickled me that you drew such a direct line to gravity falls

You would LOVE Flushed Away!

We're Back was my favourite movie as a kid. Also Rockadoodle fucked me up with nightmares cause the Grand Owl turns the main kid into a kitten and tries to eat him. Also there's Rooster Elvis.

I would say for Dreamworks, How to train your dragon 3 is a pretty good watch. I think it rounds out the trilogy nicely and one of the songs in it makes me sob every time i hear it. Also Bad Guys really surprised me. the animation was so fun to watch and the story line was pretty good. though if the story isn't up your alley, i would still recommend it for animation alone. For Laika, I liked coraline and paranorman, hated boxtrolls, and kubo i honestly think is on the same level as coraline. It's absolutely stunning and I sobbed through the entire last scene, it was very good. I have not seen missing link though, can't comment on that. ALSO, SHREK 2 IS THE BEST SHREK AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL

Rugrats Gone Wild is okay. The main plot is that the babies get lost with Nigel, who has been hit on the head and is acting like a baby, so they have to take care of him while everybody else scrambles trying to find them. The big thing for me watching it for the first time a couple years ago was a scene where Spike the dog is running up to Eliza and I suddenly realized "wait, Eliza can talk to animals. OH MY GOD SPIKE IS ABOUT TO TALK". I don't know why that was so shocking to me but I was honestly not prepared for that concept. He's voiced by Bruce Willis, which is about as bad as most celebrity voice casting, it was mainly the idea of this character getting a new voice decades later (for me at least), kind of on par with the one Land Before Time where Spike actually says a word. Main highlight is a scene with the babies and Nigel (after he comes to) that does a great job of showing how passionate he is for nature and how well he can convey that to even very young kids. Really puts into perspective how he's able to secure funding for all of these expeditions despite being kind of bumbling.

put exactly my thoughts about Laika movies into words. I really do want to like their movies, but they haven't made any that impress me beyond "huh well they sure did work hard on that". also Boxtrolls was a unique case of being particularly shitty because they went hard with their advertising, and the advertising was extremely "lgbt family friendly", like, all the ads were about "some families have two moms or two dads or a bunch of trolls". and then they made the bad guy be a "man disguised as a woman" with extensive "that was a DUDE?? IM GONNA BARF" jokes. it was such a slap in the face. I never saw it but I remember thinking Laika didn't get as much flak as they deserved for a stunt like that.

RIP the Jelsa fans, Boss Baby has officially ranked higher than Guardians

I thought everyone agreed that Shrek 2 was better than Shrek 1 and now I don’t know what to think!

Peanuts and Arthur Christmas are really good.

The original spongebob movie is amazing. i cry everytime i watch it

I had the we're back video game on either nintendo 64 or super Nintendo

>Movies you listed that I think you'd like: Arthur Christmas, Pirates! Band of Misfits, Peanuts Movie >Movies you listed that I think are sick but I don't think you'd like: Rango, Anomalisa (not for kids, why is that here?), Kubo and the Two Strings >Movies not on this list I think you'd like: The Last Unicorn (if you haven't already seen it), Moonman, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Big Bad Fox and other Tales >Movies not on this list that I don't know how you'd feel: Book of Life, Mary & Max (not for kids, but think Aardman with a little more depression, fav film ever), Strange Magic, 9 (also not for kids. love it even tho it's mediocre), Watership Down/Plague Dogs/Cryptozoo (also not for kids, but fascinating) The thing that sucks abt Nostalgia Critic's 'judgement' of 'good' kids movies is I think it's better understood in reverse. I happen to love Brave Little Toaster and American Tail and what makes them appealing isn't that they're "childrens movies but sad and horrifying OMG!11!!" but that they're compeling, dark stories that happen to be for kids- which I didn't find then or now horrific but thrilling....sorry abt leaving so many comments on your post Jenny...

Lol. James and the Giant Peach is 1) Disney, 2) also terrified me as a kid, 3) now one of my very fav movies ever. I've dev a great love and appreciation for all forms of stop-motion (claymation is fine) because of Henry Selick, so much so I watched 'Mad God' (do not look that up, it is NOT your type). It's sort of a coping mechanism to find joy in em now.

Haha, can confirm that Prince of Egypt is shown at Jewish Sunday schools and is a very unique and special experience. A+ for me!

i am so passionate about turbo. i saw it after a knee surgery and because of the medicine i was convinced it was a cinematic masterpiece and i’ve made all my friends watch it since

The Bad Guys was real good I thought! Really recommend checking that one out if you get time. It has some predictable plot beats which are fine imo as it's a kids' movie. But I really liked almost all the characters. I'd give it a B for Bad (Good)

I think Sing is okay but my cat absolutely loves it. There's a lounge singing Seth McFarlane mouse that he's emotionally invested in. He screams when the bears try to eat him.

all im saying is if any of you haven’t seen The SpongeBob Movie next time you have free 80min just give it a watch 🌊

Wish you did Studio Ghibli!

No, you were right about Rockadoodle. There's live action sequences that are almost inconsequential to the animated storylines. Rockadoodle is bad and bizarre. But a favorite.

