There are many things that can make a film an artistic masterpiece, from directing and cinematography to acting and writing. But what about when the film is a masterpiece in itself? And here we’re talking more specifically about animation.
Animation has been a popular genre among cinema fans ever since it’s creation, and a certain innovator named Walt Disney did his part to push the movement along as well. But Disney isn’t the only production company that has managed to capture the world with their completely made-up characters. Here’s our list of 10 animated films that are artistic masterpieces.
Shrek (2001)
Hey now, you’re an all-star - just like this film. Shrek may not have been the first fairy-tale story to center around the fact that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (ever heard of the Ugly Duckling?) but it quickly became the most popular as the tale of an ogre finding true love was something the world had never seen before, let alone two ogres.
Back that up with the multiple pop-culture references, an endless stream of jokes, and the combination of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz all in the middle of their prime and you’ve got yourself an animated masterpiece. Really really.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
When it comes to animated movies, cinema buffs would be hard-pressed to give you a more artistically creative filmmaker than Wes Anderson. His films fill up two slots on this list, starting with his stop-motion, sci-fi comedy-drama (you read that right) Isle of Dogs.
While the movie has several impressive aspects to it, such as the insanely creative plot and all-star cast, the real artistic genius of this film is the cinematography - every single shot has the camera looking directly at whoever’s speaking in the movie, making it feel as though the audience is being the one spoken to throughout the entirety of the film.
Fantasia (1940)
It was nearly a century ago when Walt Disney introduced the world to Mickey Mouse during the 1920s’ and it only took a few short years for them to put together one of the greatest animated masterpieces in existence - Fantasia.
What a fantastically creative idea it was to take a character that the world had quickly fallen in love with and center an entire orchestral film without any speaking around him. The movie captured the magic and imagination of colored animation and combined it with the whimsy of cinema’s earliest silent movie concepts. Absolutely brilliant.
Wall-E (2008)
Is there any other word to describe the film that got the Academy of Arts and Sciences to start considering animated movies for the Best Picture category? It may have taken two more years for Toy Story 3 to finally get that ball rolling, but Wall-E undoubtedly deserves the credit it’s due since it was something of which the world had never seen before.
Ok, sure - the whole post-apocalyptic technology becoming evil (the ship) and the other post-apocalyptic technology (Wall-E and the robots) needing to defeat it is nothing new, but incorporating an adorable love story and a genuine climate change sub-plot kicker? Relevant doesn’t even begin to cover it.
The Lion King (1994)
No, we don’t mean the live-action version that came out this past year- we’re talking about the AFI Top 100 caliber original that kicks that CGI remake’s butt. We don’t have anything against the remake, we’re simply stating how amazing the Disney version from 1994 was.
Everything about this film was flawless, even if we didn’t appreciate it as much as we should have when we were kids growing up. The cast, the songs, the fricking feelings when Simba tries to wake Mufasa up! To be fair, Simba had just sung an entire song about wanting to become king, but we’ll assume he just meant the king of animated movies.
The Iron Giant (1999)
“You are who you choose to be,” and this movie chose to be absolutely phenomenal. Vin Diesel was born to play roles where he says virtually nothing and sacrifices himself for the sake of the ones he loves (let that be a lesson to the XXX and Fast & Furious franchises).
Groot from the MCU may have quickly become a household name, but movie fans should never forget when a gigantic, alien robot saved an entire town simply because one little boy showed him kindness and friendship. This movie was the Superman of animated films.
Toy Story Franchise (1995-2019)
Take your pick - honestly, any of the four films in the Toy Story franchise could be considered masterpieces and nobody would argue. The original was an iconic and creative idea that solved the mystery of what happens when a child loses a toy, and the franchise just kept getting better and better as the years went on.
Not only that, but Pixar had so many different stories and characters to play with in their other films that they were able to span every Toy Story sequel out to a point that the audience was begging to see more of them. There isn’t another animated film franchise in history that can hold a candle to Woody and Buzz.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
As we said, Wes Anderson is an immensely creative director when it comes to animation, and particularly stop-motion. His second film on this list, Fantastic Mr. Fox, was the movie that shot him into stardom as it’s widely regarded as one of the best animated films to ever be produced - but why? Animation was nothing new in 2009, and neither was the stop-motion tactic that he used, so why is this film so amazing? Because everything about it feels real.
The main character is a talking Fox that wears a suit, and yet, with the suave voice of George Clooney, it genuinely feels as though Mr. Fox is somebody we could run into in the middle of the street.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Tim Burton might be known for his horror and Halloween taste, but he threw everybody a curveball when he combined his favorite spooky holiday with the holly-jolly feel-good spirit of Christmas.
It’s only natural that people tend to get sick of doing the same old thing over and over again, but when Burton incorporated that exact plot point into his Halloween-Christmas fused film it was something the world had never experienced before in a holiday film. Was this a Halloween movie? Was it a Christmas movie? Nearly thirty years later and we still can’t officially tell.
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)
There have been a lot of Spider-Man films to come out since Tobey MacGuire donned the red-and-blue spandex back in 2002, but somehow this animated feature is the best one yet. This film took animation to a completely new level and made the characters based on the iconic Marvel comics feel as though they were actually animated comics on the screen.
Every single frame of this movie was artistically innovative and broke new ground for what animated films can do in the future, especially in terms of comic book character movies (and we all know that audiences tend to love those).
