For present purposes, if a movie is 100% animated in any style (or like 99% animated), and it’s great and/or historically significant in some way, there’s a good chance you’ll find it below. This does disqualify certain movies, though, like the ones that are made up of animated and live-action elements (like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Marcel the Shell with the Shoes On). Also, the two Avatar sequels are borderline works of animation, but not enough to be considered here in any event.
There’s a combination of kid-friendly and adult-focused animated movies below, too, to demonstrate how animation can indeed be for all ages, but not necessarily all the time. There’s also an attempt to not have too many movies from the same source below, but the heavy-hitters won’t be restricted to just one title or anything (so be prepared for multiple Studio Ghibli, Disney, and Pixar movies, inevitably).
25
‘Mary and Max’ (2009)
To start off with something that’s just about as heavy as any animated movie has ever been, here’s Mary and Max, a movie sure to upset any kids who accidentally watch it, and one likely to upset any adults who willingly watch it (but in a good way… sort of). Basically, it’s about two pen pals who live on opposite sides of the world, and are also at very different stages of their respective lives.
One is a young girl, and the other’s a middle-aged man, but both are going through some stuff and find that letters from the other make the other, more miserable parts of their lives a little easier to handle. That’s not to say Mary and Max is super heartwarming or anything, because if it’s bittersweet, it’s probably more bitter than sweet, but at least there is still some heart here among all the darkness and misery.
24
‘Sleeping Beauty’ (1959)
Get used to seeing some Disney movies show up here, because look, Disney’s Disney, and good old Walt’s company was a pretty significant one if you’re talking about animated films. Sleeping Beauty isn’t one of the very oldest, but it’s far back enough in history to very much be a classic, and the story here is… you know, Sleeping Beauty.
There’s an evil fairy, a princess who’s under the protection of some non-evil fairies, and then a prince who inevitably has to save the princess because this is a pretty straightforward fairy tale sort of thing, but that’s okay. Sleeping Beauty really shines because, fittingly for a movie with the word “Beauty” in its title, it’s really beautiful to look at, and the images on offer do leave quite a mark, regardless of the age you’re at when you first watch this movie.
23
‘Flow’ (2024)
A film that plays out without any dialogue, and little by way of a concrete story, even, Flow doesn’t need those things that the vast majority of movies nowadays have to prove compelling. There’s a flood that forces a cat onto a boat, and joining the cat on the boat are a bunch of other displaced creatures, and the bunch of them have to survive the strange and desolate world they find themselves in.
It’s really beautifully made, and quite moving at times, also utilizing animation well in the sense that it’s not the kind of thing you could make in live-action. Flow is also worth highlighting as a film that all ages can likely enjoy, even if it’s not primarily focused on being a kids’ movie, since it’s a little more eerie and experimental than most, owing to the mysterious narrative (or lack thereof) and the fact that it’s all dialogue-free.
22
‘Redline’ (2009)
An animated sports movie (kind of), Redline is about futuristic car racing done in space, and so everything is much faster than the comparatively pitiful racing that those of us stuck in the (relatively) early 21st century might be used to watching. The story here is serviceable, but you don’t need much more than the basics, since the style and racing sequences are where Redline shines.
Its action is incredibly ambitious, since Redline was famously animated using surprisingly old-school means for a film that feels anything but old-school in style and intensity. The production sounded painstaking, which makes it extra sad that not enough people really know about the movie in general. If you’re even a little interested in seeing something uniquely animated and executed, it’s basically required viewing.
21
‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993)
A movie that boldly says “You can be both a Christmas and a Halloween film at once,” and does so without necessarily being a horror movie as well, The Nightmare Before Christmas is instead a fantastical stop-motion musical, because why not? It’s a lot and it’s also not long, at just 76 minutes, and it’s not for everyone, but it sure is something.
There aren’t really any other movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, though some Tim Burton stop-motion movies scratch a similar itch… he didn’t helm this one, though, since Henry Selick was the director. Even if you find this one kind of annoying at times, and not particularly funny (though it seems like it’s trying to be), the animation is honestly pretty stunning to behold, and it’s hard not to give the film at least a few points for being so distinctive.
