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Best Animated Films of 2021

2021 wasn’t a particularly strong year for animation, though it was better than the previous one. It has one truly terrific movie while most of the others are pretty good, though not great. My list is diverse in terms of the countries being represented and I do think that I did a much better job with the slate than the Academy did, which is never too difficult to achieve.

5. The Summit of the Gods

The Summit of the Gods is this interesting French movie about the first climber to Mount Everest. The movie is just a fascinating historical drama that benefits from strikingly artistic animation of the mountain itself while also featuring a great mystery at its core. It has its flaws for sure – the pacing could have been better – but the movie is so intriguing in its plot and wonderfully stylized that it deserved much more attention than it got. It was snubbed by the Academy for sure.

4. Raya and the Last Dragon

Raya and the Last Dragon was the rare non-musical Disney movie that went fully into fantasy action-adventure territory. It has its issues, especially the familiarity of its third act. However, it’s better than the other Disney movie this year due to more memorable characters, a stronger message and a better, more spectacular world being created here. It’s a gorgeous-looking movie that also features some terrific action sequences. Again, I wished for more true villains, something that most Disney movies today lack unfortunately.

3. Luca

Pixar has never made a movie such as Luca for better and for worse. Undoubtedly, the lack of maturity and sophistication is problematic as are the movie’s leisurely pace and lack of suspense. But I personally found it to be great summer comfort food filled with lovable characters, incredible slice-of-life elements and gorgeous animation and score that both scream Italy in the best ways possible. This is the living and breathing embodiment of a charming Studio Ghibli coming-of-age movie and I was all for that myself.

2. Flee

Flee is this interesting Danish production that offers an honest, emotional look into the refugee experience through some intriguing animation techniques and powerful narration. The movie was the first in Oscar history to be nominated not just in the animated category, but also for both best foreign and best documentary feature. It is a renowned film for some great reasons, especially for its important subject matter, but it’s not a great film as it’s somewhat emotionally distant and not particularly well developed in its protagonist.

1. Belle

The best animated movie of 2021 by a mile is Mamoru Hosoda’s masterful Belle. This is a very ambitious movie, sometimes too ambitious, that deals with a wide variety of themes ranging from the alternate online personalities all the way to domestic abuse. The film is very diverse tonally and in subject matter while its breathtaking score and animation made it a truly artistic cinematic experience. It’s just great seeing Hosoda operate again on the top of his game and it’s a shame that anime continues to be underappreciated by mainstream awards and critics.

Honorable Mentions:

Ron’s Gone Wrong – I don’t quite understand why The Mitchells vs. the Machines gets all the love, but this gem doesn’t when in fact Ron’s Gone Wrong deals with technology creep in a more nuanced manner by looking at both the positive and negative aspects of it. It’s also a very cute, endearing movie populated by lovable characters.

Encanto – Encanto is uneventful to a fault. That is why it’s not on my top five list. It’s overly familial and not magical enough, which is a shame as the house is just terrific, the animation is vibrant and the soundtrack has its gems. The movie also has some great characters, but it would have strongly benefited from a more immediate danger in its story.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines – I did prefer the above entry as I have already stated, but still Mitchells is undeniably pretty solid in its own right. The characters are very good and the family drama elements worked splendidly. The animation’s quite unique too. I just wish its pace was less hectic and that it had less action in it.