10 Best Animated Movies
When I recently compiled a list of my 100 all-time favorite movies (which can be seen at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World) someone commented on how there was not a single animated film on the list. Now granted, even though I quite enjoy animation, and several of the films on the coming list could be seen as masterpieces of the genre, I cannot think of any that would break my top 100. However, it did get me thinking, and lo and behold, my list of the 10 best animated movies was born.
Now there are a few items I must get out of the way before we begin. First and foremost, this is a list of feature-length animation only, with the exception of my favorite animated short receiving a special mention. There are just way too many great animated shorts and/or cartoons out there to feasibly include on this list. Many, but not all, are given their moment in the sun in my honorable mention list that precedes this list.
The other item I would like to address is the lack of Pixar on the below list. I have not actively disliked any of the Pixar fare, and a few (The Incredibles, Wall-E, the Toy Story series) I have actually enjoyed for what they were, but overall, I am not much of a fan of the computer animation that clogs the multiplex these days. Therefore no Pixar, and for that matter, no Dreamworks or Blue Sky either. Some of these movies are quite stunning to look at, but I am an old school kind of guy, and I like my celluloid animation and stop-motion dammit.
With that being said, I now give you my criminally short list of honorable mentions. Feature-wise, these would include My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Persepolis, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Fantastic Mr. Fox, A Scanner Darkly, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, and Disney’s Dumbo, Bambi, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. 
As far as shorts go, their is a seemingly endless list, so I will name but a few. These are Winsor McKay’s groundbreaking 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur, Walt Disney’s sui generis Steamboat Willie from 1928 and Marv Newland’s 1969 cult classic Bambi Meets Godzilla.
Before we get to the list, please allow me one more quick aside in order to shine some much-deserved light on a few of the most creative forces behind some of the most unique works of animated short filmmaking. First off there is Chuck Jones, the brilliant mind behind such classic Warner Brothers/Merrie Melodies cartoons as What’s Opera Doc?, One Froggy Evening and the maniacally madcap Duck Amuck. Secondly, there is Tex Avery, the wild man behind such irreverent MGM classics as Red Hot Riding Hood, King-Size Canary and the 1942 anti-Hitler parody Blitz Wolf. And last but certainly not least are Max and Dave Fleischer, the creators of Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, and the genius behind the quite sexually explicit pre-code cartoons Minnie the Moocher and Snow White, both featuring a hot-to-trot Betty Boop before Paramount cleaned her up.
And now, the list. Well, okay, a pair of special mentions, and then the list.
Special Mention: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
I disqualified this 1988 movie due to it being animation mixed with live-action, but I could not leave it off the list completely. Set in a world populated by all the cartoon figures we have come to know and love, and playing out as a comedy film noir, this Robert Zemeckis movie is filled with such animated luminaries as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, Daffy and Donald Ducks, Tweety and Sylvester, Porky Pig, Dumbo, Woody Woodpecker and of course Roger and Jessica Rabbit – she’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way.
Special Mention: The Sinking of the Lusitania
As I have decided to keep this list populated with feature length animation only, the only way I could find to sneak this greatest of animated shorts into the mix was here in the Special Mention section. The film was one of the early pioneering works of movie animation. It was made in 1918 by the father of cinematic animation Winsor McKay, and depicted the tragic events of 7 May 1915 when a German U-Boat hit and sunk the RMS Lusitania, killing nearly 1,200 people on board (many claim this was the turning point in getting the US to finally enter the fray of WWI). Perhaps it would look almost archaic by today’s animation standards, but this 12-minute film is a wonder of cinema history and a must see for anyone interested in cinema.
10. The Jungle Book
This is the first animated motion picture I ever remember seeing, so it brings quite a bit of nostalgic flavor to my list. But even for those who do not have that old nostalgic feeling for the movie, you can not argue that the songs are not toe-tapping, sing-a-long classics. With an all-star voice cast that includes Sebastian Cabot, Phil Harris and Louis Prima, and such fun songs as “The Bare Necessities” and “I Wan’na Be Like You”, Disney’s animated version of Rudyard Kipling’s classic will always have a soft spot in my heart.
9. A Nightmare Before Christmas
Ya gotta love stop-motion animation. Bringing back childhood memories of all those Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, and combining that with the messed-up and twisted mind that is Tim Burton, A Nightmare Before Christmas is a new holiday classic for a new breed of children. Actually, the dark humor and obsession with the mechanisms of the dreamworld, make for the most strange perfect blend with a child’s eye view of Christmas, and makes this film the best damn animated Christmas movie ever.
8. Spirited Away
I have never been all that big of a fan of Japanese Anime, but something about Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 Academy Award winning film Spirited Away, makes me reassess my past indifference. A beautiful and quite haunting tale of a young girl and her venture into the spirit world, Miyazaki uses actual Japanese legends and lore to enrapture his audience with the mythical and magikal world of demons and spirits and haunted memories of the lost past of Japan. Miyazaki takes this fairly political cautionary tale and wraps it inside a succulent and quite scary world of dreams and make-believe.
