My Nominations: The Fox And The Hound. American Pop. Heavy Metal. Jarinko Chie.
While there was a wealth of Animated Features released in 1981, many of those are not the best quality and many are entries in longstanding series. I’ve gone with four cult films of varying success. The Fox And The Hound was one of the many films released between Golden Periods for Disney, and it’s not one I grew up with. It always sounded like a straight to video affair, but I was surprised when I first saw it. It’s by no means top tier, or A tier Disney, but with an interesting cast and fast moving story, it’s a solid B. American Pop is notable because it’s Ralph Baski being serious and telling a personal story, rather than the sexual antics and satire of earlier movies. It’s also notable for its early rotoscoping technique which certainly dates the movie now, but must have seemed unusual and interesting back then. Good soundtrack too.
While we’re talking about soundtracks, Heavy Metal is known for its music and is possibly one of the most famous cult animations of all time. I always found the title amusing because, while Metal was certainly a thing in 1981, it didn’t really kick off until a year or two later as the genre we recognise it as today. The movie is bonkers, a series of vignettes based on sci fi and fantasy stories, with tonnes of violence, great animation, and bizarre spectacle. Like Fox And The Hound, it has a wildly varied cast. Finally, a little known Isao Takahata film, Jinko Chai is the story of a young girl trying to get her Yakuza father back on the straight and narrow by helping him find a legitimate job and get back together with his wife. It’s heady stuff for kids, but has an overly cutesy appearance which Takahata would continue to move away from.
My Winner: The Fox And The Hound
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