1. Redline for that man-ly manliness GOD-TIER animation. 7yrs, 100,000 hand-drawn frames of animation.
2. Akira for the story, themes, animation and overall asthetic. Also my introduction to more adult (japanese) animation. (had only seen DB+DBZ before this)
3. Spirited away for the same reasons as akira, my first (and I assume many’s) introduction to Studio Ghibli.
4. WALL-E for the look, story and characters. I’ve always connected better with robots/AI and animals than people in movies for some reason. Probably my favourite Pixar movie, closest contender would be Incredibles.
5. Rango as it is, having it’s cinematography done by Roger F-ing Deakins, is in my opinion the best looking CG film i’ve seen when compared to films of it’s ilk i.e Westerns. Being a massive fan of the greater western movies (especially those made by Sergio Leone) it hit the spot for entertaining me to no end. Think its one of Depp’s best performaces along side Raul Duke aka Hunter.S.Thompson (who makes a small cameo in the film as well).
Honerable mention. Didn’t know whether it counted but felt I needed to mention “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”. I love noir films both classic and Neo and this may have been the very first I watched. It’s also way ahead of it’s time with such belivable acting considering the other characters are hand animated in later. The story was good and the style and theme held true to the Genre it was borrowing from. A great film that I could flip flop over comparing to Rango for No.5