- kubo and the 2 strings is definitely worth watching. - surfs up is good - cloud with a chance of meatballs is great - rango is very stylized spaghetti western and pretty good

I watched like 30 minutes of Sing and couldn't stand it, and I have a pretty hhigh tolerence for mediocre movies. But it was boring bad, the worst kind of bad. I did know a baby that loved it though, his parents said he watched it nearly every day because it could get him to stop crying. He also loved the live action Whinnie the Pooh movie. His dad said he thought the movie was terrible, but that his son loved the animated stuffed animals enough that he'd seen it a bunch.

the shrek fandom doesn't seem ironic to me, but maybe it's just because I've never been ironic about it? Shrek is a great fucking movie

Please watch Arthur Christmas!

I highly recommend Kubo and the Two Strings, it’s beautifully animated, it’s intense and suspenseful, I think it’s a great movie. The voice acting is really good too but it’s set in feudal Japan and like all the cast was white so that was a little…mm. Matthew McConaughey samurai was a very weird choice lol

kung fu panda is all about the animation and sound design, the story isnt that good but the visuals are captivating and the fight choreography is AMAZING!!!

I didn't know that I needed to hear Jenny summarise the plot of "We're Back", but it turns out I did.

I have never been able to deal with stop-motion animation, especially with clay. Was terrified by the Rankin/Bass holiday specials. Gumby felt incredibly creepy. The only time this really worked was A Nightmare Before Christmas... assuming they were going for horror.

How could you talk about we’re back a dinosaurs story without mentioning screw eyes’ horrifying death scene where he gets literally eaten by crows

Looney toons back in action was my favorite as a kid

Piggyback and say definitely watch Kubo. I’d also say Missing Link deserves love. And my god was We’re Back one of my favorite and also most traumatizing movies as a small child

i highly recommend surf's up even though i am extremely biased bc it's a really good parody of surfing documentaries/movies and i grew up watching those. the story is pretty simple and the character development is cute but simple, and them being penguins isn't related to the story at all (but they are cute to watch). i think the voice performances are incredible and watching these penguins enjoy surfing so much is such a nice experience (also full of genuinely funny moments to me). good soundtrack too :)

some of the covers in sing kind of slap ngl

So I just did a mini-dive into “We’re Back,” which is apparently based on the book by the same name. I just couldn’t stop thinking that during the pitch meeting for the film, the word “serum” was misheard as “cereal.” Apparently, in the book it’s an alien who gives the dinosaurs a *vitamin* that makes them smart, and then brings them to the present. So I have no evidence either way, but “brain grain“ cereal is such a weird choice, whereas “smart serum” makes sense in the context of scientists. FWIW, the thing that makes the dinosaurs lose their intelligence is called is a pill called “brain drain,” so the fact that it rhymes with “brain grain” might be relevant, except even then why didn’t they make it a vitamin also and call it “brain gain?” What I’m saying is this is weird, and I may never know why.

Jenny, Sing is LITERALLY The cartoon version of The Greatest Showman. I'm not even kidding. Insert Pam from the Office meme here.... They are the same movie. Scam artist tricks a bunch of nobodies into performing for him so he can make money and then they all somehow forgive him at the end once the building they were performing in burns down...

Definitely recommend Rugrats Go Wild even if that’s just because it introduced child me to the concept of the GIANT SQUID

Laika films always have hidden depths, and they are always so poorly advertised. i have never seen an ad for a Laika film which matched the mood of the actual film.

Such fun. Sinbad worth watching the Eris scenes on YouTube. BoxTrolls has hidden depths. Very archetypal characters and a trans allegory.

i was obsessed with the swan princess as a kid. and also sinbad. which i think is worth a watch for eris (the villain) alone.

Anomalisa isn't a kids movie at all, but is one of my favorites.

I loved Sinbad as a kid, had its flaws but I liked adventure movies and it looked beautiful. It was always really weird to me that it did not do well.

My only memory of Rugrats Go Wild was that it came with scratch and sniff stickers and each sticker would flash on the screen in the movie theater when you were supposed to sniff it

I had a Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron birthday cake when I was 8. I was obsessed with that movie and all things horses. It’s still a great movie.

I was wondering if you’d do Gumby but then realized it would’ve grossed you out for sure. The square guys getting morphed together and the dog crying pearls… I get queasy remembering it.

Delighted to hear you had a great trip! I would absolutely Love a merch video, preferably not on tiktok though (or if you can link it on your twitter at least so I don't miss it ^^). I take your point about overly dark children's movies (even though the Nostalgia Critic comparisons certainly sting a little haha), but many of those are the movies that stuck out the most in my childhood, and that I have remaining fond memories of. I don't think I was ever an edgy child, maybe just a sucker for melodrama. And yes, the car crusher song in Brave little toaster absolutely slaps!

Sinbad was good for (1) the iconic villain Eris who BLEW MY LITTLE MIND when I was a kid, and (2) the "friendship" (hmm) between Sinbad and his estranged childhood friend ("fRIenD"). Points deducted for the very 2000s romance which mostly consists of "strong woman fights with sexist man hiding feelings behind sexist remarks"). I do recommend it though! (And you're right, it's not a musical)

I’ve watched a lot of these sequels more often than the originals lol. My parents just bought the second ones when they came out on dvd!

