speaking of French animation, I really very much enjoyed Phantom Boy, which tells a not hugely ambitious story but does so with high technical proficiency. The animation style is slightly spare, but its also very distinctive, colorful, and expressive (dat hand drawn art). Its an adventure film for families in a classic sense, as in its not dumbed down for kids even though its main character is a 10-ish or so boy. That boy can perform astral projection out of his very sick body, he meets a stymied and recently injured cop in the hospital, together they work to crack a case that involves a spunky reporter, a spiteful megalomaniac, oafish goons, and a surprisingly effective lap dog. Its also sort of a thriller, at least kind of a low key one. And I'm pretty much an easy mark for any well done genre film that does its business in 90 minutes minus. So I liked this a lot, and if April and the Extraordinary World hadn't already come out this would be my easy pick for animated film of the year, such is life, to have too many good movies to choose from.
