Top 35 Animated Films List

While I'm working on my fics, I figured I'd put a list out since the others have done so well, so why not share my top picks for animated films. Even with a cap of 35 I found this list hard to cut down.

*Now this a list may not necessarily all good movies, but rather entertaining films.

35. Interstella 5555
Otherwise know as the Daft Punk movie that introduced many of us to the band. Now I know it's cheating a little because all the movie is, is a series of interconnecting music videos met with their album "Discovery" but it actually works and it was really pretty. I think it’s about an evil corporation kidnapping musicians and brainwashing them for their own agenda. I dunno, there’s no dialogue or even title cards.

34. Johnny Quest: Johnny’s Golden Quest
They may be one of the deceptively darkest kids movies ever made for TV. In it we have straight up murder, vengeance, grief, resentment, manipulation and mind control. We learn about happened to Johnny’s mom and while a lot of shows and films would have glanced over it or have something tame like illness or eaten by a bear, the audience sees Dr. Zin essentially kill her in a hostage situation in which Dr. Quest fails shoot the villain. This in turn sets forth Johnny’s quest for vengeance even going as far as to ask Race to teach him how to use a gun. There ain’t no mistake about it, Johnny wants blood. That is only the tip of iceberg as all characters are awesome in this movie especially Hadji has a shit ton of powers ranging from telekinesis to necromancy, Race drops fools and Dr. Quest does science. Go watch this movie.

33. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
I need to address something, I don't really care for South Park at all, yet I absolutely adore this movie. Maybe it's the catchy songs, humor, or the way it intelligently tackles censorship. I don't know, but I would happily place this is a top 5 musical list right up there with Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Hello Dolly and Alladin.

32. Treasure Planet
Probably the most underrated film you’ll see on this list, this felt like the prototype of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie at least at the beginning of the film and its themes and visuals. That thought aside, I totally digged the steampunk and nautical science fiction setting of this adaptation of Treasure Island. The plot is just a well done version of the original story with liberties taken here and there.

31. Heavy Metal
This feels like an animated album cover come to life. It's an anthology series of eight loosely tied together stories with a great soundtrack. I mean truly great: Journey, Sammy Hagar, Grand Funk Railroad, Devo, Cheap Trick, etc.This one is another film I wouldn't feel comfortable showing to young children as there is a lot of tits, drugs, violence and gore. More so than any other film on this list, I have never seen an animated film less family friendly, while you could argue that American Pop shouldn’t be shown to a younger audience at least it has an actual overarching plot. You just don’t see feature films made like this anymore with their political correctness and mass marketing appeal, Heavy Metal lets know it’s okay to love the darker side of things.

30. American Pop
Three generations try to make it into the music world. It's a very bittersweet movie in terms of it's tone. As its name suggest it uses popular music throughout it's score to as the film goes from decade to decade as it focuses on several generations of musicians. I wouldn't quite recommend this one for a younger audience as the themes are more on the mature side being very dark (drugs, sex, suicide, murder, gore...basically Banski).

29. A Goofy Movie
Another underrated Disney gem, this one was a lot different than other animated films at the time as there was no actual antagonist because the long and short of it is, it's a road trip movie about a father trying to connect with his distant son and a son accepting who is and the unsavory inherited traits of his father. The only flaw this movie has is that Pauly Shore is briefly in it.

28. Shrek 2
Yeah, before it was crushed with a million more sequels, this was an amazing follow up to the original Shrek. I liked that it used majority of its voice cast's strengths. The jokes were better and I loved the imagery of Far, Far Away. The first half of film is very much a Meet the Parents scenario and the second half is your protagonist fight the witch cliche only it breaks the cliche by having The Fairy Godmother be a mafioso type character.

27.Fantasia
Every once in awhile I like to put on some really good headphones and listen to some trance and just chill. This movie is the visual equivalent of that. I guess it’s a musical, but in most musicals songs are used to drive the story forward, in this the songs are used to visualize the music in eight short vignettes.

26. Tangled
When I was forced to watch this movie, I was extremely dismissive of it as by the time it came out I was a little Jaded and fair bit older; however, at about the twenty minute mark, I gave up and stopped try to fight the movie and began to enjoy myself and on repeat viewings it got better to the point where I can safely say that Tangled is a great film by it's own merits. It feels like the Disney I grew up with and on that alone I’d applaud it for if nothing else, it triggers the nostalgia sensors of my brain.

25. Disney's Robin Hood
Out of all the versions of this story that exist, it's this one that I find the most endearing. It's just a fun movie to watch, with my favorite scene being the opening as we learn everything we need to know about our heroes without being beaten to death with exposition. It's only flaw is the shear amount of stock-footage it repurposes from The Jungle Book and The Aristicats. Not to mention it has a Alan-a-Dale (the rooster) voiced by the late great Roger Miller.

24. Brave Little Toaster
magine if the junkyard scene for Toy Story 3 comprised a good portion of the entire movie, then you’d get the Brave Little Toaster. It’s about a toaster and his rag tag group of friends who all live in a family’s summer home get a hair up their metaphorical asses to seek out their long missing owner. It’s a story about friendship and loyalty and that’s all good and fine, but the thing that sticks out the most is the trash compactor scene towards the end in which we have a bunch of cars awaiting death as they sing arguably one of the best and most depressing songs ever to be put in any movie: Worthless.

23. Transformers (1987)
I love this movie and its amazing soundtrack by the underrated Stan Bush. Plus, it's nice to see the Autobots and Decepticons actually kill each other. Yes, it was just a marketing tool used to sell more toys, but I don't care, this movie still kicks ass. It was nice to see more competent villains and watch Optimus Prime mow down Decepticons. Oh and Megatron finally kills that sum-bitch Starscream.

22. Coraline
Probably my favorite stop motion animated film this one boils down to the simple message of being grateful for what you have mixed with some creepy ass imagery. I don’t know, but the button eyes unnerved as an adult when I saw this because as kid my grandma had a shit ton of creepy dolls in her house, that and Child’s Play had a deeply scarring effect on me. That being said it’s extremely pretty to watch and Keith David steals the show as the cat.

21. WALLE
If you love the appeal of an old Chaplin movie then this one is perfect for you as most of the film centers around its mostly silent protagonist and how he interacts with his world. WALLE during his 700 year exile on a barren Earth somehow develops a sentience and it's this personality that rubs off on the other robots and human characters.

20. My Neighbor Totoro
I like how this film is extremely relaxing and the recent dub has Tim Daly AKA Superman as the dad and Dakota and Eli Fanning as the children. There's really not a lot of plot other than a family moves to the countryside and the kids find magic and mystery. It’s adorable and just all around pleasant to watch. This movie does make me think one thing though, a lot of Miyazaki films are set in slightly before, during and after World War Two.

19. Secret of Kells
Celtic mythology married with water colors and a strong voice casts and some wicked animation. This one really came out of nowhere and it's just so different from anything else I had seen before in a movie. I know that doesn't sound like munch, but the use of it's setting and its protagonists being that of a young scribe and a fox spirit entity really gelled with me. Oh and did I mention the movie is pretty? Yeah, because it is extremely pleasant to the eyes.

18. Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro
Another Miyazaki film. I loved this film, because I know absolutely nothing about Lupin other than he's a thief with a moral code and the movie somehow finds an appeal for non-fans by keeping things simple. You know who are heroes are, who they're fighting and why they're fighting. It also doesn't help that I quote this film all the time.

17. The Iron Giant
If ET was fused with a killer robot voiced by Vin Diesel from a 60's sci-fi B-movie, you'd get this film. It has all the hallmarks of ET: a kid finds a friendly alien and has to keep it a secret from his mom and the government.The killer robot comes from, well... the title character is an alien super weapon. Plus that ending always got me in the feels. "You are what you choose to be."

16. Toy Story 2
I put this one over the original because it took everything that made the original great and took it to the next level. In the first movie it was Buzz that had to learn the lesson and accept reality and here it's Woody that has to learn those same lessons. Here it feels like it's come full circle, Buzz Saves Woody and it cements the friendship between the two characters. I like the overall themes of obsolescence, mortality, abandonment and friendship.

15. Mask of The Phantasm
I got a chance to see Mask of the Phantasm in theaters as a kid. It was funny that this was a lot deeper than the live action films that came out around the same time. That being said, I love everything about this film: the noir overtone, the score and the way characters interact with each other outside of fight scenes.

14. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
As for Return of the Joker, it's no surprise that I put this one on my list because I'm a raging Batman Beyond fan-boy. Terry becomes really likeable as he has to try and solve this case without Bruce and you learn why he wears the suit. Fun fact: there are two versions of this movie. In one the joker gets shot and wields a knife (uncensored version) and the other he gets violently electrocuted to death (censored version). My only gripe is what it establishes as the fate for most of the sidekicks in the DCAU because if they’re not pushing up daisies, they’re mentally scared or disenchanted with life.

13. Cats don't Dance
I loved this film as a kid, but when I watched it as an adult, I was actually surprised by how well it held up and I think I can appreciate it more now. The movie boils down to old school Hollywood racism done using talking anthropomorphic animals. It has a collaboration with the king of musicals: Gene Kelly. It also has catchy songs (Randy Newman) and for a musical, that's very important, plus I loved that had an evil child actor modeled after the late Shirley Temple as the villain.

12. The Incredibles
I could totally fill this list with Pixar films, but I won't. This has to be the darkest Pixar movie to date. It has suicide, kidnapping, child endangerment, murder, terrorism, more murder and genocide. It's like the dark consequences of being a Silver age super hero kinda like the same transition into the 80's to early 90's era of comic books. The art style is what really got me as it's very clean, bold and 1960's-eque. Syndrome has to be my favorite villain of all time and he gets one of the most violent/funny deaths in Disney history.

11. Under the Red Hood
To be honest I could fill an entire list with DCAU movies. This is probably my favorite one. I absolutely love how it handles its source material in a way that makes it compact and easy to digest while staying true to the core of the story. It’s about Jason Todd’s resurrection as the Red Hood and his vengeance against Batman and The Joker. it was nice to see what would happen if someone trained by Batman went rogue and in many ways surpass him. The stand out is John DiMaggio as the Joker and Neil Patrick Harris as Dick Grayson.

10. The Emperor's New Groove
Hell yes, David spade and John Goodman play off each other so well in this underrated gem. You have an arrogant prince, a reluctant humble farmer and evil scientist with dreams of world domination. But the character that sticks out the most is Krunk voiced by the great Patrick Warburton who maybe my favorite henchman of all time as he has a child like mind inside the body of a big dumb oaf. The movie follows the buddy comedy road trip formula where the douchebag character learns to be not such a douche and the day is saved at the end.

9. Howl's Moving Castle
If there was anywhere I wanted to live in fiction, it’d be Howl’s castle. It’s big, it walks, it’s magical and it looks like something ripped out of Metal Slug. The core plot is fairly simple, a witch curses a young woman and said woman falls in love with a charismatic wizard all while major war goes on in the background. It’s Ghibli beautiful and as one would assume, it’s fluid with a lot of attention to detail. The stand out performances are Howl voiced by Christian Bale and the fire demon Calcifer voiced by Billy Crystal.

8. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Mike Magnolia is one of my favorite comic book artists and his influence is seen in this film in spades. It doesn't have much in terms of plot as it sometimes feels like it jumps from set piece to set piece, but the voice acting is solid, the visuals are great and it's one of the few steampunk movies I can name that use it to its advantage. Oh and it features the forgotten disney princess Kiva.

7. The Secret of Nihm
You'll see this one appear on a lot of lists because it's that good. The SoN tells a story about a mother going up against some truly terrifying shit to cure her sick child. It's endearing and it's great to see the character evolve and she faces so many challenges. It's the purity of the main character and her motivation, she in every posible way completes "The Hero's Journey." The other aspect I really love is seeing what happens when science tries to screw with nature.

6. The Cowboy Bebop Movie
I love Cowboy Bebop and if you only had to see one thing relating to this anime, I’d recommend the movie. I’ll say this I always loved Bebop’s vision of the future not bleak like Blade Runner or hopeful like Star Trek but rather it aims for the center and is more like a continuation of the 90’s only it’s the future. The movie is about the crew of the Bebop running low on funds until an act of terrorism involving an unknown biological weapon sparks a huge bounty that they want to cash in on, if only it was that simple. I wish I could go deeper into it, but I can’t really because it’d be one giant spoiler. All I can say is that it’s well written, well dubbed and if you’re a fan I’d wholeheartedly recommend this movie.

5. Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie
This is the best video game movie of all time hands down. We get majority of the original Street Fighter Two characters in a movie with a well constructed coherent plot. Bison and his posse of Balrog and Vega along with a brainwashed Ken are the bad guys and Ryu, Guile, E. Honda and Chun Li are the heroes. It’s pretty straight foward of go kick the evil terrorist’s ass and save Ken. So to sum it up we great fight scenes, a strong narrative and a satisfying conclusion. Shame he same can’t be said about the rest of the other movies.

4. Voltage Fighter Go Kaiser
This is my favorite bad movie. It is on my list, not because it's good, but because it's shit yourself laughably horrendous. If you can't laugh once during this movie than you aren't human. It's the Ralph Wiggum of anime movies. If you can, watch the VHS release because it has more stupidity in the form of a nonsensical opening. It checks off all my boxes for a so bad it's good anime movie: retarded plot... check, poor dubbing...check, incest… check, exaggerated and flamboyant character designs...check and characters that randomly spout off exposition...double check. Oh and for cohesion, the movie is an adaption of a NEO GEO fighting game of the same name.

3. Aladdin
This is my favorite Disney film from that Disney Renaissance period. It's fun, the main character is sympathetic and the comic relief is not annoying. Jiffare is a great villain and while his motivations are simple, it's great to see a bad guy with a clear goal in mind. He only wants to rule a country and f*** the princess. Like all Disney movies from the late 80’s to late 90’s it has a wonderful collection of songs with my favorites being A Whole New World and Friend Like Me.

2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The true underdog of the Disney Renaissance, this one probably had one of the darkest source materials of those films, but the kicker was that unlike Hercules or The Little Mermaid it actually kept majority of its tones and bleakness. Hercules is more God of War than Superman and The Little Mermaid is all kinds of depressing and death. I’m not saying this movie is good because it’s dark, but rather how it doesn’t pull any punches and doesn’t make things all sunshine and rainbows for the sake of an intended audience. This movie has probably some of my favorite music of any Disney film with its use of song and orchestral pieces ranging from light, hopeful and silly to dark, evil, bleak and lustful. Belles of Notre Dame, Heaven’s Light, Hellfire and Court of Miracles are just some of great songs/pieces from this movie.

1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
This might be one of my favorite films of all time. Bob Hoskins does such a great job as Eddie Valiant and Christopher Lloyd is shit your pants scary. The best part is the marriage of practical effects and cartoons. I really love how well it blends practical effects with the cel drawn animation. It all adds to the suspension of disbelief. It has a private investigator that has to put aside his prejudices to save an innocent guy and uncover a mystery. The movie is great film noir mixed with a good share of comedy.

Comments

[gcwg57]

Good list. I approve.