Animation has always been more than just a kids’ genre. It has been at the forefront of pop culture, redefining the way we tell stories and making us cry with a kind of influence we’d rather not acknowledge. With this in mind, and for the sake of argument, we have compiled our list of the 10 most influential animated movies ever made, counting down from 10 to 1. Get ready to revisit some of your favorite childhood movies and experience some new emotions as we go, because this list has something for everyone.
10. The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is the culmination of the master’s career, even though we know Miyazaki is far from done with his craft. The Boy and the Heron is a thoughtful, imaginative exploration of life, death, and the mark we leave on the world. It is, of course, beautiful, but beyond the beauty, there is an emotional depth, combining memory and fantasy in a way that feels uniquely personal and timeless. Its release was like a worldwide pilgrimage for those who love hand-drawn animation, reminding us once again that Studio Ghibli is still the gold standard. At eighty-two, Miyazaki is still working with the same grace, skill, and magic he has throughout his career.
9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
It arrived at a very opportune moment, one that would save a tired superhero genre, and Spider-Verse is precisely that film. Spider-Verse quickly became the talk of the town, and it is not hard to see why – its plot, its style, and its characters are all first-rate, especially for Spider-Man’s reimagining and digital storytelling as a medium.
8. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
Isao Takahata’s hand-illustrated The Tale of the Princess Kaguya isn’t really a film but a quietly shifting watercolor. Based on a 10th-century Japanese folktale, it chronicles life’s fleeting moments through the delicate lines made with a brush. While being sober and poignant, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya proves that animation can be as lyrical and profound as the most modern live-acted masterpieces. Few films get the pain of impermanence quite so right.
7. Chicken Run (2000)
Would you have thought clay chickens could start a revolution? That is exactly what happened here. Critically acclaimed Aardman Animations has never managed to make a better-grossing stop-motion movie than this one, and it is pretty easy to understand why. The satire of liberty, loyalty, and resistance hides under the film’s laugh-out-loud facade. Chicken Run not only combines slapstick and witty dialogues, which have unexpectedly deep political subtext, but also, by using a classic technique, it attracts a new generation of stop-motion fans, and thus it transitions into a new era of stop-motion.
6. Akira (1988)
Akira was not only a revolution in Japanese animation but also in world cinema. Katsuhiro Otomo’s cyberpunk futuristic tale was really the first ever anime to make a worldwide grand entrance with breathtaking visuals and very mature themes as its artist-definer. The Impact of the film can be traced to everything from The Matrix to the design of the space sci-fi that is in vogue today. Were it not for Akira, anime might still be a niche genre in the West. This is pure visionary chaos, and we’re still catching up.
5. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Disney’s era of greatness culminated in the making of Beauty and the Beast, the first ever CGI-animated film in history to be nominated in the Best Picture category, even up to the present day. Not only was the gorgeous traditional animation quite cleverly and seamlessly merged with the then-budding CGI (the ballroom dance scene is still breathtaking), but the film also challenged and redefined the idea of a Disney heroine. Belle was not stereotypically passive; instead, she was too engrossed in reading, exploration, and breaking norms. The art in the movie had charisma and made people believe in the success of animation as a rival to any live-action type.
4. Shrek (2001)
Large and green and boisterous and full of heart, Shrek flipped the fairy tale template on its head and made it look effortless. Its combination of irreverent wit, innovative CGI, and true warmth catapulted DreamWorks into the major leagues. It also snagged the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Shrek’s triumph proved that animation didn’t have to bow to Disney’s rules—it could be humorous, meta, and still win our hearts. And own up to it, you can still recite half the film.
3. Toy Story (1995)
The movie that revolutionized everything, literally. Toy Story wasn’t only Pixar’s first film, it was the world’s first complete CGI-animated feature and set the gold standard for digital storytelling. Woody and Buzz didn’t only become real, they infused pixels with heart and soul, showing technology has no value unless infused with humanity. It kicked off Pixar’s reign and revolutionized the entire animation industry. Quite simply, without Toy Story, animation today wouldn’t be the same, either in look or in feel.
2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
First and foremost. With Snow White he Walt Disney was daring to prove that an audience would be captivated by a full-length animated film. The result was that he won the bet, and not only that, but he also gained all the audience’s affection. With this movie, Disney changed the cinema world by showing that the audience can derive the same degree of emotion from animated characters as from real ones. All the animated films that came after that are under its influence. Its revolutionary impact cannot be overstated; this was just not a film; it was the making of a new medium.
1. Spirited Away (2001)
The most remarkable among all the animated works. Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a creation of modern times that has all the elements of a myth, a fantastic journey through a world inhabited by spirits, gods, and self-discovery. The hand-drawn characters are exquisite, the story told is quite familiar, and even the mood is very well preserved over time. It was awarded the Oscar for Best Animated Feature; however, the most important thing was that it managed to unite the audience not only within the same generation but also across different cultures and time periods. More than just the best example of animation, Spirited Away is the purest form of cinema.
Those are with us, the ten films that not only emotionally moved the audience, but also unveiled the evolution of the medium itself. The films ranged from hand-drawn to highly technologically advanced, giving a stunning new definition of the possible when imagination and technical innovation merge. Animation is not a genre; it remains one of the most beautiful art forms that keeps on inspiring, mesmerising, and reminding us that magic need not be true to be felt.