In 1929, the first Academy Awards were held to acknowledge cinematic achievements in everything from directing, performing, music, and the best picture of the year. At the 64th Awards in 1992, Beauty and the Beast made history as the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, though it lost to The Silence of the Lambs. Since then, animated films have gotten a specific category, Best Animated Feature, starting in 2001. Sadly, only two more animated films have been nominated for Best Picture since: Up in 2010 and Toy Story 3 in 2011.
Why this is the case is anyone's guess, but fans of animation can agree that it's unfair. Over the years, plenty of animated movies should've been strong contenders for Best Picture, especially now, since the medium has exploded into many beautiful and unique styles. This list isn't here to say these films should have won Best Picture; a lot of the films released alongside them deserved their wins. However, it's not fair that they weren't even considered when many animated films have proven to be just as emotionally gripping and culturally dominating as live-action ones.
10 'Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio' (2022)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)
Guillermo del Toro is the king of dark fantasy films, and for years, he wanted to do his take on the story of Pinocchio. His film began production in 2011, but went into development hell until Netflix stepped in to provide funding in 2018. The film's art style was inspired by American artist Grim Grimly, and its plot took Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) into World War II to contrast his status as a living puppet with a populace forced to conform to a fascist government.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is the most unique adaptation of the tale thanks to its setting, dark atmosphere, and powerful emotions and themes. In particular, del Toro made a point to show that Pinocchio didn't need to turn human to be a real boy, demonstrating that what matters is integrity over literal interpretation, as Pinocchio showed himself to be more human than many of the flesh-and-blood humans he interacted with. The film also has a fascinating view of death, personified as a sphynx voiced by Tilda Swinton, who has some great exchanges with Pinocchio about the nature of passing on. Finally, there is the animation, which is some of the best-looking stop-motion in recent years, thanks to the detail on the puppets and their lifelike movements.
9 'Flow' (2024)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Anora' (2024)
In 2012, director Gints Zilbalodis produced a short film about a cat overcoming its fear of water. Years later, he teamed up with Matīss Kaža to expand the idea into a feature film, with the cat now teaming up with other animals to survive a flood. The whole thing was animated using an open-source 3D program and was done without storyboards or dialogue.
Flow is such a unique experience, and while it more than deserved to take home Best Animated Feature, it could have gone higher. The lack of dialogue is a bit shocking at first, but the amazing sound design and stellar music still manage to suck you into the world and get you invested in the animals and their journey for survival. The character animation is the real star, as every animal moves and emotes like the real thing.
8 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2018)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Green Book' (2018)
Sometimes, a film comes out that is so influential that it has a ripple effect on everything that follows. One of the most recent examples is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures' animated Spider-Man film following Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). The film was made with help from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who pushed for the animation to look like a comic book come to life. This would be the film's greatest legacy, as its unique style has influenced films such as The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and KPop Demon Hunters.
Beyond its animation, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse stands as probably the best Spider-Man film. It perfectly captures everything we love about the story, from the hilarious dialogue to the emotional gut-punches, and the classic story of responsibility. The use of multiple Spider-Men from across the multiverse is also clever, as it not only allows the writers to showcase other interactions of the character but also plays into another theme about how anyone has the capacity to be a hero.
7 'The Lion King' (1994)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Forrest Gump' (1994)
Excited that Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture, Disney began production on Pocahontas, which they hoped would win the award. At the same time, The Lion King was in production, but wasn't given the same care by the studio due to its experimental nature, making the team more determined to prove themselves, and they put their heart and soul into the film. Today, The Lion King reigns as the highest-grossing 2D animated film and is beloved by all ages, while opinions about Pocahontas range from OK to better off forgotten.
The passion from the creative team is felt throughout The Lion King, be it Hans Zimmer's epic score, the catchy lyrics by Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice, the gorgeous depiction of the African landscape, and the phenomenal characters. The film contains some of Disney's strongest examples of classic archetypes: Simba (Johnathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick) is the spoiled prince who must learn responsibility, Mufasa (James Earl Jones) is the mighty king and tender father, Scar (Jeremy Irons) the cunning villain consumed by envy, and Rafiki (Robert Guillaume) the eccentric shaman, just to name a few. As for its story, it touches on the universal truth that we cannot run from our past, while mixing in classic literary tropes from Shakespeare and Arthurian Legend.
6 'Shrek' (2001)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'A Beautiful Mind'
When Steven Spielberg co-founded DreamWorks in 1994 with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, he brought with him the rights to the book Shrek! by William Steig, which satirized the fairy tale genre by having the protagonist be a horrible monster who went on a quest for selfish reasons. He originally wanted to adapt the book as a hand-drawn film, but production ultimately settled on using CGI. Chris Farley was originally chosen to play the main character, but after his tragic passing in 1997, Mike Myers came in, and he made the character a pop culture icon.
Shrek captured the attention of a generation thanks to its creative, satirical humor, which poked fun at fairy tales and the Disney formula. Combined with its relatable characters, it led to a timeless story about the danger of jumping to conclusions, societal standards of beauty, and the importance of loving yourself. This unique and outright revolutionary approach has allowed the film to maintain a timeless feel beyond the early 2000s and spawned a lucrative franchise.