... is that the Efteling long neck guy in the back????? God if you put out a video about that theme park a few years out from now (I have no conception of time) I'll be psyched. I'll have to religiously rewatch Momo O'Brien's video on it in the meantime and even if you don't, damn that's still really cool. I think so anyway

i desperately want to know jenny's opinions on monster house

personally i LOVED kubo and the two strings! i thought it was super beautiful and had a super cool concept and i've seen the box trolls and i remember really enjoying it but i also could not tell you the plot haha

Happy Feet and its sequel inexplicably missing

Klaus!! So good!!

I usually don't watch animated movies, but for some reason I watched the Minions movie (the first one) and liked it, and I think Jenny might like it too. Everything I've seen of the Despicable Me movies looks painfully unfunny and predictable, but the Minions movie is quite different: instead of following a character, it follows the minions as a species, with a great nature documentary-style narration by Geoffrey Rush.

Laika notoriously has terrible marketing for some reason. I was so not interested in Boxtrolls due to the trailers played during the Olympics, but I was shocked when I saw it. It was up to the emotional quality of Paranorman. Kubo and The Two Strings was absolutely incredible. I would say it’s my favorite Laika film next to Coraline. Definitely give it a shot Jenny! Even if you don’t end up liking the story the imagery is *gorgeous*.

100% agree about Sing haha. I feel like people have talked about how good it is but everything I've seen of it looks terrible.

I'd recommend Monsters Vs. Aliens. It's surprisingly funny and has a lot of fun with Fifties B-movie tropes.

My hottest Dreamworks take is that Penguins of Madagascar is an absolute riot, and easily top tier for the studio

I like to Move it actually came out 11 years before Madagascar. I recommend Flushed Away!

Also my hot take for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is that the movie would be even better if Matt Damon's voice over was removed completely.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is actually incredible and worth watching. A really excellent villain in that one.

I'm gonna push back on Balto a little bit even though I think it's kind of mediocre. I think the whole point of the 'solving a task' plot was more to demonstrate that this was something that Balto could *only* do by getting in touch with his other half, and by completing the task, the narrative is just demonstrating that he managed it for himself. The acceptance from the human villagers was more like a bonus to give him a happy ending. (Though I wouldn't say it was done super gracefully.)

I would recommend Rango, though I might be biased towards Westerns. I think it's a very witty movie that plays with the genre well and the character designs are kind of weird but not off-putting.

Flushed away is *so good*

I feel like you’d get a kick out of Sing

Strongly agree that this hat is totally different.

I was also put off by early CGI and some stop-motion stuff, but I was also put off by the art styles of a lot of Nickelodeon 2D-animated shows. I never watched Rugrats because of it looking gross and because babies are generally gross. I remember liking The Wild Thornberries, but also really hating most of the character designs.

jenny giving a D to Robots made me really upset. But I’ll cry about it in the shower instead of on the internet like a grown lady

I only know about We’re Back! because the little blue bird was voiced by Blaze Berdahl, and I had a huge crush on her in the Ghost Writer series lol. I literally don’t remember a single thing about it other than that.

YES. Totally agree about Don Bluth making a lot of movies that were dark but mostly not good. He also had something in his animation style where sometimes his character's mouths would move too much. It's hard to describe but there was a lot of over-enunciation and it looked really uncanny. I really remember seeing it recently in Jenny's Land Before Time video, especially from Daddy Tops in the first movie. All Dogs Go to Heaven was actually one of his better movies, IMO, though there are some missteps like censoring a gun by making it a ray gun and whatever the fucking crocodile thing was. It's pretty heartfelt, though I think it ends up getting... not overrated, but considered weirdly because of the VA of the little girl getting murdered soon after.

I'm so glad to hear you say you don't like Cats Don't Dance. I can't remember what came out (maybe the CATS musical movie?) and people were comparing Cats Don't Dance to it favorably but it's SUCH a boring nothing movie and the fact that the main character never has visible teeth is so off-putting. As a sort-of-furry, the male cat is NOT sexy. He's very classic Warner Bros. The female one was drawn to be like a sexy actress though.

I like Coraline, but I really wish they didn't add the boy character who wasn't in the book because I just found him annoying. I actually like ParaNorman better but I don't know exactly why. I appreciated the lighter tone and I thought having a gay dumb jock character doesn't happen enough so that was fun to see.

Lange Jan doll-thing! So you've been? :-D

OMG I LOVED "We're Back." I had the side scrolling Gameboy game and it was fire. Sinbad is pretty good. I too remember full grown adults being so hype for Kung Fu Panda for some inexplicable reason.

I was never super into How to Train Your Dragon, but I'm almost certain that a large part of that is not being able to get past ridiculous character names and how uncool most of the dragons were after being a huge dragon kid my whole childhood.

I don't love the original Kung-Fu Panda (though I think it has some strong action scenes) but I do really like the second one. It has more emotion to it and the villain is great.

