Cover story

Inside Out 2 The fastest film to reach $1 billion The Wild Robot Five stars from our critic

This year’s biggest film?

Superheroes won’t save Hollywood — but a
new generation of cartoons led by Inside Out 2
is coming to the rescue. By Jonathan Dean It’s anim
F
or years it was the superheroes Dergarabedian, an analyst for the Drawing an audience act with a cartoon, That Christmas. And
who were saving Hollywood. global media company Comscore. Below: Po in Kung Fu The Lord of the Rings: The War of the
From Spider-Man to Batman to, “Then family movies became the Panda 4 and a Minion Rohirrim has no A-listers in sight.
belatedly, a few women — the saviour of box office.” in Despicable Me 4 Yet this year’s animation boom was
comic-book movie became a This is glorious for Hollywood. In not nearly as bright, gaudy and empty
multibillion-dollar ballast for a 2020, when Trolls World Tour became as the film posters tended to suggest.
business struggling to make money in a the first film of the pandemic to be Yes, there was dross (The Garfield Movie),
world of streaming and smartphones. released at home at the same time as in but more interestingly, more excitingly,
But then, like Superman faced with cinemas, entire pricing structures fell it has brought a sense of creative
kryptonite, said superheroes started to into jeopardy. A family of four gathered expression and exuberance, as if
weaken and their fickle audiences around a TV would pay £20 to stream animation is entering its baroque phase.
moved on as studio execs started to Trolls World Tour instead of north of Lord of the Rings: The War of the
panic. Who, they gasped, would save £50 for four multiplex tickets and some Rohirrim is delivered in beautifully
Hollywood now? overpriced popcorn and drinks. Losing rendered anime, making the screen
Well, step forward … cartoons. Lots that income for ever would have been look like the best room in an art gallery;
of them. In a previous life the top of the fatal for the industry, but the success of while the masterly and meaningful The
box-office charts would be full of Oscar- Inside Out 2 and its ilk has brought back Wild Robot, out this weekend, is like
worthy adult movies — but the days of multigenerational family entertainment watching ET, Finding Nemo and Bambi
cinema being dominated by serious — something Marvel and DC superhero as drawn by Claude Monet. Inside Out 2
dramatic fare are long gone. Five of the franchises never pulled off — when had equal quality, following the rich
top 20 highest-grossing films worldwide studios needed it most. Pixar tradition of Up, Wall-E and Soul
this year were animated — and three of Dave Holstein, a writer on Inside Out by tackling the biggest topics — such as
those five were among the top six 2, describes the film as “many movies loneliness and death — in a way that
money-makers. in one. My six-year-old thinks it’s the The boom has never felt patronising.
Such is the domination that the funniest he’s seen. My mum thinks it’s brought a sense “One of my favourite films of the past
biggest film this year is Inside Out 2, the the saddest. And when my son sees it of creative 20 years is Toy Story 3,” Miguel Gomes,
sequel starring new emotions in the again in ten years he’ll have a whole expression and the Portuguese arthouse film-maker
teenager Riley’s brain. It was the fastest different movie to watch.” who won best director at the Cannes
film to date to reach $1 billion (from box By the end of this year the
exuberance Film Festival this year, told The Film
offices around the world) and that’s blockbusters with actual actors in them Stage. “Pixar is closer to the idea of
with half the publicity of a film like, say, — The Fall Guy, Furiosa: A Mad Max mainstream classical cinema than
Barbie, which made far less money. Saga, Dune: Part Two — will be further most of what is made today.”
Meanwhile, Despicable Me 4 was the sidelined by the arrival of Moana 2 And Gomes’s enthusiasm is the
third-highest earner of the year and (the first Moana earned $600 crux of the animation boom,
Kung Fu Panda 4 landed at No 6. million) and Mufasa: The Lion explaining why the backbone of
“Entering the summer, the King (the 2019 Lion King reboot Hollywood profit shifting from
marketplace was suffering a malaise — took $1.6 billion). Even the superhero to cartoon will
a year-to-date downturn with films not king of rom-coms Richard become less of a trend and more
living up to expectations,” says Paul Curtis is getting in on the of an era. Comic-book films lost their
4 20 October 2024
 ... AND OUR CRITICS' PICKS 10

20 Fantastic Mr Fox
2009, Disney+
This adaptation of Roald
to the studio its theme song:
When You Wish Upon a Star.
The film remains one of the
12 The Incredibles
2004, Disney+
A retro-futurist hymn
Dahl’s novel comes from the darker Disneys, and is all the to space-age architecture,
mind of one of Hollywood’s more memorable for it. Bond villain lairs, couturiers
most idiosyncratic directors: inspired by the costume
Wes Anderson. The director,
a Dahl fan who read the book
as a child in Texas, teams up
16 Waltz with Bashir
2008, buy/rent
Think animation can’t tackle
designer Edith Head and
jetpacks — what more could
you want? The zippiest
with the co-writer Noah challenging subject matter? Pixar, as well as the funniest,
Baumbach to dream up a Just watch this haunting movie, The Incredibles is executed
story that extends beyond the which brings to life the dreams with more craft and wit than
poultry-stealing fox (George and memories of the Israeli most of the superhero movies
Clooney) and greedy farmers. soldiers who fought with it spoofs.
Lebanese forces against

