Anaya Imageworks: Worst To Best

## The other side of Anaya Animation also has some films worth watching.

Howdy! Welcome to another edition of Marcom One Wiki and today we will cover Anaya Imageworks, aka the other side of Anaya Animation. While not as complex or fully developed as Anaya Animation, this sister animation studio has its very interesting backstory as some prestigious visual effects company owned by Sony & The Anaya Company. Aside from producing vfx in live action movies - which are many films, with most of them being under the Columbia Pictures label - Anaya Imageworks has also released its own animated films such as the Academy Award nominees *Andrew Christmas* and *The Illusionist,* the 2017 adult animated comedy *Swig Party, Rayman & Aku Aku, Planet 01,* and their first animated feature, *House Of Monsters.* With *Andrew Christmas: Summer Vacation* exclusively coming soon to theaters July 2022, there's no better time to rank these films from worst to best. Note: three animated films on this list got released direct-to-video and we'll count those as well. And here we go, the worst Anaya Imageworks cartoon...

### 10. The Chumchums: Scared Silly (2015)

* Tomatometer: 33%
* Rating: 3/10 (Bad Enough)

Oh, Chumchums. The one television show on Neoncartoon that somehow managed to be good despite the dated CG animation and grating character designs, but later on became the most annoying show on this channel. And guess what? The Chumchums got three movies already and this one serves no good at all. Possibly the worst decision Anaya Imageworks has ever made, *The Chumchums: Scared Silly* is nothing more but some cheap excuse to bring the most disgusting things about the series. Too much toilet humor as expected such as... werewolf poop eating? Severely flanderized Chumchums, loads of pop culture references, and a weak twist villain generically named Hunter. The story isn't that good either and makes us believe Bigfoot was actually some orangutan turned monster. Surprisingly, this straight-to-DVD film wasn't scary at all, but rather unfunny for those who actually like such Chumchums.

### 9. Food Town 2: Armageddon (2017)

* Tomatometer: 43%
* Rating: 4/10 (Poor)

Remember how terrible *The BeachBallHeads Movie 2* was? Well, Anaya Animation did the same thing to this *Food Town* sequel: rehash ingredients from the original movie and make it much inferior. While the animation still looks tasty and some gags are worth savoring, the film sours from lazy writing, many flanderized characters - seriously, Max Applewood has been dumbed down in this film - unnecessary adult jokes about "slapping some buns" and "fishing" some raspberry jams, and several plot holes unexplained. Chex V serves as the film's generic corporation tyrant whose motives are simply getting rid of the film's cute Foodies, these creatures emerged from the continuous AFR-3000 machine, in order to prevent another bigger food related Armageddon. And speaking of the film's subtitle, nothing really happens until the third act... leaving us a very poor and confusing finale. Not even Sloppy Joe & Officer Brown could make this film delicious like the first one.

### 8. Swig Party (2017)

* Tomatometer: 61%
* Rating: 5/10 (Mediocre At Best)

This is perhaps the most screwed up animated comedy in this list, and for good measure despite this being for adults only. You know what *Food Wars* and *Swig Party* have in common? They both share the same premise about living items at your local Walmart store. Unlike the CG disaster that was *Food Wars* last year however, *Swig Party* focuses on the lives of anthropomorphic living drugs... DRUGS THAT BREATHE LIKE US. And if that's not enough, then consider the fact of having several explicit moments worth breaking glass, cursing smoke vendors, stereotypical Nazi drugs, and some instances where dynamite groups commit suicide by exploding themselves in this whole entire film. However, the two main characters - despite them being glasses of wine and beer - share good chemistry and I'm very surprised as they became root beer and grape juice instead. Aside from these two, The Bombs provide some jokes worth laughing at no matter how dark they can get. I also like the film's message about unity, being someone better, and its "drug free" idea despite the heavy handed use of drugs. The animation in patricular is okay except for the human characters, but it seems more dated than other 2016 animated films. I know this film tried to set the standard high for mainstream adult animation and push the boundaries of cinema with its striking concepts, but what could you expect from the same creators of *Food Wars?* I hope kids and even teens won't get exposed to another *Swig Party* movie.

