Top 10 Animated Films

I thought it would be interesting to get people's views on this, to see how much variety we get and which films tend to be the consensus picks.

My personal selection:

1) Up. Unconventional lead character (how many animated films feature elderly people as protagonists?), an amazing opening sequence, fantastic animation throughout (incidentally, Paradise Falls looks exactly like Angel Falls in Venezuela), a creative story, nuanced themes, and lots of humour on top of that. The film takes an extremely common caricature in media - the crochety old man - and humanizes him from the start by showing us how he got there. The central theme, that obsession can break you down even if there's nothing inherently wrong with your objective, is woven throughout the film into both the hero and the villain's stories effectively; another key theme, that everyday moments can be the ones that matter most, shows up at the beginning, the emotional climax, and the end of the film and has great emotional power in each of its scenes. I remain convinced that this film deserved the Best Picture Oscar won by The Hurt Locker. It's the high point of Pixar's run of films that appeal to both adults and children and don't feel like "kids' movies".

2) Toy Story 3. The amazing culmination of a great trilogy, and one of the very few final parts to a trilogy that manages to surpass both its predecessors. The references to other movies and tropes enhance rather than districting from the story, and it effectively concludes the storyline and themes that viewers had been invested in since the first film. And it makes Barbie awesome, which I would never have expected.

3) Beauty And The Beast. Disney's best, with a soundtrack and songs that never disappoint, a brave and ethical lead character, a simple but effective love story, and lovely animation.

4) The Incredibles. How often do you see a "kids' " film dealing with a mid-life crisis? The whole movie is a great take on superheroes, arguably more realistic than many superhero movies, and all of the four main protagonists have their own challenges and character arcs rather than the focus just being on one or two. The action and use of powers is great, but so is the depiction of Bob and Helen's suburban life. Frozone's rather too much of a template Black Best Friend without much dimension, but other than that I don't have quibbles. And the film is not objectivist: objectivism considers altruism to be downright immoral, while Bob is continually motivated by looking out for other people, whether at his regular job or when being a super-hero. The theme is that people should be free to use and develop their talents, and that using those talents to benefit others is good. Syndrome was a genius, but everything he did was only to serve his own ego.

5) Shrek 2. This was just downright hilarious. Loved the fairy godmother. Loved the pop culture references. Never get tired of watching the "Holding Out for a Hero" scene. Just a great movie, and I wish Dreamworks could have left things here rather than trying to beat the franchise to death.

6) The Lion King. Disney's second-best, again with a fantastic soundtrack ("Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a bit weak, but still good, as are all the other songs, and the instrumental parts of the soundtrack are great), strong emotions and drama, and one of Disney's more engaging villains and best villain songs.

7) How To Train Your Dragon. Exceptional across the board - good characters (both human and dragon), emotionally compelling, and one of the very few films to make 3D worthwhile. I was (unlike a lot of critics) disappointed in the sequel, but as a stand-alone film this is great.

8) Toy Story 2. The Toy Story movies just kept getting better; I prefer this to the first one because the characters' dilemmas and emotions are deeper than the first one's fairly common storyline of "lead character learns not to be a jerk". It gets into a lot of implications that the premise of the first film raised for fans, has good action sequences, and stays very funny.

9) The Emperors New Groove. This felt more like a Dreamworks film than a Disney one, and the reason I like it isn't complicated - it's incredibly, delightfully funny. Sometimes it's just good to watch a movie that won't stop poking fun at itself.

10) Frozen. All right, I'm not sure it deserves this - it only had a couple of really good songs and they could have been better distributed across the film, and there were a few jarring moments (mostly related to the two worst songs). But the story centred on two sisters' relationship, the challenges both of them faced, the impressively surprising twist, and the recognition of types of love other than romantic, were all excellent and broke the mold of the usual Disney princess film, and I enjoyed that.

If there was an 11th spot, I would give it to Cars. I don't agree with the general consensus about that being one of Pixar's weaker films, largely because it manages to do what Pixar excels at, which is to weave material for adults into movies that people instinctively classify as "kids' " films - in this case, not just a fairly common moral of "slow down and enjoy life", but a celebration of Route 66 and American scenery that involved, from what I've read about the production process, a large amount of research. I really enjoy the movie.

