The Croods
Released in late March, The Croods was a fun, relatively simple affair, which, whilst not setting the world on fire, was visually stunning and pretty funny, at that. Dreamworks also gifted it with a decent voice cast, including Emma Stone, Nicholas Cage and Ryan Reynolds. It was certainly a lesser effort from Dreamworks, but miles better than a lot of the other animations released this year; as shown in the box office figures, with Croods picking up a neat total of roughly $587 million.
Epic
Another middling effort from perhaps Hollywood's most mediocre animation studio, Epic promised big things with its absurd title and massive cast (including, but not limited to: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Beyoncé and Pitbull) but amidst all the bright colours and faux-whimsy was a rote plot with thinly sketched characters. Aziz Ansari's whacky Mub was a highlight, but even that was overshadowed by the lack of dramatic momentum and originality.
Despicable Me 2
(At the time of writing) the second highest-grossing film of the year, Despicable Me 2 was a runaway hit, whilst (similarly to Epic) it lacked true inspiration, the Minions were as funny as ever and the visual set-pieces were bigger than last time. The main plot was nothing special for sure and the pacing was a bit off in the middle act, but Despicable Me 2's incredible box office total of nearly $920 million shows how much love the world has for Gru and his Minions.
Monsters University
My favourite film of the year, Pixar's prequel to the 2001 hit Monsters Inc. proved to be another hit with the public (close to $744 million), as it reintroduced us to two of Pixar's most-loved characters: Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan. There was a plethora of new ones introduced too, making for a frenetic and vividly detailed time in Monstropolis. It may lack the magic of Pixar's soaringly lovely past, but it was still a delight to welcome the monsters back to the big screen.
Turbo
A wildly depressing disappointment, Turbo proved to be one of this year's biggest let-downs, wasting the talents of its charismatic voice cast (Ryan Reynolds, Snoop Dogg (or Snoop Lion, whichever you think is stupider), Samuel L. Jackson etc.) and its astounding visuals to deliver another derivative, dumb 100 minutes, with only a few sparks of humour and inspiration. My opinion is reflected in the box office, where Turbo only earned $282 million, resulting in a general consensus that (excluding merchandising and home-media sales) it was a financial flop.
The Smurfs 2
Another monotonous, bland entry in a summer full of them, The Smurfs 2 was nowhere near matching the box office success of its predecessor and even less successful critically. It had another decent cast mired in the trite affair that was the film's plot. Being dragged along to this sequel was one of the most unpleasant viewing experiences of my year.
Planes
I'm sorry to keep echoing a variation of this phrase, but whilst visually, it was vibrant, bright and fun, the story was second rate. Julia Louis-Dreyfus proved to be a nice addition to the voice cast and there were flashes of humour, but the continuation of John Lasseter's Cars universe was a mostly forgettable affair, for me.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
A surprisngly solid animated entry, Cloudy 2 delivered on the plucky promise of the original, with typically zany visuals and the same affable characters. It was nearly as funny too, with plenty of visual gags and silly food puns (which I enjoyed) it may not be spectacular, but it made time fly on a hot summer afternoon; with this kind of film, what more can you ask for?
Free Birds
I didn't actually see Free Birds, but judging by the opinions of a few friends it was pretty bad. The leading trio of the voice cast are incredibly likeable and talented, but the original prose seems pretty lacklustre (or lackluster to American folk) to me. Couple that with the fact that, here in Britain, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, you can see why it was received poorly by critics and the public alike.
Frozen
The titan of 2013 animation, Frozen was a brilliant reminder of Disney's uncanny staying power as well as its capability of producing great characters: those including the hilarious (and much derided for his role in the film's marketing) Olaf and the two new Disney Princess Anna and Elsa - both of whom were fun and memorable in their own right. It featured the best Disney songs since The Lion King and was probably the best Disney musical since then too.
As for The Wind Rises, that hasn't been released in the UK yet, but I'll do a review when it does - around late-February I think!
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