>Instead of an abstract complaint, it would be more instructive if you could provide concrete examples of children's films that are: not contrived, not cliched, not sappy with no lame humor.
Where to start? The works of Miyazaki, as somebody already mentioned. Anything by Tex Avery. The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Triplets of Belleville. James and the Giant Peach. The Illusionist. And tons of others (haven't even delved into anime). And if we get to overall children's films, e.g. not just animation, there's a whole range too. Heck, old (2D) Disney films were much less contrived as well.
To me, all those well-regarded films feel like they are full of cliches. Tvtropes lists dozens and dozens of examples.[1][2]
But I'm not arguing with you. I had a different standard of "cliche" in my head so I misunderstood how you categorized originality before you listed your examples. That's fine. I tend to think that everything is cliche and derivative[3][4] and therefore, those attributes don't bother as much. However, I realize that others weigh it differently.
>To me, all those well-regarded films feel like they are full of cliches. Tvtropes lists dozens and dozens of examples.[1][2]
I find the TvTropes examples lacking (or worse, BS). I mean their list has stuff like: "Adaptation Expansion" (that the story was based on a poem Burton had once written), "Black Comedy", "The Blind Leading the Blind", "Bogeyman", ""Cassandra Truth", etc. Those are supposed to be cliches?
Those are more like listing all possible states of matter, and calling some part of the universe a cliche for containing them.
So, yeah, TNBChristmas is not some abstract surrealist image sequence -- it's a story and contains aesthetic concepts and narrative similarities with other stories, starting from the Iliad. Those are not cliches -- and I'm not convinced TvTrope author even knows what a cliche is.
Same, or worse, when discussing Miyazaki:
"Adults Are Useless: Well, Chihiro's parents are, hence the need to rescue them"
"Big Eater": Chihiro's parents when they transform into pigs.
Boh eating chocolate.
They even mention "Bittersweet Ending" as a cliche (and I'm sure they have: Ambiguous Ending, Happy Ending, Sad Ending, etc thrown at other movies too).
Whatever...
What I objected to is also not about the "hero's quest" or "the 7 basic plots". Rather, a good movie (or literary work for that matter) is not about the plot at all, the plot is a merely a vehicle, and the movie transcends it. Pixar movies are all about the plot, and they are also all about the plot unfolding linearly and predictably, with big arrows pointing at any "critical moment".
Where to start? The works of Miyazaki, as somebody already mentioned. Anything by Tex Avery. The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Triplets of Belleville. James and the Giant Peach. The Illusionist. And tons of others (haven't even delved into anime). And if we get to overall children's films, e.g. not just animation, there's a whole range too. Heck, old (2D) Disney films were much less contrived as well.