Shrek 2 is actually often considered superior to the first movie by Shrek fans. When I was a kid, I know I watched it more.

Spirit is one of my favourite childhood movies, but I do really wish that all the songs weren't by Bryan Adams because I don't like how raspy his voice is and since the songs are from Spirit's perspective, I feel like they don't "fit" the voice of the horse-- especially since his few narration lines are provided by Matt Damon who sounds WAY younger. There are a lot of negative critic scores for the movie but there are a lot of weird ones that are upset about it not being as "magical" like Disney, or not having cutting edge computer effects, or even, bizarrely being too "politically correct". I really don't like that Spirit became a kind of "horse girl" thing because... well, I don't have anything against concepts surrounding girls riding horses, I just feel like a lot of it is really trite and tropey and not enough new plot lines are done with horses and girls. Horse "boys" sometimes get things like War Horse, but horse girls could do with stuff more like True Grit, but more horse-focused instead of another story about "girl finds freedom through horse". I also think that whether the story is unique or not, it would be SO much more palatable if the girl was native American, both for thematic consistency with the original movie (both her and Spirit could find freedom from the colonized world of America by exploring together or something), and because white horse girls in stories are a dime a dozen.

I saw missing link at the cinema on a random day when I needed to entertain my young daughter and that happened to be what was showing and I really enjoyed it! It was much better than I'd expected from the adverts.

The Road to El Dorado is like... good but problematic. I really like it for the animation and the character acting (like the two leads especially are great) but I've seen some takes from indigenous Mexica and Central/South American people (the location is pretty vague, though the art and architecture is definitely Mayan-inspired) saying that they thought the culture (generalized though it was) was looked upon kind of insensitively and that Chel being another sexualized native American character is off-putting (she has more characterization, of course, but I understand looking for female characters who AREN'T portrayed as sexy, especially for kids watching) Overall I think it's also a better adult animated movie than a kid's movie, as I actually enjoyed it more as a teen and older because of some of the more "mature" or dry jokes. I like some of the music, but it's just very '90s/2000s Elton John and doesn't have a specific identity.

omg Once Upon A Forest was genuinely scary. The gas scene, the yellow dragons, the birds resigning themselves to death and that freakin owl. So many scenes have been burned in my memory for life lol

cloudy with a chance of meatballs is a lot of fun, honestly worth a look! same with the pirates one.

Willy the Sparrow

Man I love How to Train Your Dragon, but I also think the sequel is just as good. Also All Dogs Go to Heaven is easily A-material.

also justice for balto and pls go watch cloudy with a chance of meatballs!

the road to el dorado was like my gay awakening as a kid.. there was something about those two men that rewired my brain 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

An American Tail was one of the first animated films I was taken to see at a movie theater. I loved it then, I have no idea what I would think of it now. I remember giving Spirit to my little sister for her birthday when it came out, it's nice to see that Jenny gave it an A+. That gnome hat is great. It looks somehow almost more Peter Panish than the Peter Pan hat last month lol.

Monsters vs. Aliens is surprisingly fun considering it's mostly a vehicle for the creators' giantess fetish. I think the thing that makes The Prince of Egypt divisive is that US studios just won't greenlight full-length animated feature films for adults, and that movie really wanted to be made for an adult audience. As a fan of the movie, I mentally blank out the sillier elements (the priests and their musical number), and focus on the insane music direction and intensity of certain scenes, as well as the interesting relationship between Pharaoh and Moses. I think people who are more inclined to take it as the childrens' movie that it was marketed as, which is reasonable, tend to find it very off-putting. Baby murder and all that.

Another animated movie that I think you missed is Netflix's Klaus, which I think is really solid and enjoyable for kids and adults alike, and the animation is quite lovely, I'd definitely reccommend it.

That was really fun! And don't worry about having different opinions about the films. Whenever you mention a movie and then have a totally different read of it than I did I always find it really interesting! Also yikes the employees in that one park sound really scary- I would have been absolutely terrified. I had no idea German parks were so strict with filming. But I'm glad that Efteling went so well!!

Boxtrolls was kind of nauseating to look at, but Kubo is transcendent. The first Laika production that felt like their craft and the story were on equal footing.

As a kid, the theatre had a "we are having technical difficultes" popup right at the death scene in chicken run. It lasted about 5 minutes and then the movie resumed. I always thought that was part of the movie and that they had censored a 5 minute gruesome scene.

A movie Jenny didn't mention, that I can't pass up a chance to recommend, is Hoodwinked. It was made independently, and it does have a slightly low-budget feel, although they got a lot of notable voice talent (who I think all do good jobs and don't feel like as much like Dreamworks celebrity voice roles). It's a basic story as far as characterization goes, but it's told in such a fun way. The sequel is dreadful, though, a must-miss. I'd give a "sure why not" recommendation for Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Doesn't take itself seriously, has some solid jokes. It's a less good Who Framed Roger Rabbit, having more of the (at times annoying) 2000s animated movie sensibilities, with the human world being more part of the slapstick, as opposed to contrastingly serious like in Roger Rabbit.

I am the opposite. Wallace and Gromit and all that animation terrified me as a child. My worst fears. I hated them so much.