### 7. Planet 01 (2009)

* Tomatometer: 51%
* Rating: 5.5/10 (Mediocre At Best)

Dwayne Johnson is the star of this film: some washed up NASA astronaut named Chuck Armstrong, and he gives a really good performance. However, sadly that does not mean *Planet 01* is considered by far the best alien flick and not even the best animated feature of 2009, when animation reached its highest point on the Moon. While the concept of some alien and his robot friend being Hollywood celebs seems tantalizing enough, the film is rather spaced out with too much pop culture gags - an obvious one being some funny reference to Spielberg's 1982 classic *E.T The Extraterresterial* - shameless product placement as expected from Sony, two of the weakest alien despots ever, and its somewhat lame action scenes that aren't as good as watching *Marco* movies. An Earth like planet for little green aliens such as Adam (Justin Long) seems like a clever change reminiscent of *The Twilight Zone* with *Pleasantville* vibes, but that twist is really one of two things going for this otherwise bland movie. Johnson's NASA astronaut should be the fish out of water in this movie, but the fact that *Planet 01* rather resembles 1950s America and that Chuck is quite self-confident flip that as well. Chuck ends up befriending Adam and they manage to teach each other a few things about their surprisingly vast shared universe along the way, at least until the usual miscommunications between civilizations arise. Unfortunately, *Planet 01* is too busy referencing 1950s Americana and parroting familiar storylines to do anything more interesting with the idea, and any nuances of Johnson's performance are lost within it. But anyway, who doesn't love Rob The Rover? At least he's the only special cute thing about this film, even if The Rock couldn't save this film from the black hole of animated features.

### 6. House Of Monsters (2006)

* Tomatometer: 60%
* Rating: 6/10 (Somewhat Okay)

Before *Hotel Cloudylandia* took the world by storm with The Magic Gang, there was the 2006 horror comedy *House Of Monsters*: the first computer animated movie from Anaya Imageworks itself and possibly the most obscure movie the House Of Marco has ever made. The story centers on three young teens who stumble upon an abandoned haunted house where... some monster family actually throws a party. Wow, what a strange funny concept, but the unique originality found here makes this underrated gem of a scary movie even better. The movie knows how to balance dark and funny moments, as well as having its own merits like that of a Tim Burton film. However, there are yet some rather mean-spirited moments among the adults and the animation - despite the fact that its stop-motion CG is nothing short of terrific, as it gives out the somewhat eerie tone of this whole film - feels a tad bit scary compared to other 2006 animated features. But as a whole, *House Of Monsters* is for sure somewhere you might check in... if you dare going inside there instead of the Sky Castle.

### 5. LittleBIGPlanet: The Movie (2013)

* Tomatometer: 63%
* Rating: 7/10 (Good Enough)

In a world where videogame based movies are poorly received by critics everywhere as usual, *LittleBIGPlanet: The Movie* is one of those rare examples where movies in said category get positive reviews. This live action/animated hybrid adapted from a once popular PlayStation game follows the adventures of Sackboy and his friends as they find some missing piece of the world's biggest puzzle jam. With that piece in mind, Sackboy later finds out that The Collector - one of the eight creator curators from the original game who has gone rogue - has kidnapped the missing piece, so they retrieve said piece to save LittleBIGPlanet and complete the case. Staying true to its games, *LittleBIGPlanet: The Movie* offers something new to the genre while providing us the true story of how Sackboy came into existence, along with nice photorealistic visuals and self referential gags only Sackboy fans can get. Much like *The Actors Movie,* the film also stays true to its lovable plush characters while also making us care for them, and adverts the usual "videogame movies gone bad" cliche with unique storylines to the point where this truly kinda feels like *LittleBIGPlanet: The Movie.* Heck, even the game's slogan "Play. Create. Share." is actually the film's own tagline. Wow, that's genius!

