- Howl's Moving Castle
Studio Ghibli has been producing high quality movies from decades to become one of the biggest, and much loved, animation studios.
Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer), an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl (voiced by Christian Bale), and is subsequently turned into a 90-year old woman (voiced by Jean Simmons) by the vain and conniving Wicked Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall).
Embarking on an incredible odyssey to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl's magical moving castle where she becomes acquainted with Markl, Howl's apprentice, and a hot-headed fire demon named Calcifer (voiced by Billy Crystal).
Sophie's love and support comes to have a major impact on Howl, who flies in the face of orders from the palace to become a pawn of war and instead risks his life to help bring peace to the kingdom.
Director Hayao Miyazaki is famed for using strong female lead characters as well as regularly depicting the horrors and results of war, those trademarks are evident in most of his work.
And with Howl's Moving Castle this is no different as Sophie is the focal point of the film whose stubbornness and faith brings the best in the characters around her, especially the self obsessed Howl.
Many of the big studios may have moved over to CGI driven animation by Studio Ghibli has stayed true to it's roots the vivid colours and sheers size of the project make it a real animation epic.
- Toy Story
In the early nineties audiences were content with the traditional animation pictures such as Aladdin and The Lion King, and there's nothing wrong with that remember Beauty and Beast is still the only animation to ever have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.
However 1995 brought about major changes to the animation genre as Toy Story became the first feature film in history to be produced using only computer animation.
Toy Story was an intelligent and sophisticated buddy movie that really highlighted the potential of the animation genre with these new techniques. But it was the sequel Toy Story 2 that really cemented Pixar as an animation giant pushing the boundaries even further.
While being just as technically brilliant, bright and funny as it's predecessor Pixar were clever to aim the movie at adults as well as children.
Thanks to Toy Story the face of animation changed beyond recognition, The Lion King remains the last traditional animation movie to enjoy major box office success, as the CGI floodgates opened.
Pixar became a true master of this film genre as Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and Wall-E have all followed all getting gradually more sophisticated in the techniques being used.
Toy Story really was the driving force behind the animation movies that now dominate cinema screens 'to infinity an beyond' indeed.
Other children's classics include Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, Kes and anything by Disney.
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang is released 26th March.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in The Goonies