Animation has had a long and rich history. Beginning life at the turn of the 20th century, it evolved alongside the budding film industry, first as theatrical shorts but then leaping into film. The medium evolved over the decades, and by the turn of the 21st century, it branched into a diverse and sprawling art form limited only by the creativity of those working on it.
While there are thousands of animated films in existence, some naturally stand out more than others due to their importance. Be it because of technological improvements or their impact on popular culture, these films sent ripples through the industry that influenced everything that followed them. These are the most important movies in animated history, marking a true before-and-after in the medium.
10 'Aladdin' (1992)
Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements
The 1990s were a time of massive innovation for the animation industry, best seen through Disney's Renaissance. One of the best films from this period is Aladdin, which is beloved for its iconic music, strong story about self-worth and friendship, and unforgettable characters. The standout character is, of course, the Genie, brought to life by the artistic talents of Eric Goldberg and the irreplaceable voice of Robin Williams.
The Genie's success had a ripple effect through animated films: celebrity voice actors were a profitable option for casting thanks to their star power and name recognition. This bit of star-casting resulted in the mixed landscape of animated films today, where celebrities are often cast as the leads instead of dedicated voice actors. Sometimes, it results in something amazing, such as Po from Kung Fu Panda, but other times, it leads to Chris Pratt from The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Aladdin
G
Animation
Adventure
Comedy
Family
Fantasy
Musical
Romance
Where to Watch
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Release Date November 25, 1992
Cast Scott Weinger , Robin Williams , Linda Larkin , Jonathan Freeman , Gilbert Gottfried , Douglas Seale , Frank Welker , Brad Kane , Lea Salonga , Bruce Adler , Charlie Adler , Jack Angel , Corey Burton , Philip L. Clarke , Jim Cummings , Jennifer Darling , Debi Derryberry , Bruce Gooch , Jerry Houser , Vera Lockwood , Sherry Lynn , Mickie McGowan , Patrick Pinney , Phil Proctor
Runtime 95 Minutes
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9 'The Tale of the Fox' (1937)
Directed by Ladislas Starevich and Irène Starevich
Stop-motion is perhaps the oldest form of animation and played a large role in bringing to life evocative characters before the rise of CGI. Though it wasn't the first film to feature stop-motion, France's The Tale of the Fox, based on the legend of Renard the Fox, was groundbreaking for not including any real actors. Animation was complete by 1930, but the film was delayed until they could release it with sound, and released six months before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The animation is phenomenal, thanks to stop-motion pioneer Ladislas Starevich, who animated many puppet shorts for Russia during the 1910s. The characters feel so alive, thanks to how articulated their models are and allowing for a wide range of facial expressions, sweeping gestures, and even little touches like the rise and fall of their chests as they breathe. These techniques would be further expanded upon decades later by the likes of Ray Harryhausen and Aardman Animation, giving us the modern landscape of stop-motion films.
The Tale of the Fox
Animation
Comedy
Fantasy
Release Date April 10, 1941
Cast Romain Bouquet , Sylvain Itkine , Sylvia Bataille , Jaime Plama , Claude Dauphin , Léon Larive , Nicolas Amato , Eddy Debray , Suzy Domac , Robert Seller , Marcel Raine
Runtime 65 minutes
8 'Shrek' (2001)
Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson
Continuing the innovation of the 1990s, the 2000s became a creative era where animated films were trying different ideas while hand-drawn animation was finding itself continuously outperformed by CGI films. During this time, DreamWorks released their third film, Shrek, a CGI fairytale that took many jabs against Disney and then CEO Michael Eisner. The film became a cultural phenomenon thanks to its wide-reaching humor and heartfelt story, winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Film.
Over twenty years later, Shrek's legacy is still felt in big-budget animated films. Its satirical take on fairy tales influenced comedic writing, cementing DreamWorks as an animation company that could rival Disney and Pixar when it came to mature storytelling and pop culture impact. Most of all, Shrek confirmed that CGI films were the way of the future. Indeed, within the next few years, hand-drawn animation was slowly phased out of American cinema.
