What a true burden for us animation buffs to be a fan of such animated features that nobody cares for. No matter how hard we try to get these films a cult following, film snobs and non-animation fans still neglects animation as a children’s thing. This obsolete stigma that this art style is just for kids is ignorance at its finest. If you want something that’s really childish, try looking at today’s live-action movies that are either brain-dead sequels of yesteryear’s classes, soul-less remakes, Oscar-baits, inaccurate portrayals of real-life events, and/or pretentious arthouse (so-called) films that just wastes our time. Animation on the other hand (when they’re handed by professional studios) are far from a waste of time. What’s wonderful about this artistic medium is that they’re so removed from trends and politics throughout time that they’ve become timeless. In today’s entertainment landscape, there is no side of entertainment that provides expressive characters, original stories and characters, and performances that exceed attempts to win an academy award. The thing that hurts the most about these twenty animated films is that they accomplished exactly that and yet very little give them a chance. However, the movies that you’re expecting to be on the list shows that it’s no longer underrated thanks to the cult following that kept movies like Iron Giant, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Prince of Egypt, Black Cauldron, Balto, Road To Eldorado, A Goofy Movie, The Adventures of Tintin, and The Princess & The Frog alive. Thetoplister’s goal for this list is to give such animated movies a revival and that cult following that is long deserved. Some of these animated movies you may have heard before but it’s worth rewatching and spreading the word about the quality of such films that weren’t recognized upon first viewing.
Top 10 Worst Animated Movies Of All Time
I don’t want to blame animators considering that they spend so many hours trying to get a film done, but still… shame on such animators thinking that they can make a quick buck out of children by doing a half ass job. Though I’m still sour at overrated movies for tossing out artistic integrety out the window, but bad animated movies just had no regard any sense of artistry. These awful theatrical animated movies, poor sequels, and/or direct-to-home videos give a really bad name for animation. We animation buffs tried so hard to tell others that animation is not just for children yet these awful animated just want to manipulate our children with such cheap works that they dare call animation. I admit that there are animation that are so bad that they’re good (like Food Fight for example) but others put in the cringiest comedy that any laughter (laughing with or at the product) makes them winners against the hate. I’ll tell you straight up that these ten animated films are animations greatest abortion. Comedy is subjective, but when a mass audience either cannot chuckle or can’t keep a straight face while watching, you know it’s a bad experience. The only good thing is that animated movies (especially made by these assholes) are typically short (no longer than an hour and a half). But damn, animation has a responsibility to create a performance for unreal characters, keep us emotionally invested, and even have childhoods be happy. These animated movies’ lack of quality control have absolutely no right to be produced and seen by the masses, yet they somehow did and made all of us furious.
Top 10 Overrated Animated Movies
What’s truly a burden to us animation buffs is that there is this so-called standard of being an animation fan to like certain animated movies. I can clearly tell you that there are a lot of animated movies that are unworthy of such praise. You can point out that such animated movies are overrated because their stories are bad, characters are not worth watching, or it’s too popular for their own good. But the one thing these ten overrrated animated features have in common is the lack of artistic integrity. It hurts that this artistic medium is treated nothing more than marketing ploy and it give a REALLY bad name to animation. For centuries, animators and animation buffs tries desperately to convince others that animation is not just for kids, yet there are too many animated movies coming out that contradicts our message because they want ot take advantage of their dumb minds byt resulting into low brow storytelling and humor. I feel almost sorry for making this list because animators spend countless days to get such animated film to be made. However, they should have known better to make the story told better and not take any shortcuts of getting the film being released. What’s worse is that people who have no credibility to discuss about animation (because they’re stuck in their live-action high horse) dares to tell us what are worthy animation and the rest is worthless. This is why thetoplister is going to tell you all straight up that these critics and nostalgia blind individuals are wrong is giving these animated movies such unworthy praise.
Top 10 Greatest Animators Of All Time
Animation will never exists without the Animators that sacrificed so many hours to make such drawings come to life. I have nothing but love and respect for animators for putting so much effort in making unrealistic personalities to feel more alive than many actors in live-action films throughout time. It takes so much effort to animate anything but it takes a master to create the illusion that they are alive while watching such performances of such drawings and paintings. In ranking the best animators of all time what is crucial is their timing of their animation, how believable their animation is, and how great are the films that they created. I’m not here to judge the best artists (that’s a whole different factor to judge on) I’m looking for the smoothest of movement and how many good stories that they’ve told in their ‘completed’ films & shorts. Sure many of them are directors of such animation, but because they have the vision to bring those drawings to life they are solely responsible for making audiences happy that they’ve watched these timeless pieces of art. Here they are the ten best animators of all time!
