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Are you a lover of animation movie? This list shows the all time most captivating animation movies, and I promise you, its definitely worth your time.
Therefore, to celebrate the release of Disney/Pixar’s Soul (now streaming on Disney+), we’re bringing you the definitive ranking of the best animated feature films ever.
Notwithstanding, From the hand-drawn masterworks of Walt Disney to modern-day technological wonders from Pixar, Laika and Illumination, we love animated films because, at their best, they present limitless possibilities for storytelling.
Super Amazing Animation Movies of All Time
I know many people who follow up Tom and Terry just like others follow up Fast and Furious. I also know a lot of adults like me who rather spend money on cartoons rather than on other real character movies.
There is something captivating and unique about cartoons. You get anxious about what will happen in the next scene, just like when you are following up on a real movie.
Not only children but many parents follow up cartoons even when it’s animation. In order to update you on the latest cartoon movies, I have come up with the top ten cartoon movies.
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The one that started it all, the first animated feature in history, is one of the key American artistic triumphs of the 20th century.
Walt Disneybet the farm on this musical fantasy, and a lot of people thought he was nuts to believe audiences would connect with hand-drawn creations for 80 minutes.
Well, Snow White made grown men weep, and it became the highest-grossing film ever upon release (dethroned two years later by Gone With the Wind, still the all-time adjusted box-office champ).
Snow White, like all great fairy tales, is gateway horror. In addition to Gothic notes and some visuals inspired by German Expressionism.
Snow White features a big bad named one of the ten most unforgettable film villains by the American Film Institute: Snow White’s wicked stepmother, a scheming royal witch who will stop at nothing to destroy the lovable princess, purely out of vanity.
Streaming giant Disney+ is getting a lot of attention for its newer content like the awesome Mandalorian series.
One of the very best things about this new service is that it will introduce a new generation to timeless, historically significant works like Snow White.
2. Pinocchio (1940)
Made with a bigger budget, more time and more resources, Walt Disney‘s second full-length feature is at least as stunning as its predecessor; it’s the only picture that can give Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a run for its money for the title of greatest animated film of all time.
The characters are more deeply developed, and the strides in animation (Pinocchio presents strikingly lifelike drawings of natural and mechanical elements) are substantial.
It’s also a more frightening watch; everything on Pleasure Island is just plain nightmare fuel. The cursed island turns wayward little boys into donkeys, in seriously grotesque fashion.
Forrest Gump helmer Robert Zemeckis is directing the in-development live-action remake. Disney is rumored to be on the fence about whether to give the update a theatrical launch, or release it on Disney+.
Exciting, transporting, moving, 1940’s Pinocchio is essential American cinema; movies just don’t really get any better than this.
It doesn’t need to be remade– but if it is, the update should have the top-shelf treatment every step of the way.
3. Spirited Away (2001)
Miyazaki once said Princess Mononoke would be his final film, and let us all be glad that wasn’t the case.
Meeting the 10-year-old daughter of a friend inspired Miyazaki to create this adventure about a young girl crossing over to the spirit world via an enchanted bathhouse –or is it all just her imagination gone gonzo?.
Which eclipsed even Miyazaki’s own previous great films, and set the current high-water mark for elegance and inventiveness in traditional animation.
Miyazaki incorporated some CGI here—and he famously draws tens of thousands of frames by hand for every feature. Spirited Away is an achingly bittersweet epic about growing up and adjusting to change.
To date, this is the only animé to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and as a work of fantasy filmmaking, it is worthy of comparison to The Wizard of Oz.
4. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
For a generation or more, Disney’s most ambitious and expensive (at the time) effort was only seen on VHS, cropped and incomplete.
Watch it today on a huge screen, with rich sound. It’s a singular experience. Under the art direction of Eyvind Earle, Sleeping Beauty is a labor-intensive high-point for this medium.
Some say Aurora doesn’t have as much personality as other Disney leads, and some say the 75-minute film has a thin narrative. Frankly, when the artistry is this jaw-droppingly great, who cares?
This is Disney’s first film photographed in an ultra-widescreen format (the Super Technirama 70 frame was over twice as wide as that of early Disney classics like Snow White).
To experience the finale where Maleficent (a menacing villain who makes slashers look like punks) casts a spell that covers a castle in acres of thorns, then transform herself into a dragon the size of a skyscraper—all set to the thunderous, swirling, brass-heavy Tchaikovsky-infused orchestral score—is to fully appreciate one of the most spectacularly realized and exciting action-adventure set pieces ever staged. Seriously, it escalates like Die Hard.
5. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
The second film in the Disney Renaissance is an even more refined, dramatically punchy film than The Little Mermaid.
Taking a cue from the 1946 French masterwork La Belle et La Bête, benefiting enormously from the songs of Ashman/Menken, this is a landmark.
For some perspective, the film was first shown to an audience in September 1991 at the New York Film Festival, in an unfinished “work print” cut.
Only 70 percent of the animation was finished, so the audience saw 30 percent crude pencil drawings paired with the soundtrack, and nevertheless, by all accounts, it received an historically rapturous reception, with cheers throughout, and a 10-minute standing ovation.
Beauty and the Beast went on to become the first animated film to gross $100 million in the United States, nominated for six Oscars.
The soundtrack album was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. The less said about the campy—financially successful, but featherweight—2017 remake, the better.
6. Finding Nemo (2003)
Films in the top tier of Pixar’s canon are so uniformly astonishing—quietly revolutionary—that choosing which is the best is totally daunting.
As much in its screenwriting as in its groundbreaking underwater visuals, Finding Nemo is a masterpiece.
Laugh-out-loud funny with an abundance of pathos, the underwater adventure is all about the woes of helicopter parenting, the inevitability of risk and even danger.
7. Fantasia (1940)
Fantasia, Walt Disney’s ambitious collection of eight animated musical vignettes set to a score conducted by Leopold Stokowski and emcee’d by Mickey Mouse, the first movie ever released in stereo, was so expensive that it didn’t start to turn a profit until its 1969 theatrical re-release.
The film has been re-released so often that it is one of the highest-grossing films of all time when taking inflation into account.
The next time you have an opportunity to experience Fantasia on the big screen, don’t pass it up. A state-of-the-art sound system–or better yet, a live orchestra–turns Fantasia up to 11.
The finale, set to composer Modest Mussorgsky‘s “A Night on Bald Mountain,” depicts Satan and his followers wreaking havoc throughout the night.
As dawn breaks, church bells and “Ave Maria” drive the Prince of Darkness into the underworld. Fantasia takes you on a journey; that’s for damn sure.
8. The Toy Story Series (1995-2019)
Pixar’s mature saga of long-term friendship—and growing up—ushered in a new era of animation. The series maintained massive critical and financial success for a quarter-century.
The best of the bunch is part three. The unexpectedly dark and bittersweet detours taken in its third act are among the greatest creative risks the artists at Pixar have ever taken, and the most rewarding.
Perhaps especially for millennial audiences who grew up with Andy, Toy Story 3 is a profoundly moving film. The fourth picture is often brilliant, but more divisive—ending on an uncomfortably mature note.
9. Shrek (2001)
The third and fourth Shrek movies got pretty bad pretty fast, so it might be hard to remember just how fresh, surprising and invigorating the first one was.
The tale of an ogre (Mike Myers) who falls for a fair princess (Cameron Diaz) had a relentless irreverence only matched by the tenderness of its heart. Love is blind.
Few films since City Lights have expressed that with such clarity and sincerity.
Top Disney Cartoon Movies
10. Inside Out (2015)
After stumbling a bit with serviceable but hardly great fare like Brave, Cars 2, and Monsters University, Pixar came roaring back in top form with Inside Out, a profound and deft exploration of emotional regulation that is somehow both nimbly funny and gut-wrenchingly sad.
The Academy Award-nominated screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley taps into the intricacies of the human condition like nothing you’ve ever seen.
11. The Little Mermaid (1989)
Following Walt Disney’s death in December 1966, the studio floundered a bit for over two decades. Several animated films were released, but none were particularly great, nor did any catch fire at the box office.
The Little Mermaid was a runaway success— breathed new life into the studio, and kick-started a decade-long era of animated hits now known as the Disney Renaissance.
The score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman is spellbinding; the melodies are enormous and indelible, and the lyrics are so intricate and clever, often hilarious.
Watching it as an adult, it’s hard not to be really moved by the story of father and daughter working to mend a relationship that’s drifting apart. There’s a lot of depth in the ocean.
12. Up! (2009)
The second animated film in history nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture after Beauty and the Beast, Up! is Pixar at the peak of their powers, and their commitment to creating intelligent cinematic events that appeal to audiences young and old.
The iconic, tear duct-depleting opening five minutes of Up! are a revelation for animated kid-friendly fare.