### 4. Birdies (2016)

* Tomatometer: 82%
* Rating: 7/10 (Good Enough)

Before we get onto the next film in this list, we have to talk first about *Birdies.* This 2016 animated musical comedy featuring the voice talents of Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway was yet another warm vibrant burst for Anaya Imageworks, complete with the gorgeously impressive bird town of Zambaland, sharp animation with bubbly characters such as Josh Gad's crazy parrot, and a heartfelt message about being yourself that matches with John Powell's excellent music score. There's also some great bird chasing scenes with perhaps the most intimidating crow to ever exist, along with nice documentary style cinematography like that of *The BeachBallHeads Movie.* While Anaya Imageworks movies don't always match the wit of their jokes or the sharpness of their animation, *Birdies* balances its heart with its humor to create an appealing - if not wildly original - family film that's easy to enjoy for all ages.

### 3. Rayman & Aku Aku (2016)

* Tomatometer: 76%
* Rating: 9/10 (Excellent)

Coincidentially, *Rayman & Aku Aku* was released before *Birdies* came to theaters, and the first ever Rayman flick is marvelous from start to finish. Supposedly evolved from some giant plum, this behemoth version of Rayman encounters Crazytopia - home to some of the weirdest unknown creatures on Earth - and tells them about the legend of Aku Aku. Much to the town's indifference, this once popular videogame icon later finds out that being a giant isn't that bad. Accompanied by two misfits who provide some of the film's random gags - one of them being Ballhead's (Andy Samberg) crazy obsession with sour lemon soda, and the fact that Seth Rogen plays worm-hating manic Applehead - mischevious raving Rabbids of course, wonderful visuals, a fantastic voice cast led by Ryan Reynolds, and hilarious attempts at spoofing various game franchises such as Mario & Sonic in a remarkably unique way, *Rayman & Aku Aku* is unabashedly one of the most valuable gems to ever be adapted from such videogame and eschews easy fan service very well. It's also one of the more underrated Anaya Imageworks films that really deserves its top spot.

### 2. Andrew Christmas (2007)

* Tomatometer: 92%
* Rating: 9/10 (Excellent)

*Andrew Christmas*, like many of the best Christmas movies, finds a sweet spot between the nice and the naughty. The movie follows Santa's youngest grandson, the kooky optimist Andrew (James McAvoy) as he springs into Florida and later back to action when Santa's toys get stolen. The central theme of *Andrew Christmas* is familiar but heartfelt, reminding us all that having a good heart and doing your best to help people is what Christmas is all about. The concept of having Christmas icons under one roof is undeniably fascinating, and the final montage of all of the characters working to make other people happy is also more than enough to leave you reaching for the Kleenex. At the same time, it’s not all saccharine sweetness. The character of Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), the former Santa who doesn't have any patience for the modern world, covers the naughty part of this equation nicely by delivering humorous non-sequiturs like "I thought we never ordered people any jingle bells!" Bridging those sort of jokes with poignant emotion is the kind of tonal balance you want in a quality family movie, and director Sarah Smith pulls it off with grace and Yuletide charm in *Andrew Christmas*.

**And the number one best Anaya Imageworks film is by far...**

### 1. The Illusionist (2010)

* Tomatometer: 97%
* Rating: 11/10 (Supremely Perfect)

I've actually never seen a film so brilliant and visually impressive like this one 2D animated masterpiece from Anaya Imageworks. *The Illusionist* follows the story of aspiring eccentric magician Kevin (Jean-Claude Donda) as he proves the whole community of Paris his signature magic, only for him to soon discover that another magician named Jack has hypnotized him to the strange world of illusions. The highly sensational 2D animation provides the film's unique perspectives and its surreal tone, as well as Kevin's vivid expressions and Jack's overall personality we had never seen before in several animated movies. I really like the film's concept, marvelous music score, and subtle gags, and also the fact that *The Illusionist* was made in France... such a real shame though it didn't win Best Animated Feature. Yet, the film proves to be something rather wonderful to look at, and remains the best Anaya Imageworks film to date.