7. Heavy Metal
I first saw this head-banging animated feature, replete with lots of full frontal nudity and bouncing cartoon boobies, when I was about nineteen or twenty. To my naive sensibilities at the time, this was an animated wet dream come true. Now cut to twenty some years later and a reasonably more mature yours truly, and watching it for the first time since the late 1980′s, and still it intrigues me – though now I am less enamored with the bouncing cartoon boobies and more with the strange and unusual artistic situations of the multi-episodic animated feature.
Continue Reading 10 Best Animated Movies >>
Pages: 1 2
33 Comments
Hey, that someone was me
I like this list. The disney films in the top 5 are certainly unexpected. I didn’t like Fantasia very much, and Fantastic Planet mainly just gave me a headache, but mad props for Les Triplettes and Yellow Submarine.
The only movie I am missing is Waking Life, but I can easily imagine that you didn’t like it very much.
Thanx. Yes it was you.
As for Waking Life, I do like it, though I prefer A Scanner Darkly (if one is comparing Richard Linklater Rotoscope animations).
Nice list. A good, broad selection. I think the first animated film I saw in the cinema was Duck Tales!
I think my list would have to include Princess Mononoke, my favourite from Studio Ghibli. It’s got some wonderfully dark moments. Also, Grave of the Fireflies. Beautiful, haunting and I dare any grown man to watch it and not shed a tear.
Though question… where is the all time best animated Disney film in your list? And by this I mean The Lion King!
Yea Grave of the Fireflies has to be up there as one of the all-time great animations!
Ugh, that movie. I still can’t get over how sad it was. If one movie can make me cry, it is that one.
Grave of the Fireflies is a very good film (and, as a grown man, I may have shed a tear or two) and it would definitely make my top twenty. Princess Mononoke is equally as good, but I still prefer Spirited Away (as far as Studio Ghibli goes).
As for The Lion King, gotta admit, not a big fan of it. I just do not get all the hoopla, I think it one of Disney’s more mediocre films. If I were to make a list of the Best Disney features (I think there have been 51 of them at this point), The Lion King would probably come in around number twenty or so.
The Lion King is one of the only more recent Disney film that I really, REALLY love. I’ve grown out of love with Disney. Though I never really “got” the Disney princess films. Loved Dumbo and Bambi. Guess, I love the animal Disney film!
Ohh.. what about Iron Giant? Loved the animation and the story doesn’t fail to make me cry. Granted, not nearly as much as Grave of the Fireflies did.
Actually I have never seen The Iron Giant, so obviously it cannot be on my list.
This is an interesting list… as a composer and musician I do love Fantasia, but as a piece of cinema I’m not sure, for me, it would deserve to be that high up a list of this one’s nature.
Also, I know you have addressed the lack of Pixar on your list but I do feel compelled to back them up here. They are a superb studio, that put out hit after hit. And they do this by telling the best stories in the most wonderful of ways. I also don’t think that glossy CGI films are clogging up the multiplex, I think that the variety of films that one can see is pretty dense at the moment… but then, maybe I just go to good cinemas. So I don’t think you should hold that against a film like Wall-E, Up!, Finding Nemo or Toy Story 1,2 or 3.
Never the less, this has made for interesting reading!
Like I said, I have never disliked a Pixar film, I am just not a big fan of the antiseptic look of computer animation is all. As for CGI-laden films clogging up the multiplexi, I stand by this statement. Each year there is less and less originality coming out of mainstream American filmmaking – much of it just remakes or franchises or video game adaptations or toss-away CGI action/adventure movies. Movies made in 3D for no apparent reason than to garner bigger box office takes through higher ticket prices. A few good films sneak in there, but mostly they are found at the art cinemas (Tree of Life, Melancholia, A Separation). With that said, I think Hugo is one of the finest films of 2011, CGI, 3D and all, and Super 8 is also in my top five for last year, so what the hell do I know.
This is a great, varied list, and there are a few I still need to see (especially Fantastic Planet). Have you seen Grave of the Fireflies? I just watched that for the first time recently and it blew me away. I can’t recall seeing a more powerful animated film.
I’d never even heard of “Fantastic Planet” before this post- an intriguing pick! I just checked and it’s available from Netflix, and so into the queue it goes….
“The Adventures of Prince Achmed” is magical and delightful (although possibly it doesn’t meet your criteria as it’s silhouette stop-motion animation). Talking about animated films of great originality and spirit, “Sita Sings the Blues” is undeservedly obscure.
