While animated features have had a long history of being nominated and winning Academy Awards since the 1930s, mostly in the Best Animated Short and Music categories, it wasn’t until 2001, where, in response to the huge popularity of Aardman’s Chicken Run, where a new category, Best Animated Feature, was created to give these films a new level of recognition. This list will rank all of the winners and the nominees, from 2001 to 2025.
109. The Boss Baby (2017)
Directed by: Tom McGrath
Written by: Michael McCullers
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Miles Bakshi, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow and Tobey Maguire
Music by: Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro
Rated: U
Tim Templeton (Miles Bakshi) is a young boy who loves imaginary adventures with his loving parents (Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow). However, Tim’s life gets turned upside down when Boss (Alec Baldwin), a talking baby who comes from a secret organisation of hyper-intelligent babies obsessed with business life, is sent on a mission to Tim’s house where he takes all the attention away from Tim. As the mission to infiltrate Puppy Co., the organisation where Tim’s parents work, proves to be more difficult than expected for Boss, he is forced to rely on Tim’s help to stop babies from being forgotten from the world…
Poor Dreamworks Animation was one of the first non Disney animated studios to rival the mouse house box office wise in their early years. They may not have had a clear identity with films ranging from goofy comedies such as Shrek and Madagascar to serious epics such as The Prince of Egypt and How to Train Your Dragon, but always came out OK in the end. However, during the 2010s, the box office failures of Rise of the Guardians, Turbo, Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar led to the closure of the PDI Studio in 2015 and although they did manage to get purchased by Universal, it came at the price of cancelling interesting future projects such as Larrikins and Me and My Shadow, and instead green-lit a sequel to Trolls of all films and a film based on the 2010 picture book, Boss Baby by Marla Frazee.
The Boss Baby, coming from the director of the Madagascar films, tries to recreate the former’s success with Tex Avery/Looney Tunes style animation and character designs resembling UPA cartoons of the 1950s. But it ultimately comes of as one of Dreamworks weaker films, due to it’s thin predictable plot and a majority of the jokes falling flat or not making any sense at all, even for the crazy environment itself.
Overall, Alec Baldwin’s deadpan performance as the Boss Baby himself does get a couple of chuckles, and the way the animation style changes depending on the situation is a treat to behold. But The Boss Baby is ultimately, a very bad baby.
Rating: 2/5
108. Shark Tale (2004)
Directed by: Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron and Rob Letterman
Written by: Michael J. Wilson and Rob Letterman
Starring: Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Martin Scorsese
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Rated: U
Set in an underwater version of New York City populated with (horrific looking) anthropomorphic sea creatures, Oscar (Will Smith), a wisecracking cleaner wrasse fish, dreams of a better life than a lowly whale washer. After screwing up an opportunity to pay back his debts to his boss, Sykes (Martin Scorsese, yes really), Oscar gets mistaken for being a shark slayer after he witnesses an anchor kill the son of the shark mafia’s boss, Don Lino (Robert De Niro). To keep up the charade, Oscar makes a deal with Lino’s other son, a sweethearted vegetarian shark named Lenny (Jack Black), so that the latter can get away from his father’s expectations…
Dated, poorly animated even by early 2000s standards, badly blending mafia parodies and Will Smith-style humour together into an extremely predictable narrative and having some of the most unlikable animated characters in history, makes Shark Tale one of the lowest points in the history of Dreamworks Animation. Even though Jack Black, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese do get a few chuckles, not even a half-assed Godfather reunion can save this shipwreck, and that’s why it’s absolutely hilarious for all the wrong reasons.
With so many derpy looking character designs, laugh out loud out of context moments and the way the likes of De Niro, Scorsese and Will Smith deliver their awful dialogue, Shark Tale is an amazing experience for anyone who loves to laugh at bad films or for watching when drinking and getting high. Perfect material for Academy Award-nominated Shark Tale!
Rating: 2/5
107. Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Directed by: Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada
Written by: Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim
Starring: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran, Lucille Soong and Alan Tudyk
Music by: James Newton Howard
Rated: PG
In the South East, five tribes named after the parts of a dragon, Fang, Heart, Talon, Spine and Tail were once part of a single country named Kumandra, but have since been divided into endless conflict after the dragon guardians gave their lives to save the land from mysterious creatures named the Druun five centuries ago. Six years after an incident between the Heart and Fang tribes led to the death of Heart’s chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) and the freeing of the Druun again, his warrior daughter Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) sets out to find the five pieces of an orb that can seal them up again and bring everyone back to life. With the help of a ten year old sea captain named Boun (Izaac Wang), a giant soldier named Tong (Benedict Wong), a baby capable of super strength and owns an army of monkeys named Little Noi (Thalia Tran) and a kind-hearted surviving water dragon named Sisu (Awkwafina), Raya must find a way to save the land, while also being forced to confront her past tensions with the daughter of the Fang tribe, Princess Namaari (Gemma Chan)…
The first animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios to be an original film since 2016’s Moana, as well as the first one to have been approved without the disgraced former head of the company’s films and those of Pixar, John Lasseter, Raya and the Last Dragon, originally developed by the head of story of Frozen, Paul Briggs, as a project called Dragon Empire before being passed over to Big Hero 6 and the 2011 Winnie the Pooh’s co-director Don Hall and Blindspotting director Carlos Lopez Estrada. This film feels like a throwback to Disney’s more experimental era of the early 2000s, by not being a musical despite having a Princess as the protagonist and being more of an action/adventure genre film than a comedy.
