Top Ten Animated Films- By Michael J. Carlisle

The inventor of the viewing device called a praxinoscope (1877) , French scientist Charles-Emile Reynaud, also created a large-scale system called Theatre Optique (1888) which could take a strip of pictures or images and project them onto a screen. It was the first instance of projected animated cartoon films.

 To create the animations, individually-created images were painted directly onto the frames of a flexible strip of transparent gelatine and run through his projection system. Reynaud would make three animated films that were 12-15 minutes each and would show them for the Paris' Musee Grevin.

In the decades that followed Reynaud's initial invention, animated films would see many "firsts". The first fully animated film was Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie (1908);  the first prominent cartoon star was a brontosaurus named Gertie in Gertie the Dinosaur (1914); the first historical cartoon drama was The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), a depiction of the torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat; the first cartoon character to gain international success was Felix the Cat.

While Walt Disney and the rest of the West like to claim Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was the earliest feature-length picture, film historians know that it is in fact The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Of course we ought to give credit where credit is due; one of the reasons animation remained successful during the 30's and 40's was mainly because of Walt Disney. Their groundbreaking techniques changed the way animation was being made and how audiences would perceive such films in the theater. 

Unfortunately overtime animated film would gain the reputation of being "just for children". Disney greatly contributed to this notion as they would directly market to children for decades. Fortunately the rise of Japanese anime has done well to detract from stereotype. The animation of the East is typically more mature in tone than that of the West. There are many animated films that deserve to be taken seriously and seen by an audience in 2016. With that in mind, here are my top ten favourite animated films. Click on each individual title to read the review (Note: Not all titles will have been reviewed)


1. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

2. Watership Down (1978)

3. My Neighbour Totoro (1988

4. Fantastic Planet (1973) 

5. Feherlofia (1981) 

6. Allegro Non Troppo (1976)

7. Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)

8. Fritz the Cat (1972)

9. Chicken Run (2000)

10. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)