The 10 Best Animated Movies of the Last 5 Years, Ranked

Outubro 14, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Ever since the 1990s, there has been a surge in high-quality animated films. Thanks to things like the Disney Renaissance and the emergence of CGI companies like Pixar and DreamWorks, animated films became more commonplace, especially as more companies, such as Sony and Warner Bros., began creating in-house animation studios. Most films are produced with computers, but occasionally, a hand-drawn or stop-motion movie pops up to showcase how animation can bring fantastic worlds to life.

The last few years have been hit-and-miss when it comes to animated movies. While technology has continued to improve, the writing quality varies. Fortunately, several animated films managed to exceed all expectations and receive critical and audience acclaim. These are the best and most enjoyable animated movies of the last five years, bringing some much-needed entertainment during particularly troubling times.

10

‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ (2021)

The Mitchells together looking up at something with confused expressions in The Mitchells vs. The Machines — The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Desperate for a chance to patch things up with his filmmaker daughter, Katie (Abbi Jacobson), technophobic and nature-loving Rick Mitchell (Danny McBride) arranges a cross-country road trip for the family as they send Katie to college. At the same time, a smartphone named PAL (Olivia Colman) learns that she is to be replaced by advanced robots, so she takes control of them and rounds up humanity to be launched into space. Soon, the Mitchells are the only free humans left on the planet and must overcome their differences to save the world.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is one of the most visually impressive films from Sony Pictures Animation, combining elements of 2D and 3D animation to create something new. This is reflective of the film’s primary message, which stresses the importance of combining old and new methods to solve problems and live complete lives. There’s also a solid cautionary tale about the dangers of letting technology control people’s lives, peppered with lots of visual gags and funny jokes.

9

‘Encanto’ (2021)

The family Madrigal posing together in Encanto

Within the mountains of Colombia lies Encanto, a secluded mountain paradise created by Alma Madrigal (María Cecilia Botero) from the grief she felt at losing her husband. Fifty years later, a community has sprung up led by the Madrigals, each of whom has a magical gift that ranges from superhuman strength to healing and shapeshifting. The one exception is Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who was passed over for unknown reasons but still commits herself to helping her family, especially when the magic of Encanto begins to fade.

Encanto is perhaps Disney’s best-received animated film in recent years, winning audiences over for its wide range of characters, catchy songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and strong emotional themes. Each member of the Madrigal family is well characterized, even if some have little screen time, which helps the family feel more genuine. Encanto is also Disney’s best example of a generational trauma story, taking time to show how even good intentions can have disastrous consequences on the next generation.

8

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ (2023)

Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales hanging from a building in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Six months after becoming Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) encounters a new villain, the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who wants revenge on Spider-Man since he was created when the Alchemax collider was destroyed. Possessing the power to travel between dimensions, the Spot begins hopping through the multiverse to find more colliders and increase his powers. To stop him, Miles teams up with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and an entire secret society of Spider-Men led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac).

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is even better than 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, thanks to even more impressive animation and a stronger story. The animators do a wonderful job making the multiverse come to life by switching up the art style for each dimension, with the most creative being a Renaissance-era Vulture (Jorma Taccone), who is animated like pencil sketches and blueprints. While Mile’s story is engaging as always, the real star is Spider-Gwen, who has a phenomenal story about revealing her secret identity to her father.

7

‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ (2024)

Eccentric cheese-loving inventor Wallace (Ben Whitehead) has created a robotic garden gnome called Norbot (Whitehead). He proves so effective that Wallace starts a business renting Norbot to help with people’s gardening, though his loyal canine companion, Gromit, dislikes how much favoritism Wallace is showing to the gnome. Unfortunately, news of Norbot reaches the duo’s old penguin nemesis, Feathers McGraw, who hatches a plan to take control of Norbot, steal the Blue Diamond, and frame Wallace for it.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a worthy addition to the franchise, and manages to capture a lot of the same magic from the duo’s previous theatrical outing, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The higher budget allows the animators to really flex their craft through clever gags and impressive movements, while the story emphasizes the dangers of overreliance on technology without demonizing it. It’s also Whitehead’s first time fully voicing Wallace after the death of his original voice actor, Peter Sallis, and given how perfectly he captured the inventor’s lovable nature, it’s safe to say that he is a worthy successor.

6

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ (2025)

Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) are members of the K-pop band Huntrix who, unknown to their legions of fans, protect the world from demons. Realizing that Huntrix’s fans are the source of their powers, the demon king Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun) assembles a demon boy band called the Saja Boys to steal them away. What’s more, Rumi has been concealing her nature as a half-demon from her friends, fearful that they will reject her if they ever learned.

KPop Demon Hunters took the world by storm, especially given that it was released for streaming before a successful theatrical run of a sing-along version. Continuing Sony’s recent trend with their animated films, the movie looks fantastic, combining bright colors with an exaggerated style that lends itself beautifully to all manner of visual gags inspired by anime. Beyond the visuals, it also boasts Oscar-winning songs, well-constructed characters, plenty of references to Korean culture, and an empathetic story about overcoming anxiety and self-doubt.

