Today we got the aforementioned 12, 13, 14, which features two movies that I doubt you'd find on other lists.
14. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Second of three animated movies in my top 20. Though this technically isn't animated, its stop-motion, but I just lump them in the same group. Deal with it! 4
It has quite a unique story. The ruler of the Halloween world, somehow gets into Christmas land, and then is like, "I want that!". Like most animated movies, there are a lot of songs (well, I guess nowadays animated flicks don't really have those anymore)...So like older animated movies, like Lion King and such, the pre-Pixar era, its sort of like a musical at times. The songs are made by the very talented Danny Elfman, who you should know if you are familiar with moving pictures. He's done the soundtrack for like a ballion different films. Anyways, Nightmare's soundtrack is just one of the best. Some would actually argue that the movies music is annoying, like this tooooootally gay on rottentomatoes....well it is only that one jerk. Send all your hate to him please. It isn't directed, but rather produced by Tim Burton. Some would say, that this means Tim Burton just gave it money and did nothing else. But I'd like to believe that he had some sort of creative control, because this film just exudes his dark style. And maybe shouldn't really be shown to easily fightened children....
An intro to Halloweentown:
As you saw, the various citizens of Halloweentown look just awesome. And the main character, Jack Skellington is just plain bad-ass:
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| Comes in two flavors: friendly |
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| and not so much |
What's so great aboot it, is that it's a mash-up of two (very different) holidays, so you can watch this biannually, to celebrate Christmas and Halloween.
IMDB: 8.0
RT: 97%
13. SLC Punk! (1999) - I doubt any of you have really heard of this movie. I stumbled upon it based on its lead actor, Matthew Lilliard. Most of you might recognize him as Shaggy from the Scooby Doo movies. Well I saw him there and other places, and then I remember seeing him in a movie a whiiiiile back. That turned out to be Dead Man's Curve, which is nowhere to be found on the internet. If someone could find it for me, that would be greeeeeeat (*to be read in the voice of that guy from office space). But I checked his filmography, and this one seemed interesting, watched it, and loved it.
It's a story of two punks (punk rock enthusiast) in Salt Lake City (SLC) one of the most conservative places like evar. Stevo (Matthew Lilliard) serves as a narrator, to introduce other characters and such, a technique used in many films. The supporting characters are interesting, and the stories Stevo tells about them are quite amusing. For example, an anecdote featuring the lead from Final Destination (the first one), crazy from LSD and with green hair (though not technically narrated by Stevo):
I'll admit there isn't a strong overarching story (though there is a good underlying message), its just about the guys in SLC and their adventure. It's not all fun and games, as there are some serious notes in the film as well. But the ride was so enjoyable, that I don't really care that the overall story wasn't strong. After finding this film, I've started looking at actors/actresses filmographies, hoping to find some lesser known gems, such as this. Also, Matthew Lilliard is awesome, and it is a shame he never really became mainstream.
IMDB: 7.3
RT: 63% (but 89% fan vote)
12. The Fox and the Hound (1981) - I realize this movie isn't as good as most other animated movies. But this one just has the nostalgia factor for me. So i like it more than the average viewer. It's a simple tale of forbidden friendship, between a neighboring young fox and a young pup hunting dog. It has some unnecessary supporting characters....they maybe should have focused on the two main characters more.
But aren't they just goddamn adorable?
Like Nightmare it has a few musical numbers, but not as many, and not as memorable. There are however two extremely low points. One of them is my number two most depressing scene of all time (number one being the final scene in About Schmidt). Just like fairytale, it amazes me how horrifying events there are in children's tales. Proof of that, is the opening:
IMDB: 7.1
RT: 68%
Also, in shameless self-promotion, I have accounts on IMDB and RT (profile: Reigntall on both), where I post some of my reviews (altered slightly for obvious reasons), so if you could maybe, say my reviews were useful (IMDB), or give them a thumbs up (RT) that would be superspecialawesome.
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