Time for my year-end countdown of the best and worst animated films of the year (based on Rotten Tomato scores, so take from that what you will).
In the 80s, I started a magazine called “Animato!” that later grew quite large and popular. I got to meet and interview great animators like Chuck Jones and Ralph Bakshi but later sold the magazine, and it went on to even bigger successes until the internet killed all magazines. So you can see my interest here.
This list only includes films that got at least 10 reviews, and ties are broken by the number of reviews. I did not include films that are motion-capture (that’s not animation!) or films that had a lot of CGI unless the CGI was for a major character in the film.
There are a lot more foreign films on the list this year — I don’t think that’s because there are more being made, but more are being shown in America thanks to streaming and as such, more are getting reviews than ever before. I also wonder though if this is very accurate, as some of the foreign films that did extremely well here did not get a ton of reviews. Maybe the only people reviewing them are people who love anime (for instance) and are already biased in favor? Then again, maybe not. I haven’t seen many of them so I can’t really say. (What are your thoughts? Comment below!)
Anyway, here we go:
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (98%)
Lesbian Space Princess (98%)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (98%)
Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc (96%)
K Pop Demon Hunters (95%)
Predator: Killer of Killers (95%)
Ne Zha 2 (92%)
Zootopia 2 (91%)
Arco (91%)
Endless Cookie (90%)
Lost in Starlight (89%)
The Bad Guys 2 (87%)
Dog of God (87%)
In Your Dreams (86%)
SpongeBob: The Search for SquarePants (85%)
The Light of the World (85%)
Elio (83%)
Dog Man (82%)
Death Does Not Exist (79%)
Scarlet (74%)
A Magnificent Life (72%)
Plankton: The Movie (71%)
Stitch Head (71%)
David (68%)
The King of Kings (61%)
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (58%)
Fixed (56%)
The Twits (50%)
A Minecraft Movie (48%)
Sneaks (29%)
Smurfs (20%)
Yeah, I know Zootopia isn’t at the top of this list, but it is the most obvious one people have heard of so I put it at the top. Here’s a poster of the #1 film. Doesn’t look like anything I’d be interested in.
Anger drives ratings, as Fox News is well aware. And that’s why they created the War on Christmas. Those poor Christians, being attacked and persecuted and treated terribly — how awful it must be to be a discriminated against majority. All those laws requiring people to never say “Merry Christmas” … oh wait.
Every example Fox News gives for a “War on Christmas” always boils down to something like “They won’t let us force kids to sing our religious songs!” or “They say ‘Happy Holidays’ which acknowledges that not everyone is a Christian and therefore they are attacking us!” or “They are refusing to allow us to use their money (taxpayer dollars) for a religious display.”
You never heard of a “War on Christmas” until Fox News made it up as a way to gain ratings, because they have learned that the angrier they get their viewers, the more they tune in. So they create fake controversies each week, with this being the annual rerun.
So here we go again. It’s now the 13th year where I have challenged anyone to give me an example of a real “attack on Christmas,” because every one of these examples is, in reality, fought in defense. You wouldn’t even hear about them if these particular Christians weren’t trying to require everyone to obey their beliefs.
Once more, I am not counting the lone Grinch who doesn’t want anyone to say it around him, nor am I counting stores that want their employees to say “Happy Holidays” in order to include everyone. (Clearly, while on the job, employers can require you to do and say certain things.) I’m talking about a law or ordinance or anything that would prohibit anyone from saying “Merry Christmas” or otherwise stop you from celebrating the religious holiday.
The number of fake AI stories I am seeing my friends share is growing like a cancer. These fake stories and pictures are only there to get you to click on the link so they can spam you with ads.
Please everyone — be a skeptic about everything and ESPECIALLY things you really want to be true. It only takes a few seconds to google anything you see. If it doesn’t pop up on a reliable news source, it’s probably fake.
This is especially true about celebrity news where you go “Oh, I always knew that celebrity was a wonderful person” because they said something nice or helped people in need or whatever. They’re so easy to check. Bruce Springsteen did not allow a handicapped fan onstage at his concert last night because he isn’t currently touring. Micky Dolenz did not travel to a hospital in New Orleans to sing to a child because he is currently touring (and nowhere near New Orleans). I mean, seriously, it took me less than a minute in each example to prove it wasn’t true.