Shrek
PG
Animation
Adventure
Fantasy
Comedy
Family
Where to Watch
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Release Date May 18, 2001
Cast Cameron Diaz , Mike Myers , Eddie Murphy , John Lithgow
Runtime 90 minutes
Writers Ted Elliott , Roger S.H. Schulman , Joe Stillman , Terry Rossio
7 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991)
Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
Following a difficult production history that saw its original director depart, a complete script rewrite, and intense pressure on the animators to complete the film in two years, Beauty and the Beast was released to commercial and critical praise. Audiences fell in love with the characters and the story, especially the well-paced and believable romance. The film also saw Disney continuing its blending of CGI and hand-drawn techniques, this time to create the iconic sweeping shot during the ballroom dance.
The love for this film was so great that it became the first animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture -- and the only animated film nominated when the list of nominees was five instead of ten. This helped to open the eyes of the general public to the storytelling potential of animated films, which at the time were seen as more for kids than adults. The character of Belle, voiced by Paige O'Hara, also helped change how Disney wrote its female protagonists, thanks to her curious nature, intellect, and how active she was in pushing the plot forward.
Beauty and the Beast
G
Animation
Family
Fantasy
Musical
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Release Date November 21, 1991
Cast Paige O'Hara , Robby Benson , Angela Lansbury , Jerry Orbach , David Ogden Stiers , Bradley Pierce , Jesse Corti , Richard White
Runtime 84 Minutes
6 'Spirited Away' (2001)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Founded after the collapse of Topcraft Entertainment, Studio Ghibli has cemented itself as one of the world's greatest animation companies. The quality of their films is staggering, from minute character movements to gorgeous backgrounds and profound themes. Co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has directed most of their best films, and Spirited Away is considered his magnum opus.
At a time when hand-drawn animation was dying in the West, Spirited Away reminded audiences of how rich and detailed it could be. The film also broke ground thanks to its deep psychological aspects, influencing future animated films to get creative in their depiction of coming-of-age stories and seeing the world from a child's perspective. Spirited Away became the second film to win Best Animated Feature and was the first foreign film to win the honor.
Spirited Away
PG
Animation
Family
Fantasy
Where to Watch
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Release Date July 20, 2001
Cast Rumi Hiiragi , Miyu Irino , Mari Natsuki , Takashi Naitô , Yasuko Sawaguchi , Tsunehiko Kamijô , Takehiko Ono , Bunta Sugawara
Runtime 125 minutes
Writers Hayao Miyazaki
5 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
As far back as the Golden Age of Animation, companies have played with combining live actors with animated characters and backgrounds, such as Walt Disney's Alice Comedies. Disney released several films that combined live-action and animation, such as The Three Caballeros, Mary Poppins, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, though their segments were limited and not the most convincing due to technical limitations. That changed in 1988 with the release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, whose animation was overseen by the legendary Richard Williams.
Williams' perfectionism led to groundbreaking techniques that made the animated characters feel as if they were actually on set with the actors. These include animating the character's reflections, impressive wirework to make it seem like the toon characters were interacting with real objects and three layers of shading to give them a greater depth of field. The hard work paid off, as not only was the film a major success, but Williams' dedication to realism resulted in a new term called "Bumping the Lamp," which refers to going the extra mile even if the audience doesn't notice it.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
PG
Animation
Comedy
Crime
Family
Fantasy
Where to Watch
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Release Date June 21, 1988
Cast Bob Hoskins , Christopher Lloyd , Joanna Cassidy , Charles Fleischer , Stubby Kaye , Alan Tilvern
Runtime 103
Writers Gary K. Wolf , Jeffrey Price , Peter S. Seaman
4 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' (1926)
Directed by Lotte Reiniger
While many people believe that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first animated film, it was predated by El apóstol by Quirino Cristiani in 1917. Sadly, this film was destroyed in a studio fire in 1926, which saw the release of the oldest surviving animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Directed by Lotte Reiniger, it combines tales from the iconic One Thousand and One Nights into a narrative that sees Prince Achmed sent on a magical odyssey to save his sister from marrying an evil sorcerer.
