Summary
- The animation industry showcases creativity and impact with new projects from both well-known and newcomer western studios.
- New animated films like Transformers One, Soul and Inside Out 2 offer engaging stories and stunning animation.
- Innovative projects like Flow, The Wild Robot and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio redefine animation excellence.
Animation is the most beautiful artistic medium in the entire world and, fortunately for moviegoers who enjoy and appreciate it, a lot of high-quality animated films have been released over the last five years. What’s even more exciting is that not only the most well-known western studios (like Disney or Pixar) have put out excellent projects, but also newcomers have managed to make an impact despite being less famous and/or having smaller budgets.
8 Most Underrated Animated Films of the 2020s
The 2020s have already been a great decade for animated movies, but some of them have flown under the radar both critically and commercially.
As a result of this boom, most of the western animation industry has successfully captivated the hearts of audiences worldwide, with beautiful animation, engaging stories, impactful moments and incredible soundtracks. While western studios have already released many high-quality animated movies throughout the 2020s, the following eight are the absolute best ones of the decade so far.
8 Transformers One
An Intense Action Movie About Two Best Friends Slowly Growing Apart
Transformers One
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- September 20, 2024
- Runtime
- 104 Minutes
Most animated movies nowadays are either comedies or dramas, but the medium also lends itself very easily to action. One of the few animated films of the decade that belongs to this genre (which also isn’t a superhero adaptation) is Transformers One, a fresh new take on Hasbro’s classic franchise about robots in disguise. At first glance, this is a solid action film with thrilling fight scenes and some solid comedy, but it slowly gets better with each new scene.
The heart and soul of Transformers One is the relationship between Orion Pax and D-16, two best friends who slowly grow apart because of their different worldviews and, even though the audience is fully aware that they’re destined to become Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively, their inevitable falling out is both surprisingly mature and heartbreaking. The third act of this movie is a full-on masterpiece of storytelling combined with satisfying action, and it’s enough to cement it as one of the most outstanding animated projects of the last decade.
7 Soul
An Existential Film That Resonated More With Adults Than With Children
Soul
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- December 25, 2020
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 100 minutes
Contrary to popular belief, Pixar has been putting out some high-quality new movies in this decade, like Luca, Turning Red or Elemental. However, one of the studio’s most fascinating releases is definitely 2020’s Soul, a mature story that explores some surprisingly deep ideas about life, death, destinies and dreams. Because of this, it has inevitably appealed more to adults rather than kids, but younger audiences can still enjoy it without issue.
Of course, Soul still has Pixar’s signature beautiful animation and familial sense of humor, but the story of Joe Gardner and 22 also gets quite philosophical and complex at times, not to mention that it takes place within an endlessly creative version of the afterlife. This is one of Pixar’s best projects, so it should be no surprise that it won Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.
6 Inside Out 2
An Incredible Sequel That No One Expected Would Be So Good
Inside Out 2
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- June 14, 2024
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 96 Minutes
When Disney and Pixar originally announced that they were working on an Inside Out sequel, most fans were not too keen on the idea and deemed the project as unnecessary. However, they were proven wrong when Inside Out 2 came out in 2024, and it quickly became one of the best feature films of the year. This is a sequel that does everything it should do and even more, since it takes all the innovative ideas that made the original movie so memorable and expands on them in clever and fun ways.
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Riley is now a teenager, so her five core emotions – Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger – not only have to deal with the hurdles of growing up, but also with all the new emotions that come with it: Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment. This is overall an incredibly entertaining adventure with colorful and vibrant animation, creative world building and excellent comedic writing, that concludes with a surprisingly poignant scene that tugs at the heartstrings. Inside Out 2 has a lot to say about growing up and, unlike Soul, it seems to have resonated with both adults and children alike, meaning that entire families can enjoy this movie together and get something out of it.
5 Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
An Unexpectedly Amazing Sequel That Reinvigorated The Shrek Franchise
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
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- December 21, 2022
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 103 minutes
The original Puss in Boots film from 2011 was always considered one of DreamWorks Animation’s most underwhelming films, since it was mostly a dull and generic animated spin-off. Because of this, absolutely nobody anticipated its 2022 sequel to be so good that it would inadvertently breathe new life into the dormant Shrek franchise. The first thing that made Puss In Boots: The Last Wish such a game-changer for the studio was its change in animation style, which was clearly inspired by the Spider-Verse movies, but it still maintained a charming new identity of its own.
As a result, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is an animated masterpiece with hilarious comedy and exciting action sequences, while also featuring an engaging story that makes brilliant use of the concept of Puss having nine lives in order to seamlessly develop him as a character. The other major standout aspect of this film were its two main antagonists: the Wolf, who is surprisingly creepy and intense, and Jack Horner, who is so unapologetically evil that he steals every single scene he's part of. If DreamWorks puts the same amount of effort into the upcoming Shrek 5, then that sequel also has the potential to become something special.
