Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

ASIFA-Hollywood a society devoted to the advancement of animation recently released the 34th annual Annie Awards nominations, with the winners to be announced on February 11th. (Unfortunately, this came on the heels of an announcement by Disney that it would layoff 160 of 800 employees in the company’s feature animation unit.) Pixar Animation Studios’ Cars lead the field with 9 nominations. DreamWorks Animation garnered 17 nominations, shared between Over the Hedge and the currently released film Flushed Away. (Library staff members who have seen Flushed pronounced it as fun, lively, and suitable for most.) Other family features nominated include Happy Feet, Monster House and Open Season. In the category of home entertainment features, Bambi II and Winnie the Pooh, Shapes and Sizes, as well as The Adventures of Brer Rabbit received recognition.

Traditional style, family fun animated features ranging from the first, Snow White, to the current, are perennial favorites in the library’s AV department. But the library’s collection of anime is quickly becoming a go to area for many families. The latest acquisitions in this area include the critically well received Japanese movie, Howl's Moving Castle in which an lonely young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch and her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard. This film is by the same director as Spirited Away and like that film is rated PG. The computer generated My Beautiful Girl, Mari is described as a dream like example of Korean animation gently exploring the pangs of adolescence and growing up. This film was the Grand Prix winner of the 26th International Animated Film Festival.

Of course, we have anime suitable for adult and teen audiences as well. Don’t forget to offer your suggestions for purchase in this area or to suggest a film to other readers. What is your favorite animated feature film?