My Favorite Animated Movie From Every Year I've Been Alive
Every single year some of the best movies are animated movies. So today I’m going to be sharing my favorite animated movie frome very year I’ve been alive. Let’s get started!
2004: The Incredibles: This is my favorite Pixar movie of all time. I love superhero movies and I love Pixar movie so getting a Pixar superhero movie is right up my alley. And this movie delivers on so many different things. You get this interesting world filled with superhero that deals with politics and whether or not superheroes should be a thing in or not. Brad Bird knows how to deliver action that is exciting. Since The Incredibles themselves all of have different powers, it means that the action can be very dynamic and diverse. And of course, you get a fantastic score by Michael Giacchino that takes inspiration from James Bond and Mission Impossible but does it’s own thing with it.
2005: Madagascar: Now this wasn’t a great for animated movies. I even looked as to what some of the direct to video movies were and there wasn’t anything. So I’m kind of stuck with picking Madagascar as my favorite. And this is a solid animated movie, that is a lot of fun. I’ve seen it several times over the years and enjoy it every time. It has a fun concept of what if you let zoo animals out into the city and eventually to Madagascar. There’s some fun that comes from that, of course all of the characters are a lot of fun. But this isn’t one of the great animated movies of all time, this isn’t even my favorite film in the franchise.
2006: Cars: This is one of the most nostalgic movies on this list. For a long time this was my favorite movie of all time, and now it’s not at that level. But I still do think it’s a very good movie that’s a lot of fun to watch. It tells the classic story for a big city racer gets stopped in this small town and learns a little bit of humanity along the way. You get a great set of characters with Lightning McQueen and Mater. And there’s plenty of humor and fun to be had with this movie, I always get a kick out of watching this movie. And just that sense of nostalgia is a big piece in my love for this movie.
2007: The Simpsons Movie: I love The Simpsons, especially seasons 3-9 that’s like fantastic peak television. And when this movie came out in summer 2007 it was when The Simpsons was not so good. And they put out this movie that is just a lot of fun, and it’s so good. There’s a lot of heart in this movie, that provides a solid emotional journey for The Simpsons to go on through-out the movie. And it does deliver on all of the Simpsons jokes you want from this universe. And what’s fun about this movie is that I re-watched it in April 2020 with my mom, she’d never seen it before. And the movie is about a town going into isolation, basically what we were going through in April 2020. And then Tom Hanks cameos in the movie, Tom Hanks was one of the major positives tests for COVID. That’s some of the memories that I have when I think about this movie.
2008: Kung Fu Panda: Now I did debate going between this and Wall-E as the best for 2008. Both are great, but I have a lot of Pixar on this list. And I wanted to have variety so I picked Kung Fu Panda. This would be my favorite Dreamworks movies out there, I have so much nostalgia for this film. And I’ve watched this movie so many times and it’s one that I’ve loved watching. It takes a pretty goofy idea about a panda learning kung fu and tells this layered and interesting story that has a lot of heart at the center of it. The voice is also a big part of what makes this movie what it is, so I love this movie so much.
2009: Up: The first 10 minutes of this movie is one of the best examples of visual storytelling. That sequence has hardly any dialogue, but it tells this interesting and emotional story about this couple through-out their marriage. And from there, it turns into a fun adventure film with a fun set of characters. Doug and Kevin make for some of the best sidekicks in Pixar history. And like most Pixar movies it takes this goofy idea and tells a story that is emotional and fun and comes together. As in the case of this movie, it’s about an old man using balloons to move his house to a waterfall. On paper, that movie sounds stupid and really lame but in execution it’s great.
2010: Toy Story 3: Fun fact this is the first animated movie to ever make $1 billion at the box office. And the third animated movie to ever receive a Best Picture nomination, Beauty and the Beast and Up were the other ones. This movie would be my favorite of the Toy Story franchise, I just love what they did here. This movie came out 11 years after Toy Story 2, so the audience has grown up a lot. And they made Andy grow a lot as well, so now he’s heading off to college. And you feel those emotions of growing up with this movie. With telling a prison escape movie with our favorite toys, so the movie we get is really thrilling and exciting. And it all leads to an emotionally satisfying conclusion for the Andy trilogy of Toy Story films.
2011: Kung Fu Panda 2: I know a lot of people will probably put Kung Fu Panda 2 above the original film. I’ve never been that way but this is still a very good movie and a worthy follow-up to the original film. This movie builds on the foundation of the original film and this time we dive in deep to Po’s backstory. And like all good sequels they go for a bigger story without going to big that it falls apart. You also get the best villain of the franchise with a villain that has deep connections to Po. So it fleshes out the world and our central character at the same time.
2012: Wreck-it-Ralph: One of the best Disney animated movies of the last 15 years that is just a lot of fun. It takes this fun idea of different arcades living together in a power strip in this community almost. And you even have all of the villains of the video games have a support group, and Ralph doesn’t want to be a villain anymore. It takes these ideas that maybe shouldn’t work, but they do and they work so well in this movie. The film is populated with a fun set of characters that all have something about them that is fun. Ralph and Vanellope make for one of the best duos in modern Disney animation.
2013: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2: Now this is a DC straight to video animated movie, so it’s not a theatrical release film. But this was my favorite animateed film to come out in 2013. And as I’ve said in multiple blog posts over the years I love Batman. So anytime there’s another Batman movie whether it’s theatrical or direct to video I want to check out. And both of these adaptations of The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel are fantastic. Both of them are great, I’m not sure which one is better. This one you get Superman and Joker joining in on the fun, both are great versions of the character. And there’s just something fun with seeing Old Man Batman fighting people. So I love this movie and I think it’s great.
