John Scalzi: '00s were a golden age for sci-fi animation

[MonkeyFunk]

I read this blog post about the winners and losers of the decade's science fiction films and thought that this observation was interesting:

WINNER: Animated Science Fiction. WALL-E: One of the best movies of the decade. The Incredibles: Ditto. Lilo & Stitch, Robots, Monsters vs. Aliens: all pretty decent little flicks. Yes, there's also Treasure Planet, Space Chimps and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but they can't all be gems. I'd like to see humor in scifi outside of animation, but there's no argument that the last decade was a golden age for scifi animation.

He's got a point. Certainly if we're only looking at American films then this decade's seen a sudden spurt of interest in the genre that no past decade can really compare with.

I'm trying to think of notable animated sci-fi features from America that came out before 2000, and all I can think of is The Iron Giant (which, released in 1999, juuuust makes it).

[TheGunheart]

...Did he insinuate that Robots was a better movie than Treasure Planet? Did he just say Treasure Planet was as bad as Space Chimps?

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

4-5 films does not constitute a "Golden Age".

It would help his argument if he threw in some examples of anime sci-fi TV shows, but I doubt he's even aware of them. Besides, I don't even think science fiction anime was all that strong this decade.

[MonkeyFunk]

It would help his argument if he threw in some examples of anime sci-fi TV shows, but I doubt he's even aware of them.

Well, it is a blog post about films.

And yes, he knows about TV anime - I've got a book on science fiction films that he wrote, and he has a brief section on it there.

[Alph]

At the same time, the two biggest attempts at serious traditionally animated sci-fi movies, Titan A.E. and Treasure Planet, tanked hard.


The only real victories for serious sci-fi in animation this decade, from what I can remember, were Wall-E and 9. But those were CGI. Traditional animation is buried in the dirt in that area.


And then you have TV shows. How many animated sci-fi TV shows have we gotten this decade? We get alot of shows with sci-fi elements, but I can't think of many true sci-fi shows.

[HG Revolution]

The only real victories for serious sci-fi in animation this decade, from what I can remember, were Wall-E and 9. But those were CGI. Traditional animation is buried in the dirt in that area.

What about Metropolis and Paprika?

[Alph]

What about Metropolis and Paprika?

Were those movies commercial successes? I'd not actually heard of them until you mentioned them.

[GWOtaku]

4-5 films does not constitute a "Golden Age".

It would help his argument if he threw in some examples of anime sci-fi TV shows, but I doubt he's even aware of them. Besides, I don't even think science fiction anime was all that strong this decade.

There were definitely some highlights. Ghost in the Shell SAC, Toward the Terra, Gundam 00, Captain Harlock Endless Odyssey, The Girl Who Leaped Through Time, Casshern, PlanetES, Banner of the Stars, Twin Spica, Ergo Proxy, Noein, Saikano, Freedom...I'd call it pretty impressive even if a few of the aforementioned titles aren't agreed on.