The Oscar-nominated screenplay by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, and Tom McCarthy (who later won an Oscar for writing Spotlight), doesn’t shy away from a bluntly somber depiction of child neglect.
There’s also a flying balloon house, and a talking Golden Retriever. Bold, magnificent art and entertainment.
13. WALL-E (2008)
Pixar showed gravitas to release WALL-E, a post-apocalyptic romantic comedy epic about robots that is completely wordless for long stretches.
How could a general audience in the twenty-first century relate and empathize with a robot who barely says a word?! Well, big-eyed, kind-hearted, sensitive and romantic WALL-E is one of Pixar’s greatest wonders, and his perilous journey through outer space for the woman (female-sounding robot) he loves, is nothing short of riveting.
You can expect this movie to age about as well as the great silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and as an added bonus, WALL-E is a genuinely provocative work of science fiction to boot.
14. Ratatouille (2007)
Brad Bird’s masterpiece about Remy, a rat who dreams of becoming a chef, is a touching portrait of a struggling artist.
There’s a wordless moment near the end of Ratatouille, in which ice-cold, seemingly impenetrable food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) takes a bite of of Remy’s cooking, and is transported, joyously, to a childhood memory. The power of cinema.
15. The Incredibles (2004)
The only good Fantastic Four movie further established Brad Bird as a new master of animation.
The Incredibles is stylish, retro and breathlessly dynamic—among other things, it’s a modern action classic with more heart-stopping moments than most R-rated explosion fests.
It was followed by a lucrative 2018 sequel that was entertaining but rushed, lacking the uncommonly slow burn, character-driven buildup that made the original so memorable.
16. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
One of Miyazaki’s defining works centers on two young sisters, their ailing mother, and magic spirits. Over time, it’s become universally hailed as one of the greatest of family films.
One of the coolest features of HBO Max is that nearly all Ghibli films, including Totoro, are now at subscribers’ fingertips.
17. The Lion King (1994)
With no shortage of catchy tunes, memorable anthropomorphized characters, humor and drama, this Africa-set loose adaptation of Hamlet was one of the most financially successful films of the ’90s, for good reason.
The “live-action” though not really live-action remake received mixed reviews (Uncanny Valley alert!), and is currently the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
18. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Like fellow holiday classic Gremlins, this red-blooded Halloween-Christmas mashup is one of the scariest movies ever aimed—ostensibly—at children.
The Tim Burton-produced stop-motion musical has grown so iconic and popular that it’s become its own brand, but it’s important to remember just how special the film is on its own merits.
The Danny Elfman songs haunt, and the German Expressionism-inspired visuals are breathtaking. Film critic Roger Ebert even compared the picture to Star Wars.
19. Dumbo (1941)
Simple and sweet, packing a lot of story into 64 minutes, Disney’s Oscar-winning musical about a circus elephant was a relatively modest production, the studio’s most profitable film of the ’40s.
Remade with an abrasively icy touch in 2019, begetting mixed-t0-negative reviews. When the original classic hit Disney+, the infamous “Jim Crows” were edited out.
20. The Iron Giant (1999)
A half-decade before The Incredibles, Brad Bird received acclaim for this traditionally animated, Art Deco-accented fable of a lonely boy, a paranoid government and an alien robot. A box-office bomb in 1999, The Iron Giant is now regarded as a modern classic.
21. Cinderella (1950)
Walt Disney made a career of risk and bold moves. After expensive productions Pinocchio, Bambi, and Fantasia all bombed at the box office (later to find the success and acclaim they deserved on home video), his studio averted bankruptcy in spectacular fashion with a musical fantasy adaptation of an oft-adapted fairy tale classic.
Today, it’s clearly not quite on the level of its predecessors in terms of character and plot, but a classic nonetheless. Its staggering financial success ushered Disney into a new era.
22. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Isao Takahata‘s Grave of the Fireflies, based on a Japanese short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, is a heavy war drama about two young siblings struggling to survive during the final months of World War II.
Likely due to its tragic, uncompromising content, the film was initially a box office failure in Japan and the United States, but over time has become internationally recognized as a masterwork.
Softly dreamy, painterly drawings match the narrative’s unflinching humanism. “Cartoon Movies”
23. Aladdin (1992)
Composer Howard Ashman, who also co-wrote the music of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, passed away while Aladdin was still in production, and he is immortalized in these iconic scores.
Also, Aladdin‘s Genie is one of the most ingenious inventions in animation history, a clown who could morph and mold himself to suit the singular rapid-fire wit and imagination of Robin Williams.
