Notting Hill

This is actually quite a touching movie which is about the personal sacrifices you have to make in exchange for fame.

Hilarious dialogue. A much subdued Julia Roberts. A likeable Hugh Grant.

With a great cast, this a smooth, flowing, and a truly romantic comedy.

REVIEW BY HILATH

Notting Hill on IMDB.com

The Iron Giant

Based on Ted Hughes' book The Iron Man, The Iron Giant is the unusual story of an alien steel-eating giant robot who literally has no business being on earth and thus has no place in the hearts of the planet's inhabitants, except for a small town boy who discovers him, with whom he develops an unlikely yet devoted friendship.

The movie tragically underscores one of the greatest human truths -- that we seek to destroy that which we do not understand and in the process unwittingly destroys the humanity that is inside us.

Funny, sad and touching at times, with characters you cannot help but fall in love with, if I am ever required to choose my all-time best animated feature film, this will be it. Not surprising because it comes from Brad Bird, that great director who made some of the greatest animated films ever like The Incredibles and Ratatouille both of which won the Best Animated Feature Film Oscars in their respective years.

REVIEW BY HILATH

The Iron Giant on IMDB.com

Beauty and the Beast

The animation, especially the characters are superb and involving. The art direction is visually stunning especially that ballroom.

But it is great direction, film editing, and the score that brings out the scenes and the characters' interaction that makes this animated movie a bittersweet masterpiece of a movie.

Moreover, it is so sweeping and epic in scale as to be compared to a Broadway musical and was the first ever animated feature film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. (The Best Animated Feature Film category at the Oscars were created much later).

REVIEW BY HILATH

Beauty and the Beast on IMDB.com

The Little Mermaid

The animation may be poor compared to what we see today but great characters, their interaction, songs, music, and the way the story unveiled really delivered and lived up to our childhood expectations of what we want to see in a fantasy like The Little Mermaid.

A sad, touching yet lively manifestation of the Hans Christian Anderson story--with a twist, and consequently a happy ending.

REVIEW BY HILATH

The Little Mermaid on IMDB.com

Shrek

Not since Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and The Iron Giant has an animated movie given me such a sweet "feel good" feeling as did Shrek.

Like most moviegoers, I was humored by the poking fun at Disney's favorite fairy tales and the talkative donkey (excellently voiced by Eddie Murphy), but it was the moving love story, combined with the almost-human expressions of the characters (including the wonderfully "acted" Shrek character who was voiced as humanly as possible by Mike Myers), and the right combination of other characters, animation, film's pace, editing and the rock soundtrack, which made Shrek one of the most enjoyable movies in a long long time.

REVIEW BY HILATH

Shrek on IMDB.com

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Whatever faults lay with the animation of the characters in failing to make them look realistically human, it more than made up from the wonderful art direction which made this film to have one of the most haunting atmospheres in any film I have ever seen.

I loved the pace of the film, the sound effects, and the way the film was carried.

And like that moment when Jack and Rose "flew" on the bow of the Titanic, the scene where Aki and her Ben-Affleck-like ex-lover, floating in zero gravity, kissed near the window of the spaceship with the dark sky and glittering stars in the background to a soft haunting music is one of the most enduring romantic moments I have ever seen on the big screen.

The film's mood of impending doom juxtaposed with hope stirs the kind of fantastic emotions that only a movie of this nature can offer.

REVIEW BY HILATH

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within on IMDB.com