5 'The Prince of Egypt' (1998)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Shakespeare in Love' (1998)
During his time at Disney, Jeffrey Katzenberg tried pitching an animated adaptation of The Book of Exodus, but it was repeatedly turned down. When he left Disney to co-found DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, he immediately put it into production, though it would be DreamWorks' second release after Antz. Katzenberg spared no expense with his passion project, hiring an all-star cast and religious consultants to make sure the film was respectful to the original story.
The Prince of Egypt is truly a film of biblical proportions. Not only does it include some of the darker aspects of the story of Exodus, but the cinematography makes Egypt truly look like a kingdom of gods with towering monuments and oppressive landscape, while the music by Hans Zimmer and Stephen Schwartz is appropriately epic and evocative. Yet the greatest strength of the film is how it remembers to focus on the human conflict between adopted brothers Moses (Val Kilmer) and Rameses (Ralph Fiennes), and how both men struggle between familial love and the expectations placed upon them.
4 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1937)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'The Life of Emile Zola' (1937)
The story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has become one of the greatest cinematic underdog stories. It was nicknamed "Disney's Folly" by the media because animation was seen as silly little cartoons that could never keep audiences invested for 80 minutes. Walt Disney stuck to his guns, however, and when the movie premiered, it was a massive financial and critical hit. Yet, criminally, it was only nominated for one award in the 10th Academy Awards: Best Music, which it lost to One Hundred Men and a Girl.
Snow White has more than earned its place as one of the greatest animated gems because of its phenomenal artistry and its simple but timeless story. At its core, the film preaches the virtues of kindness and how one act of good can inspire others to change, as seen when Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) inspires Grumpy (Pinto Colvig) to change for the better. While its animation is dated by today's standards, the characters are still incredibly expressive, and the backgrounds are rich in color and detail. All of this combines to make a film that succeeds in drawing powerful emotions from the audience.
3 'WALL-E' (2008)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008)
In 1994, as Toy Story neared completion, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft sat down for lunch to brainstorm ideas for upcoming projects. One of these ideas was about humanity abandoning a polluted Earth, and the only inhabitant was a waste disposal robot dutifully continuing its menial task. Over the years, the plot went through multiple rewrites, including one phase where humanity had evolved into blob-like aliens who treated their robots like slaves.
Before Flow, WALL-E was the film people pointed to as an example of stellar nonverbal acting in animated movies. The robot characters have very minimalistic dialogue, and in WALL-E's (Ben Burtt) case, a lack of a face, yet it is a testament to Pixar's animators how easily one can determine their emotions at any given time. The sections that do have dialogue are pretty good, thanks to the film's strong themes regarding environmentalism and not letting technology control your lives. Captain B. McCrea (Jeff Garlin), in particular, has a great arc about regaining autonomy over his life that feels even more relevant in today's post-COVID world, which speaks to WALL-E's timeless appeal.
2 'Toy Story' (1995)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Braveheart' (1995)
When Pixar's CGI short Tin Toy won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, they were approached by Disney to create a fully CGI feature film. After a long period of negotiations, production began on Toy Story, but new troubles emerged in the form of Jeffrey Katzenberg. He constantly pushed for the film to be more mean-spirited and edgy to appeal to children and adults, resulting in a disastrous 1993 screening for Disney executives that almost got the film scrapped. Pixar managed to rewrite the script within two weeks into something that all parties could agree upon.
Toy Story is by far one of the most important and influential films in the history of animation. It both kick-started Pixar's career and inspired other companies to create CGI animated films, a decision that ended up pushing 2D animation out of Western theatres. As for the story, it's nothing short of beloved: Wood (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) have solid character arcs about identity, pride, and the inevitability of change, which earned the film admiration from all age groups. Toy Story is one of those films that only gets better as you grow up, and the situations of the characters become even more relatable.
1 'Spirited Away' (2002)
Best Picture Winner That Year: 'Chicago' (2002)
Hayao Miyazaki is a legend in the world of animation, having helmed some of Japan's most well-known and beloved animated films. He initially retired from filmmaking after his 1997 epic Princess Mononoke, but was inspired to direct Spirited Away when he saw young girls at play. He decided to make a film that could give them a role model in the form of a young girl who has to confront the confusing reality of growing up, while throwing in plenty of creativity based on Shintoism and his environmentalist ideals.
Spirited Away is Miyazaki's masterpiece and is among the most important animated films of the 21st century. The story masterfully blends fantastical elements like spirits, witches, and cursed food that turns people into pigs, with relatable struggles like growing up too fast, working at a difficult job, or just trying to survive without one's parents. Its world is brimming with creative designs and lovable characters, all brought to life through some of the most fluid and detailed animation ever put to film. The fact that this film was passed for a Best Picture nomination, and the lack of nominees since Toy Story 3, shows the Academy's bias against animation and how increasingly out of touch they are with general audiences.
Spirited Away
PG
AnimationFamily
Fantasy 13 9.9/10
- Release Date
- July 20, 2001
- Cast
- Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijô, Takehiko Ono, Bunta Sugawara
- Runtime
- 125 minutes
- Director
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Writers
- Hayao Miyazaki
NEXT: 35 Best Animated Movies of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb
