Top 100+ Favorite Films For Now

As close to a perfect animated film as you can get, and definitely my favorite film of all time. A lot of people seem on the fence about this film, or unable to quite enjoy the characters or the style. It's perfect for me. Creepy rats, timid mice, a globe-spanning story of finding a new homeland, and a young child separated from his family in a strange, new, dangerous land. There is a lot to eat up in this film, and I feel like the only thing keeping it from having an Oscar or Academy Award is because it's about mice and not humans.

Take away the musical numbers and the animated anthro characters through whose eyes we see the world of early turn of the century New York City. Take all of that away and what do you have? A touching story about an immigrant child lost at sea, who washes up on American shores and must evade swindlers and killers involved in child labor, while making new friends, liberating people from the strong arm tactics of the child laborers, and reuniting himself with his family. Don't try to convince me that this is not Oscar material, because you won't. In fact, putting this story through the small, vulnerable eyes of a mouse makes it even more poignant, because it takes this incredible story and adds an incredible amount of atmosphere and gorgeous animation.

Now I've seen people complain about the style, with one of the biggest complaints being that the cats look like otherworldly monsters. Simple. It's cats through the eyes of mice. This reigns in one of my biggest points on this film. Everything is from the viewpoint of Fievel, the young mouse the story revolves around. Everything, fearful or magical, is seen as through his eyes. There is a realism and a grounded feel to the story and the animation, for being about cats and mice, as its all very elseworlds, but what needs to be interpreted in a mousey viewpoint still manages to retain consistency.

As far as the music, I love it. Well, the musical numbers are okay, and I consider Somewhere Out There to be the lowest scene in the movie, although cute, but the actual instrumental music is so beautiful I would swear no Disney film has ever come close to its haunting melodies. However, the film doesn't quite hold a candle to a Disney film in terms of musical numbers, although I don't see that as the biggest and best thing about the film, so I don't consider it a downside. They are good for what they are.

The voice cast for this film is stellar. Every character is portrayed so memorably, I swear I can imitate almost all of them, from Papa Mousekewitz, to tough yet flirtatious Tony Toponi. I've heard a lot of criticism for Tony, and yeah I guess he could be irritating to some, but he's my favorite character in the story. You see, I'm not claiming any originality for the film's characters, but every stereotype is added in simply to make the story and setting more familiar for children, and that's good. This is, after all, a film intended mainly for children, but I also believe that for adults there is a lot of meat here. Moreso than most give it credit for.

The final complaint I want to address is mainly one Roger Ebert brought up, which is that the film is too depressing. Well, that depends on what you find depressing I guess. A lot of very sad things happen in this film, yes, but it's incredibly light-hearted for what it's about. I mean, it could have been so much worse, and I applaud Don Bluth for having the cajones to tackle the hard, realistic issues he did, such as feelings of abandonment, or the danger a child alone in a big city is threatened with.

All in all, this movie is a masterpiece, and one that is heavily underrated. I hope you read though this, and I hope my points gave you pause to think of the film in a different light.

If it's in the Criterion Collection, you can generally believe that it's a film of great quality. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the crazed acid trip 'buddy' film from master director Terry Gilliam, is no exception. I've never seen a bad film from Gilliam, and that's a rare thing to say about any director. He's produced some of my favorite films of all time, this being one of them.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the tale of the American dream, as hunted down by eccentric journalist Hunter S. Thompson, also known as Rauol Duke in this picture, and his chicano lawyer cohort Oscar Zeta Acosta, also known as Dr. Gonzo. The book that the film is based on, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was Hunter's first foray into the concept of Gonzo journalism, journalism that presents you as the main figure and actor and writer at the event the subject is about. Hunter was known for shouting unintelligible things, being on every drug imaginable, having a huge love of guns, a viciously political mind, being incredibly intelligent, and saying it how he saw it with no prisoners. Acosta was a militant rogue with both a charming and dangerous side. During an investigation into a murder case, Hunter got a summons by Sports Illustrated to write an article on a desert race on the west coast. Hunter had been trying to get time alone with Oscar for days to discuss the murder case but he couldn't get him away from his militant bodyguards. So he accepted the Sports Illustrated gig as a pretense to get Acosta out of town for a while and discuss the case. Their trip has since gone down in history.

What follows is a set of rotten, despicable, illegal, hilarious activities that are more or less true, give or take a lie or two. The duo traumatize a poor hitchhiking hippy (played by a then unknown Tobey Maguire), sample the destructive effects of several drugs, terrorize people in elevators, drive across the desert to wonderful music, get harassed by perverted policemen, deal with antisocial young artists, and even attend an anti-drug conference. Johnny Depp gives a wonderful performance as the eccentric reporter, getting his entire mannerism down to a tee. Poor Thompson thought he looked like a dancing turkey, but he really is spot on. Benecio Del Toro is equally amazing as the unhinged paranoid lawyer, brandishing a knife and screaming about losing the love of his life, a woman whose name he doesn't even know and met for close to ten minutes. They're incredibly fun to watch, and absolutely hilarious. Around the the last third of the film, the drug trips take a more frightening and dark turn, leaving one with some very disturbing but potent visuals.

You'll see things from Acosta turning into a vision of Baphomet with a back made of breasts to a bar full of patrons who just happen to be anthropomorphic lizards, thanks to the warped minds of the protagonists. Don't worry, though. You'll be fine as long as you have your golf shoes.

Thompson considered Gilliam too much of a cartoonist, giving the movie too much of a cartoon spin, but I disagree. I mean, if you watch Thompson, Depp played him to a tee. Gilliam's masterful direction shines with this one. Great cinematography, great effects, great camera movement, and great atmosphere in spades. The soundtrack is light and fun, with a lot of great tracks.

Do yourself a favor though, and buy the Criterion DVD. It has the original proper ending on it, where Thompson finally uncovers the American dream (and screws it up), and a lot of very interesting commentary. Overall, I recommend it. It's a film I can watch over and over again without tiring of it, and I discover something new every time I watch it. And even if this movie does show a darker, dirtier slice of American life, and even though I love it, it still hasn't gotten weird enough for me.