This is the funniest movie in the entire Disney canon, and a testament to Williams’ genius.
24. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
A funny and heartfelt work of dizzying invention, Into the Spider-Verse is Spidey’s first entirely animated theatrical outing.
With a texture like a living painting, Spider-Verse is one of the most idiosyncratic, confidently original works of art to hit the multiplexes–from any genre–in years, Spidey’s critically acclaimed spin through the multiverse opened up this character’s already formidable big-screen legacy to limitless possibilities. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
25. Soul (2020)
Simply put, Pixar has done it again. A meditation of life, death, the metaphysical and jazz, Soul is top-shelf Pixar every step of the way. “Cartoon Movies”
Soul will likely win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, a Best Picture nod is highly probable— and the innovative music of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste is a lock for Best Original Score.
26. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
The 13th Disney animated feature is the essential big-screen take on Lewis Carroll‘s classic book.
The RKO-released follow-up to Cinderella received lukewarm reception in its initial run, eventually becoming a cult classic (thanks to psychedelic 1970s re-releases) and critically re-assessed.
Remade as an interminably bloated, highly profitable blockbuster in 2010.
Cartoon Movies 2021
27. The Summit of the Gods
Based on Jiro Taniguchi’s early ‘00s manga, which added breathtaking environmental illustrations and sharp, shadow-intensive character designs to Baku Yumemakura’s 1998 novel.
The Summit of the Gods is a testament to self-motivation through the intertwined stories of two men: Mountain climber Joji Habu (Eric Herson-Macarel) and journalist Makoto Fukamachi (Damien Boisseau).
Director Patrick Imbert’s French anime sees the two cross paths thanks to a legendary Vestpocket Kodak camera belonging to George Mallory, the English mountaineer who may or may not have reached the top of Everest in the ‘20s.
What’s More!!
Fukamachi sees Habu with the camera, then loses him. Fukamachi wants a scoop; Habu wants to be left alone as he prepares for his own climb.
In his search for the recluse, Fukamachi compiles Habu’s life, constructing his obsessive arc event by event through unearthed news clippings.
With this intercut structure, The Summit of the Gods is both a great journalism movie and great mountaineering movie—each with a series of technical steps that contain emotional weight impossible to fully explain to an outsider.
28. Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
Since 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion has penetrated the cultural consciousness with giant robots, angsty teens and esoteric Biblical references. “Cartoon Movies”
It is the story of Shinji Ikari, a young boy destined to pilot a giant robot called Unit-01 in a future where creatures called Angels are destined to destroy humanity.
But Shinji resists his fate, complaining at every turn and freezing with indecision as the survival of humanity lies on his shoulder.
It is truly a one of a kind franchise, the brainchild of the genius and deeply depressed Hideaki Anno.
Interesting Fact About Evangelion
It is a franchise that has plagued him for over 25 years, from a series to a slew of movies that worked to rewrite a dissatisfying ending.
Now, Anno is finally done. With the release of his latest and last piece of Evangelion media, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, the time of the Angels has come to an end.
Thrice Upon a Time is the fourth Rebuild of Evangelion film, which is a complete retelling of the events from the original series.
The final film in the universe of Shinji, Asuka, Rei and EVAs may not be the best place for franchise novices to start, but it should be a great motivator.
29. On-Gaku: Our Sound
Being a teenager in a suburban town can be excruciatingly boring. With no variety in routine, everything feels useless.
But then, sometimes, something appears that banishes that monotony and breathes excitement into an otherwise dull existence.
That discovery can be revelatory; life can suddenly have purpose. In the case of the trio of delinquents in Kenji Iwaisawa’s incredible debut feature, the animated On-Gaku: Our Sound, they discover the catharsis and power of music.
On-Gaku: Our Sound is writer/director Iwaisawa’s love letter both to the power of music and to the manga of the same name by Hiroyuki Ohashi.
As the film progresses through its musical numbers, Iwaisawa experiments with form (like expressive rotoscoping) as certain songs evoke different emotions from his characters, whether it is a kindly folk song or a primitive-feeling rocker that reverberates in a listener’s chest.
30. Bambi (1942)
The movie about a white-tailed deer who becomes the Great Prince of the Forest remains a touchstone for animation.
The unforgettable paintings of Tyrus Wong inspire the great creators of modern times. For young audiences, Bambi is gateway horror, with a death scene that’s among the most famous, and famously upsetting, in film history.
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