Although the pacing is way too rushed at times and Awkwafina’s voice-acting can get really annoying in her attempts to try and be the next Genie from Aladdin with her poor jokes, the huge scope of the animation along with the more complex narrative, makes this film feel like a better version of films such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Dinosaur. This is ironic as the composer of those films, James Newton Howard, returns for his first score for Walt Disney Animation Studios since 2002’s Treasure Planet, finally giving the company one of their best music in years.
Kelly Marie Tran is wonderful as Raya, whose character arc is taken into some really dark areas in the third act. Gemma Chan, while having potential with her villain character, isn’t given the best treatment in explaining Namaari’s motivations and the other supporting characters all have their fun moments especially Alan Tudyk’s giant pill-bug character, Tuk-Tuk.
However, the film does fall apart at the third act with a terrible message about putting too much trust in people and an overly simplistic solution to the final conflict, which makes the both sideism of Pocahontas look tame by comparison.
Overall, Raya and the Last Dragon is an ok film that celebrates the importance of unity in spite of living in a cruel world and was a passable start to the short-lived Jennifer Lee era of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Rating: 3/5
106. Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Directed by: Rich Moore and Phil Johnston
Written by: Phil Johnston and Pamela Ribon
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Ed O’Neill and Taraji P. Henson
Music by: Henry Jackman
Rated: PG
Wreck-it Ralph (John C. Reilly) has finally made peace in his life as a video-game character. Although he has still been working as the antagonist of Fix-it Felix Jr. for the last six years, his best friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), the champion racer of Sugar Rush, is his main source of happiness. Disaster strikes however, when in an attempt to make her racing ambitions more exciting, Ralph accidentally causes her game’s steering wheel to break. Ralph and Vanellope must now venture into the wide world of the Internet to find enough money to buy a new one from EBay. But things get complicated when Vanellope gets drawn to an intense online racing game named Slaughter Race, putting her friendship with Ralph to the ultimate test…
This may be hard to believe in today’s sequel obsessed world, but Walt Disney Animation Studios, the oldest and most influential animation studio still running today, had surprisingly been light on theatrical sequels to their animated films in their ninety-five year long history. Although the likes of Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride and The Return of Jafar did exist, nearly all of the straight-to-DVD sequels to the classic animated films were made by a different company within Disney called DisneyToon Studios which closed down in the aftermath of John Lasseter’s firing in 2018. The only sequels that Walt Disney Animation Studios did themselves were 1944’s The Three Cabarellos, which was a sequel to the 1942 goodwill package film to South America, Saludos Amigos!, 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under to 1977’s The Rescuers, 1999’s Fantasia 2000 to 1940s’ Fantasia and 2011’s Winnie the Pooh to 1977’s The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Now, along with a sequel to Frozen in 2019, Walt Disney Animation Studios officially stepped back into the world of sequels with Ralph Breaks the Internet, a follow-up to one of the best and most original films of the new Disney age, 2012’s Wreck-it Ralph, the best film about video-games ever made with its likeable characters and fun world-building within arcade video-games.
The concept of Ralph and Vanellope leaving their arcade to go to a living version of the Internet may ring some alarm bells related to a certain Sony film that had a similar premise, but the creative use of the setting such as giving stuff like the search bar and the algorithm personalities that match the annoyances people have with them, with the former being an overly enthusiastic professor and the latter being a fame-hungry, but stylish diva gets some laughs despite being incredibly dated. Both the characters of Knowsmore (Alan Tudyk) and Yessss (Taraji P. Henson) are fun additions to the Wreck-it Ralph universe, with Gal Gadot also being surprisingly entertaining as the tough, yet caring racer, Shank, whose character brings out some of the most important plot points.
Thanks to the influence of Zootopia writer Phil Johnston who co-directs along the returning Rich Moore, this film isn’t afraid to explore heavy topics that revolve around the darker side of the Internet, as well as embracing the fun sense of wonder that it provides to people all over the world such as the heavily advertised Disney Princess crossover that does actually serve a purpose in Vanellope’s character development. Going back to the heavy themes, however, Ralph’s subplot does contain elements such as dealing with Internet hate, insecurities and the inability to adapt to changes. However, the execution of this message is terribly handled,comes across as uncomfortably out of character for both Ralph and Vanellope and does damage the message of the first film.
