Site Design

This area gives some insight into the content design of this site. To learn more about the general site design and automation, please visit the site design area of my personal site (stevebondi.com).

Quick Click Guide

  • Navigate 3-D Wall of Works (CoolIris):
    • To scroll: click/drag across wall, click left/right arrows, drag bottom scroll bar
    • See more by clicking the "full screen" icon on the bottom-right corner
    • Single-click an item to select and deselect
    • Move the cursor off a selected item to hide the description
  • Click icons displayed with works:
    • details for fully animated, partially animated, secondary
    • video , image , Amazon link
    • review for Favorite, Good, Good Visuals, Weak
    • release info for DVD, BD (Blu-ray)
  • Click fields displayed with works:
    • Finding Nemo | go to reference link (e.g., Wikipedia)
    • movie | all works for same medium (movie, series, short, ...)
    • Pixar | all works by same shop
    • 2003 | all works released same year
    • Japan | all works from same country
  • Click Search This Site (on the page header) with a search query
  • Click Contact Me (on the page footer) for corrections/additions
  • Click Design (on the page footer) for info on this site's content design
  • Right-click this CSV file to get all works on this site into a spreadsheet

Types

I consider that there are three primary types of animation:

  • Traditional animation: hand-drawn cells in just two dimensions (2-D); includes the classic Disney feature movies and TV series like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Simpsons
  • Stop-motion animation: physical models placed in a normal three-dimensional (3-D) environment and moved to a new position for each frame; includes movies like Chicken Run (uses the Claymation stop-motion technique)
  • Computer animation: virtual computer models representing a three-dimensional (3-D) space which is completely managed by computer software and expert artists/animators; a.k.a., CG (computer graphics) or CGI (computer-generated imagery); includes movies like Shrek

Within these primary types, I consider there are two sub-types of animated works:

  • Fully animated: there is primarily no live-action footage (i.e., every character is animated), with the rare exception of some works which use some/all live-action background footage (e.g., Dinosaur)
  • Partially animated: live-action footage is used, and animation is used for a specific character(s) integrated with the live-action actors, or some other modification to the live-action footage

This site is focused on computer animation - either fully animated or partially animated.

Mediums

The primary animation mediums that I consider here are:

  • Movie: Movies (and series) are being created with more and more visual effects - especially those including CG-animated characters. This site includes every movie/series with major computer animation that I have had a chance to see (or plan to see) - including many from other countries.
    • Fully animated works and partially animated works come in many forms in movies/series. Of all the genres, sci-fi/fantasy movies/series utilize animation the most -- this includes most fully animated movies/series. But in every genre, you will find lots of partially animated works where the animation can be in the form of isolated visual effects (e.g., a quick shot with a digital double, a replacement of a body part on a live-action actor, etc.). Increasingly, live-action movies/series take this to the next level where the animation can be in the form of fully animated characters that interact with the live-action actors.
    • With such a variety of animated works, I did not want to get bogged down with rigid categorization criteria (e.g., as followed for the Academy Awards), and thus, I try to focus this site on any work that I consider has major animation. Thus, even though the Best Animated Feature category of the Academy Awards must meet a certain criteria relative to the percentage of animated minutes, this site includes anything as a fully animated work that I consider had a significant amount of fully computer-animated sequences (i.e., no integration with live-action actors, but possibly with filmed backgrounds).
    • Even though I love visual effects (and eventually plan on including my recommendations for visual effects movies/series somewhere on my personal site), I try to focus this site on major animation versus isolated visual effects. Thus, for partially animated works on this site, I have primarily only included the movies/series that have at least one significant fully animated character integrated with the live-action. I have also subjectively included some works which only have one scene (of a decent length) with this type of live-action integrated animation.
  • Series: Virtually all the movie medium notes above apply to this medium, although normally with a lesser budget (per episode). Note the generic term series covers any work designed to span over multiple episodes, and thus not only includes TV series, but also other series like those released directly to video.
  • Cinematic (a.k.a., video game cinematic, cutscene, in-game movie, full motion video or FMV): I have included the cinematics (i.e., the short videos that appear between gameplay levels) that I have collected, representing many of the best ones available. These not only include the longer productions, but also the shorter productions created as teasers and trailers.
  • Short: These are works normally just a few minutes long made by creative animation students, fledgling animation studios trying to make a name, or established animation studios trying to maintain their name (by winning Academy Awards for their shorts). Check out my favorite shorts section where I have collected and cataloged quite a few of these gems, while there are so many more out there! Also, since there are so many shorts (especially from student projects), I only catalog ones that I consider good and/or were released from 2005 to present with Academy Award recognition or SIGGRAPH inclusion.
  • Commercial (a.k.a., TV commercial): I have only included the TV commercial works that I have collected, representing only a handful of the many commercials out there with great animation.
  • Music Video: Even though there are many music videos with awesome animation, I have not included them on this site.
  • Documentary: Even though there are some great documentaries (primarily relative to dinosaurs) that take advantage of quality animation, I have not included them on this site.

Shops

Due to the large amount of time and money to produce computer animation works, often there is more than one animation shop involved in a production. Here I only focused on the primary animation shop that I associated with each work. Also, if the work is by a student for a project in an animation school, I list the school as the "shop". And even though the vast majority of the works are collaborative efforts, I note the primary artist when applicable, and include any applicable shop/school as the "shop". Sometimes the name of a major artist represents their "shop".

