Every year without fail, Hollywood and other foreign markets bring unforgettable cinematic experiences to the masses, feeding our senses with creativity, imagination, and in rare instances, the impossible. In many cases, we’re spoiled when it comes to live-action offerings, but what about animation? Today, we’re looking back on 2017, the year Nintendo changed open-world gaming forever with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, LCD Soundsystem returned after a seven-year hiatus with their fifth studio album, “American Dream,” and fidget spinners were twirling endlessly on the fingertips across the nation.
Looking back, there are several wild pop culture milestones to mark the year Wonder Woman deflected haters at the worldwide box office. Still, today, we’re setting our sights on the greatest animated films of 2017, with a Top 5 list that’s sure to make you feel nostalgic and appreciative of the leaps we’ve made in the cinematic art form since then.
5) Mary and the Witch’s Flower
I’ll take whimsy and impossible worlds over sequels and low-effort money makers any day of the week. In the case of Mary and the Witch’s Flower, this fanciful film plays like a loving, star-eyed tribute to the golden age of Studio Ghibli, which makes complete sense, considering it launched Studio Ponoc under the direction of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the director of The Secret World of Arrietty. Following an awkward, red-headed girl who stumbles upon a glowing, magic-granting “fly-by-night” flower in an enchanted forest, the film whisks her away on a broomstick to Endor College, a floating academy for sorcery that feels equal parts Harry Potter and Kiki’s Delivery Service.
While the narrative aspects of the film could feel all too familiar to some, Yonebayashi’s spells-and-sorcery adventure casts a brilliant spell with its watercolor backgrounds, imaginative creature designs, and expressive hand-drawn characters that make the world come alive with wonder and energy that warms your heart and sparks your imagination. Often overlooked because it’s not an official Studio Ghibli film, despite sharing a similar visual aesthetic, Mary and the Witch’s Flower is a treat for anyone with a soft spot for high-fantasy filmmaking, with characters that conjure warm fuzzies in your still-beating heart.
4)The Night is Short, Walk On Girl
Sometimes, the best love stories are hidden in plain sight, and in 2017, drinks were on director Masaaki Yuasa and his adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s The Night is Short, Walk On Girl. In this animated romantic comedy, two unnamed university students embark on a hyper-kinetic, booze-fueled fever dream that compresses a year’s worth of existential youth, whimsical Kyoto folklore, and sprawling amourous misadventures into one impossible, endless night. Tracking an endlessly curious, black-haired free spirit on a legendary pub crawl and the hopeless, overthinking Senpai orchestrating absurd “coincidental” run-ins to steal her heart, the film functions as a spiritual successor to The Tatami Galaxy, overflowing with vibrant, fluid animation that completely defies conventional perspective.
Yūsuke Nakamura’s gorgeous pop-art designs populate the film with a colorful cast of unconventional characters who behave in strange and wonderful ways as they sing, dance, and sway unsteadily through the inebriated evening, as libations and sensations of love fill the air. The hand-drawn art offers an electric cinematic high where pure visual imagination meets the terrifying, spinning clock of growing up. It’s a rarely talked-about film that deserves a toast and then some.
3) Napping Princess
It’s been years since I’ve watched Kenji Kamiyama’s Napping Princess. Yet, I can still feel the magic of this movie washing over me like I’m caught in a downpour of imagination, outlandish antics, and otherworldly charm. Napping Princess plays like a quirky, mech-fueled hybrid of Paprika and Ghibli-esque family melodrama, weaving a sweet, technocratic fairy tale of obsession with modern technology and corporate intrigue.
Balancing the quiet reality of small-town Kurashiki against a vibrant, steam-powered dreamscape in which a sleepy high schooler’s subconscious holds the key to her mechanic father’s autonomous-driving software, the film bridges generational grief and massive, animated teddy-bear robots with more energy than a college student after drinking too many Red Bulls. At its heart, Napping Princess is an ode to handcrafted innovation and the limitless machinery of imagination, with every element working in concert to present a tale that honors those we’ve lost but keep close until we’re reunited in the greatest of Hereafters.
2) The Lego Batman Movie
After the monumental success of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s The LEGO Movie, Robot Chicken alum Chris McKay flipped the Bat-signal for The LEGO Batman Movie, a build-a-brick animated adventure many unironically consider one of the absolute greatest adaptations of the Caped Crusader ever made! This film has it all! It’s hyper-referential, sharp-witted, and throws every gag at you until there’s nothing left in the Dark Knight’s utility belt.
Will Arnett, Michael Cera, and Ralph Fiennes lead a brilliant voice cast that brings the Dynamic Duo, their rogues’ gallery, and countless Gothamites to life in a stunning recreation of the vigilante superhero’s greatest hits, all while tapping into LEGO-inspired nostalgia that never fails to evoke emotion and excitement. Rendered by Animal Logic, the same studio that brought tactile, plastic-wear perfection to The LEGO Movie, The Batman LEGO Movie brings comedic precision and a surprising amount of heart to the World’s Greatest Detective while playing with damn-near every novelty in the timeless character’s wonderful toy box.
1) Coco
Unfolding across a breathtaking, festive Land of the Dead built on towering architectural history and glowing marigold bridges, Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina’s film follows young Miguel’s crusade against his family’s generations-long ban on music with infectious heart and meticulous cultural authenticity. Pulling from Mexican folklore, Coco is Pixar getting back to its emotional storytelling roots with an epic tale that hits with the force of a freight train. Beyond its visual splendor and Michael Giacchino’s delicate acoustic score, Coco reminds audiences that honoring the stories, traditions, and memories that bind us to those who came before is intrinsically woven into who we are today.
There you have it, folks. What do you think about our Top 5 Animated Films of 2017 list? Are your favorite films represented here? Are there any grievous omissions? Leave us a comment and let us know what your Top 5 Animated Films of 2017 are! Until next time. Cheers!