Top 10 Animated Film Trilogies Of All Time
You would have thought that since animators, storyboard artists, and directors have been working on animated characters and telling their stories for so long that we would have more good sequels in the theaters. Sadly though, Animation suffers a lot of ‘sequelitis’ as live-action films do. It’s even worse when Disney decides to not put any proper care for their animated movies and just make the sequel direct-to-home video, having the pacing, animation, and presentation to be incredibly subpar. Sometimes an ending of a film should just end with just the first movie, but when it’s not enough to have a singular animated feature, that sequel needs to have the exact same quality standard as it’s original and even surpass it as well. Were the original animators interested in working on a different story and characters or did studios saw a cash cow in their hands. It says a lot that not until Frozen 2 did Walt Disney and his animation studio ever made a theatrical full-length animated sequel. Walt himself believed in self-contained stories. It doesn’t help that nearly every theatrical animated film seeks to be a contained story with little planning for a proper sequel. That’s why when an animated sequel does so damn well, it’s argued as being one of the best animated movies of all time because it’s what animation buffs needed. Though picking animated sequels is tought, but making a top 10 of Animated film trilogies where all the entries are good… that’s incredibly difficult to find. Luckily I lived long enough to finally gather a list of great animated trilogies because animators just knows how to tell better follow-ups than ever before.
Top 10 Animation Studios
It’s interesting that we really don’t give a crap about movies studios as their competition with each other matters little to us compared to what’s going on in the console wars, device industry, and television ratings. We normally care about directors and the actors portrayed in movies that attempts to get our attention. However, animation studios sticks out like a sore thumb because they are visually distinct from nearly every live-action product around. When we name a movie studio not many can recall what were the movies that they’ve made, but when we discuss about the movies, television, and other works by an animation studio, we immediately name it. Each of their styles and willingness to tell a story are so damn iconic. They are responsible of bringing happiness to childhoods, enhancing our immagination, and even telling stories with unrealistic characters. Complete escapism is the main appeal for animation. However, which animation studio did it the best? Disney used to be the best of all time but lost thier status because the executives are too focused on selling merchandise than telling well-told stories. Toei animation used to be great but became complacent as well. Warner Bros. is known for making animated shorts and television but their movies are so lackluster. You see, we all know these studios so well but they aren’t able to keep making good animated products on a consistently. It’s challenging to run animation studio considering that they have to follow with the audience’s attention at the time and also have the budget to pay their animators and advertise their product. But for some that still maintain their status as studios, it should tell you how the audience and animation buffs trust these studios to release quality animation. So here are the ten animation studios that did it the best.
Top 20 Animated Movies of the 2010s
The 2010s in animation has been an interesting to say. The 2000s decade had 2D aniamtion on its last breath before it became exclusively for television and internet shows; making traditional theatrical aniamtion only come out once in a blue moon. Nearly every big-budgeted animation studio in the 2010s (except for Cartoon Saloon) all jumped aboard the CGI visuals making it easier to make movies out of. As a result, we had the most sequels in animation history. What’s also interesting about his decade was Pixar is no longer “the studio that could do no wrong” when they’ve released Cars 2, which was the beginning of the studio’s shameless sequels. Never would we ever expect Pixar to stoop to Illumination or Blue Sky Stuios’s level. Meanwhile, Dreamworks began to make story-driven films again in the likes that are in the same leagues as The Prince of Egypt. Sony Pictures Animation and Warner Bros. Animation were confident enough to release a more experimental and daring direction in which the medium has never explored. Disney made more than enough films the subverted the Disney formula (and had too many surprise villains in nearly every movie in this decade). Laika managed to get audienced regain interest with stop-motion animation in which Charlie Kaufman and Wes Anderson feel comfortable of doing their own take on the style. As anime continues to remain it’s global appeal, anime films became much more than Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon as new directors like Makoto Shinkai, Naoko Yamada, Akiyuki Shinbo and more became the new generation of theatrical anime film directors. Cartoon Network has a lot of backlash from airing live-action for the first time (ironically) and never stop airing Teen Titans Go. They did began this trend of fantasy adventures like Adventure Time and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic that got Nick and Disney Channel to immitate the brand like Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Welcome To The Wayne and more. The 2010s for animation is a unique time where the mighty has fallen, but not out, and the underdogs were allowed to have their moment to shine. It was absolutely fun keeping in touch with animation from 2010 – 2019 as creative juices kept flowing. But what were the best films of this decade? See for yourself!
