There was a time, long ago, when animation was at the forefront of entertainment options. This was back when men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri (Douglas Adams shout-out!). You could count on two hands the number of animated features that would be released per year, but at least one of those would become a classic that Disney could later sell on VHS, BETA, DVD, and special edition "Christmas only" DVD formats. Now? Shambles I tell ya, shambles.

Of the current top 50 user graded animations only 19 aren't anime (which is saying something right there). Of those only two films in the last 30 months have cracked the top 50, Cars and Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. This ratio would seem decent, after all we're talking about 70 years of animation, but the number of animations released lately has gone significantly up. It used to be The Lion King and Alladin were the only game in town (1992-1994) but now we see far more than a dozen efforts a year. Most don't make even a small dent on pop culture, movies like Arthur and the Invisibles, Happily N'Ever After, Flushed Away, and the current Surf's Up come to mind. And if Disney begat Pixar then Pixar has yet to begat anything new at all - and Disney has disappeared from animation relevance entirely. Dreamworks has made a fair effort (I loved Over the Hedge), but titles like Shrek continue to lose life while Madagascar and Shark Tale sully the flag even further. There's more competition and yet somehow the sharpness has faded from the genre. What gives?

Frankly, and unfortunately, I don't know. Is the issue that those of us who loved The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast are now all grown up and un-accepting? Or perhaps there is nothing innovative left to tackle? The strange thing is that I find that the films look as good as ever; it's the stories that are lacking. Perhaps I'm wrong, maybe the kids these days will remember Ice Age: The Meltdown fondly. Or maybe I've just gotten old and just can't see these new titles for the art they truly are. I hope that's the case because the alternative isn't nearly as fun; namely that the genre of big studio animation is dying on the vine.

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