Robot Dreams (2023)

This was probably the least noted Best Animated Feature nominee of the year, at least for the U.S. Going in, I knew little more than the what the poster presented. It hardly mattered, because I've never really hated an animated feature.

In a parallel world of anthropomorphic animals, a New York dog named Dog Varon (after the graphic novel writer, Sara Varon) buys a companion robot, who seems masculine but is never assigned a name to our knowledge. Despite some obstacles, they have a lot of fun together -- until the robot rusts to immobility at the beach. Dog can't move his friend with raw strength, and by the time he gets tools handy, the beach is closed for the next three seasons. Planning to try again later, Dog makes other efforts to combat loneliness, while the robot literally dreams of different futures for them both.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019)

After my rave about the 2015 outing, I pretty much had to see this soon. Even if it meant reviewing three British movies in a row, each made in a successive year ending with 9.

A flying saucer descends pretty close to Mossy Bottom Farm, with one frightened human witness to its landing site and the solo pilot's emergence. As luck would have it, the alien, Lu-La, comes to the farm and is discovered by Shaun, who lets the other sheep in on her(?) but hides her from the farmer and his dog, Bitzer. The farmer does notice rumors of a UFO and decides to cash in by directing his animals to construct a crude theme park. The sheep cover for Shaun as he and Lu-La sneak out, trying to get her home before the Ministry of Alien Detection, led by a grimly determined Agent Red and a beleaguered WALL-E-like robot, stops her.

The Red Turtle (2016)

I hadn't planned on seeing two Japanese animations in a row; I just noticed that this one was playing at the theater and wouldn't be available on Netflix until May. Fortunately, it's only slightly Japanese: While the Studio Ghibli label turns up first, it's one of seven production companies. The director is Dutch-British, and most of the people involved are from France or Belgium. (That would explain the Tintin-like character designs.)

An adult male castaway on a bamboo-forested island shoves off on a raft, but the titular turtle bumps it to pieces from beneath. He finds the turtle on the beach and overturns her but then guiltily tries to keep her alive. Then, without explanation, she turns into a human in a half-shell. And eventually wakes up and gets out of it (off screen). No longer hasty to leave, the half-dazed man falls for the woman. They go on to have a son, who grows increasingly curious about the outside world....

Boy & the World (2013)

Boy, I knew that foreign films often had to wait a year for Academy consideration, but this one ran against 2015 animations. Maybe it can take longer for nations that rarely get Hollywood's attention. I think the only other Brazilian movies I've seen are Black Narcissus, City of God, and Central Station, none animated, so this was a new experience for me.

Some outside sources identify the boy as Cuca, but both the film and IMDb call him only Menino, which means "boy." Actually, that may be the only comprehensible dialog; the rest -- what little there is -- turns out to be Portuguese played backwards, in keeping with the occasional flipped writing. Subtitles exist on the DVD only for the deaf and hard of hearing, not translating or transcribing more than "Menino." In a way, it's fitting that this movie vied with Shaun the Sheep for the Oscar. Even the plot is similar in its simplicity, to a point.

Quest for Fire (1981)

I chose this streaming flick next mainly for the 100 minutes it runs, since I was killing time. In retrospect, it has just enough in common with The Revenant that I should have waited. There's even a survived bear mauling, albeit not very important to the story.

Based on  J.-H. Rosny aîné's most popular novel, this is one of the few movies I can name set in caveman days. The English title is pretty straightforward: A tribe who doesn't know how to make fire yet sends three men to find some. (This may be rude of me, but director Jean-Jacques Annaud never had a better reason to cast Ron Perlman, who debuted on the silver screen here.) Most of the dangers they face come from other tribes, but one woman from a more advanced village, upon getting saved from cannibals, proves helpful.

Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)

Had it really been ten years since I last watched a feature film from Aardman Animations? I'm afraid so. After the success of Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, they had a string of less promising releases: Flushed Away, Arthur Christmas, and The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Fortunately, I had seen several episodes of the "Shaun the Sheep" TV series and thus knew it to be more in the vein of the Wallace and Gromit franchise. It was easier than I'd hoped to talk both parents into watching.

OK, the movie wasn't entirely a safe bet. Each episode streams less than 20 minutes, including the opening sequence, the end credits, two plots, and a little dance in the middle for filler. Maybe the studio just didn't want to spend any more time and resources on stop-action than necessary. But there was further room for doubt: Episodes consistently kept the setting to a little farm and, with only one human character, had absolutely no dialogue. Even in this 85-minute romp, which moves much of the action to "the Big City," humans say very little; and when they do, it's basically Simlish. Apart from the background music, I've heard more spoken English -- heck, more verifiable words in any language -- from Jacques Tati animations.