19 Alice 1988, Mubi

The Czech surrealist Jan
Svankmajer’s stop-motion
the Palestine Liberation
Organisation and Syria in the
1982 Lebanon war. The Israeli
11 The Nightmare Before
Christmas 1993, Disney+
This started life as a poem
version of Lewis Carroll’s director Ari Folman uses his that Tim Burton wrote while
Alice’s Adventures in recollections as a soldier working as a junior animator
Wonderland is one to give during the conflict and at Disney. It became a witty,
even adults the jitters. Alice’s interviews with others who dark fable about a takeover
transformations unfold with were there to create a portrait of Christmas by a village of
the logic of a bad dream in of the horrors of war. Still as spindly Halloween ghouls.

ated
which everyday objects take pertinent as ever, this is a Burton’s Edward Gorey-style
on spooky significance. Sure, stunning anti-war film. designs receive cantering
there is some live action accompaniment in Danny
there, but it’s directed in a
way that never distracts from
the spectacular animation.
15 The Wild Robot 2024
See review, page 15.
Elfman’s antic score so that
the production at times seems
possessed by some

audience in the 2020s due to creative

Knocks the Disney version
into a mad hatter’s hat. 14 Watership Down 1978,
in cinemas from Oct 25
mischievous spirit.

stagnation and a dwindling interest

in periphery characters (The Flash?
Ant-Man?), yet animation is a sandbox 18 My Neighbor Totoro
1988, Netflix
This labour-of-love adaptation
of Richard Adams’s bestseller
about a warren of rabbits
10 Spider-Man: Into the
Spider-Verse
2018, Sky/Now
where artists can draw what they want. Two sisters move to a creaky forced into exile is not for After a torrent of half-baked
Such endless ideas will always have house near the hospital those craving Disney cuteness. superhero films, this felt
a chance of welcoming new fans, where their mother is being It’s a tooth-and-claw survival refreshing. At the centre is
especially those who grew up with treated and explore a visually epic, bristling with violent Miles Morales, a Brooklyn
gaming culture. enchanting fantasy world. predators, aimed at old souls schoolboy who teams up
This is a key factor in why animation Its friendly characters who can still hum the tune to with all sorts of heroes,
is having a moment — because the future delight children, but its Art Garfunkel’s melancholy including a radioactive pig.
of cinema depends on convincing Gen themes of wonderment and theme song, Bright Eyes. It's zippy, entertaining — and
Z and Gen Alpha that a multiplex the thrill of exploration are proved there was life yet in
remains as appealing as it did before
various devices littered the home. The
great enough to awaken
anyone’s inner child. 13 Up 2009, Disney+
Is there a more traumatic
caped crusaders.

signs are encouraging: 37 per cent of

the audience at Inside Out 2’s opening
weekend was made up of 18 to 34-year- 17 Pinocchio 1940, Disney+
Walt Disney didn’t like the
scene than the first ten
minutes of Up? It captures the
life of Carl, the 78-year-old
9 Wallace & Gromit:
The Wrong Trousers
1993, iPlayer
olds, an age group who go to the cinema Pinocchio of Carlo Calodi’s widower, from first love to the Before Nick Park’s work
without parents but, crucially, without source novel very much and death of his wife. Then he acquired the scale and
kids. Why are they watching a cartoon? invented the character of goes on an adventure that spectacle of Hollywood
Because for younger fans animation is Jiminy Cricket to give him a proves you’re never too old features, The Wrong Trousers
serious storytelling, with their most conscience, thus bequeathing for an adventure. with its penguin arch-villain
beloved yarns in gaming on Xbox and Continued on
PlayStation spun via that medium. page 6 ▶
Studios know this. They have been
trying and failing to bring video games
to the big screen for at least 20 years,
since before Angelina Jolie played Lara
Croft in 2001. But rather than mimic
stories, what if they tried for the essence
of a video game instead? The feel and
the look — the myriad possibilities?
That is what we have seen in animation
this year, because if studios were able 20 17 9
to transpose what people enjoy about
consoles on to the big screen, then
Hollywood will own the next 18 12 7 14
generation. It will save itself.
20 October 2024 5
 Cover story Books

