Commentary Track
You Decide: The Best CGI Movies of All-Time?
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 19, 2007
If there is anything we love here at FSR, it is a little bit of reader backlash. We have always tried to listen to our readers, take their feedback to heart and always do what we can to raise the bar when it comes to delivering the best content in the world of film. And of course, we like to have a little fun while we are at it.
Yesterday, our own Kevin Carr compiled a list of The 10 Best CGI Movies of All-Time based on feedback from some of the FSR staff. And I have to say, it was a pretty decent list. But allegedly it was not the list that our readers would have compiled. Instead of “Cars”, some of you would have rather seen “Final Fantasy: Advent Children” top the list, or even “Titan AE”. Well world, here is your chance to make a difference. Below I have compiled a comprehensive list of 20 films who were all made great with the use of computer generated graphics. Based on comments from users over at Digg and here on our site, I think we’ve got a good mix of mainstream and slightly off-mainstream films (I’m sure we could do an entire list of way off-mainstream CGI stuff, but that is something for later.)
So there you have it, a list of 20 CGI films based on your feedback. Now it is time for you to get to the voting and tell us what is the best of all-time. Have another one that you’d like to add? Want to argue it out with your fellow man? That can all be done in the comment section below.
Enjoy!
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48 Comments
May 19th, 2007 at 9:35 am
[...] [Update: Based on the great reader talkback below, we have decided to let you decide what the best CGI Films of All Time are with our new poll. Check it out: You Decide: The Best CGI Films of All-Time.] [...]
May 19th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I just didn’t like The Incredibles at all. My girlfriend and I actually walked out of the theater because we hated it so much.
Oh well, maybe I need to give it another try.
May 19th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I’m surprised Titan AE is so low, but I suppose it is having a difficult time standing up to the CGI films. Originally I was going to vote for Toy Story, as it was a landmark film when it was released, it has stood the test of time being twelve years old now, and is still enjoyable to watch. The Incredibles was also a decent choice, and was aimed at a higher-aged audience than some of the others, even though it was very cartoon-y. In the end I voted for Monsters Inc, as the characters were lovable, the animation was top-notch, and the story was very funny and something kids can definitely relate to.
I personally would have Over the Hedge higher, because I thought it was a pretty decent film overall. I would have pegged Cars and A Bug’s Life higher than a few of the movies above them. I also though, film-experience and story-wise (having not played any of the games) the first Final Fantasy movie was better than Advent Children, but the action scenes were pretty stunning in the sequel.
TMNT did well on the budget it had, and I enjoyed it as a movie in it’s own right. I was also very impressed with Renaissance, although the heavily realistic motion capture (compared to say The Polar Express) puts the movie in a slightly different category to the rest in this list. The extremely limited release and target-audience I think hasn’t helped this movie but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I would recommend watching it if you get the chance.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Go go Monsters, Inc!! Fight your way to the top!!
May 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Advent Children is not a sequel to The Spirits Within. The only thing they have in common is being animated and having Final Fantasy in the title.
May 19th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
@hardran3: SORRY. Forgive me. When I say sequel, I meant a movie within the same franchise, but thanks for your insightful input…
May 19th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
[...] Best CGI Movies of All-Time? (Follow up to Yesterday’s Top 10 List) Vote: Best CGI Movies of All-Time? (Follow up to Yesterday’s Top 10 List) “Instead of ‘Cars’, some of you would have rather seen ‘Final Fantasy: [...]
May 19th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
How could you leave 300 out of the list?
May 19th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
@RB
We were really going after movies that were almost exclusively CG. Tron is there because of its Classic status… 300 would better be saved for another list… which we have not yet created. I assure you, we will have it on some list, some day in the future.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:19 am
What about Sky Blue?
IMO beats every other film listed here, particularly if you are over 12.
As for Rennaissance, it looks interesting, but I have yet to find a copy, and I would think that is probably the case for most people reading this.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Why isn’t A Scanner Darkly on the list? I understood why it wouldn’t be on the list but you then included Rennaisance and Tron on the list.
A Scanner Darkly is one of my favourite films of all time let alone CG.
To quote yourself “Below I have compiled a comprehensive list of 20 films who were all made great with the use of computer generated graphics. ”
The CG Rotoscoping effect definintely made A Scanner Darkly great, it wouldn’t be even close to the same movie without it.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:35 am
@mtaracio
To be honest, I overlooked A Scanner Darkly. Not on purpose, mind you. I was gathering suggestions from the comments on the previous post and I must have forgotten it. Great flick, though…
May 20th, 2007 at 12:42 am
I think polls that ask for the best of all time aren’t very accurate unless they take into account the fact some people really really like one CGI movie barely more than another, and since only have 1 vote can only vote for their absolute favorite. For all we know, everyone who voted found Renaissance to be their second favorite CGI film and it should be accurately shown. Oh well, nothing you can do about it.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:30 am
Um… Antz?
this list fails at life.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:35 am
I’d like to see Apple Seed on the list. It’s a great movie, much better than some of the current competitors.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Final Fantasy Advent Children looked good but was an unwatchably crappy movie overall.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Yeah Apple Seed and the new Ghost In the Shell movie are both fantastic CG movies.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Advent Children was worth watching only for the CG. The movie itself stank in my opinion as well.