4 Flow
A Minimalistic Adventure That Says A Lot With Very Little
Flow
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- August 30, 2024
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 84 minutes
Audiences were quite shocked when Flow, a relatively unknown animated movie from Latvia, won Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. However, those who used this prestigious award as an excuse to give it a shot quickly learned why it deserved it, because this is one of the most distinctive and refreshing animated films of the entire decade. Flow tells the story of an adorable black cat who has to survive in what seems like a post-apocalyptic world, while in the process it meets a bunch of animals that become unexpected allies.
Every single main character in this film is a regular animal, meaning that the movie has no dialogue at all and, yet, it still says a lot about life, death, wildlife and humanity. This is both a minimalistic and an existential story that works incredibly well, which is quite impressive for such a small studio with such a relatively low budget. The technical aspect of Flow also deserves to be praised, seeing as it was fully animated with Blender (a free and open-source 3D animation tool that anybody can download) and yet it looks absolutely breathtaking.
3 The Wild Robot
DreamWorks’ Best Animated Project Of The Entire Decade
The Wild Robot
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- September 27, 2024
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 101 Minutes
DreamWorks Animation’s output during the 2020s has been quite mixed, seeing as it made both high-quality and lackluster films over the last five years. However, none of that matters, because it also released The Wild Robot in 2024, which quickly became one of the best animated projects this beloved studio has ever made. Adapted from Peter Brown’s novel of the same name, this movie tells the story of Roz, a state-of-the-art intelligent robot that accidentally ends up on an abandoned island and has to learn how to coexist with its animal inhabitants.
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The first half of the movie uses little-to-no dialogue to properly convey who Roz is and how she slowly grows as a character while she befriends the animals, especially when she starts raising a small orphan goose named Brightbill. The second half is a lot more conventional (mainly because it has a lot more dialogue) but it still maintains its atmosphere of melancholy and its impactful themes of family, wildlife and coexistence. Roz, Brightbill and Fink end up becoming an adorable found family and their strange relationship is endearing enough to make most audiences tear up. On top of all that, The Wild Robot features a beautiful animated style that looks like nothing else DreamWorks has made and an excellent soundtrack that makes every eleveates every emotional scene.
2 Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio
A Stop-Motion Masterpiece, Fourteen Years In The Making
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
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- December 9, 2022
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 114 minutes
Visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been trying to make his own adaptation of Pinocchio since 2008 and, with the help of Netflix, he was finally able to complete it in 2022. This was a fortunate turn of events, because he’s one of the few famous figures in Hollywood who truly understands and appreciates animation, and his love for the medium can be seen and felt throughout the entirety of this excellent movie. For starters, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a stop-motion animated film, meaning that it took an entire crew of talented and hardworking people a lot of time and resources to finish it, and it was completely worth it, because it looks absolutely amazing.
Every single character in this film, from Pinocchio and Geppetto to Count Volpe and Death, is brimming with style, life and personality in a way that would never have been possible with conventional 3D animation. But the stop-motion animation is not the only remarkable aspect of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, since it also tells a beautiful and emotional story that takes advantage of the concept of an immortal living puppet in fun and creative ways, while also (and much to the surprise of audiences) criticizing Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime during the war. This movie is a modern masterpiece, and it undoubtedly deserved to win Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.
1 Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
An Ambitious Superhero Sequel That Surpassed All Expectations
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
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- Release Date
- June 2, 2023
- Runtime
- 140 Minutes
Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a game-changer for the animation industry, with many other studios trying to replicate its innovative style of animation. Because of this, audiences naturally had high expectations for its sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and when it finally released in 2023, not only did it meet them, but it also completely surpassed them. This is because Across the Spider-Verse is an outstanding sequel that flawlessly expands on every single exciting and creative idea from its predecessor.
As a result, Miles Morales’ journey through the titular spider-verse is not only very enjoyable and exciting, but it also has a surprisingly emotional narrative that proposes some fascinating questions about what it truly means to be Spider-Man. Additionally, the supporting cast is made up of many other lovable characters with even more solid development, from Spider-Gwen to Peter B. Parker and even the antagonistic Miguel O’Hara. But, of course, the most impressive aspect of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is its animation, since every single dimension the characters travel to looks absolutely breathtaking - complete with their own signature art style and color palette - not to mention that the dramatic scene in which the entire Spider-Society chases Miles through Nueva York is one of the most impressive animated sequences of the decade, which was enhanced by Daniel Pemberton's incredible score (just like every other scene in the film). Across the Spider-Verse is a masterpiece of both the superhero genre and the medium of animation, so it should be no surprise that fans are extremely excited about the third and final film of this trilogy, Beyond the Spider-Verse.
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