5

‘The Wild Robot’ (2024)

Fink and Pinktail stand on Roz's shoulders — Fink and Pinktail stand on Roz’s shoulders

A ship carrying ROZZYM helper robots crashes on an uninhabited island, and only unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o) is left intact enough to be activated by the local wildlife. After learning how to communicate with the animals, she struggles to fulfill her prime directive of helping others and attempts to signal the outside world for recovery. However, she soon refocuses her efforts on raising a gosling after accidentally killing its family, and makes friends with a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal).

The Wild Robot is the last DreamWorks animated film to be animated in-house, and they went all out with it. It is incredibly stylized to capture the beauty of the natural world, while also keeping the anthropomorphization of the animals to a minimum, allowing it to depict the predator/prey relationship in a more realistic fashion compared to similar films. This also gives the film ample room to explore themes of cooperation, family, perseverance, and forging our own destinies.

4

‘The Boy and the Heron’ (2023)

Image via Studio Ghibli

Following the death of his mother during the American bombing of Japan in World War II, Mahito (Luca Padovan) moves to the countryside when his father remarries his late wife’s sister, Natsuko (Gemma Chan). Mahito has a difficult time adjusting to this change and even injures himself after a school fight. Over time, Mahito crosses paths with a talking Grey Heron (Robert Pattinson), who eventually lures him into an abandoned tower that transports him to a mysterious fantasy world.

The Boy and the Heron is the latest film by the great Hayao Miyazaki and has the potential to become another classic thanks to its boundless creativity and powerful themes. Along with fantastical elements like a heron who turns into a little man and fascist parakeets, the story delves into concepts like legacy, processing grief, and the pursuit of perfection. The English voice cast is made up of veterans of Studio Ghibli dubbing, but the best performances come from Pattinson, who sounds unrecognizable as the heron, and Dave Bautista, who steals the show in his limited appearance as the Parakeet King.

3

‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ (2022)

Puss meets Death, a wolf with a frightening smile and red eyes, at a bar in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Vigilante feline hero Puss in Boots (Antonia Banderas) is disheartened to learn that he is down to his last life and, after nearly being killed by a wolf (Wagner Moura), is forced into retirement. However, Puss regains his spirit when he learns of a map that leads to a fallen star that can grant a wish. Teaming up with his old flame, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), and a small dog (Harvey Guillén), Puss delves into the Dark Forest to find the star. Along the way, he must avoid the wolf and others who want the star, like Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney).

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish exceeded all expectations for a spin-off film to become one of DreamWorks’ best films. It contains mature themes of mortality, legacy, and determining what truly matters in life, but also leans into its fairy tale aesthetic, presenting its story through colorful visuals and hilarious exchanges between the characters. Speaking of the characters, each is memorable and has a plethora of quotable dialogue, especially the devious and ever-entertaining Big Jack Horner.

2

‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ (2022)

Pinocchio touching Gepetto's nose in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. — Pinocchio touching Gepetto’s nose in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

In a drunken despair, woodcarver Geppetto (David Bradley) cuts down the tree that marks his son’s grave and carves it into a puppet. When he passes out, a Wood Spirit (Tilda Swinton) decides to bring the puppet to life, naming him Pinocchio (Gregory Mann), and assigns a cricket named Sebastian (Ewan McGregor) as his conscience. As Pinocchio tries to make sense of this new world he finds himself in, many folks seek to exploit his unique abilities, such as con artist Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz) and the Podestà (Ron Perlman), who hopes to use Pinocchio as an immortal soldier loyal to Benito Mussolini (Tom Kenny).

This version of Pinocchio by the legendary dark-fantasy director Guillermo del Toro is the second stop-motion film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It stays true to the story’s origins as a cautionary tale about life’s difficulties while also delving into more complex ideas like mortality, fascism, grief, and self-sacrifice. Of all the actors, Bradley is by far the standout performance of the film, especially when Geppetto is overcome with grief and despair, leading to some of the film’s most heart-wrenching moments.

1

‘Ne Zha 2’ (2025)

Ne Zha stands in front of water with ocean creatures and looks mischievous in Ne Zha 2.

As Ne Zha (Lü Yanting and Joseph Cao/Crystal Lee and Griffin Puatu) and Ao Bing (Han Mo/Aleks Le) are given new bodies by Master Taiyi Zhenren (Zhang Jiaming/Rick Zieff), dragon king Ao Guang (Li Nan and Yu Chen/Christopher Swindle), believing his son to be dead, launches an attack on Chentang Pass. This ends up destroying Ao Bing’s new body, but his spirit is stored inside Ne Zha’s body for the time being, and a ceasefire is declared. It turns out there is a potion that can allow Zhenren to make a new body for Ao Bing, but he and Ne Zha must complete a series of trials to become a xian.

Ne Zha 2 made history by netting over $2.270 billion, making it the highest-grossing animated film and one of the highest-grossing films of all time. One look at the animation shows why this is: the film has some of the most detailed animation ever seen, with incredibly fluid character movements and realistic fire. The story makes quite a few changes to the Chinese legend it’s inspired by, but the result is still gripping, with empathetic characters and a strong message regarding destiny, balance, and the corrupting nature of power.