Summer 2013 Movies: 5 Animated Must-See Flicks

Culture

Summer is blockbuster season. Summer 2013 will be no different, as you can expect to see quite a few films that should dominate at the box office: Iron Man 3Star Trek Into Darkness, and Fast and Furious 6 all come out in May. Man of SteelWorld War Z, and The Wolverine will follow in June and July. For some, however, these films take a back seat to the animated features on the way. 

From big name prequels/sequels Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 to a beautiful looking Epic movie that resembles the colors on a Fern Gully palette, 2013 is going to be a big summer for animated films.

What follows is a list of animated feature films coming out this summer, listed in order of excitement level for the movie to come out, starting with Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 before working on down. 

1. Monsters University, June 21

You had me at Pixar is coming out with another movie. While I haven't loved the last two Pixar releases (Brave and Cars 2), any studio that produces Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3, in a row will forever hold a special place in my heart. Plus, the original Monsters, Inc. was spot on. 

2. Despicable Me 2, July 3

The first Despicable Me was one of the best non-Pixar animated features of all time. Will Despicable Me 2 be able to live up to its predecessor? The fact that they brought Eminem into the soundtrack was a good start. There's every reason to be excited about Despicable Me 2.

3. Epic, May 24

This looks like a mix of The Secret World of Arrietty and Fern Gully. This trailer is awesome though. I have a good feeling it will suffer the same fate as Where The Wild Things Are, a film who's trailer was far better than the actual movie thanks to a fantastic soundtrack. Even so, Epic looks like it will be a great animated film and will definitely be worth catching this summer.

4. Turbo, July 19

Turbo definitely has star power (Ryan Reynolds voices the main character) and a fun premise (a snail trying to be faster). However, with DreamWorks at the helm, I feel like this is going to be a bunch of fun scenes and colors without much depth to the story. Until DreamWorks produces a film that would crack top five in the Pixar repertoire, I'll be a doubter. 

5. Planes, August 9

This looks like a poor man's Cars, and the rich man's Cars wasn't that good. I'm not even sure what to make of this. And then you find out that Dane Cook is involved and it somehow becomes worse than a poor man's Cars 2. Disney is involved, and Pixar is involved with Disney, but this seems like it should be one of those straight to DVD features like Lion King 2. I guess we'll see.