The Best (And Worst) Of 2008 In Animation

[Sailor V]

Since it's almost 2009 and I know I did the same thing since 2006 but I want to hear from you members what you think of this year about animation. We'll talk about the best and worst shows, episodes, episodes examples, writers, actors, news, and etcetera and/or tell me why. Neutral things in animation are accepted.

[Silverstar]

worst:
george of the jungle

The new George of the Jungle actually premiered in 2007, and I didn't think it was that bad, personally.

[Eddy]

WALL-E came out. One of the best animated movies I've seen in a long time.

[DarthGonzo]

WALL-E came out. One of the best animated movies I've seen in a long time.

Yeah I'm just going to agree with this. I don't think much more needs to be said.

[Baltofan]

Niko and the way to the Stars:

Best Christmas movie!

[sun]

WALL-E...
CLEARLY THE BEST OF 2008.

Actually one of the best animated films ever. Ground Breaking in many ways: story, mood, technique, and so many others. A great film Yet strange and unsatisfying and that is the greatness.

This film leaves you uneasy, kinda like it didn't feel right. And that is what it is supposed to make you feel. Why? Because the problem that it discusses is unfinished, yet to be finished and one that we need to face and overcome.

[Hiya Animation]

It's officially 2009 now! And I'm late declaring my Best/Worst of 2008:

BEST ANIMATED FEATURES:

Wall-E- Pixar has another winner... what can I say?

Bolt- A step in the right direction for Disney.

The Tale of Despereaux- Was genuinely surprised at how good this film actually is despite it's troubled production. It's this year's "overlooked gem" film like Surf's Up in 2007.

Kung-Fu-Panda- A decent, but far from perfect, film from Dreamworks and a step in the right direction for them. Hopefully they keep it up!

Justice League: New Frontier- For a DTV release... this was pretty good. An improvement over Superman Doomsday (although I enjoyed that too) although I really wish they kept the character designs from the Justice League TV show... those were so much better.

WORST (Or worst looking) ANIMATED FEATURES:

Horton Hears a Who- A horror to sit through.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Film)- Stiff, expressionless animation.

Space Chimps- More crap from Vanguard.

Delgo- Ugliest character design award anyone?

[M.O.D.O.K.]

I'm listing only the best, since I really don't see anything too bad this year for the worst.

Best Comedies:

-Total Drama Island: Very entertaining Canadian show. Smart, funny writing that may push the envelope, and characters that grow on you. There's a reason this show is breaking CN records.

-The Venture Brothers: At it's third season, this show never slows down on the parodies of DC, Marvel, spy thrillers, and sci-fi pastiches. A perfect combination of heavy continuity and smart humor. I can forgive the fact that we'll wait another whole year for the fourth season.

-Moral Orel: I wasn't originally a fan of this show when it first started. However, it went from parodying Davey and Goliath and becoming dependent on taking jabs at religion and shock value to actually having interesting stories with more humanized and real characters, deep and thoughtful writing, and interesting use of continuity. While the comedy started to lack towards the end, it was worth it for the interesting writing. You will be missed.

Best Action-Adventures:

-The Spectacular Spider-Man: I might as well declare this show Best Animated Show of 2008. Creative art and designs, smooth and fluid animation, breath-taking action sequences, surprising twists, intelligent writing, clever set-up for future stories, smart humor, characters that grow and mature, credible threats, and the most refreshing use of the Spider-Man mythos in a long time. Anything else?

-Avatar: The Last Airbender: Another great show that comes to a (mostly) satisfactory end. The animation and beautiful art made this show a treat to watch, and does a fine job balancing development for all of its main characters. The finale, especially, provides the ending Star Wars failed to do: A happy, optimistic ending, but with some loose ties, casualties, and no illogical "magical peace and harmony for everyone forever" garbage. I'll save my Aang/Katara complaints for another time...

-Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Refreshing art inspired by Batman artist Dick Sprang and fine voice acting were reasons for me to keep watching. But its the entertaining, unique portrayals of Batman and several B-list DC heroes and the amount of respect the creators pay to DC history that make it a must-watch.

