Animated films are great. They inspire the youngest of us to reach deep into our imaginations and experience the adventure, the excitement, the passion. As we grow older we for some reason stop watching these films. I don’t know why that is.
Maybe it’s because as we grow older, since we grew up watching a film like these, we feel that they are movies for children. However, I would wholeheartedly disagree with that idea. Sure these movies contain some “safer” concepts and don’t really show the depravity of man, but I do believe that they touch on very familiar topics within our family and with our friends.
While there are many adult oriented anime films, animations that are produced by Disney or Pixar deal with some very complex themes in a much more subtle and emotional way that many harsh films never touch on because those films focus more on shocking us rather than enlightening us.
There can be no doubt in my mind that if you grew up watching these films like Toy Story, The Lion King, Bambi, and the likes you were shaped by them dramatically as a child.
Many of the older films helped push the technology in the film industry around the world. It also put a standard on the craft of storytelling that I believe is more rarely achieved in today’s film environment.
So here’s my list of top 20 animated films to watch:
1. Bambi
2. Ratatouille
3. Mulan
4. The Little Mermaid
5. Hercules
6. Dumbo
7. Pinocchio
8. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
9. Aladdin
10. Beauty and the Beast
11. Finding Nemo
12. How to Train Your Dragon
13. How to Train Your Dragon 2
14. The Lion King
15. The Incredibles
16. Tangled
17. Shrek
18. Toy Story
19. Toy Story 3
20. Monsters Inc.
These are not in any particular order. Also, you may notice that there are no Anime films. Well, while there are a few of those films I do enjoy and are beautiful films, I’m not entirely a fan of the style of those films. That doesn’t mean that they are bad films, but just a personal preference.
I’m looking forward to the future of animated films. There are many who wish to bring back the 2D hand drawn films back and the few that have already come out are quite amazing like The Secret of Kells .
I can’t wait to see what people come up with!