Animated Hollywood

Pixar's The Incredibles

Shark Tale, opening this past weekend to good box office receipts, is one of several animated films opening this fall. Many studios have throw their hat into the animated ring lately and the one sure winner seems to be fans of family films.

Although comparisons to Finding Nemo are expected, (both film are about fish) Shark Tale is attempting to appeal to teens as well as children. The voices are done by such hot actors as Will Smith and Angelina Jolie, and for the parents there is Robert DeNiro.

Disney/Pixar had dominated the computer-animated filmdom until Shrek came along. Like Shrek, DreamWorks is hoping for another major computer animated success story with Shark Tale.

Opening on November 5th is Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles. It is about a dysfunctional family of superheroes. It easily has the most buzz thus far of any of the animated movies coming out this year.

Warner Brother's The Polar Express arrives at theatres on November 10th. It is based on a favorite children's story. My oldest son strongly endorses the book. Tom Hanks produces it and plays 5 different roles. Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) directs.

Last, but hardly least is SpongeBob. Nickelodeon and Paramount bring the famous yellow sponge to theaters on November 19th. Although SpongeBob will not be computer animated, I would not dismiss him. He is literally everywhere. He is on shirts, lunch boxes, and back packs. There are SpongeBob toys and bedding sets. He is a Halloween costume and Nickelodeon's top rated show. Disney Adventures magazine, October 2004, ranked SpongeBob number one on their list of top ten cartoon characters.

Animated films will be all over the place this fall. The box office will tell which of these films makes the most money and time will tell which, if any, live on to become classic as so many have done before.