I also see a lot of fake political news that makes me go, “Aha! Finally, the courts have ruled in a way I like” but then immediately look to see if it is mentioned on any reliable news site.
Check everything out. Don’t be gullible. It doesn’t make you look good.
I recently asked my friends on Facebook who they would want as the Democratic candidate in 2026 and got a ton of responses.
Keep in mind a few things before I report what they said. First, my Facebook friends are almost entirely other liberals (duh) so this skews that direction. Second, many made the proper distinction between who they would personally like to see as President and who they think would be the best candidate (since the two are not necessarily the same). Thirdly, this was not any sort of well-designed polling. Some people named more than one candidate, some only named who they didn’t want (“Anyone but X!”), some merely said things like “I’ll vote for a toaster for President if it’s a Democrat.”
Keep in mind as well that a year is a lifetime in politics. Someone new could pop up between now and election day, and any of these named candidates could do something to ruin their chances.
So I counted mentions, even if some people mentioned more than one.
“Who, me?”
As expected, the name that popped up most is Gavin Newsom. He certainly has dominated the news lately with his brilliant attacks on Trump, and that has endeared him to many Democrats. Of course, he comes from California, and we’re going to get all their electoral votes no matter who the candidate is, so I’m not sure personally if that would be the best choice. (On the other hand, I voted for Harris, and she’s from California as well.)
Close behind was Pete Buttigieg, although most everyone who named him commented that they don’t think he has a chance. (Hey, people said the same thing about Obama when he started running.) Personally, I think Buttigieg would be great — I’d love to have someone of his intelligence in charge. However, I think he should probably get more experience. The highest office he has ever been elected to was mayor of a town in Indiana. Since getting married, he moved to Michigan and people thought he did that so he could run for Senate from there, but he shot that idea down early and has taken no steps to do so.
Third was J.B. Pritzker, another governor who has been wonderful at attacking Trump and giving Trump the respect he deserves (that is, none whatsoever). Pritzker has the personality many Democrats like, does and says the right thing, and may be a possibility.
Those three were a bit ahead of the next group. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez led the second tier. Most respondents admitted they’d want her but know that she probably could not get elected (yet). Some mentioned her as a VP choice. AOC is beloved by many Democrats but, let’s face it, she’s still young and only a representative. She probably should run for Schumer’s seat when he retires (which hopefully will be soon) and get more experience first. She could wait until 2060 and still be younger than Biden or Trump.
My own governor Josh Shapiro was in the next tier, along with Senator Mark Kelly, Governor Andy Beshear, and Representative Jasmine Crockett.
I was surprised to see that my friends hardly listed Cory Booker and Kamala Harris … Both of those would be high on my list, although I can see why people would say that Harris already had her chance and it’s not a good idea to have her try again.
In any event, this means absolutely nothing, but it was interesting to see who was popular among my Facebook friends.
You ever see someone write “f*ck” or something similar, as if that absolves them of writing a bad word? Like we can’t figure out what the word could possibly be, especially when taken in context?
Or when a TV censor bleeps a word but you can still tell from the context and the speaker’s mouth what the word is? Or when a comic book character says “&%@(!!” instead of what you know they’re really saying?
Who are we protecting here? You think kids haven’t heard these words before? You think they’re too dumb to figure it out? The very young ones, maybe, but then they’re not reading “f*ck” or watching the kinds of shows where those words might be used. (Or in comic books and comic strips that kids might read.)
For network TV, which has to apply for licenses from the government, it makes a bit more sense. However, I see that most cable stations don’t censor any more (Jon Stewart and the cast of “South Park” are finally free to say what they think without bleeping), and clearly we’re moving in that direction. Even our President and other politicians use words that would have destroyed their careers when I was young.
These kinds of silly word censorships are sort of like those fashion pictures you’ve seen where the beautiful female model is topless but she has her fingers covering her nipples … Gee, what could possibly be under her finger? I can’t imagine! (And seriously, it’s not the nipples we care about anyway. If all I wanted to do is see nipples, I could look in a mirror…)
Anyway, the point I was trying to make before I distracted myself with nipples is this: I sometimes have to laugh at silly censorhip. I mean, come on. No one is going to be hurt by it. It’s just a f*cking word.
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