Box Trolls was awesome! Great voice cast (Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Richard Ayoade). Fun story. Lots of jokes about cheese. Loved the animation. Grade: A

Is it bad that I genuinely think Anastasia is a great film? Like, I understand that it’s problematic but I think the characters, story, music, animation, etc. is top tier

We really hit the jackpot this month

tbh i did not at remember eliza thornberry getting a boyfriend and when i googled it i found this gem of a Wild Thornberrys AMV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75hA9mvikEk

I'd be delighted with ANY bonus content. Totally ok if its a bit shaky!

was cooking while watching this and i thought you were saying antz is the only jewish movie for kids other than rugratz and i was so confused

i watch shrek 2 by itself

I lived in Germany and worked as an after school care worker for highschoolers (US kids) and we went to a theme park for a weekend trip. I was getting footage of us on a swinging boat ride for the center's montage thing for slideshows showing what we do and all that. Tt was selfie mode so it was JUST me and the kids in frame and they stopped the ride, scolded me, and didn't let me finish the ride with the kids. It was nuts lol

Need a whole Patreon video on the Ghost Train at Phantasialand.

SO glad to hear someone else have a sane take about kids’ movies being dark for the sake of being dark. Just because a movie made you feel weird inside doesn’t make it compelling or deep

Also Rugrats In Paris is absolutely the superior Rugrats movie, the soundtrack is nonstop slappers

Unironically Bee Movie is one of the top 5 movies of all time and I feel personally attacked.

I'm surprised that Hoodwinked and its sequel never came up. Both of them are bad but the second one is truly Horrible

Shark tale is so cute it’s a little mini godfather movie lmao and the SpongeBob SquarePants was also much better than it probably could have been, sort of right before the show itself dropped off

It feels super weird to nitpick a Ramble post, but it took me a while to figure out you where approaching them as kids movies because of the title just being animated films. Probably a good thing Anomalisa was a no watch, that would have been a hard one to fit! I'm also glad that I'm not the only one with nostalgic fondness for Thumbelina, it seems it's the widely agreed upon bad movie among the Bluth films...and yeah. But it got to me early enough that it imprinted on me, and I just liked the pretty settings and the colours. I even like the songs though that probably says something about my tastes in music.

Here's the nice thing I can say about Shark Tale. You remember how in the pilot of Hannibal, Hannibal does a copycat killing but gets it all wrong so that Will can better understand the killer he was actually tracking? It's like that. Shark Tale did everything wrong so we could better appreciate what Finding Nemo did right.

Anastasia IS deeply weird conceptually and somewhat in execution but I WILL go to bat for it bc the music slaps and I have deep nostalgia for it that I cannot separate from any critical lens

Glad you had a fun/rewarding trip, and got back safely! :) I wouldn’t argue with anyone about this, but I did really enjoy the “Trolls” movies and the spin-off cartoons (especially “Trollstopia”)… mostly for the random psychedelia and the Rock Trolls… but I’m an ageing hippie/rocker type, so that’s kinda my soft spot.

Justice for Cats Don't Dance, Anastasia, and The Brave Little Toaster

Really tickled by the number of qualifiers added prior to admission of having seen Igor.

The We're Back synopsis was amazing. There is just so much happening in that movie. Amazing you managed to make it make that much sense. Looney Tunes Back in Action I remember being super fun; good Looney Tunes shenanigans, Bugs and Daffy had a solid relationship arc, and the human lead was Brendan Fraser instead of a popular athlete so that was a big help. Also Joan Cusack shows up, always a plus. This movie is what I use to demonstrate my beef with streaming services: they pushed video stores out of business and NOW where am I supposed to find Looney Tunes: Back in Action, none of them have it. Also I don't think I've seen Shark Tale start to finish but I've seen most of it and yeah, F, you're correct on that one. I can't believe Martin Scorsese is in it.

Is "Hoodwinked" any good?

Jenny were you on tumblr when there was that weird crossover fandom that sprung up around Rise of the Guardians, HTTYD, Tangled, and Brave? where people would do fanart of like Hiccup, Merida, Rapunzel, and Jack Frost at Hogwarts together. a v interesting time haha. also of the movies you haven't seen i'd recommend Over the Hedge and Horton Hears a Who!

Langnek <3

I vote for blog-style footage with just a warning that some of the footage will be shaky. People can make their own decisions!

Laika is such an outlier in the industry, sadly despite their quality the main reason they keep themselves afloat is because of their wealthy owner. We can only hope audiences’ rising interest in animation as a craft brings more attention to them.

The two Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movies are some of my faves.

I loved rise of the guardians so much (embarrassingly, even throughout my teen years, and long after everybody else fully forgot about it) but I think I loved the potential more than the story itself... Also to a specific type of 12 year old Jack Frost had a certain appeal I won’t lie. Definitely deserved C- though

Also, does anyone know if Jenny has said whether she still intends to do a Star Wars hotel video?