2014: The LEGO Movie: Depending on the day, this might be my favorite animated movie of
all time. It’s basically a three way tie between this, The Incredibles, and The Lion King (1994). This is another movie that I so much nostalgia for, I’ve watched this movie so many times. It’s the movie that I’ve seen in the theater the most times (four times within a month). It’s just a lot of fun, it tells this hero’s journey character arc with LEGOs. That’s such a fun way to tell this type of story. And since LEGO owns so many different brands and franchises so you get some great cameos and having Batman as one of the leads is fantastic.
2015: Inside Out: Inside Out is a great movie and a great Pixar movie, but it’s not a top tier Pixar movie. But that still doesn’t change the fact that this movie is really good that has a lot to offer. It’s a movie that is jammed packed with emotions, and it tells all of these emotions that us as people can relate to. It also has all of the Pixar humor that you want from a Pixar movie. So it’s a great examples of what makes Pixar movies so good. Once again, this isn’t one of my personal favorites but it’s still a very good movie.
2016: Zootopia: A movie that mixes the common buddy cop formula with zoo animals and you get a very entertaining movie. Like I said, it follows pretty closely the classic buddy cop formula but does something so fresh and different with it. When you do a buddy cop movie you have to like our two leads, and you do absolutely love our lead characters. They have a fun chemistry between them, and you like them together. And I also think they did a great job of building this world of zoo animals that I want a sequel. I think this world has enough room and stories to have a sequel and maybe even more sequels.
2017: The LEGO Batman Movie: This might be an unpopular opinion that I didn’t pick The Boss Baby…that was a joke, I meant Coco. The LEGO Batman Movie and Coco are basically tied for me, so it’s really just personal taste as to which one I picked. And The LEGO Batman Movie is one that is just kind of more my thing. They took a scene stealing character from The LEGO Movie and actually told this really compelling story for Bruce Wayne and Batman. It’s a fun multiverse movie with having Voldemort and Godzilla show-up in the finale. But it has a lot of heart with dealing with Batman’s personal struggles. Of course, the animation style once again is great and so vibrant. The fact that this movie or The LEGO Movie didn’t get nominated for Best Animated Feature is crazy and The Boss Baby did, that’s madness in my mind.
2018: Incredibles 2: This might be another unpopular because this was the year of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. But I’ve always preferred Incredibles 2 over Spiderverse. Spiderverse is still very good though. And I just like being back in this world of superheroes and telling another adventure with them. It changes up the formula just a little bit with now having Mrs. Incredible take the lead and you have Mr. Incredible stay home with the credits. And all of the things I said about The Incredibles you can absolutely say about this movie. Because the score, action, and characters are just as good as the original film.
2019: Toy Story 4: I know a lot of people really didn’t care for this movie and thought it was an unnecessary addition to this franchise. As for me, I really dug it. I think behind Toy Story 3 this is my favorite of the bunch. Toy Story 3 closed out the Andy story line, but Toy Story 4 tells a story about Woody. There was still a little piece of Woody to be told and this movie did that. I think this movie comes to an even better and more satisfying conclusion then Toy Story 4. I love the new characters with Duke Kaboom and Forky. I know a lot of people really didn’t like this movie, I thought it was great.
2020: Onward: Now I say Onward is my favorite animated movie of the year, but there wasn’t much competition this year. This is another movie that I know a lot of people weren’t crazy about, but I dug it. And I’m not sure what about this movie made me resinate with it so much but it just worked for me. It’s one of the Pixar movie that has evoked the biggest emotions from me. I thought Chris Pratt and Tom Holland made for a fun duo, you bought the brother relationship between them. And the final moments of the film, evoke a lot of big emotions from me. So I really dug this movie.
2021: The Mitchells vs the Machines: This movie wasn’t really on my radar all that much until it came out and it positive reviews. People were saying this was the best animated film in years, and were just praising this movie. And so I finally watched it, and I agree with everything people were saying about this movie. It’s by the same people that did Spiderverse and The LEGO Movie. So it has the frantic animation style to it. It’s heartfelt and funny all at the same time. I think this movie should have won Best Animated Feature over Encanto, but that’s just me. I thought this movie was great.
2022: DC’s League of Super Pets: 2022 was another not so good year for animated movies. I kind of expected Lightyear to be number 1, but it’s not. And it’s basically by default this movie is the best of 2022. As a point of reference I haven’t seen Guilliermo del Toro’s Pinocchio or Puss in Boots: The Last Wish those are the most celebrated animated movies of 2022, I just missed those movies. And as for this movie, I think it’s a solid DC animated adventure. It’s kind of fun to mix the DC universe with The Secret Life of Pets. The movie has all sorts of great nudges and easter eggs for previous DC movies. Of course the voice cast here is fantastic with The Rock and Kevin Hart in the lead. And Keanu Reeves as Batman is casting I never knew I needed. Like I said, this isn’t a great movie. It’s a fun and good movie, but by default it’s the best of the year.
There you have it, my favorite animated movie from every year I’ve been alive. What is your favorite animated movie of all time? Also, I do want to more of these types of blog posts with different genres in the year 2023. What genres would you like to see me tackle?
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