The Black Deck: Animation Edition (Work-in-Progress)

   Similar to my ongoing Superhero Edition of The Black Deck, I have decided to also begin curating an Animation Edition. 

   In case any of you are confused, The Black Deck is composed of everything outside of the Nightmare Deck (which mostly includes horror, but can include anything that fits in a liberal adjacency to dark subject matter). There isn’t an Animation Deck or a Superhero Deck, or anything like that. Rather, I have decided to create specialized drawings, meant to create a sense of cohesion and continuity on The ‘Bib and to keep us from having large lulls where a Drawing doesn’t occur.

   What is the Black Deck? 

   Essentially, The Black Deck is the non-horror equivalent of The Nightmare Deck. For those just joining us, the Nightmare Deck is basically a way for me to chronicle all the horror (and horror adjacent) reviews I have written over the years. Not only does it allow me to create a database I can pull from, but it ideally creates an evergreen quality to the Nickelbib website. Each review is a piece to a much larger puzzle. I learn more about directors, cinematographers, composes, actors, and more, and I think it allows me to more fully appreciate the storytelling we all love so much. Each review can be found by typing the title into our nifty search bar. Through this information, I hope to be able to create a proper Black Deck, and / or a list of my favorite films and videogames, as well as recognize the best filmmakers in a Hall of Fame – esque capacity.

   This drawing for the Black Deck is a work-in-progress. I always end each Deck drawing at 52 (like a card deck, you get it!?) and, although they are all ultimately pooled into the same database, I thought I would try to have drawings have a theme to them. This way, it encourages me to seek out certain movies and adds more incentive. 

   Currently, I have eighteen movies logged for the Animation edition of The Black Deck. 

   What can we learn from this information?

• Toy Story is one of my personal favorite animated movies ever made. I loved it as a kid and, now, going back, I have an unwavering respect and appreciation for so many of the people involved. I know the Toy Story franchise will appear more than once on The Black Deck. Toy Story 4, however, did not make the cut. I remember watching the fourth film with family and everyone collectively leaving the theater with shrugged shoulders, even the children. The animation and voice-acting remained high-quality, but I simply couldn’t get into the story or plot progressions the way I did with the rest of the franchise.
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a comeback story for director Joel Crawford. After making the modest film The Croods: The New Age (which wasn’t horrible, mind you), the director followed up with the wonderful, fantastic film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The film takes the tired world of Shrek and not only squeezes life out of that stone, but makes the best film in the series yet.
• How to Train Your Dragon is another series I have a lot of love and affection for. Thus far, I have only reviewed the third film, a film that I enjoyed so much it makes it into The Black Deck. However, it might be interesting for you to find that I consider it as the weakest of the trilogy, which means this won’t be the last film from the franchise to make the cut.
• I remember seeing The Lego Movie with modest expectations (I was aware of the high reviews, but I didn’t know how much of that would translate over) and being blown away by its charm, heart, and creativity. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller receive their first entry into The Black Deck. When I talk about the Spider-Man animated movies one of these days, although they won’t be reflected back as the directors, their work as screenwriters is still enjoyed, recognized, and celebrated. The sequel to Lego Movie was a lot of fun as well, and I thought they had something new and interesting to say. Granted, I do think it was a decline from the original film and I am glad they haven’t rushed out a third film (likely because the second film wasn’t successful enough to warrant it). 
•  Soul is up there with Toy Story 3, Inside Out, and Coco as the best films Pixar has released in the last fifteen years. I loved the interesting, potent insights it had to share on art and the human condition.
• Ne Zha is the first Chinese animated film I have reviewed on ‘The Bib. Luckily for me, it was a good film. I didn’t want to jump the gun and call it a Black Deck contender, because it really wasn’t, but I saw a lot of potential there. The film was an absolute unit at the box office and spawned a followup set in the same universe. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of Jiang Ziya. I will keep looking for interesting Chinese animation, however. I didn’t care for the Monkey King film I watched (and likely won’t review it), but I am interested in the New Gods films. 

1.) Toy Story – originally written in 2019 (4.5 out of 5.0)

directed by John Lasseter (1)

2.) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – originally written in 2023 (4.3 out of 5.0)

directed by Joel Crawford (2)

3.) How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – originally written in 2019 (4.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Dean DeBlois (1)

4.) The Lego Movie – originally written in 2015 (4.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (1,1)

4.) Soul – originally written in 2020 (4.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Pete Docter (1)

5.) Ne Zha – originally written in 2019 (3.5 out of 5.0)

directed by Yu Yang (1)

6.) The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – originally written in 2019 (3.5 out of 5.0)

directed by Mike Mitchell (1)

7.) The Boxtrolls – originally written in 2015 (3.5 out of 5.0)

directed by Graham Annable & Anthony Stacchi (1,1)

8.) Mary and Max – originally written in 2015 (3.5 out of 5.0)

directed by Adam Elliot (1)

9.) Frozen – originally written in 2015 (3.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (1,1) 

10.) Toy Story 4 – originally written in 2019 (3.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Josh Cooley (1)

11.) Antz – originally written in 2019 (3.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Eric Darnell & Tim Johnson

12.) The Lion King (remake) – originally written in 2020 (3.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Jon Favreau (1)

13.) Over the Moon – originally written in 2020 (3.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Glen Keane (1)

14.) When Marnie Was There – originally written in 2023 (2.8 out of 5.0)

directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (1)

15.) Onward – originally written in 2020 (2.8 out of 5.0)

directed by Dan Scanlon (1)

16.) Trolls World Tour – originally written in 2018 (2.7 out of 5.0)

directed by Walt Dohrn (1)

17.) Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation – originally written in 2018 (2.7 out of 5.0)

directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (1)

18.) The Boss Baby: Family Business – originally written in 2021 (2.7 out of 5.0)

directed by Tom McGrath (1)

19.) The Croods: A New Age – originally written in 2020 (2.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Joel Crawford (2)

20.) The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water – originally written in 2015 (2.0 out of 5.0)

directed by Paul Tibbitt (1)