May 20th, 2007 at 2:31 am
I wanted to vote the new StarCraft II trailer, or most Blizzard cinematics.. they are the BEST!
May 20th, 2007 at 3:09 am
aww, no happy feet on that list either.
and you guys gave that movie an A as well, not to mention it had incredible graphics and animation, and a cool storyline.
Now i just have to choose between titan ae/finding nemo/monsters in/toy story / tron….
May 20th, 2007 at 3:14 am
[...] up to Yesterday’s Top 10 List) Filed under: Uncategorized — recar @ 7:14 am Vote: Best CGI Movies of All-Time? (Follow up to Yesterday’s Top 10 List) “Instead of ‘Cars’, some of you would have rather seen ‘Final Fantasy: [...]
May 20th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Seems you can not make every one happy, but this is a good start
May 20th, 2007 at 6:57 am
“Final Fantasy Advent Children looked good but was an unwatchably crappy movie overall.” & “Advent Children was worth watching only for the CG. The movie itself stank in my opinion as well.”
Absolutely spot on, and what I was trying to address in my first comment.
I totally forgot about Happy Feet, but I still wouldn’t put it up extremely high on the list. It was well done, but I felt the storyline was pretty weak personally. A Scanner Darkly, forgot about that one too, was pretty decent too, and in similar vein to Renaissance (as I guessed a lot of people haven’t seen).
I was thinking about animated movies, and Spirited Away which is a very good animated movie. The visuals are brilliant for hand-drawn animation and the story is magical. Not-CGI, but nevertheless worth mentioning in the comments.
I think Final Fantasy is topping the list because of target audience of this website… oh well.
May 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am
all time favorite: The Emperor’s New Groove.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Don’t forget (next time) Waking Life
May 20th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Ha, Did any of you accually watch Advent Children. It was a horrible movie and you should all be ashamed of yourselves..
May 20th, 2007 at 11:02 am
you should put number of voters aswell as percentages because percentages can paint very odd pictures.
I agree advent children was a bit of a let down but the cgi was good at least.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
the overwhelming amount of geeks on the net have put FF:AC in front.
it’s really not that good.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Nice selection but I would include some more in the poll..
May 20th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
ADVENT CHILDREN?????? WHAAAAAAA thats not even animation.
idiot japanese fan boys……ugh made me sick to my stomach when I saw that.
shouldnt have been on the list.
btw meet the robinsons wasnt such a bad movie either, for a disney 3d flick
May 20th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
TMNT deserves to at least be in the top 5. That movie was all kinds of awesome, and the family theme was inspiring.
May 20th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
You’re all retards, every single one of you fan boys that voted for Final Fantasy. It was a god awful piece of crap.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:09 am
Heavy Metal
May 21st, 2007 at 1:31 am
The incredibles??? Come on! this poll would not even exist if it wasn’t for Toy Story. And FF:AC was a cool movie. Its not Crime and Punishment but it had it moments. The first one was crap. But anyways what is this poll really about? CGI, CG? Plot? Originality? Make up ur mind people!! There are some really bad movies that have amazing CGI like the akward Polar Express. And what bout Sin City (not 300), Waking Life??
And with the increase of computer technology in the film process-especially in photography- the line gets even more blurry.
May 21st, 2007 at 3:11 am
May 21st, 2007 at 3:12 am
http://www.lost.eu/4aeb2
May 21st, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I think The Incredibles and Titan AE deserve much more credit than they usually get.
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
[...] Best CGI movies of all time [...]
May 24th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Cars might be good, but honestly I’ve never seen it.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Shouldn’t 300 be a choice? Not that I’d vote for it…
@rb aww man, I thought I was the first person with this comment :) amen
May 25th, 2007 at 9:59 am
[...] week we asked you to vote for the Best CGI Movies of All-Time and the readers choice turned out to be Final Fantasy: Advent Children with 2,627 votes out of [...]
June 25th, 2007 at 10:15 am
could u guys do me a favour plz!
i am doing media courseworks and i need some help to answer my question.
do u think children prefer cgi sorylines or animated storylines. or is it just the graphics the kids are intrested in??????
July 7th, 2007 at 2:21 am
I think Transformers is up there and same with Terminator 2…. BEEAAAUUTIFULLL!!!!
July 7th, 2007 at 2:30 am
wait……..are talkin about the whole movie is CGI or like Some main parts??? like Transformers or Terminator??? cause i saw the list and they are all like full CGI
August 25th, 2007 at 10:13 am
September 30th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
final fantasy: advent children.
hands down, if we’re talking about breakthroughs in animation. i’ve never seen anything american-made that neared that level. i’m sick of cookie-cutter, cheap laugh pixar films. scanner darkly was pretty cool.
of course, anyone who isn’t into anime or rpg video games would argue that the story of advent children sucks or makes little sense. i disagree with that general statement. i think the plot needed more development, however, the film is crack for people who indulged in final fantasy vii.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:15 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
March 16th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
what is the name of an animated and cgi series that was on cartoon network a few years ago. it had to do with the world covered in water and giant beasts of some kind of super monster in the water i think it was a six part series and i think the name had blue something in it i cant remember and cant find it