It's Alive!: Monster House

Monster House is a 2006 computer animated and motion capture film. It was produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis and written by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab.

The movie focuses on DJ Walters, a boy who is convinced that there's something strange about the house across the street, and believes the house across the street from him is alive. When his parents go away for the weekend, he tries convincing his babysitter that there is something wrong about the house. She does not believe him, so DJ enlists the help of his best friend Chowder and Jenny, a girl selling Halloween candy (and who nearly gets eaten by the house). Together, the three of them try to destroy the monster house, along the way figuring out its secret.

source: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse

I was actually planning on posting this on Halloween, but I can't think of any other film right now that I've already watched. I've seen this film a bunch of times on TV, but I seldom hear people around me giving it a high regard, unlike Moana and again, Frozen (Come on, people! Disney's not the only one that produces great animated films. Though, yes, I agree that they are the most consistent). 

Kids at a certain age crave for thrill and excitement like horror movies. However, most horror films are too violent for the innocent young ones. 

This animated film has just the right amount of scariness that won't even inflict trauma on children. You'll love the twists and turns in this film, especially if you like a bit of mystery. The characters are very well-made, very human-like and relateable. Each of their personalities really stand out and the dialogue's great. It's actually pretty scary and can be quite of a suspense. The story actually reminds me of  R.L. Stine's Goosebumps.  Anyway, you'd want to watch this on Halloween with the younger members of the family as a safe horror film.

Boo!

Chicken Run: Their Great Escape

One of the best stop-motion animated films ever. It's not exactly underrated since it has 97% ratings in Rotten Tomatoes but not much people have even heard of the movie, unlike Frozen. 

Chicken Run is a 2000 British-American stop-motion animation family film produced

by Aardman Animations and directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. It was the first feature-length film to be produced by the Academy Award Winning creators of Wallace & Gromit and the first produced in partnership with DreamWorks, which co-financed the film (along with Pathé) and distributed the film in America. The film features the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels, Tony Haygarth and Miranda Richardson. Chicken Run received widespread critical acclaim and was a box office hit, grossing $224 million worldwide against its $45 million budget.

It is a pastiche of and homage to The Great Escape; the chicken coop in the opening shot deliberately looks like a POW internment camp, complete with what looks like a guard emplacement (it's actually a water tank).

The plot centers on a band of chickens who see a smooth-talking Rhode Island Red named Rocky as their only hope to escape from certain death when the owners of their farm decide to move from selling eggs to selling chicken pot pies.

source: http://dreamworks.wikia.com/wiki/Chicken_Run

This film was really fun to watch. I mean like, chickens trying to learn how to fly? Ha! I'm just kidding, anything's possible when you believe and make it happen. Aside from comedy, I thought there was a bit of suspense whenever the chickens try to escape a tragedy from happening. Ginger is quite strong and clever for a chicken and she does everything she can to save the whole chicken clan from slaughter. That says a lot—that she truly cares for each one.

 I was a bit pissed at Rocky for not telling them immediately that he can’t actually fly-- that none of them can, but at least he introduced to them the idea of catapulting out of there. I just get scared for them and I don’t know why, it’s just a movie. I had the feeling though, after watching the film, that I don’t think I’ll be eating chicken for a while.

Oh God, please no.

All aboard in our ship heading to "Treasure Planet"!

From the directors that brought us The Little Mermaid, this is Treasure Island in space. This film just made me want to read the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It's quite an interesting concept since the outer space is as vast, deep, and mysterious as the ocean. I don't know if you've even heard of Treasure Island but it's a very good coming-of-age adventure story about pirates (aside from Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan). FYI, "there would be no Pirates of the Caribbean without Treasure Island" I quote from Mr.John Amrhein in dailymail.com.uk. 

The story is basically the same with the novel but with a few added twists to the characters, plot, and setting. It's about a troubled boy named Jim Hawkins who lives with his mother who manages the Benbow Inn, when suddenly a ship crashed nearby. The strange pilot was hurt and before he died, left a sphere, and a warning: "Beware of the cyborg" . Their inn was attacked by an unknown group of pirates but Jim, his mother, and Dr. Doppler escaped along with the sphere.The sphere turned out to be a map to the legendary Treasure Planet! With Jim wanting to redeem himself and rebuild the Benbow, they set off to sail in the RLS Legacy where he was assigned to work with the cook, Long John Silver, who's (guess what?) a cyborg.

 

He suddenly had suspicions about him and the rest of the crew. However, not for long he will find out the reason for all their quiet chattering.With pirates, ships, treasures, and solar surfing you will love the sky more when you watch this film. 

This has been one of Disney's most underrated films (I'll be showing you more of them soon.) I don't understand why though, it's visually beautiful and has very good pacing for the plot without missing a single scene. Jim and Long John Silver's moments that make them seem like father and son are very heartwarming. I like the soundtrack too. If you loved "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls you gotta love Jim's theme song titled "I'm Still Here" by the same band. The scene where they played that song along was just my favorite. It made me feel sad for him but also hopeful. This movie will just make you realize what is the truest treasure you can ever find. And also, don't you ever forget that:

Let's jump out the window with "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time"!

Directed by Mamoru Hosada and story written by Yasutaka Tsutui, this Japanese animated film seems to be targeting the teenage audience, in which we see the main character dealing with the snags of high school, friendship, love, and... time travelling.

Sometimes,don't you just want to turn back time? This thought has always been out there at the back of my mind. Then here comes this girl, Makoto Kono, who's had a really bad day. She failed a quiz, accidentally started a fire, got knocked over by stupid guys "horsing around", and almost, almost got hit by a train. Almost until she went back to where-- I mean, when she was before it could even happen. Actually, previously to the very nearly train wreck, back at school, she was assigned to return notebooks to the chemistry lab where she found (what looks like to me) a time travelling battery in the form of a metal nutshell. She learned that she can go back time by literally leaping. 

Leap!

Soon however, she discovers the consequences of her own selfish advantages over time travelling, how it affects the people around her (especially her friends) and where it came from.

The characters have very simple features in contrast with the detailed work on the stunning backgrounds (the shots on some scenes seem to be made to show off) but they move fluidly and almost human-like, so that's okay. I guess they did it on purpose to make the characters stand-out too and it works. I watched it in English dub and it kinda sucked at times since it doesn't match with their mouth movements (because Japanese) and replies from other characters come off too quickly. But if you think it such a hassle to read subtitles then go ahead and watch the English dubbed version. The translation was not too bad and was actually quite witty. My problem with the plot is that I forget which event was from when she time travels. Did this happen on her yesterday or just earlier? stuff like that. Also, the mechanics of her time travelling. I can't tell if she can only go back or also go forward, and does the distance of how far she jumps have something to do with how far she went back in time? It wasn't actually explained. Overall, the story was interesting and had a lot of humor.

This is not an attempt on suicide but rather on time travelling

This film told me off about my thoughts on turning back time to redo stuff I regret doing. Things happen for a reason, we should accept that time may change people. More importantly, we must treasure the present including our friends, and look on ahead the future with optimism. Now, you go do what you gotta do because...