Both John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman are the heart and soul of the film as they take the characters of Ralph and Vanellope in different directions, with the former being more optimistic (yet, also shockingly unlikeable) while the latter, showing a more emotional side as she takes centre stage in this story. Sadly as a majority of screen-time is dedicated to these two characters, all of the returning characters from the first film, such as Felix (Jack McBrayer) and Sgt. Calhoun (Jane Lynch), are barely in this film at all, and although the likes of Knowsmore and Yesss are fun additions, only Shank, a spam-bot named Spamley (Bill Hader) and (yes) the Disney Princesses actually contribute to the plot.
Overall, Ralph Breaks the Internet is not as creative as the first film and a massive plot contradiction from that film, along with the shameless internet product placement, makes this one of the first major examples of the end of Disney’s Revival Era. However, Ralph and Vanellope themselves, the bright animation and the inventive world-building that made the first film one of Disney’s best, is what makes this one of the best Internet films out there, But that is not saying much.
Rating: 3/5
105. Monster House (2006)
Directed by: Gil Kenan
Written by: Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler
Starring: Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke, Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Catherine O’Hara, Kathleen Turner and Fred Willard
Music by: Douglas Pipes
Rated: PG
DJ Walters (Mitchel Musso) is a young boy obsessed with finding out the secrets of his grumpy neighbour, Horace Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi), and his mysterious house. When an accident leads to Nebbercracker appearing to die from a heart attack, his house is discovered to be alive and thirsty for flesh. DJ, his best friend Chowder (Sam Lerner) and a girl named Jenny (Spencer Locke) must now find a way to destroy it…
During the mid to late 2000s, there was a brief attempt to push motion capture from creating realistic creatures such as Gollum in Lord of the Rings and Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean, to creating entire films with the new technology. While a majority of these were done by Robert Zemeckis from The Polar Express to the ill-fated Mars Needs Moms in 2011, only two films decided to move away from making the animation as realistic as possible, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and this film, being the directorial debut of Gil Kenan.
While this example isn’t much better in visual terms, due to the designs looking really off, especially in the eyes, at least Monster House does have an interesting premise with its take on something that can easily fit into a Goosebumps book. In spite of the Chowder character being extremely annoying, even by comic relief standards, the two other young leads give great performances and with the involvement of Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, Monster House does have the right amount of scares and laughs to satisfy animated horror fans.
Overall, in spite of the unintentional effect of making the humans look more freaky than the titular house and some really unfunny moments, Monster House is a good horror film, even if it came out in an incredibly weak year for animation.
Rating: 3/5
104. Ferdinand (2017)
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha
Written by: Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle and Brad Copeland
Starring: John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodriguez, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and David Tennant
Music by: John Powell
Rated: U
In a desperate attempt to escape the life of a fighting bull, Ferdinand (John Cena) escapes to a life of smelling flowers and relaxing in a peaceful farm. However, when he ends up back at his old home after being mistaken for a fierce bull, it’s up to Ferdinand and an optimistic goat (Kate McKinnon), to convince the other bulls of the possibilities of a better life beyond the arena…
As with most short children’s books that are expanded to feature length narratives such as The Polar Express, The Grinch and The Lorax, Blue Sky Studios’s adaptation of Munro Leaf’s 1936 children’s book, The Story of Ferdinand, does tend to drag out the narrative with annoying slapstick and pointless subplots.
However, the beautiful background animation of Spain, John Cena’s suprisingly good voice acting and the heart of the source material remaining intact, does make this film a lot more tolerable than those films and much like 2015’s excellent adaptation of Peanuts, it proves that Blue Sky Studios was capable of producing quality work that isn’t Ice Age related.
Overall, Ferdinand is a cute little animal flick that doesn’t offer much surprises, but has its heart in the right place and is mostly harmless family fun.