What does everyone else think?

edited 27th Aug '14 9:40:14 AM by WarriorEowyn

I don't have enough favorite animated fims to make a top 5 list! Let alone a 10 lol.

you certainly went into great detail for your favs :)

edited 27th Aug '14 1:59:38 AM by teddy

• 1. An American Tail: My reasons for loving this film are long and complex, the story hits close to home, it has a ton of heart and soul put into it, and it's moral has steered me through so many hardships in my life. I know it's not a perfect movie, and The Secret of NIMH might even be objectively the better of the two Don Bluth films, but it's still my favorite for sentimental reasons.
• 2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Okay, I'm cheating here since it's half-animated. But man is this movie classic. I don't know if the stars will align again to give us a sequel, but it'd be pretty awesome of done right.
• 3. The Secret of NIMH: It's an excellent film, one of the best animated films ever put together. I guess I didn't see it until my late teens so it lacks the nostalgia factor that An American Tail has for me, but still.
• 4. The Great Mouse Detective: Such an under-rated classic. It's the characters that are the strongest point of the film, I like all of them. The animation is top-notch, Basil's manic behavior is as fun to watch as Ratigan's hamminess. Then of course there's the burlesque scene. XD
• 5. Cats Don't Dance: This is an oft-forgotten gem. The animation alone is so fun to look at. Plus there's enjoyable characters (Sawyer is my favorite), most of the songs are great, and the moral is, like An American Tail, something that's gotten me through rough times.
• 6. The Rescuers/The Rescuers Down Under: Unlike a lot of people I can't decide which movie I like more. They both have such different tones which I think work in both cases. The second one's got better animation, maybe if we'd gotten more of a payoff from the imprisoned animal scene in the second movie it would be better than the first in my eyes...
• 7. Lilo And Stitch: Such an unusual, offbeat film that tackled subjects no other Disney movie dared to. Without the sci-fi elements it would be pretty realistic. This film, while a hit in its day, seems to get overlooked nowadays for some reason. Probably because it's not CGI.
• 8. FernGully'': I don't know why everyone hates this movie so much. Great villain, animation, mostly great music. I loved it as a kid and it still holds up for me now. Environmental messages aren't always a bad thing, I don't get why it's almost universally a Pet-Peeve Trope for people. Okay, the whole "can't you feel it's pain" with the tree carving thing was a bit silly...but ah well.
• 9. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West: I liked how this sequel developed secondary characters, and had perhaps a stronger villain than the first movie, and it had excellent animation (while I prefer Fievel's original character model, I certainly don't mind Tanya's new one). The more humorous direction it went in bugged me a little sometimes, but I guess it could have seemed too much like a rehash otherwise. Another drawback is how short it is. But in all, still an excellent film, and the only good Bluth sequel in my opinion.
• 10. Once Upon a Forest and Little Nemo In Slumberland: I like them equally. I can say the same things about both movies, it's more or less the Nostalgia Filter but they both have their legitimate charms to me. They had such wasted potential. I love the characters, and the plot could have been a lot better with a little reworking.

edited 27th Aug '14 3:54:46 AM by Surenity

Here's six. I can't think of ten at the moment.

1. Shinbone Alley. A gem of a film so underrated we don't even have a page for it. Highly unconventional, with quite a few great songs, enjoyable performances by such notables as Carol Channing, Alan Reed and John Carradine - who even sings (don't worry, it's not as bad as "Night Train to Mundo Fine"). There's also a wonderful animated sequence in the style of George Herriman, who drew the illustrations for the books this was based on.
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Can we count this as an animated film? If so, this is probably one of Disney's best. Wonderful performances, great animation and Medium Blending, terrific writing; it's no wonder it's a classic.
3. The Jungle Book. One of Disney's best all-animated films. The songs alone put it in this list. Phil Harris and Louis Prima's scat duet is the stuff of legend.
4. The Three Caballeros. The best of the Disney package films, with great music and wonderful surrealistic animation.
5. The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr Toad. On here for the Sleepy Hollow segment alone. Even though his glory days were long over, Bing Crosby could still sing damn fine, as the Headless Horseman song proves.
6. Pinocchio. Another one of Disney's great films that I probably should put higher in the list. It might be one of Disney's best. The animation is great and Cliff Edwards gives a wonderful performance as Jiminy Cricket.

My personal Top 10 would be:

• 1) Princess Mononoke: Miyazaki's animated epic about maintaining the balance between Humanity and Nature without painting either party as morally wrong. The animation was gorgeous, the characters complex, and the story well told.
• 2) Fantasia: Disney's most ambitious film, creating animated shorts to the structure of classical music. This is arguably one of the most influential films to cinema, being the first instance of Surround Sound.
• 3) Up: Everything quintessential Pixar wrapped up in a nice package. Fantastic score, lovable characters, and an adventure story that is easy to become engaged in.
• 4) The Lion King: The very first movie I ever saw in theaters. The Lion King had ambition and scale not seen in many animated movies. It covered topics of guilt and redemption and had fantastic imagery.
• 5) Spirited Away: Miyazaki's coming of age story. Like all Studio Ghibli films, it boasts beautiful animation and subtlety lost on many films.
• 6) WALL•E: This was Pixar's Fantasia IMHO, taking a concept that should have failed, a story with little dialogue for over half the movie, and made it into a fantastic love story. About two robots.
• 7) Beauty And The Beast: Arguably has the best developed characters of any of the Disney movies.
• 8) Pinocchio: The Trope Codifier for many of the future Disney movies. It has a magical charm to it that many movies lack.
• 9) How to Train Your Dragon: I'm counting 1 and 2 here just because how well crafted the two stories are. This has been hands down my favorite A Boy and His X story.
• 10) The Adventures Of Tintin: A callback to Spielberg's adventure movies of the 80's, it reminded me that movies can just be fun. It took full advantage of the fact that Tintin was animated and managed to perform stunts that could not be achieved in live action movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

edited 27th Aug '14 6:58:46 AM by Lionheart0

Picking out ten animated movies is really difficult...there are so many really good ones, and sometimes the ones which are honestly very well done are not necessarily the ones I like the most. But I guess I'll pick some "stand-out" works (only for Western Animation, Animes are a totally different matter):

Disney: Sleeping Beauty What can I say, the animation of the movie is gorgeous and unique, it is like a moving painting, and I think that none of the traditional animated movies comes even close to the masterly work done here. Even more important is how much influence this movie had on later works...the most obvious is Maleficent on all Disney Villains (especially Jafar), but also on Fantasy movies in general. It is also unusual in its use of music.

Disney: Who framed Roger Rabbit To this day THE movie when it comes to blending in live-action and animation, for a really good reason.

Pixar: The Incredibles I am not saying that this is necessarily the best Pixar movie (Up is certainly a strong contender for this spot), but I think it is the most remarkable, because in this one Pixar moves far out of its comfort zone (throwing two characters with different backgrounds together and see what happens). I also like that it looks less generic than most CGI animation, more stylized. And NO CAPES!!!!!!!

Lotte Reiniger: Die Abenteuer der Prinzen Achmed (The Adventure of Prince Achmed) The only Silhouette Animation Movie out there, the oldest animation movie which still exist and simply a sight to see. The care which went in this one is unbelievable, as are the effects, which are still impressive after all this time.

Tim Burton: The Nightmare before Christmas For me the movie which gave Stop Motion animation the push necessary to be relevant again for movie making aside from just being used for special effects. Plus, the best of Burton (his style) mixed with some really competent directing makes for a mix which simply works.

Don Bluth: The Secret of Nimh A compelling heroine, beautiful animation, for me this movie is Don Bluth's masterpiece (though the English dubbing is a little bit mediocre). With all the characters and different storylines in it the movie shouldn't work, but somehow it does. And I think that it was a timely reminder what animation can do and be.

Disney: Fantasia Unique concept which resulted in some very compelling animation...plus, maybe the only movie in Disney's canon which is made first and foremost for adults. Special mention to some of the shorts which never ended up in a Fantasia movie, but should have imho...especially Destino. Surreal animation at it's best.

Walz with Bashir One of the few western animation movies which are clearly for adults and not about pornographic images. Dark and gritty, and proof that animation is not just for family entertainment.

Watership Down Not a perfect movie by any means (and another one for which I recommend a foreign dubbing), but it does have some remarkable animation, and it is discussing some really serious themes, without becoming as depressing as its counterpart Plague Dogs.

Dream Works Guardians of the Light I am not a fan of most of Dream Works CGI works (their traditional animation is certainly worth a look, though), but I adore this movie. Stunning animation, a heart-warming story which manages to reinvent old myths, and a lot of creativity put this one head and shoulders above everything else they produced - at least for me

And a honourable mention:

The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn I am still not sure if motion capture deserves to be seen as animation, but if it is, than this is the way it should be handled. Not as a tool for gimmicks, but in order to create a new world with real actors who actually look at each other!

edited 27th Aug '14 7:44:33 AM by Swanpride

1. Persepolis. Funny thing is, that as an animated film it doesn't seem as showy and espectacular as the others in the list, yet, when I was making my top 10 or top 20 "favorite movies ever" this always pop out and in very high positions, and mostly, over all the other animated films. When people say they want to truly break the Animation Age Ghetto, yeah, this is the kind of stuff they probably should be aiming to.

2. Fantasia. Just Disney's best. Beautiful but, mostly, ambitious, and I love that in animated film, and my first introduction to classical music.

3. The Secret Of NIMH: An unusual mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi and...it works. Great. Mrs Brisby has to be one of my favorite characters in any medium, and I just wish more movies had the bravery to go to darker places. Kids can handle more than we give credit to.

4. The Beauty And The Beast: While Fantasia's my favorite Disney film, I think this one is the film that applied the "Disney Formula" the best. Memorable characters, visually stunning and songs that make of the greatest movie soundtracks of all time.

5. Cinderella: Not easy to defend, since I'm aware of all the criticism more classical Disney works face (sexism, mostly). But, I try to take it for what it is and for the time period it was made. And of course, being the very first animated film I've ever watched in a cinema (back then when Disney re-released its films every seven years or so) it has a very special place in my memories.

6. The Prince Of Egypt: Beautiful music, awesome designs, and a story that it's just engaging with characters that feel more real than reality.

7. Up: Probably the best thing Pixar has ever made. When they got you in the very first minutes with a scene with no dialogue...yeah, you're just won over.

8. American Pop: Ralph Bakshi's masterpiece. You gotta love all the visual and sound resources it uses to create something so unique and appealing that never goes for the easy route.

9. Ernest Et Celestine: Yeah, that movie that Frozen beat at the Oscars? I actually liked the best! No offense, but Frozen is good...in a very well-known fashion. Ernest Et Celestine tells a very simple but very quirky and original story about prejudice and never goes too over-the-top, always with just the right touch. And visually is just charming, like a children's storybook.

10. Allegro Non Troppo: The Italian answer to Fantasia, and while the Disney work represents idealism and hope, this one is actually pretty cynical and, at times, downright depressing...and that's awesome! It takes a known concept and it gives it a unique twist, and that's something I'd like to see more in any medium.

Honorable Mentions: The Iron Giant, Sleeping Beauty, The Last Unicorn, An American Tail, Ratatouille, How To Train Your Dragon, Frozen and The Secret Of Kells.

edited 27th Aug '14 8:14:42 AM by Anthony_H

I don't think that Cinderella is that difficult to defend...some plot weaknesses, yes, but it is certainly a worthy movie just because of the impressive work of Mary Blair...as are the movies which followed, because even those on which she didn't work herself, are clearly influenced by her sense for unusual angles and the play with light and shadow.

My top Ten animated films personally would be...( note: also includes main characters)

1. Frozen- Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven

2. Shrek- Shrek, Donkey, Fiona

3. Rio- Blu, Jewel, Linda, Tulio, Fernando

4. Tangled- Rapunzel, Flynn Rider (Eugene)

5. Lilo and Stitch- Lilo, Stitch, Nani, Jumba, Pleakley

6. Mr. Peabody and Sherman- Mr. Peabody, Sherman, Penny

7. How to Train Your Dragon- Hiccup, Toothless

8. Wreck-it Ralph- Wreck-it Ralph, Fix-it Felix jr., Vanellope, Sgt. Calhoun

9. Finding Nemo- Nemo, Marlin, Dory

10. The Incredibles- Bob, Helen, Dash, Violet, Jack-Jack

edited 29th Aug '14 10:12:33 PM by darklord2216