heavymetalmage asks: What are your top ten animations of all-time?

In no particular order (except that which I think of them...)

1. Ratatouille - My favourite Pixar movie, which is NOT a phrase I use lightly. There are others I love more for their action (Incredibles), emotional resonance (Up) or insane self-imposed challenge (Finding Nemo and Wall-E) but Ratatouille is the one I find the most beautiful and can just pop in and enjoy anytime. I also dig the oddball structure of the movie, very much in keeping with the setting and subject matter, and it's about rats. Rats are cool.

2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Holy shit. Did you know the animation in this movie was all traditional cel overlay? As in, they filmed the live-action, and then the animators were given photographs of the frames of the film, which they used to do the rough animation, and then it was all painted onto cels and composited back onto the film without the use of computers? Richard Williams is a goddamned madman, but the movie will hold up forever as a technical feat of the pre-digital era.

3. The Cat Returns - Why? I don't know. Not the prettiest, most well-written or best-directed Ghibli film, but every time I see a snippet of it, I feel compelled to watch the whole thing. I guess it's doing something right.

4. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro - Lupin III and Miyazaki together (Miyazaki's directorial debut, in fact). A fun adventure, a more mature interpretation of the Lupin III characters, and some great music and action. It pales in comparison to later Ghibli films... but I love Lupin III.

5. Most of the Disney Goofy shorts (the "How To" and "Everyman" series) from the 40s through the 60s

6. Animaniacs - What a fantastic tribute to the old, great Warner Bros cartoons - back when the animation was expressive and full, they had as many jokes for adults as for kids, and they gleefully defied and mocked censorship and authority every chance they got. We're cycling back to being a little more liberal with the content of children's cartoons again, but it can still be surprising to see what anarchic humour Animaniacs and other WB/Amblin shows got away with. ("I Got Yer Can" springs to mind, but maybe just because I love Slappy so much.)

7. The Simpsons (earlier seasons, of course) - I don't have the knowledge of television to prove it... but if you ask me, The Simpsons DEFINED modern comedy in the early-to-mid 90s and beyond, not just for cartoons but TV in general. Made huge strides for animation being accepted as a medium for adults as well as kids in the west, and you know what? We're not crazy, the earlier seasons WERE that much funnier than the later ones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_QCiAAUvHI

8. Futurama (seasons 1 to 3 and some episodes of 4) - Not even going to bother expanding on this one.

9. Pretty much any WW2 propaganda cartoon from either side, but especially this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00ygpgALi0&feature=related

10. Ghost in the Shell (1995) - Stunning, atmospheric, cool, and has one of my all-time favourite musical scores of any movie.

You may notice I didn't mention any Disney features... this is because I couldn't pick a favourite if you put a gun to my head. But I can narrow it down to... either Fantasia, The Great Mouse Detective, Aladdin, The Lion King, Hercules, Mulan, or Lilo and Stitch.

traitormagnus asks: What do you hope EA/BioWare does with Mass Effect post-ME3?

That's a really tough one to answer at this point, without knowing the plot of ME3 and all the potential outcomes the story might have. They've gone so deep in the "this is YOUR Shepard! These are YOUR choices!" mentality that to do anything outside of the main series becomes really awkward and difficult. In a perfect world (and what I predict will happen) is that the events of ME3, even if you get the best of all possible endings, will shake up and destroy so much of the Mass Effect universe as we know it (especially where humans are concerned) that they can jump ahead, say, 200 years, when Shepard will be dead, humans will have mostly returned to earth to recolonize, the rest of the galaxy will have been so busy with rebuilding and repopulating to have made little in the way of technological advancements, and we can establish a baseline setting not too far removed from ME1, minus a customizable Shepard running around ruining all things canon with her choices, and the looming threat of the Reapers dealt with.

That would be an ideal setup to start working on an MMO, which is something I would kill several men to see become a reality... but it's not something I'm going to lose sleep over, because the likelihood of ANY big-budget MMO actually becoming a reality is so low, the development time we'd be looking at if they started it tomorrow would be nigh-on 5 years, and it's hard to say whether ME has the penetration to be worth that kind of risk at all (Star Wars: The Old Republic is about the safest, most marketable property you could possibly base an MMO on, and the jury is still out on whether it will have the long-term success EA is counting on).

What I think is more likely, looking at the big push EA has taken to market ME3 and the inclusion (and marketing) of the multiplayer in particular, is that we'll be getting some gaiden games for a little bit while EA/Bioware decides where to take the real meat of the franchise yet. Maybe there'll be an MMO someday, maybe there'll be another trilogy on the next generation, but in the meantime I'm thinking we'll get some simpler, smaller in scope games and some expansion on the multiplayer offerings of ME3. The collective whining of the hardcore fans and RPG buffs will cause planet-wide deafness in small animals, but I would LOVE it if they took this as an opportunity to try out some different genres and make games that are smaller in scope but explore a single part of the universe in greater detail. What about an FPS like Star Wars: Republic Commando that's all about what it's like to be a grunt in various species' armies? (oh, the backlash they'd get when they announced that one.) How about an action/adventure/mystery game about being an investigator for C-Sec? A sim about managing a colony? A puzzle game about being an engineer repairing ships in the Migrant Fleet!? The possibilities are endless!

Ultimately, I'm hoping they take their time to figure out the next big step for the franchise, and in the meantime, take a chance on expanding on the interesting parts of the universe to try and turn it into the hugely popular expanded universe it's always had the potential to be, rather than cynically trying to retread the OH MAN COMMANDER SHEP SO AWESOME GOTTA SAVE THE HUMANS GO ALLIANCE! that they imagine catches the attention of the lowest common denominator.