[Viper]

I guess I'll join in the fun and voice my picks for best and worst of 2008:

Best Animated Movies:

WALL-E--fantastic movie! Pixar does NOT disappoint!!!:D
Bolt--I just saw it. Very enjoyable movie with nice animation and good story.:)
Kung Fu Panda--Jack Black was hilarious!:D
Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning--a nicely done prequel!:anime:
Batman: Gotham Knight--you can't go wrong with this one!;)
Barbie in A Christmas Carol--I felt this version about a stage actress with a swelled head was a nice touch.:anime:

Best Animated TV Shows:

Spectacular Spiderman--I've been a fan of the character since I saw eps of the 1967 version back in 1977 at age 5. This version is just as terrific! The animation's fantastic, the stories are great, and the action is superb!:D I can't wait to see Season 2 starting March, 2009 on DisneyXD!:D
Phineas & Ferb--I love this show! Especially Ashley Tisdale as Candace because I love her voice!:anime:
Total Drama Island--a terrific show that parodies reality shows. The stunts were hilarious, and the characters seemed to grow on you.:D
6Teen--I'm so happy this fantastic show has come back to America! It reminds me a little of Saved By The Bell.:anime:
Ben 10: Alien Force--I love this new version!!! Gwen looks so lovely as a teenager!:anime:
Secret Saturdays--enjoyable show. I'm happy Nicole Sullivan is still in the VA business. I'll always love her as Mira Nova & Shego!:anime:

Worst Animated Movies:

Space Chimps--very weak humor.:sad:

Worst Animated TV Shows:

Chowder--the animation looks awful!:(
Flapjack--same as Chowder.:(
GoGoRiki--this should have stayed in Moscow!:(

I think that's about it. Hope I did ok.:)

[Mini Garbonzo]

Chowder--the animation looks awful!:(
Flapjack--same as Chowder.:(

If anything, the animation is one of the strong points of Flapjack.:shrug:

Anyways, am I the only one who thought "Kung Fu Panda" was more entertaining than "Wall-E"? Don't get me wrong, I really liked "Wall-E" but in terms of sheer entertainment value, I thought "Kung Fu Panda" was fantastic.

[Urusei Yatsura]

Best Animated Movies:

Wall-E

(That's all I saw and I could care less about seeing Kung Fu Panda) :shrug:

Best shows:

1. Avatar- Amazing finale, best characters, gorgeous art and music. :D
2. Code Geass: R2- One of my fave shows. :D
3. TDI- Pretty good...

Worst shows:

Flapjack- Honestly, I don't like this show. And I have seen a lot of epis. The humor is not my cup of tea... But I do like the main character a bit...
Back at the Barnyard- Nick needs to get better shows...
Tons more...

:sweat:

[Racattack!Force]

Worst show of 2008: The Secret saturdays and Go Go Riki.:oCare to enlighten me? You gotta have a reason.

[Tay the Cat]

Anyways, am I the only one who thought "Kung Fu Panda" was more entertaining than "Wall-E"? Don't get me wrong, I really liked "Wall-E" but in terms of sheer entertainment value, I thought "Kung Fu Panda" was fantastic.
I absolutely agree with you.

WALL-E is a good movie, but it's hardly entertaining.

[XDogg]

Care to enlighten me? You gotta have a reason.
Well when I watch The Secret Saturdays, Well It's not Interesting and kind of Blah.

[Racattack!Force]

Well when I watch The Secret Saturdays, Well It's not Interesting and kind of Blah.Fair enough.

[Darklordavaitor]

Well when I watch The Secret Saturdays, Well It's not Interesting and kind of Blah.
Great arguement.

[Galaxy 9000]

Well when I watch The Secret Saturdays, Well It's not Interesting and kind of Blah.


That doesn't explain much..

[XDogg]

Is the show any good? I have it On my Demand service... I guess I will Try it.:shrug:

[Rawr]

i generally avoid animated movies.... because for the most part they disappoint me... but Wall-E was really good


good show wise:

Moral Orel - the show became less of a comedy show, and more of a serious show that tied up all of the knots...... Dino did a great job on this series and im sad to see it go... but happy once i get Moral Orel dvds

Chowder - didnt like this show at first..... but it grew on me...

