Was 2009 The Best Year Ever For Animated Films?

We are in a golden age of animation. I can't recall the last time there was a year with three animated films I'd be happy to see a second time. In 2009 there were five: "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Up," "Ponyo," "Coraline," "The Princess and the Frog," and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

The neatest part is that they represent such different styles. "Fantastic" is stop-motion, "Up" is cutting-edge CGI, "Ponyo" and "Princess" are old-school hand-drawn, "Coraline" is 3-D. There's so much room for artists to use different styles that fit their vision -- though some are a bit more flexible than others.