Good Films: Animated movies

Folman's Waltz with Bashir, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Our “Good Films You May Have Missed” series calls attention to movies new and old that are all Filmworks worthy. Titles are available (or soon will be) from Netflix and other streaming services.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Israel/France/Germany • 2008 • Dir: Ari Folman
Based on interviews with Israeli veterans who served in the 1982 conflict with Lebanon, with flashbacks to combat.

Docter and Peterson's Up, via Walt Disney.
Docter and Peterson’s Up, via Walt Disney.
UP
USA • 2009 • Dir: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Old man Carl, who sells helium balloons in the park, somehow inflates a couple thousand of them, and he sails off to South America with a wayward Boy Scout, pursuing a youthful dream to explore the wilds.

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
France/Belgium/Canada • 2003 • Dir: Sylvain Chomet
Three aging dancers go on a search for a kidnapped grandson. Critic Roger Ebert says: “It is creepy, eccentric, eerie, flaky, freaky, funky, grotesque, inscrutable, kinky, kooky, magical, oddball, spooky, uncanny, uncouth, and unearthly. Especially uncouth.”

PRINCESS MONONOKE
Japan • 1997 • Dir: Hayao Miyazaki
From a country with a tradition of fine feature-length animation. Again, from Ebert: “Miyazaki is a great animator, and Princess Mononoke is a great film. Do not allow conventional thoughts about animation to prevent you from seeing it.”

Jim Piper is a Filmworks board member, a filmmaker, and a retired film studies instructor.