This video was 30% movie reviews, 40% "I haven't seen it", and 30% "We're Back" synopsis

Advocating for Despicable Me 2 (only2). It is adorable and very feel good. Sing 2 is cute and all about its pop music. Box Troll is an aimless joke. Listening to these lists left me realizing how terrible it is for these picture studios to do franchises. Just terrible.

If you're really into kung fu movied, then Kung Fu Panda is a really enjoyable homage. I think it works better probably as a fan of the genre.

I feel the same way about The Polar Express! It is weird that it is canon in all Christmas movies that Santa is real. And failing to believe in him is a moral failing - that's weird for children. lol With some troubling ramifications. (I say this as a Deist, personally, but still. lol)

WILD THORNBERRYS DEEP DIVE WHEN?

The older I get the more insane it is to me that Anastasia was made and then marketed like any other princess movie. My parents took me to Anastasia on Ice, for heaven's sake! You have convinced me to watch Spirit; I have not seen it yet.

The discussion of We’re Back alone was enough to make my day. Such a bizarre and fascinating film. I think everyone who saw that as a kid has had a moment as an adult where they were like, “Does that movie actually exist or did I just imagine it?” I have the same feelings about the Don Bluth stuff seeming like it’s dark just for the sake of being dark. I feel like I can respect the competently-made films (All Dogs Go to Heaven and An American Tail come to mind), but I can’t say I really enjoy watching them. I do love some of the cheap 90’s non-Bluth sequels to Bluth films though, if for no other reason than because I find it hilarious that they just straight up throw out the original dark plotlines and replace them with nonsensical fluff.

Peanuts was a very pleasant surprise, especially coming from Blue Sky. Recommended to anyone who values the strip's mid-60s run, when the characters gained depth and storylines expanded.

Missing Link deserves a better reputation. And it DOES feature some spectacular settings and environments.

I found Mr. Peabody and Sherman surprisingly good. The script is faithful to the content and tone of the old cartoons and the cast is on point. It only suffers from a generally cheap look. Hair and fur simulations have come a long way since.

When I was a video store guy way back in the day, I had this whole thing where I'd challenge the idea that animated movies were automatically "kids movies." I prefer the term "family movie."

I was never a fan of dreamworks, even as a kid before I knew about katzenberg and his fallout with Disney or knew the term mockbuster I felt dreamworks animation were low tier Disney knock offs. Although there tv stuff like trollhunters and she-Ra is solid. Illumination feels like mockbusters of dreamworks. Warner Bros animation is usually solid but can't believe I've never seen looney tunes back in action. The Brendan Frasier renaissance has me thinking I should. Also I guess this is a hot take. Scooby doo and the boo brothers is better than ghoul school. I'm sure no one agrees with me or remembers boo brothers lol.

Don't worry about being afraid of German customer service personnel. In general we can seem quite rude to Americans since you are used to a really different approach to customer service. Here in Germany seeming fake is considered to be super rude, so we will be more honest than Americans. That being said that guy in Movie Park sounds insane D:

I totally recommend watching Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It has almost been reclaimed as a good movie (because it is) but Joe Dante has a curse on him which seems to stop him from ever getting any attention and praise.

DELGO! YES. was one of my favorite movies as a kid. i wanted to look like him

1. I love your gnome hat. 2. I’m glad you’re back. 3. I love We’re Back and would have accepted nothing less than an A grade

Sinbad is gorgeous and Eris feels like she was designed to appeal specifically to the gays. But the story is so garbage and Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones have that horrible "we hate each other, it must be love!" dynamic going on... I hate it.

Definitely give Looney Tunes Back in Action and Kubo and the Two Strings a chance.

You left out the part of "We're Back!" where Professor Screw-Eyes is devoured by his own terror and loneliness, embodied by a murder of crows. FOR KIDS.

looney tunes back in action is a MUST WATCH if you like the absurdity of space jam

Anomalisa! That was jarringly out of place compared to all the family content earlier in the list. It's not my favourite Charlie Kaufman movie, but it's a Charlie Kaufman movie sandwiched between The Little Prince and Monster Trucks. That's so wild. It's about a man who's basically face blind, who finally meets a woman who doesn't look and sound like everyone else. Literally every other character in the movie is played by/modelled after one guy, and it primarily takes place at a convention in Ohio. It deals with infidelity and loneliness and depression and I can't imagine what Jenny would say about it.

Of all the have-not-seens Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is definitely worth throwing on for the hell of it.

There's also Netflix's in-house animated studio which did some that I think are pretty dang good (like Klaus and The Sea Beast) but then it did like America: The Motion picture which was kind of bad.

Over the Hedge is fun! One of the main characters is voiced by Garry Shandling

The Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs books movies pretty decent, especially for having been based on a picture book. And Arthur Christmas is absolutely adorable and I love it.

Don’t sleep on Kubo and the Two Strings! The visual artistry alone makes it an A for me

Listening to this made me realize I thought balto and the pebble and the penguin were events from the same movie...

I’ve seen 8/11 Illumination films and Jenny just kept listening them and I kept remembering just slightly off-beat childhood memories, like not out of the ordinary just strange: Hop put me, my sister, and my cousin to sleep in a crowded theater when we were the age too proud to take naps, one time my sister had the Secret Life of Pets on and my mom turned it off because of the sewer animals talking about murdering all the humans and actively torturing the two main characters, like — what’s Illumination doing?