Rating: 3/5
103. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)
Directed by: John A. Davis
Written by: John A. Davis, David N. Weiss, J. David Stern and Steve Odenkerk
Starring: Debi Derryberry, Patrick Stewart, Martin Short, Rob Paulson, Jeffrey Garcia and Carolyn Lawrence
Music by: John Debney
Rated: U
Jimmy Neutron (Debi Derryberry) may be one of the smartest people on the planet, but he is also a young boy who has to deal with everyday life. However, one of his inventions, a communication device, ends up getting his parents, Judy (Megan Cavanagh) and Hugh (Mark DeCarlo), kidnapped by the ruthless alien ruler, King Goobot V (Patrick Stewart). Now, with all other parents kidnapped as well, Jimmy, along with his friends Carl Wheezer (Rob Paulsen) and Sheen Estevez (Jeffrey Garcia), his rival Cindy Vortex (Carolyn Lawrence), and the rest of the kids of Retroville, must go into space to save their families…
Even though the early 2000s was the beginning of the SpongeBob era for Nickelodeon and the decline in popularity for their long-running Rugrats franchise, the animation side of the company still managed to produce great content. While the Jimmy Neutron franchise would become Nick’s third most popular franchise of the 2000s, behind SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly Odd Parents, the pilot film for the television series, 2001’s Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, would end up gaining more success than expected, when it was surprisingly nominated for the first Best Animated Feature award at the 2002 Academy Awards.
While the early 2000s CGI looks very unappealing even by 2001 standards, there is enough charm and humour to make Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius an entertaining watch. Rob Paulson and Jeffrey Garcia get huge laughs as the meme lords, Carl and Sheen, Patrick Stewart is so funny as the petty Alien king and the film does have a charming message about the importance of parenting in a child’s life.
Overall, while the likes of Atlantis: The Lost Empire or Millennium Actress would have been better choices for nominations, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is a funny and clever debut for one of Nickelodeon’s most popular characters.
Rating: 3/5
102. Brother Bear (2003)
Directed by: Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker
Written by: Tab Murphy, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman
Starring: Joaquin Pheonix, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Jason Raize and D.B. Sweeney
Music by: Phil Collins and Mark Mancina
Rated: U
Near the end of the Ice Age, in the wilderness of Alaska, three Inuit brothers named Sitka (D.B. Sweeney), Denahi (Jason Raize) and Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix) live in a tribe that lives by the rules of the Great Spirits, animal deities that guide them throughout their lives. When a tragic accident leads to Sitka being killed while saving his brothers from a Kodiak Bear, Kenai hunts down and kills it in vengeance. Angered by his young brother’s extreme actions, the Spirit of Sitka transforms Kenai into a bear in which he can now talk with animals, but cannot speak human, leading to Denahi tracking him himself. With the help of a feisty bear cub named Koda (Jeremy Suarez), Kenai must travel to the mountain where the Northern Lights touch the Earth in order to convince Sitka to transform him back…
Originally planned as a North American answer to The Lion King, in which the tale of King Lear would have been retold with Kodiak Bears as the main characters, the project that would eventually become Brother Bear would be the second Disney Animated film to have Phil Collins to write the songs after Tarzan and the last one to be animated at Disney’s Animation studio in Florida after Mulan and Lilo and Stitch, before the studio was closed in 2004.
As most other people have pointed out, the first twenty minutes of the film is so well done, with interesting worldbuilding, likeable characters and some of the most emotional moments in any Disney film, that the rest of the film feels hollow compared to the first act, with the tragic relationship between the three Inuit brothers and how their flaws end up causing the main conflict of Kenai being mistakenly hunted by his older brother.
Unfortunately, the majority of the movie is ruined by extremely annoying moments involving Koda and the terrible attempts at trying to copy Blue Sky Studio’s Ice Age with animals that don’t seem to belong in the same universe as the world the film had originally set up.
The animation is absolutely stunning, Phil Collins does a great job with the songs as he did with Tarzan and the film does start getting good again when a major plot twist completely upends the whole narrative, but Brother Bear unfortunately lacks the balance of comedy and drama that The Lion King and Tarzan managed so well.
Rating: 3/5
101. Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Directed by: Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin
Written by: Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio
Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand and Ken Jeong
Music by: Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams
Rated: U
Former supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) is adjusting well to life as a father to his adopted daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher). However, he is soon recruited by the Anti-Villain League, a secret group dedicated to world protection, to investigate the theft of a substance called PX-41 that can mutate anything and anyone that ingests it. While working with one of the League’s agents, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), Gru discovers that the owner of the Paradise Mall’s Mexican restaurant, Eduardo Pérez (Benjamin Bratt), has a striking resemblance to El Macho, one of the most infamous villains in history…
Despicable Me 2, Illumination’s first and (as of 2024) only film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, does not offer many surprises in its numerous subplots revolving around Gru falling for Anti-Villain league agent Lucy, Margo being not so lucky in love, Nefario (Russell Brand) finding new employment with another villain just to name a few.
However the improved animation in terms of rendering and background animation, the character of Agnes being absolutely adorable, the voice acting improving in terms of comedy and Pharrell Williams’s earworm Happy (also nominated for Best Original Song), make this sequel, mostly entertaining family fun. However, while the feelings have mostly died down now, the Minions, by this point had started to get on people’s nerves, which wasn’t helped by their spin-off film two years later…
Rating: 3.5/5
Chaz’s Cinematic Odyssey 