Best Animated Movies of All Time: Greatest Cartoon Films

The best animated movies of all time, like the other best movies of all time, encompass a cornucopia of emotions: celebration, heartbreak, joy, grief, excitement, and anger. Animated movies have a long history of tackling both the more mundane aspects of everyday life, in a comedy or otherwise light-hearted film, to serious global and political issues in a drama. Animation is a medium that lends itself to diverse, often tear-jerking, story-telling. Box office smashes and sleeper hits alike make up the top animated movies of all time. It’s about time to put some respect on animation and think about it outside the context of a humble cartoon.

Pixar has been running the animation game stateside for many years, blessing us with animated movies like the Oscar-winning Toy Story and Coco, and the recent installments in the Incredibles and Toy Story series. Hayao Miyazaki has held it down in Japan and enjoyed global success with an entirely different style of animation, thanks to classic animated movies like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. Animation continues to be a universal language, one well worthy of Academy Awards, like 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. From your favorite classic cartoons to more modern animation, these are the best animated films of all time.