Top 20 Animated Features of the 2000s
Animation in the 1990s have been a transformative year for both the medium and the industry. By the end of the millenium, animation has been reknowned as an accepted form of art that is able to appeal to every demographic. Animation for the 2000s is as well a transformative year, but not as positive as it as in the 1990s. For one, traditional animation (or 2D/cell animation) became a dying art form in the theaters. It doesn’t help that the Disney renaissance has ended and many of the traditional animated films couldn’t make as big box office numbers as the CGI animation coming out. It seems that Pixar’s impact has made the casual movie-going audience to shift to that direction of animation yet 2D animated films made by Disney and Dreamworks had its unfortunate inevitable end making 2D animation have a home only on television. Meanwhile, anime continues to soar it’s popularity making the otakus in the west more elitist and loyal supporter wherever they go (both tv, theaters, internet, merchandise). This is the decade that made Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, and Bones well-known names in the west that are able to keep up with the success seen from the west. Since CGI films became the main focus on theatrical animated movies, Pixar, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, Disney, and the rest were going all-in. Sometimes you get really artistic and well-told 3D animation, but more often you were getting cringy comedy that lacks artistic integrety. Animation in the 2000s is a mixed-bag year where studios were indeed competitive but went to the wrong direction at times. So what were the ones that did went to the right direction and made it age well? Glad you ask because thetoplister presents the 20 best animated films of this decade!
Top 20 Animated Features of the 1990s
It’s been a while since thetoplister made a discussion of anything from the 1990s decade. I can comfortably say that the 1990s was a major step up from animation from the 1980s decade. In face, animation in the 1990s was a revolution. Artistic integrity has been restored and we were given some of the most forward-thinking animation and the greatest box office performances we’ve ever seen in the medium. The Disney Renaissance was in full swing throughout the decade and not since Walt Disney was a live has the company pushed animation forward in a yearly basis. After having the worst years in the company in the 1970s and 1980s, the 1990s is where being a Disney fan was the best time as the classics were being re-released in VHS, new film franchises were coming out and flooding Disneyland and merchandise, and the quality of animation is the best that it has ever been. Meanwhile, as animated shows started to expand further than Saturday mornings into Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Kid WB, Fox Kids, and Disney Channel, many of those famous animated shows had their own theatrical movies coming out in this decade. Anime was still fresh and new to North Americans and as we the anime industry was abandoning the ultraviolence of the 1980s, we were getting more intuitive anime in both television and theatrical. Veggietales introduced the world to a fully CGI television program and Toy Story surpassed CGI into a full-length film. From television, syndication, home video, to the theaters, there was no shortage of animation in the 1990s decade. Never before where there as many studios willing to give it their all into animation and business was booming. Millanial children were privilaged with the amount of animation being pumped out and to this day they cherished it. The impact and legacy of many of these animated films still holds strong today as many of Disney’s films from this decade have been remade but can never hold the same quality. I assure you that nostalgia goggles are off as we’re seeing the best quality and quantity of animated films ever released. Because there are so many to pick, thetoplister had to double the picks than normal. Come and see what were twenty of the best from this decade, as we celebrate one of the best times to be an animation buff.
Top 20 Animated Features of the 1980s
It must have been incredibly difficult for animation fans to be searching for good animated movies in the 1980s. In the Regan era, cartoons lost all artistic integrity and became a mere commercial for toys and merchandise. Original films were like commercial suicide if they weren’t encouraging the impressionable youths to buy products outside of the film. Cartoon shows in the Regan-era lost its artistic integrity by becoming mere toy commercials. Meanwhile, anime in the 1980s became ultraviolent, mecha obsessed, and the birth of Studio Ghibli. While anime was maturing and targetting the older demographic, adult animation in the west has a decline. Ralph Bakshi had his last hurrah and lost his king of animation status to Don Bluth for out-performing Disney at the box office. Whenever we talk about Don Bluth’s greatness, we often point out to the amount of success he’s made in the 1980s decade thanks to not only having little competition (Animation in the 80s was looked down upon). Disney was at their lowest point until they collaborated with their long time rival Warner Bros. to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit and put Mickey and Bugs Bunny together after decade as competitors. They also introduced the first CGI animation with The Great Mouse Detective before making entire films with CGI. By the end of the 1980s, the Disney Renaissance when releasing The Little Mermaid that began making consistant great animated films on a grand scale. The 1980s may not be remembered for the success, but there is no denying that animation landscape in this decade is so unique. Never has animation been in a position where interest of artistic integrety is at an all-time low but the films that were shown were dark, personal, and a new direction to what is to come. As that decade that is placed in such high regard to many, here are the best animated films from 1980 – 1989!
The Top Lister 
You must be logged in to post a comment.