Now that 2008 is history, it’s a great opportunity to take a look back at some of the best that 2008 had to offer. This Best of 2008 list is also a best-of-the blog list: many of these winners below were discussed at some during the year on our blog. P.S. our blog is now 8 months old!

Best Commercial Animated Feature Film
This category really should be a tie. But I HATE ties in these types of write-ups. Ties always seem like a huge cop-out. That being said, the winner is Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E. The beautiful film by Andrew Stanton proved to one and all that cartoons really are not just for kid. Stanton successfully pioneered the first true mainstream sci-fi animated film. The lack of dialogue in the opening half hour proved to be brilliant. The story devolves in the final act into what felt as a very “Disney” ending. Overall, the film provides so much socio-political commentary that it’s impossible not to give Oixar their props yet again. The film has so much heart and the animation is perfection!

On the other hand, having just watched DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, I am willing to go out on a limb here and say that it is the single best animated film for tween boys EVER! The movie is funny, original, exciting, and yes, even endearing. A tear may have fallen from my left eye near the end of the movie. MAYBE. I actually prefer KFP to Shrek, and it was great to see DreamWorks film that IS funny rather than TRIES to be funny (e.g. Bee Movie and Shrek the Third).

Best Independent Animated Feature Film
DUCK director Nina Paley’s chef-d’oeuvre Sita Sings the Blues wins this award hands down! In fact, if Nina’s film had had a nationwide commercial distribution, I would say it is better than WALL-E. That’s right. I went there!

Best Animated Music Video Film
Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching This Delicate Film We’ve Made by DUCK director Richard Cullen. Richard and another animator spent the better part of 18 months working on this project. The concept was to take the electronic, sci-fi inspired, and cathartic tunes of Aussie-turned-Brit songsmith Darren Hayes and turn them into a collective series of animated music videos using music from Hayes’ 2-disc tour de force This Delicate Thing We’ve Made. In all, the film spans 13 tracks and includes one in stereoscopic 3-D. It was initially offered in a limited run, deluxe DVD package in PAL; it is sold out in its entirety. Richard has informed us that a standard version will be available (in PAL) on Feb 1 through the link above, and there is a decent chance that some or all of the videos will make their way onto iTunes or a competiting platform.

Kudos to Richard for completely such a massive undertaking will with such pure soul and emotions! Much like Nina Paley’s work, it is a massive shame that this film has not seen a wider commercial distribution. Maybe Richard will be so kind as to help set up a screening of the film at REDCAT downtown?

Best Comic to Film
Again, I would love to have a tie for this category. But having just re-watched The Dark Knight and Iron Man again on DVD, I have to cast my vote in favor of The Dark Knight. The film is comic book majesty! I believe it will be one day considered to be a seminal film (based largely on what I hope to be the late Heath Ledger’s Academy Award-winning performance).

Animator of the Year
I have to give this award to DUCK director Jamie Caliri. As I have previously blogged, I am a huge fan of Jamie’s animation style. “Heart” for United Airlines was a great follow-up to 2006’s “Dragon,” and the main titles to Madagascar 2 are fantastic!

Album of the Year
This award must go to the hardest working person in showbiz, Britney Spears. Her album Circus reminds us just how pathetic our news media have become. Get over Britney! What’s the obsession? Who cares what she’s doing and what she’s eating? I’m so sick of her. I actually like her new album more than her previous one.

I think the best album this year has to be Kanye West’s Heartless. I think this is a creative and bold departure from West’s earlier work. There’s so much emotion on this album. And I love that the music video is animated I think the style is great (and I love when The Jetsons pop up). Director Hype Williams did a fantastic job!

Comedic Sketch of the Year
Sarah Palin. She is the sketch comedy of the year. Every time she spoke it was hysteria! Here’s my favorite SNL moment though:
 

Most Visually Stunning Commercial
If you read the blog regularly, you can probably guess that I’m giving this award to Jamie Caliri’s “Heart” for United Airlines. If you guessed this, you would be wrong! Instead I’m awarding this prestigeous honor to “Sea Orchestra” another United Airlines spot by DUCK directors Shy the Sun (aka The Blackheart Gang).