S
ophie Kinsella
remembers what
happened to her in
snippets. “It began with
a lot of tripping and
stumbling,” the novelist
3 2 says. “I’d try to walk upstairs
and my legs wouldn’t work.”
She didn’t think it was anything
serious, but her husband,
8 4 6 Henry, suggested she have a
brain scan. By the time they
arrived at the hospital she
▶ continued from previous page
got the balance with the more
homespun elements of the
6 Snow White 1937, Disney+
The Citizen Kane of animated
features, the one that proved
turn. It knows that
it’s weird — but that doesn’t
stop us from admiring its
couldn’t walk.
There Kinsella says her mind
goes blank. The next thing she
series exactly right. The film the doubters wrong, showing beauty and brashness. knew she was waking up in a
may be just 30 minutes long, that a full-length animated hospital bed, asking Henry: “Is
but it took eight months to
make. And the death-defying
run round a train set is an
feature was even possible,
swept along by the obsession
and storytelling verve of Walt
3 Bambi 1942, Disney+
Completed in the aftermath
of the death of Walt Disney’s
this real?”
Kinsella, 54, whose novels
include the Shopaholic series
unimprovable mixture of Disney. While making it, he mother, Bambi is the most (which became a hit film,
thrills and slapstick. Buster could practically run the entire poetic of all the Disneys. It starring Isla Fisher), had been
Keaton would be proud. film — every cut, fade-out, line was the first Disney feature planning to spend the next few
of dialogue — in his sleep. to do without humans, except months editing her latest book.

8 Beauty and the Beast

1991, Disney+
Howard Ashman was dying
Adriana Caselotti, who was the
voice of Snow White, was not
credited for her role. She went
as a threat. Originally there
was a shot in the scene where
Bambi’s mother dies, but the
Instead she was recovering
from an eight-hour operation
to remove a grade 4 cancerous
of Aids when he wrote the on to have a small part in It’s screenwriter felt that it was tumour on her brain and
lyrics for this film with the a Wonderful Life. more powerful to have it learning to walk again. She had
composer Alan Menken. The happen off screen. memory loss, so Henry had to
duo had resurrected Disney’s
fortunes in the 1980s with The
Little Mermaid, but this was
5 The Lion King 1994, Disney+
Of all the more recent
Disneys The Lion King is the 2 The Iron Giant
1999, buy/rent
keep repeating what had
happened to her — and
reassuring her that their five
their magnum opus, a tale of one with the simplicity of The characters of Ted children, aged between 10 and
a headstrong bibliophile who old. So dedicated were the Hughes’s The Iron Man are 25, were safe.
is held captive by a beast. It animators that lions were transplanted from 1950s She didn’t come across the
earned the first best picture brought into the studio to England to rural Maine with word glioblastoma, the name
Oscar nomination for an study. And Jeremy Irons’s Scar barely a scratch, unlike the for her tumour, until later,
animated movie. was the most seductive Disney crash-landed robot. Really, when she eventually decided
bad guy since Shere Khan. it’s the simplest of love to google her symptoms. “I was

7 Wall-E 2008, Disney+

One small step for a robot,
one giant leap for animation. 4 Spirited Away
2001, Netflix
stories — boy finds robot,
boy loses robot, robot slowly
reassembles himself screw by
in a state of shock, there were
all these scary statistics.”
Glioblastoma is rare, with
Pixar’s epic space adventure This film, which won the screw — told with such charm about 3,200 cases diagnosed
about the last robot left on director Hayao Miyazaki his first you could forget there’s a cold each year in the UK, but it is
Earth proved that animation Oscar, centres on ten-year-old war going on. It began as a also the most common brain
could make you forget what Chihiro, whose family’s move to musical with the Who guitarist tumour in adults, fast-growing
you’re watching isn’t real. a new town takes a fantastical Pete Townshend involved. and incurable.
The operation was on

1
November 25, 2022, and
Toy Story 3 2010, Disney+ Kinsella spent the next month
The first Toy Story, the first computer- in hospital — “It being Britain
generated feature film, was a mix they don’t let you go home
of groundbreaking tech, narrative until you can show them you
ingenuity and heart — the space ranger can make a cup of tea,” she
Buzz proving he’s the real deal by soaring says, laughing. Afterwards she
around the bedroom, or as he calls it “falling had radiotherapy and takes
with style” — but it was Toy Story 3 that had us chemotherapy pills for a week
reaching for the tissues. There is an escape from every six weeks. “They make
Colditz, a great Barbie-Ken subplot (with voice me tired and I can’t remember
work from Michael Keaton and Jodie Benson) anything,” she says. “It’s been a
and a backstory for Ned Beatty’s Lots-o’-Huggin’ very long, gradual path and we
Bear that is a small masterpiece of storytelling don’t know what the future
and heart-tugging pathos. It became the looks like.”
second Pixar film (after Up) to receive an Oscar Her new book, What Does It
nomination for best picture. Don’t bother with Feel Like?, is loosely based on
the mediocre fourth film — this goodbye is the what happened. Its main
equal of the one in Brief Encounter. Pixar has character, Eve, like Kinsella, is
taken us on a journey with these toys, and this a novelist and has glioblastoma.
film was a flawless conclusion. It has all the warm humour
and honesty of Kinsella’s other
Reviews by Tom Shone and Jake Helm 33 novels, which have sold
approximately 48 million
6 20 October 2024