Superjail! - the art style was awesome, the story lines are awesome... this whole show is awesome

bad show wise:
The Secret Saturdays.... its basically Johnny Quest..... but not as cool as it and for some reason

Batman: Bold and the Brave - the art style threw me off....... that plus Batman usually goes solo

Space Chimps - i already dislike animated movies... and this just help me grow even more hate for them

[Racattack!Force]

Is the show any good? I have it On my Demand service... I guess I will Try it.:shrug:Well, I personally enjoy the cartoon for the following reasons:


An amazing homage to Hanna-Barbara action/adventure series such as Jonny Quest and The Herculoids.
Unlike other series, the villain actually wins quite a bit. A freshing change of pace.
The humor in the series is usually pretty good, and they can easily be serious when they need to.
It has a bunch of cryptids.

[All Star Blitz]

Best show: Chowder. Excellent character design and animation, great soundtrack, perfect voice acting, constistently funny writing. I really can't find anything bad to say about this series. Second place goes to The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, which seems to still be finding itself writing-wise (it's gotten better lately) although it also has a wonderful animation style.

Best movie: Kung Fu Panda. Um, because it was the only new movie I saw this year. Seriously, though, it had great characters (I'm a sucker for anthropomorphic animals if done right), an interesting plot, and for once, DreamWorks made a movie that didn't contain a single fart joke or pop culture reference. That, and Po is cute. :-P

[Mini Garbonzo]

Theatrical animations that are an insult to the medium:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Delgo
Space Chimps
Fly Me to the Moon
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" wasn't exactly an insult to the medium, it was an insult to "Star Wars" fans, but that can be said about most of the prequel trilogy...

[DSR]

I dont really watch alot of cartoons just marvel stuff.

Best Movie: WALL-E

Best Show: Spectacular Spider-Man - Best portrayal of Spider-Man in a while good story and not once do you feel bored of the show, also good portrayal of villains such as Electro and the Green Goblin.

[Mynd Hed]

When posting in this thread, please remember the rule about list posts/threads. (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=197356) If list posts continue to be made with no discussion, this thread will be closed as a list thread. Thank you.

[ABrown]

My favorites from 2008 were the Star Wars:Clone Wars movie and TV show. Also, in 2008 the 2003 TMNT cartoon's lost season finally aired and was released on dvd.

[Mek]

WORST (Or worst looking) ANIMATED FEATURES:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Film)- Stiff, expressionless animation.


See, I LOVE 'Clone Wars' to death, but it's really one of those things that looks so much better on the small screen. (I could see bitmap detail on the movie screen too, which proves that it's nothing more than a glorified 90 minute pilot)

It's actually gotten a lot smoother in the last few episodes -at least, from a certain point of view- and I have a feeling it'll only get better, at least, for a CG cartoon series on cable TV. I'm not expecting smooth, buttercream-like perfection along the lines of Pixar, though. (But in comparison to something like, say, 'Voltron the Third Dimension', it's pretty slick)

But yeah, I do agree the movie felt rather stiff, especially in comparison to the TV show.

And I agree wholeheartedly about singing the praises of WALL-E.

[g-whiz]

you know what show i really liked that premeired in 2008?

Phineas and Ferb.

i can say that i had gone a good 3 years with out watching disney, until this show came up. the sad thing is, is that i think that disney wont give it a chance because there still on their "teen idol" high. i mean i cant remember the last good animated show that came on disney channel. good to me at least.

[rattis1]

Best:

* Wall-e. Not all good movies are very entertaining, and not all entertaining movies are very good. This is one of those rare films that are both about as entertaining as a movie can possibly get, and damn near as good as it can get. Possibly the best animated film ever made.

* The Simpsons went on with a slightly larger number ofgood episodes than most other seasons produced in the last ten years.

Worst:

* The Clone Wars turned out to be a completely soulless and pointless movie.

[Silverstar]

Best show: Chowder


you know what show i really liked that premeired in 2008?

Phineas and Ferb.

Chowder and Phineas and Ferb premiered in 2007, actually.

[All Star Blitz]

Chowder and Phineas and Ferb premiered in 2007, actually.

I knew Chowder was late 2007, but yeah, I fudged it a little.

[g-whiz]

Chowder and Phineas and Ferb premiered in 2007, actually.

oh my bad:p but my opinions dont change though.

[Racattack!Force]

Chowder and Phineas and Ferb premiered in 2007, actually.Actually, Phineas and Ferb premiered officially in 2008, with a few sneak peeks throughout late 2007.