YEAR in REVIEW: BEST and WORST ANIMATED FEATURE of 2014

If there’s one big complaint I have about my own blog, it’s that there’s a serious lack of news and reviews for animated content, which is a shame considering the fact that plenty of superheroes translate better to an animated feature than a live-action one. (*ahem* Green Lantern)

But don’t forget about all of those nasty, despicable, bottom of the bargain bin, time-wastin’, money-grabbin’, not-worthy-of-human-eye-contact animated movies that get churned out every year. Here’s the best and worst of animated features for 2014.

BEST: JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR

Not surprisingly, DC has made the best animated features based on comics this year. And it will probably do the same next year, as we have to wait until 2016 to see BATMAN V. SUPERMAN. I was very close to naming ASSAULT ON ARKHAM as this year’s best, but after looking back, JLW is just a better movie in every way.

All of the major characters are here and they’re all given their fair share of screen time, plus plenty of solid dialogue that goes from funny to serious and back again without missing a beat. The heroes haven’t even met one another in this movie, so JLW’s storyline manages to weave the characters together really well with an invasion plot leading them to Darkseid.  That being said, it definitely helps to be up on your DC characters, as they don’t take the time to show anyone’s origins aside from Cyborg – which also happened to be the clunkiest part of the movie. Why is a pro football player so needy for attention that he’s willing to mess up an incredibly dangerous science experiment? It’s just ridiculous. ASSAULT ON ARKHAM was an enjoyable movie and it’s definitely worth watching for any DC fans – especially if you’re looking forward to the Suicide Squad movie. But let’s face it, DC is all about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and WAR is probably the best blueprint for a live-action Justice League movie I’ve ever seen.

WORST: LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY’S RETURN

Readers, I’ve never lied to you before and I’m not going to lie to you now. I didn’t watch this movie. But that’s not such a bad thing is it, especially considering no one saw this movie?

So how do I know it’s the worst animated movie of 2014? OZ has 16% on Rotten Tomatoes and with a budget of $70 million it only earned $18.6 million at the box office. It’s easy to see where the money went with a cast that includes Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, and Patrick Stewart. That’s a lot of talent wasted on a sequel nobody asked for. Hasn’t the land of Oz suffered enough recently? A couple years ago I reviewed Oz: The Great and the Powerful for my school paper and I just couldn’t endure another horrible sequel, so consider this a review of the movie poster. Even for this reviewer, some movies just aren’t worth seeing.