I like the hat.

I liked the Madagascar series. Did you mention Robots?

i’ve only seen httyd 3 and all i remember is how uncomfortable i was because one of hiccups friends had a repeated gag where he tried to fuck hiccups mom, like it happened several times and that’s all i remember about the movie

Pirates Band of Misfits is a lot of fun, recommended.

Submitted for the consideration of my fellow Patreons: Jan Švankmajer The Brothers Quay Fantastic Planet The Adventures of Mark Twain Also, Anomalisa was directed by Charlie Kaufman and intended for adults, interesting but not extraordinary. And does A Scanner Darkly count? It was animated, but more as SFX for the sci-fi subject matter.

When you started to talk about We’re Back and explain the plot, my first thought was: BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OPENING WITH THE T. REX PLAYING GOLf??

I loved The Swan Princess movie and I still remember playing swan princess at recess and not getting to play Odette, even though I was the only blonde girl, because I had moles on my neck. Kids are brutal.

Sinbad is awesome - the score is really good, too.

Jenny!! I would looove a haul video! Please!!!!

I’m offended that someone might confuse Peter Pan Hat for Gnome Hat 🥲

As an Elder Millennial I feel compelled to clarify that the original version of I Like to Move It is from 1994. Also, I'm not looking forward to the day when my now-toddler is begging me to take her to Zootopia 14 or whatever mindless sequels are being churned out by these studios in 2028.

I had completely forgotten about We're Back but it was so familiar as you described the plot. I think I thought it was a recurring fever dream or something lol

Kubo had a pretty powerful story, but more than that it gorgeously mixed so many styles of clay-mation, papercraft, animation, etc.

If you went to any theme parks that sell parts of rides... yes, merch hall video please.

The walace and gromite curse of the were rabbit movie deserved an a plus

I haven't seen Rock-a-Doodle since I was a kid, but I definitely watched it several times, so I can't say it holds up, but it must have made an impression on me. Also, guess I can't argue with your hot take on brave little toaster (which is technically a Disney movie, btw 😅), but, again, I watched that movie so many times when I was a kid! *sigh*

Well darn, I voted for this one because the last time it came up it directly mentioned Studio Ghibli and was interested in some hot takes. There's over 20 of them, and having just marathoned (almost) all of them, I thought it'd be a great subject because of how beloved so many of them are yet there's also that good chunk of very "meh" ones that are rarely mentioned.

Glad to hear you had a nice trip! I enjoyed hearing all your takes, but more importantly what is that head?!? It's so familiar...

Yeah so I have to pitch in my two cents about the Prince of Egypt. First of all I'm super glad you didn't trash it because it is beyond beloved to me now, but I can confirm that it is not a good kids movie. Being raised in a weird sort of charismatic but sometimes also very strict conservative home, movies were one of the things my mom was super picky about, and Prince of Egypt was one of the movies we were allowed to watch, along with fiddler on the roof, that I remember explicitly hating because it terrified me and I didn't understand it, and then I grew up and figured out what was going on, and I was like hey I actually like this now. I think the main characters not having flaws is a valid criticism, but I think especially Ramses goes through a really compelling antagonist arc, and there's still a lot of good writing around how a persons beliefs about themselves can affect their lives and relationships. I will say I just really appreciate it now as an art piece, because of exactly what you said. Animation, performances, and especially music, all phenomenal.

I can't believe Jenny hates All Dogs go to Heaven, I'm absolutely gutted

You forgot to mention that in the end of We're Back, Professor Screw Eye gets eaten by crows! 😬 https://youtu.be/6rVuFHjkvHA

We're Back and Space Jam were probably two of my most watched films as a kid, and now We're Back is baffling to me. Great video!!

Was hoping to get a comment and grade on Monster House if Jenny saw it. I thought it was Sony but I guess I was wrong or it wasn't listed there for some other reason.

I had Looney Tunes Back in Action on VHS as a kid and liked it - from what I remember there are a few parts that make it worth checking out, but it almost certainly doesn't hold up as a whole

I had a stuffed animal that was the main orange T Rex from "We're Back: A Dinosaur Story." It was very large and so cool and I loved it. Sometimes my sisters would steal it and put it somewhere funny, like tie it to a chair or hang it from the ceiling. I had forgotten all about this until this ramble video. Thank you for bringing this back.

The Home ranking hurts so hard because it's SUCH a C movie but also the book it's based on, "The True Meaning of Smekday", is SO GOOD. It's SO GOOD. A young girl writes a school essay about traveling across America to reunite with her mom after an alien invasion. it's insanely good. please just read it instead of watching the movie.

RE Don Bluth movies being dark: a while back I was talking with a friend about "An American Tail" and they basically said "If you were to pitch this movie, but didn't mention that the main characters were talking animals, no one you'd be pitching this to would think it's intended for kids." Even though I think it's a solid film, I'd have to agree.

