Animation, Part 1

Movie: Missing Link
Nominated for: Animated Feature
How I watched: Prime
When I fell asleep: Didn't
When it had me:  Beautiful shots of vistas
When it lost me: My attention strayed to my phone a couple times
What I have to say: Zack Galifianakis was very enjoyable as Mr. Link. The style of animation was cool and impressive but some of the facial features of the main characters were unnervingly pointy. There wasn't anything too surprising about it but it was a satisfying watch.




Movie: Klaus
Nominated for: Animated Feature
How I watched: Netflix
When I fell asleep: Nope
When it had me: When we met Klaus
When it lost me: A few times along the way, including one rather disturbing revelation at the end
What I have to say: Angelina and I did not care for the main character very much. I'm not sure why we needed another alternate origin story for Santa Claus, especially not after watching this one. I had never heard of this movie before it was nominated; I guess it had one of those minimal theatrical releases. The second act of the film was pretty enjoyable with a few surprising twists to the traditional telling of Christmas lore. Overall it was fine but I didn't see why it needed a nomination.





Movie: I Lost My Body
Nominated for: Best Animated Feature
How I watched: Netflix
When I fell asleep: No, I was warned to watch it early! (Thanks, Jason)
When it had me: I was curious. Is that enough?
When it lost me: I was lost a lot
What I have to say: This one was rated mature, so I had to watch alone. This movie deals with the issue of injury and trying to find your way through the world when you are lacking wholeness. It's about trying to find connection, after becoming severely disconnected. It had some suspenseful sequences. Two story lines slowly work their way toward each other in an interesting way. It mostly kept my interest but at the end there were still pieces that felt unresolved and questions still remained for me. It was fine.