The film's animation was done by placing cardboard cutouts underneath the camera and manipulating them for each frame, a process that took over three years to complete. The result is a beautiful film told through evocative shadow puppets that still get across the emotions of the characters without any dialogue. Though it's not as well known to the general public, its influence still pops up among modern projects, such as the Tale of the Three Brothers segment from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.
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3 'Akira' (1988)
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
Though Japanese animation is now a global juggernaut enjoyed by audiences of all ages, there was a time when it was more niche in the West. Projects like Astro Boy and Speed Racer from the 1960s were seen as kid's stuff, and while Japanese studios animated many Western shows in the 1980s, their efforts were usually overlooked. However, the world got a wake-up call in 1988 when Akira showed the world the power of Japanese artists.
Set in a dystopian future, Akira left a massive impact on popular culture thanks to its stellar animation and profound themes that practically invented the modern science-fiction genre. It also helped to remind audiences that animation wasn't just for kids with its dark imagery and copious amounts of death and destruction. Akira paved the way for the anime boom of the 1990s, and TMS Entertainment, who animated the film, would be contracted for numerous American shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Animaniacs.
Akira
R
Anime
Action
Drama
Where to Watch
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Release Date July 16, 1988
Cast Mitsuo Iwata , Nozomu Sasaki , Mami Koyama , Taro Ishida , Tesshô Genda , Mizuho Suzuki , Tatsuhiko Nakamura , Fukue Itō , Kazuhiro Shindō
Runtime 124 Minutes
Writers Katsuhiro Otomo , Izô Hashimoto
2 'Toy Story' (1995)
Directed by John Lasseter
Impressed by Pixar's award-winning short Tin Toy, Disney entered negotiations with them to produce an animated film. What followed is one of the most famously disastrous productions in animated films, in which micromanagement by Jeffrey Katzenberg nearly saw the film killed due to how mean-spirited and cynical it was. Fortunately, he backed off when Disney executives hated what they were seeing, and Pixar was given time to rewrite the script into the Toy Story we know and love.
Toy Story is the first film created entirely with CGI, and while the human models have not aged well, the decision to make the main characters toys helped mask the imperfections of this early technology. Its success not only began Pixar's illustrious career of high-quality animated films but also encouraged more studios to make films with CGI instead of hand-drawn techniques. While it might look subpar compared to the diverse landscape of CGI films today, none of them would exist if not for Toy Story.
Toy Story
G
Animation
Adventure
Comedy
Family
Fantasy
Where to Watch
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Release Date November 22, 1995
Cast Tom Hanks , Don Rickles , Annie Potts , Tim Allen , Jim Varney
Runtime 81 minutes
Writers Joss Whedon , Alec Sokolow , Joel Cohen , Andrew Stanton
1 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1939)
Directed by David Hand
Walt Disney was a man of ambition, and during the production of his Silly Symphonies shorts, he came up with a bold idea to make the first animated film in America. There were concerns due to the cost of production, during which Disney had to mortgage his house, and whether audiences would sit through 80 minutes of animation, leading to many calling the project "Disney's Folly." Still, Walt stuck to his guns and wowed his animators by acting out the entire film for them. The rest, as they say, is history.
Other animated films might have come out before it, but no film before or after has shaped the landscape of animation like Snow White. It proved that animation wouldn't and shouldn't be contained to comedic shorts: it had the power to tell emotional stories that made them believe, even for a moment, that characters made by pencil and paintbrush were real. It even had a reach overseas and inspired Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy and the godfather of anime. Without Snow White, there would be no modern landscape of animated films.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
G
Animation
Family
Musical
Where to Watch
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Release Date December 21, 1937
Cast Adriana Caselotti , Roy Atwell , Pinto Colvig
Runtime 83 Minutes
Writers Ted Sears , Richard Creedon , Otto Englander , Dick Rickard , Earl Hurd , Merrill de Maris , Dorothy Ann Blank , Webb Smith
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