20
‘Shrek’ (2001)
Some say Shrek is life, some say Shrek is love, but really, Shrek is just Shrek. It is not the greatest kids’ movie that’s got its fair share of stuff only older viewers will pick up on and appreciate, nor was it the first to target different age groups in different ways, though it did so particularly well, and also proved influential with its tone and approach to comedy.
And it was okay that Shrek proved influential, since it really is strong on a comedic front, all the while also having a level of heart that kind of sneaks up on you, since the movie is very irreverent until it’s not. It makes fun of fairy tales and then delivers quite a bit by way of fantasy and romance, though not in the way you’d necessarily expect. Naturally, Shrek doesn’t feel as surprising nowadays, owing to comparable films that have come in its wake, but considering it came out almost 25 years ago, it’s pretty easy to appreciate a lot here.
19
‘The Wolf House’ (2018)
The Wolf House is best summed up as an absolute nightmare, but also an absolutely absorbing one. It’s hard to describe just why it’s so unsettling and effective as a stop-motion horror movie, since you kind of just have to see it. The way it’s animated is certainly a factor, since it utilizes what feels like a real-world environment, just animated things that seem otherworldly within that space, and in a more three-dimensional way than you might be used to seeing in a stop-motion movie.
It’s also based on a real-life cult in Chile that was formed around the middle of the 20th century, with the narrative involving someone escaping from said cult and being haunted by the memories and trauma associated with it. So, The Wolf House is not easy viewing, by any means, and proves deeply unsettling with both its subject matter and its style of animation, though it is also quite the remarkable experience if you’re feeling up to handling something extremely dark.
18
‘South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut’ (1999)
After being controversial and profane in its early seasons (which do seem quaint now, in hindsight), South Park escalated things considerably by doing a movie surprisingly early in its run: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The movie came out while the third season of the show was on the air, and it made use of its status as an R-rated film by being more profane and crude, kind of in line with where the show would go in its (much) later seasons.
Narratively, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is also pretty ambitious, since it’s about a profanity-related moral panic spiraling out of control and leading to an all-out war between Canada and the U.S. It’s a movie with lots to say, on a satire front, and it’s also a musical… a surprisingly great one, honestly. It’s not exactly fair to compare it to individual episodes of the show, but if you wanted to, then there are only really a few classic episodes that rival it in creativity, provocation, and comedy.
17
‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991)
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Like with Sleeping Beauty, there’s a story in Beauty and the Beast that’s very much a fairy tale, and centered around a young woman and a prince, but the woman feels a bit more like a full-formed character, and the prince is actually, you know, a beast. And the beast keeps the beauty locked up for a while, early on, but comes to care for her and also isn’t the ultimate villain of the story.
You do have to get past the kidnapping stuff, and so too do the titular (and eventual) lovers, but Beauty and the Beast handles it pretty well without things feeling too uncomfortable. If Beauty and the Beast had been attempted some decades before the 1990s, it might not have been pulled off so well, but those working for Disney in this decade really knew how to spin a good story out of premises that might’ve initially seemed questionable… well, excluding Pocahontas, at least.
16
‘Finding Nemo’ (2003)
You’re not going to believe this, but in Finding Nemo, there’s a fish called Nemo, and he needs to be found, and there’s your movie. It came out at a time in Pixar history when the studio had put out a couple of surprisingly emotional movies about toys, and one pretty damn good movie about monsters, but Pixar wasn’t as much of a powerhouse (both power and houses were plentiful and noticeable by about 2010), so maybe some might’ve found such a premise questionable, back in 2003.
Finding Nemo is like a road movie without any cars and with lots of fish, and it’s the movie’s emotional core that elevates it from good to great.
But Finding Nemo really makes you care about the relationship between the titular Nemo and his father, and why finding the former is so important. It also works as a pretty great undersea adventure movie, or like a road movie without any cars and with lots of fish, but it’s the movie’s emotional core that elevates it from good to great.
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