They reviewed the prince of Egypt on God Awful Movies! They rated it, in effect, "big yikes"! 😅

help me help me please! There's a non-disney animated film from my childhood that I randomly remembered a few years ago and has haunted me ever since - no one in my family remembers this film, none of my friends have ever heard of it - I remember it being set in Russia or having a Russian aesthetic and the core images I remember are 1) sticks either being magically transformed into an army or some trickery being done to make it look like the sticks' shadows were an army, 2) someone has to endure a sauna (?) for a long time or its an especially hot sauna, and 3) maybe the protagonists are doing these things to fulfil a task or challenge from a king (less sure on this one)

They are so extremely different - gonna go watch the evermore preview againsieesss

Would totally love to see the Swan Princess movie franchise ranking vid! I remember loving the first 10-minute montage of the first movie so much I ended up religiously watching all the sequels as a kid. Even though I was completely hitting that phase of 'Oh, this is...bad? I think??' in the middle of them.

I would watch the hell out of a ramble on Miyazaki & other Studio Ghibli films Also some of these films' premises I only know about vaguely through watching Schafrillas's ranking videos and I think it's funny to think of the contrast between those vs the efficiency of Jenny blowing through a list of movies, saying "Haven't seen it" to 80% of them, and then giving a succinct summary & letter grade the rest 😂

Jenny, are you gonna do one on Everything Everywhere All At Once?

I am shocked beyond belief that Jenny hasn't apparently really seen The Last Unicorn?

I was wondering how the video was an hour and a half long when by about 30 minutes in you ran out of movie studios, but I guess that's on me for not predicting the lengthy We're Back! A Dinosaur Story retrospective.

Wow talk about going above and beyond for a ramble video.

P.S. I definitely thought you just mixed up Fairuza Balk with Lea Michele for the Return to Oz movie, my mind is B.L.O.W.N. that Lea Michele is actually in an Oz movie. The cast is so creepy, just her and like 10 really old dudes, half of whom have recent sex scandals.

The "We're Back!" summary is everything I could have hoped for, thank you. Also they should put your quotations on the cover of every movie. "Isn't it just about a dog who likes to gamble?"

Man that dinosaur movie deserves its own ramble I can't wait to watch it for myself. Also glad to see Langnek lurking in the background! Sigh now I want Pringles :(

I would watch a lil seasickness inducing footage of theme parks! That story of the little girl in Germany is scary. I feel you on getting scolded; I then over index on getting permission 😅

jenny you absolutely need to watch the last unicorn if you haven't seen it

Devastated at the lack of a rating of The Last Unicorn, my favorite movie as a kid that I would watch over and over and over again, annoying my family to no end because they all hated it with a passion

The animated movies I remember most clearly that I don’t think you mentioned were ferngully& cats don’t dance - talk about a fever dream lol. I miss that era of animated movies where it was anything goes, the characters were all unhinged, and there were so many colors and patterns. Clearly so many drugs in production. What a time

Do you guys forgive Jenny for giving Prince of Egypt and Boss Baby the same score

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is the Movie you were referring to and it was actually a money laundering scheme 😭 (Return to Oz is the live action Disney sequel made in the 1980s and it’s pretty good.)

I've gotten the sense from other movies that you have a low tolerance for gross stuff, and I find it really comforting because I'm like that, too. Mine is actually so bad that the words gross me out- I can't say them, and I don't like to hear them. I wish kids' movies didn't always have to cater to the grossest of little boys.

I would recommend watching Kubo and the Two Strings. The visuals are stunning (they do some cool things with origami), and it has a solid story about family in an action/adventure wrapping.

Can highly recommend The Penguins of Madagascar, it's one of my favorites. It's just so joyful, you can tell how much fun the writers had writing it.

LANGNEK

This story about the professor and the smart dinosaur cereal sounds like a fever dream I once had…I can’t believe this is real

Jenny how could you, Shrek 2 is the best in the franchise!

Spirit >>>>

Kubo and the Two Strings was one of the most hauntingly, beautiful movies I'd seen that year, and the craftsmanship alone is worth a watch. Also, I appreciated Hiccup's journey throughout the trilogy, from boy on his hero's journey, to a man learning to lead, to a father learning to let go.

I'm happy you to hear that you had a great time on your trip! And to see that you managed to land a Pringles sponsorship!!

how to train your dragon is arguably a horse girl movie

Next you should do Disney Non-Animated Movies

so excited !! working retail during Labor Day gets intense and this is gonna get me through the day !!

Ok I'm sorry I only started listening but you talked about Antz and I've gotta ask: which one is worse, Antz or Bug's Life?

Omg everyone has to watch Monsters vs Aliens, it's actually very precious

Ok, this is uncanny. I was literally just chatting with friends about Prince of Egypt.

My dog ran away yesterday and I really need this to lift my spirits thanks for another monthly ramble Jenny I'm so happy to support you 😭

Another hour long ramble on my birthday too! Okay my bday was Saturday but I'll pretend otherwise :D

So excited for this!! Can't wait to hear you take on Ghibli while I get groceries!

these long rambles are really getting me through the year 😭 thank you!!

What a blessed day

We are now fed, thank you!! <3

can’t wait to watch when i get home from work!!!