The nominated movies: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, I Lost My Body, Klaus, Missing Link, Toy Story 4
How to watch: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Missing Link are on Hulu, I Lost My Body and Klaus are on Netflix and Toy Story 4 is on DVD now.
I decided that I wanted to watch every category that I could see every nominated movie in, and I didn’t realize that that meant this category. (I am not a kid movie fan; I wasn’t when I was a kid and I’m not one now. But then I remembered that Roger Ebert said that if you avoid an entire genre of movie, you’re not sufficiently evolved as a moviegoer, and I want to be that more than anything. So…onward!)
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: It took me a long time to get into this, which is my fault because I haven’t seen the first two and there is no real synopsis because what idiot starts with the third? I ended up enjoying it and the dragons are cute. I will probably go back and see the first one at some point.
Missing Link: I was interested to see this one because it beat Toy Story 4 at the Golden Globes. I ended up really enjoying it but I think its real draw is that it’s stop-motion animation. (But it’s also a fun story and well-told.) It’s not as good as Toy Story 4, but the stop-motion thing puts it over the top, I think.
Klaus: This feels like the kind of thing I would’ve watched on TV as a kid around Christmastime. Like, Frosty, Rudolph, Klaus. This is a Santa Claus origin story and it’s seriously adorable. I think Toy Story 4 is my favorite, but this and Missing Link are probably tied for my second favorite.
I Lost My Body: I love the title and this is also one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen. Visually, it looks like a graphic novel (no one would mistake it for Pixar). I loved the storyline with the young people (a young man who falls for a girl) but part with the disembodied hand looking for its body was just odd. I understand what it was going for, I think, but it was just weird. It may not be to my personal taste but I respect it.
Toy Story 4: I initially saw this in the theater and I loved it. This isn’t the genre I am generally drawn to, but I love Pixar movies and as someone who used to love her toys, I love the idea that they’re alive. The third one is probably my favorite but I also love this one (especially Forky).
Movies (in order of personal preference):
Toy Story 4
Missing Link
Klaus
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
KellyVision 