Sometime in the last few weeks, I decided to create a Letterboxd list of all the feature-length films I’ve seen so far in the year of arlord 2025, and even rank them for the hell of it. Although I haven’t been writing much lately about films, nevermind cartoons, I’ve managed to do pretty okay at watching something every now and again. From new films that encouraged to get me out of the house for the day to revisiting stuff I hadn’t gone back to in ages, it’s been mostly quite enjoyable.
I’d like to do mini-reviews of the cartoon films I’ve watched, to get my animation writing instincts back into shape. These won’t be anything serious or in-depth, I’ll just casually chatting about the movies and any related experiences. Originally, I planned to go in the order they’re featured on the list, from best to worst, but I ended up writing so much even in the preliminary notes that to do it all in one article would result in a disgustingly large behemoth.
So to keep things tidy, this article will comprise of three of those reviews. If it goes well, I’ll do follow-up articles every now and again for the other films I’ve seen. I hope this can make for a nice stopgap between lengthier pieces I want to get around to writing eventually, and I hope you enjoy these shorter writings.
The Point (1970, Dir. Fred Wolf) – Rewatch
(Disclosure: this section is almost entirely taken from a review I wrote for the film on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/frdougal9000/film/the-point/)
The first and only time I properly watched The Point was in the middle of the night back in 2021, when I was feeling really quite awful about my situation, and this brought me right out of that with its lovely art and animation, Harry Nilsson’s cool rambling songs, and how candidly it delivers its simple but deep message. It’s a film that hit me at the right time, enough that I happily call it one of my favourite movies (and previously discussed it on Cartoon Milk). I’ve gone back to the “Lifeline” and “Are You Sleeping” sequences many times, and even checked out Nilsson’s The Point album that served as the source material.
But it’s been a few years and I wanted to see it again. I think I might’ve built it up a bit too high in my mind since that original viewing, because while a lot of it is still great, it didn’t quite resonate with me in the same way. I suppose that’s because my situation has changed a fair bit since, and I wasn’t feeling so bad for this to lift me out of that mindset. This was more of a casual comfort viewing than a “wow, this is just as brilliant” or “woah, i never thought of that before!” experience. That’s okay, it happens. The Point mattered most when I first saw it, and I still carry that with me.
The Triplets of Belleville (2003, Dir. Sylvain Chomet) – Rewatch
Speaking of films that matter in the moment, I rewatched Triplets of Belleville on a recent evening when I was feeling very overwhelmed and needed something I’d seen before so my brain could recharge in the meantime. I’ve seen Belleville plenty of times since I was a kid, when it came on a DVD with a local newspaper around 2005/6 (the 2000s had a ton of Irish and British newspapers that included DVDs full of films or TV episodes), and it was likely one of the first films that showed me how varied and unique animation could be.
I honestly don’t know how long it’s been since I last saw this, but it’s still a damn good film. I love how much an impression the world makes through the colours, the grot in the background art, the busyness of the people and traffic. Even though you’re mostly going from place to place very quickly (apart from the deliberately slow scenes at Madame Souza’s house and the Triplets’ flat), every location makes its mark on your mind. The movie’s generally dense with detail, but never cluttered that you can’t tell what’s going on at a passing glance.
It means there’s always a reason to come back and find something new to appreciate. For example, I only just realised on this viewing that the tune Souza’s playing on the spokes when she’s under the bridge is the accordion tune that joyfully accompanied the Tour De France (and reminds her of her missing grandson) from 20 minutes earlier. That’s such an excellent small detail, and another reason to add onto the pile of things that make Belleville such a great movie.
Ghost Cat Anzu (2024, Dir. Yōko Kuno)
Around late April, I checked out a couple of animated films playing at the Triskel Arts Centre, a local church that had been converted into a cinema that hosts various movies, concerts and other productions. The two films I saw were Flow (which I previously wrote about) and Ghost Cat Anzu, and I enjoyed Anzu a good bit more. But it didn’t really make much of an impact on me despite that.
It’s a pretty good film for sure. I like Anzu’s vacant expression, it makes him look endearingly doofy while making it hard to figure out exactly what he’s thinking. Everyone’s got distinct looking faces, like the grandpa minding the temple with his Tintin-esque eyes. It’s generally a nice movie to look at, even featuring traditionally animated vehicles instead of CG (which I’ve come to expect whenever cartoons feature cars in any amount).
I enjoyed watching it throughout, but nothing about it really got me passionate in any way, nor has much about it lingered in me. That’s not a problem with the movie to be fair; sometimes you just watch something and even though it’s perfectly pleasant and fine, maybe even quite good, it simply doesn’t stick with you. I’d had a similar experience the week before revisiting Get Shorty, which I generally consider to be a damn good movie but one that I completely forget about the next day.
What I do remember about Anzu most isn’t the film, but the atmosphere of the cinema. There was a surprising number of folks who’d popped in to see it, roughly 30 to 40 people compared to the meagre crowd that attended the Flow screening. They quite enjoyed the film, noticing little details or laughing at the funnier moments (anything to do with Anzu really), and a few of them even hung around to chat about their thoughts on the film when it was over.
It was quite pleasant to be in that atmosphere, and it reminded me of how much I enjoy being around friendly folks talking about books or shows or anything that they’ve been getting into recently. It also reminded me of how long it’s been since I’d last seen a film with a group of friends that I could chat with right after seeing it, whether we’d done so in person or over the internet. I definitely want to try and do that more often.
Special thanks to coolwaves from the World Animation Discord, who supplied the screenshots from The Triplets of Belleville used for this article.
Screenshots for Ghost Cat Anzu taken from FanCaps.net – https://fancaps.net/movies/MovieImages.php?name=Ghost_Cat_Anzu_2024&movieid=4750
FrDougal9000 writes for hardcoregaming101.net as Apollo Chungus. When he isn’t writing about video games, he is cultivating his love of animation that’s only increased over the last few years as he’s explored the wide, weird and wonderful world of the medium.