On the topic of Japanese animated features, my own favorite Studio Ghibli films are “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Howl’s Moving Castle”, although several of Miyazaki’s are more than defensible choices for a “best of” list. However, on the whole I prefer Satoshi Kon’s work; “Paprika” especially is simply fascinating. Less well known but excellent recent animated films from Japan are “Summer Wars” and “Sword of the Stranger”.
Hope you enjoy Fantastic Planet. Great to find new movies.
I do happen to really like Prince Achmed and Sita Sings the Blues.
I could easily go on and on with a list like this.
This is an interesting list because there’s no Pixar or Dreamworks, which for a lot of people limits the picks by a good chunk. I still gotta admit Grave of the Fireflies would be my #1 pick xD
Your list is certainly varied and unique, so… no complaints there. Fantasia is a pretty fantastic pick.
So impressed that you got Heavy Metal into this list!! It reminds me that I haven’t seen it in ages!!
Any animated list that includes Heavy Metal and Yellow Submarine while acknowledging the lack of Pixar films is cool with me. I love those 2 films.
Glad you liked that.
Great list Kevyn! I really appreciate Watership Down in all its dark madness.
Thanks por highlighting a bunch of features and shorts I’ve never heard of before.
If I were to go on and extend this to a top twenty-five (and I incidentally plan on compiling a top 100 over at my site, The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World, sometime later this year):
11. The Adventures of Prince Achmed
12. My Neighbor Totoro
13. Persepolis
14. Dumbo
15. Sita Sings the Blues
16. Grave of the Fireflies
17. Bambi
18. The Lord of the Rings
19. Fantastic Mr. Fox
20. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
21. Wall-E
22. A Scanner Darkly
23. Sleeping Beauty
24. The Incredibles
25. Rango
I am sure I am forgetting something though…..
Rango is a fantastic film and happy to see it crept into your list! Such beautiful animation. Having my fingers crossed that it gets the animation Oscar nod this year.
I am sure Rango will get nominated, but with Tintin in the race (a far inferior film), it will probably lose the Oscar itself.
While the lack of Pixar and other more recent animations is a bit… unsettling, this is an interesting list Kevyn with a number of varied, unexpected choices. Good job!
When you find out how a lot of those early Disney movies were made, you’re sort of forced to gain a deeper appreciation for them. I don’t even know that I could make a list like this (I’ve seen too few), but there’s no doubt that Fantasia would be my #1 as well.
I just saw Triplets of Belleville a few weeks ago and was duly impressed. I think I enjoyed Chomet’s The Illusionist more, but that’s just the film nerd in me speaking. Basically, I love Tati and the Tati homage resonated more with me. Both were awesome movies, and I think Triplets was better; I just enjoyed The Illusionist more.
Great job on a very thoughtful list.
A lovely list; I remember both Watership Down and Fantasia very fondly from my childhood and I must have a look at Prince Ahmed and Fantastic Planet. For some reason Chomet doesn’t mov me at all; obviously it’ visually impressive but his world leaves me a bit cold.
Your top 25 is interesting (great to see Rango creep in!); I have to say I’d want some Aardman in there as well, probably Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I’d also probably include The Iron Giant and (for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, other than absolutely loving it as a kid – I realise that it’s far from technically the best Disney) Robin Hood. Also, what other people said about Pixar.
I am a big fan of The Iron Giant. I read the book as a child but only watched the film in the last couple of years. There’s something about the hand drawn feel of the animation that I miss these days.
I tried to catchup on some animated films before making this list (Watership Down, Fantastic Planet) or rewatch ones I had seen when I was younger (Heavy Metal) but I missed out on The Iron Giant. I am guessing I would like it though and that it would at least make my final 25. I will definitely have to watch it before I make my Top 100 list later this year.
I am noting down your list Kevin. Just like you, I am not a fan of digital animation. I am planning to write my top 5 animation somewhere this year and pixar won’t be in it…in fact no digital will be there.
Glad to see Spirited Away in your list, that is my most favorite animation. I also like Girl who jumped through time.
I’m not mad about the lack of Pixar just very confused by it
Just not a big fan of them is all. Give me cel or stop motion animation any day.
Never really understood the love for Heavy Metal. The animation was interesting but the film never grabbed me on the whole. I would replace that one on the list with something like The Iron Giant or even Fritz the Cat, if you want to go the controversial film route.
Personally, I’d have to feature the work of Pixar because their films are such joyous creations both visually and thematically. But this is a great round-up of some of the best animated films. A very interesting read.
Belladonna of Sadness is a good one too if you haven’t heard/seen it.
You have a broad taste in animation, and your list is comprised of some quality flicks. Seeing Spirited Away underneath Heavy metal makes me cringe though in an awful way. I mean, to me, that’s like somebody rating a McDouble higher than a filet mignon. But I understand that opinions vary. Even though you aren’t an anime fan, I’d check out Princess Mononoke if you haven’t, also by Studio Ghibli. And Akira. Both of those movies transcend the genre in my opinion.
Trackbacks