Athlete of the Year
Michael Phelps. There could be no other. What a feat! He is a marvel! What more can I say? I can’t wait to see him in London in 2012.

Sporting Moment of the Year
I would love to find some clever way to praise Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers for making the NBA Finals against our great rivals the Boston Celtics. Except the Finals were a huge bust. There were horrible calls against BOTH teams and the Laker’s squandered some big leads late in the game. More importantly, the Celtics were SUPERIOR to the Lakers in the Finals. The Lakers had their chances and they blew them.

So the winner will be the Wimbledon’s Men’s Singles Final between 5-time champion Roger Federer and reigning champ Rafa Nadal. This was unequivically the greatest tennis match ever played. Much like the movie categories above, thanks to Tennis Channel, I have had the pleasure of rewatching the match over the last few days. Shot for shot, through the duration of the match, I have never witnessed two athletes BOTH playing at levels that none of us thought were even possible before the start of the match. They are both champions with tremendous class. It was great for just those handful of days after the 4th of July to see the world’s spotlight focused on tennis and these two phenomenal athletes! 

I always dream that one day Hollywood would put together the perfect comic book movie. It’d be a movie that is action-packed, creative, filled with intrigue, has great effects, has no signs of cheese, and above all, has a heart moving, pulse-pounding story. I thought Iron Man was suprisingly close to achieving such a feat if not for an overly cliched final battle with balded Jeff Bridges. Then there is The Dark Knight. It’s perfect. I said it. It made over $155 million after opening weekend. That’s a record. The movie weighs in at 2.5 hrs and every moment I felt like I was in Gotham City. The characters felt real. The story was believable. My imagination wasn’t really even that suspended. While the Batman mythos has always been my favorite from the comic-book genre, I really think the movie is perfect. I don’t know a better word to describe it. I even saw it on IMAX which is rare for me because i often find that both IMAX theatres and 3-D stereoscopic films make me ill. But from the opening sequence of the film, you are left on your toes. But there’s no point really reviewing the film here because you’ve probably already seen it.

What is worth noting is the difference between “showing” versus “telling.” It’s a very standard line for all writeres of every from from animation to poetry to short stories. The narrator should never tell what is going on; the narrator should show (and reveal) the story to the reader. Compare the psychological crux of The Dark Knight with a film out of the Joel Schumacher garbage can, Batman Forever. While the latter was a box office bonanza, the problem for Val Kilmer’s Wayne is that he can’t handle being obliged to be Batman. It’s a very similar choice in the Dark Knight but instead of being told, “I’m bruce wayne. I dont’ know if i should continue to be batman. Innocent people my get hurt and endangered because of me” versus the dark knight’s DEMONSTRATING how this would play out. Even the scene near the end when Nicole Kidman plunges to her doom and Batman has to choose between her and Chris O’Donnell, it all seems too happy, too colorful. When Batman faces similar conundrums in The Dark Knight, the struggle is so much more viceral. Batman seems much more like a real person. His emotions are tangible. For this, i give the movie a perfect 10. Believable characters. Everyone carps about it. It’s so tought to pull off!

Of course the real-life subplot to the film is Heath Ledger’s magnificant and truly frightening posthumous portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime. The Joker is diabolical, insane, and at time quite funny! (Yes, the nurse’s scene is priceless! Ledger should get the academy award based on that scene alone.) Ledger gave me chills in this film. I think he’s a shoe-in for the Oscar. I was happy to hear that a commemorative service was held in Brisbane Australia for Ledger yesterday.

Does anyone disagree that The Dark Knight is the perfect superhero movie? Anyone think Spider-man or X-Men or Iron Man (or even Superman Returns) is better?