There’s a bunch of animated movies I’ve been meaning to get to so here’s a quick hit list for you!

Moana– A beautiful tale set in ancient Polynesia, Moana is a young woman who sets out on a quest to save her home from a curse that was started by Demigod Maui. He stole the heart of the island and now Moana must find him and make things right. Fantastic, vibrant animation (think Finding Nemo: Above and Sometimes Under the Ocean) with some great characters. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is perfect as Maui and he plays great against/with Auli’i Cravalho as Moana. Cute, funny, and sweet, this is a great family movie with pops of fun action. Does a great service for the Polynesian culture, I recommend it.

The Secret Life of Pets– File this one under “It’s good, I guess.” I don’t have much to say for this one as there’s nothing much to talk about. It’s best for very young children as there is little plot to speak of. “A day in the life” is more like it as the creativity of this movie comes mostly from ideas of how pets spend their day when their owners aren’t home. Instead of having a plot that can engage all age types, like Pixar does, Life of Pets spends most of its time on figuring out how to get animals from point A to point B in different ways. Good animation and standard gags that highlight how animals behave (cats are aloof! Dogs sniff butts to greet each other!) should hold your attention enough to get you to the end. Nothing special here…I consider that it’s only 80 minutes long to be one of it’s best features.

Despicable Me 3– This one felt very similar to The Secret Life of Pets. At around 80 minutes, the movie is short but the script was clearly padded to reach a full-length feature run time. The main premise is good, Gru finds out he has a twin brother, Dru, and Dru wants to tag along and revive the families business of being a world-class villain. The main antagonist, Balthazar Bratt, is probably the best idea and follow through in the movie. It’s a very by the numbers DM movie though. The animation is fine, there are some clever moments but it’s all rather boring. The unicorn sub-plot is a complete waste of time. Bratt doesn’t do much for the run of the movie, disappearing for long stretches of time and he seemingly just sits around for most of the movie after he gets the giant jewel. Having Steve Carell do the voice of Dru seems really lazy to me and it makes the brothers too similar (they’ve been apart for something like 40 years and Gru never knew Dru existed). I never cared for anything the minions do in this movie and they’re off doing their own dumb thing (i.e. very little) for most of the movie. Only one part of this movie was worth paying attention to, the other two parts were 20 minutes or so of spinning plates to make it seem like more was going on. Disappointing.

Coco– And now here’s another showcase of why Pixar is the best in the animation business and makes all the money. Miguel is an aspiring musician at the age of 12. His family has banned music from a traumatic event that occurred two generations earlier. Miguel must hide his dream and talent from his family. Then, as Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) approaches, his family finds out when he wants to sign up for a talent show. His grandmother smashes his guitar and Miguel goes in search of a new one. When he tries to borrow his great-great-grandfather’s guitar (a legendary musician) he’s transported to the Land of the Dead where he meets his deceased family members and finds out a whole new aspect of his family.

It’s a fantastic and timely story about the importance of family and the legacy we leave behind. Lovely and endearing characters I grew to know and love, I think Coco is a brilliant example of powerful story telling. On top of the rich and complex story that has laughs, twists and turns, and heartbreak, the visuals push Pixar to the top of their craft. Ignoring the standard brilliant animation they have for their characters, the detail in everything around the characters is unmatched. The colors, the effects, it all makes a digital world come to life. The world never looks like a set made up of simple shapes and plastic, but a real place with three-dimensional depth. The soundtrack is great too! I loved Coco and recommend it to everyone.

Sausage Party– I think the goal of this project from the start was to make a crazy edgy movie like Team America. But it gets nowhere close to that quality. I think I laughed 3 times. So that’s not a good batting average for a comedy. It’s just…not good. Let’s make all the characters stereotype’s based on what food they are. Let’s curse just because we can. Let’s have half the characters be obsessed with sex because that’s….funny? To keep it from being completely shallow, we’ll make it an allegory for…religion? Oh and there’s no good way to end the movie so let’s break the 4th wall and call it a day. If you never watch this movie, rest assured you haven’t missed anything.

I loved Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. War caps what I consider one of the best film trilogies ever made.

It’s two years after the events of Dawn and Caesar, along with his remaining people are holed up in the woods. Caught in a never-ending tide of battle, the human’s keep coming in and attacking. After winning a fight (if you can call it that) Caesar sends four prisoners of war back to their leader, The Colonel, with a message: leave us alone and no one has to die. The apes are exhausted and scared, they just want to live on their own in peace. This faction of humans has a different idea.

Caesar has been deeply traumatized by the events of Dawn. The battle with his brother, Koba, took a massive toll on his mind. Koba could not let his hatred go and the results were devastating. When the Colonel sneaks into the apes home and kills Caesar’s wife and eldest son, he finds himself fighting the same demons that consumed Koba. Caesar swears revenge and puts his life, along with the lives of his people, right in the path of all out war.

Complex, engaging, emotional, and riveting. All of it can be found in War for the Planet of the Apes. Brilliant, mature storytelling bolstered by cutting-edge visual effects make this series one of my absolute favorites.

The growth of Caesar as a character through each film is a fantastic journey to follow. From an ape to a leader, one who leads by positive example for the betterment of his people, is really inspiring. The VFX are second to none, from frame one I never saw the apes (who are in 98% of the screentime) as anything but sentient beings on camera. Just look at the eyes of these amazing creations shows a production team far ahead of many of their peers.

Caesar is just the tip of the fantastic characters as everyone around him is a fantastic and believable character. I love Maurice. He’s the right-hand man, confidant, advisor, and friend that everyone should have. The Colonel is far more than a trite villain, he has valid reasons for doing what he does. Everything he does is horrible making him a fantastic antagonist to root against. His backstory adds so much to make him more than a cardboard cut out with a gun, something many movies get nowhere close to.

I found War to be a harrowing story from start to finish. I rolled through every emotion possible and by the end, I was completely blown away. I think this series that started in 2011 hasn’t gotten its fair share of attention. More people need to watch this and you absolutely need to start with Rise to get the full experience. While War (and the other two films) can stand as their own confined stories, you’ll be missing out on a lot of the meaning and purpose of this story. Please check these movies out, I really think they are some of the best works Hollywood has put out in the past twenty years.

I’ve become a huge fan of Matt Reeves because of this (directed War and Dawn, as well as co-wrote War) and knowing that he’s working on the next Batman film has me completely stoked.