Anomalisa vs. Inside Out: The Race for the Best Animated Film of 2015

Coming into 2015, Pixar Animation Studios was having a creative dry spell. Since 2010's Toy Story 3, Pixar released Cars 2, Brave, and Monsters University. While all of those films did make over $190 million, they were not as revered or in the same ballpark as Pixar's other classics such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, or The Incredibles. 2015 changed things for Pixar- not only did it allow The Good Dinosaur to come and go, but it saw the release of Inside Out. Inside Out is a children's film, yet it's so thematically rich and unbelievably creative that it automatically vaults itself into the discussion for one of Pixar's all time best. The film helps explain complex concepts to children while not diminishing story or characters and still remains interesting and wonderful to adults. The movie also makes you cry at the death of imaginary pink elephant made out of cotton candy. I think Inside Out is a work of brilliance and you can easily see why it's the Oscar front runner for Best Animated Film.

Yet as good of a film as Inside Out is, I don't think it touches a candle to Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa. I have Inside Out as my 6th favorite film of 2014 at 3.5 stars, but Anomalisa is solidly in my top five at #3 with 4 stars and could very easily move up to #1 as the longer I think about it the more I love it. Inside Out is a great animated film, Anomalisa is a great film period.

The Top 10 Best Animated Movies Currently Streaming on Netflix*

10) Hercules (1997)
Starring: Tate Donovan, Danny DeVito, & James Woods
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: The first Disney film based off of Greek mythology takes some liberties with story (i.e. Hercules is born to the Gods then given a potion to make him almost mortal. I guess having Zeus rape a woman wasn't appropriate for Disney), but it's a solid Disney flick the whole family can enjoy.

9) Mulan (1998)
Starring: Ming-Na Wen, B.D. Wong, & Eddie Murphy
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" is one of my all time favorite Disney songs. That's probably because in my Freshman World History class, when my teacher started to discuss Attila The Hun, a good friend of mine burst out into song singing, "Let's get down to business/ To defeat the huns!"

2013 Oscar Preview: The Random Categories

Click here for my introduction

BEST ANIMATED FILM

- In a year where all five nominations came from Hollywood and came to a theater near me, I only managed to see two of them: Brave and Wreck-It Ralph

- Wreck-It Ralph is incredible and it upsets me that it's not getting the buzz that previous Best Motion Picture Nominees Toy Story 3 and Up got. Not only was it (in my narrow mind) easily the best animated picture of 2012, but it was one of the best films of 2012 (#2 on my personal list) and one of the best animated films in the past 15 years.
- Brave was visually stunning and the animation- in regards to the setting and such- were stupidly good. However, the story was thin and dull and if Cars 2 didn't exist, Brave would compete for the worst film Pixar has ever produced. That's not saying it's inherently bad, but that is a result of the high bar Pixar set for itself. Either way, I don't think Brave deserves to win or will win.

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