A blast from the past

Do you remember this toy ad from the 80s?

Of course you don't. Because Lots-o-Huggin' bear doesn't exist except in the fabulously well realised imaginations of the creatives at Pixar studios as they put the finishing touches to the long awaited animation Toy Story 3. If it wasn't brilliant enough that they created a concept whereby they practically designed their own merchandise, viral videos such as this show their dedication to making you believe in the magic. I could have owned a Lots-o-Huggin' bear instead of a Care Bear (Sunshine bear, just in case you were wondering) and I remember ads just like this one. This commercial would have fitted quite nicely in between a 'Baby wee wee' and 'My Little Pony' ad. But what I love about this ad, complete with the dodgy tracking making you believe its been recorded on VHS, is that this isn't for the little ones who will one day have their own memories of toy ads. It's for all us grown-ups out there. Now as depressing as it is to refer to myself as one of these, I take great comfort in knowing that someone out there that cares about us oldies too. And so when I sit down in the cinema to watch Toy Story 3, I will be able to believe in the magic just as much as my 4 year old nephew sat next to me.

Toy Story 3 is released in Cinemas in the UK on July 23, 2010

Baby it's cold outside

3. Elf (2003)

John Favreau directs and Will Ferrell stars in the usual Christmas tale about how an oversized elf travels from the North Pole to New York to find his real father and seek acceptance.

Will Ferrell's performance as the aforementioned larger than life elf is brilliant. The innocence and unashamedly straight faced way in which he plays it makes his character completely believable.

Also worth a mention is the use of stop motion animation in small sections of the film that provide another fantastic and magical representation of the North Pole.

On it's initial release Elf didn't bother the box-office too much and was more of a success on the small screen and through its DVD release until becoming part of mine and many other people's essential Christmas viewing.

This film will have you laughing and cringing all the way through and if you haven't seen it, you need to because you're missing out.

What's this, What's this..

6. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The anti-Christmas story, and not really one for very young impressionable children, The Nightmare Before Christmas is the only film on the countdown that creeps me out a bit. Even now. But that's sort of the point.

Produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, it's visually and thematically stereotypical of this pair's beautifully gothic and eerie style and delivers an Christmas story that flies in the face of convention.

On top of this, a great musical score by Danny Elfman keeps the audience tapping their feet particularly to Oogie Boogie's song (which is coincidentally my favourite song of the film!)

So if your looking for something a bit edgier with a storyline and moral message about Christmas that you can't see clunking down the road from about a mile away, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a great film to watch to get you in the mood for Halloween... I mean Christmas.

All Aboard!

7. The Polar Express (2004)

The newest film in the countdown, this is the first Christmas I have watched The Polar Express. I've avoided it for the last 5 years because of one thing, the character animation. And finally, after some cajoling I gave it a chance.

My opinion is unchanged. There really is something creepy about the way the people are animated in this film. There eyes are sort of lifeless and too close together and the children's faces in particular are devoid of the emotion and excitement they should, considering the circumstances, be showing. The elves are also a little bit disturbing particularly the elf modelled on Steve Tyler of Aerosmith which appears towards the end of the film.

However, it seems a bit unfair to be too judgemental about the animation of the characters when animating realistic human characters is no easy feat. Which is probably why a lot of Computer animated films avoid it by either stylizing the appearance of human characters as in Up (2009), or avoid showing the human characters as much as possible like in Toy Story (1995). And what is lacking in character animation is made up for the magical and breathtaking journey The Polar Express takes us on.

I happen to know that this film is one of my nephew's favourite Christmas films even though he wasn't even born when the film was released. I can understand why he likes The Polar Express so much; His two favourite things are trains and Christmas. And so every year from about October running up to Christmas he watches it over and over again.

And that's the only thing that would make this film better, to watch it as a child with all the innocence and excitement that children should have at this time of year. To actually believe that such a place exists and that such a journey can take you there.

Make the bell ring again, go on give it a chance. Watch The Polar Express this Christmas.

Cloudy with a Flash of Brilliance

Based on a popular American children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is perhaps one of the more bizarre film titles of 2009. Sony's latest computer animation feature could lead you to believe that it's another tediously formulaic kids flick with the sole purpose of cashing in whilst keeping the little ones quiet for an hour and a half.

Well it's not quite that simple.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is formulaic. You can see the cogs of the story working. You can extrapolate that the nerdy professor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) will get together with the secretly geekier weathergirl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris). You know the protagonist will get his father's approval in the end. And you can't help but anticipate that Flint's invention will only take so much before disaster strikes and choas ensues. But none of this really matters (especially to a 7 year old who is probably to busy wishing it would snow ice cream, and to a 22 year old for that matter!) Because despite its predictability, the film is sophicatedly funny (but still quite silly and non-sensical) whilst bragging an animation style all of its own.

The stylized computer animation of the film lends itself to such a ludicrous and imaginative story and allows itself differentiation to the aforementioned cash-cow CGI animations. These animations have all fallen into the same trap. Sub-standard and churned out on a monthly basis, they attempt to keep up with the effortless style and finesse of the undoubtedly unrivalled animation studios at Pixar. This is a trap that Cloudy manages to avoid. With less resources, time and money other studios expect to recreate something which Pixar have got down to a fine art. So instead of jumping on the bandwagon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs goes against the grain and comes up with something completely unique. And that is a true recipe for success.