Although I love some (or all) of the work from each of the animation shops (and artists) listed on this site, the following animation shops (listed in alphabetical order) have a particularly remarkable set of works:

Rankings

I chose to rank these works primarily based on the overrall work (characters, story, animation, etc.) with an extra weight here towards the animation.

  • In addition to the overrall ranking, I also provide a separate sub-ranking of Great, Good, Basic, or Weak for each aspect of the work (i.e., Design, Animation, Concept, and Writing).
  • When applicable, I also provide specific review notes.
  • Thus, good/impressive animation can be seen for a work that I considered "weak" overrall.
  • Alternatively, less impressive (or maybe dated) animation can be seen for a work I considered "good" overrall.
  • If a work has enough overall animation to warrant including it on this site - while not enough character animation to warrant ranking it with all the others, I noted that it was excluded from ranking on the Details (a.k.a., "Releases by Title") pages.

You can also check out my personal site (stevebondi.com) with my general favorite movies and TV series.

Conventions

With each animated work here, I include one or more of the following entities:

  • icon fields:
    • Sub-type Icon (with Details Link): This icon identifies the animation sub-type; by clicking on it, you can see all the detailed info that I have gathered for the work within a new viewer window with the Details page cropped to focus on the work.
      • fully animated
      • partially animated
      • secondary animation
    • Video Icon (with Video Link): This icon identifies that a video reference link is provided; by clicking on it (i.e., ), you can see a video in a new viewer window (typically from YouTube) chosen to help you better appreciate an unfamiliar series/movie. For shorter works, this will play the entire work from its online source.
    • Amazon Icon (with Amazon Link): This icon identifies that a link to the applicable release on Amazon.com is provided; by clicking on it (i.e., ), you are taken to the applicable release on Amazon.com.
    • Ranking Icon (with Review Link): This icon identifies my ranking of a work (if ranked); by clicking on it, you are taken to either the Review page with its review -or- the Details page (if ranked as Weak). The last four informational icons (no link) explain when a ranking is not provided.
      • Favorite
      • Good
      • Good Visuals (certain Weak shorts)
      • Weak
      • Seen but excluded from rankings
      • Seen but ranking not available
      • Released but not seen
      • Future release
    • Release Medium Icon: This icon represents the medium of the applicable release:
      • movie: movie theater release
      • series: TV broadcast
      • DVD: a.k.a., Digital Video Disc
      • BD: a.k.a., Blu-ray Disc
      • video: not released as the primary work on any of the other mediums; either released only at a film festival, released online, or released as part of a collection of works on DVD or BD
    • Image: This is a 120x90 (4:3) image that I collected/edited to best represent the spirit of the work. I also maintain a larger master version on the site (400x300) for on-demand display.
  • text fields:
    • Title (optional release year) (with Reference Link): The title is followed by the release year in parentheses if it is used by multiple works (e.g., remakes); by clicking on the title, you are taken to a reference link in a new browser window (or tab) with information about the work (normally from Wikipedia).
    • Medium (with Medium Link): This represents the source medium for which the work was released; by clicking on it, you are taken to a page with all works for the same medium.
    • Shop (with Shop Link): This represents the animation shop for the work; by clicking on it, you are taken to a page with all the works for the same shop and possibly notes or a review regarding the shop.
    • Release Year (with Release Year Link): This represents the source release date of the work; by clicking on the year, you are taken to a page with all works for the same release year.
    • Country (with Country Link): This represents the origin country of the work; by clicking on it, you are taken to a page with all the works from the same country.
    • Review: This represents my comments about the quality of the overall work in addition to the quality of the animation.

The Videos List

My collection information comes from a "videos list" spreadsheet that I maintain with all my acquired videos, eliminated videos, reviewed video works, and upcoming video works. By works, I am referring to a movie, TV series, or any other video-related content (e.g., music video, video game cinematic, etc.).

Note: The design area of my personal site describes my automated process of updating my sites with changes to the "videos list" spreadsheet.

Here are some notes regarding the "videos list" spreadsheet data:

  • Release Years: I mostly used IMDb and tv.com to get release years for the works. Since my primary goal was to put animated works in perspective relative to the time period when they were made, I struggled with using the U.S. release date or the sometimes much earlier foreign release dates (including film festivals). In the end, I mostly chose the earliest date the work was released to the public. However, for works that were modified for re-release (e.g., Star Wars in 1997), I have not yet resolved how to deal with the original release date. Also note, I use "99" for an unknown month or day (displayed as "__" on this site) and "9999" for an unknown future year (displayed as tbd on this site) in order to sort them to the end.
  • Mediums: I use the term medium both for the source medium - the format for which the source work was created (e.g., movie, TV series, video game cinematic, etc.) - as well as for the release medium - formats in which the work is released (e.g., movie theater, TV, DVD, BD). In addition to the base source mediums like movie and series, I provide another field for any special format that a source medium may have - this covers things like made-for-TV movies, direct-to-video movies, direct-to-video series, movie shorts, etc.
  • Content: If you have any information that I am missing (e.g., works, fields for a work, shops, etc.) or corrections to my existing information, I would greatly appreciate your input.