2024 really was the greatest year for animation ever.
There was an abundance of outrageously wonderful animated features released over the course of 2024 – all sorts of movies, with all sorts of animation styles and points-of-view. The fact that we left off plenty of wonderful movies, like Naoko Yamada’s brilliant, touching “The Colors Within” (which gets a wide release in January – seek it out), the French sci-fi noir “Mars Express” or mainstream gems like Mike Mitchell’s hellzapoppin’ “Kung Fu Panda 4,” tells you what a stellar year it really was.
But enough with the preamble, let’s chart the very best animated features of 2024 – from melancholic stop-motion to wondrous, widescreen computer animation and everything in-between.
2024’s most underrated movie is, incredibly, a gonzo animated feature written by Charlie Kaufman. Yes, that Charlie Kaufman. Based on the children’s book by Emma Yarlett, it had been sitting around DreamWorks Animation until enterprising director Sean Charmatz dusted it off, presented his take – gently psychedelic, full of Muppet-y characters, with Tame Impala on the soundtrack – and got it made. Unlike most DreamWorks movies, it was animated by a partner studio (Mikros Animation, who was responsible for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” last year), not that you can tell. The story of a young boy named Orion (Jacob Tremblay), who is really afraid of the dark and must go on a nocturnal odyssey with the personification of the dark (Paul Walter Hauser), is sweet, strange and unexpected, with a supporting cast of colorful characters (voiced by Angela Bassett, Natasia Demetriou and Nat Faxon). Stay up late and watch “Orion and the Dark.”
Pixar’s animated sequel set all kinds of records this year, on its way to becoming the most successful animated feature of all time. And “Inside Out 2” really is special, thanks largely to Kelsey Mann’s nimble direction and the smart script by returning writer Meg LeFauve and newcomer Dave Holstein. The creative team turned what could have just been a by-the-numbers follow-up into something unique and invigorating. It’s in the movie’s smaller moments, too, where its true power lies, particularly towards the end, with Riley’s mind overrun by Anxiety (a note-perfect Maya Hawke). That’s when Riley beckons Joy (Amy Poehler), her spritely particles being pulled through headquarters. It is one of the more moving sequences of the entire year and it feels like the entire movie had been building towards it. The “Inside Out” movie could be Pixar’s “Before” trilogy, checking in on Riley every few years. We certainly hope it will.
“Memoir of a Snail” is a melancholic ode to the hardships and triumphs that make up a life. Writer/director Adam Elliot, here with his first film since 2009’s “Mary and Max,” focuses on Grace (voiced, mostly in narration, by Sarah Snook), a woman with a cleft lip and a love of snails (she sees herself as a snail, crawling into her shell when she feels awkward). Grace has a brother who she is separated from and who is ultimately adopted by a family who wants to convert him from a sinful life of homosexuality. Also: it turns out that Grace’s husband is a real creep. The darkness piles up and is sometimes overwhelming, but Elliot is a master of tone – just when it becomes too bleak, he allows a ray of sunshine to sneak in (if you aren’t sobbing by the end, you might be a robot). And the handmade quality of “Memoir of a Snail,” with its minimal, stop-motion animation, endears it further. It feels – and looks – like a work of outsider folk art; something to treasure always.
A work of singular genius, “Flow,” from writer/director/composer Gints Zilbalodis, will transport you to a world that has suffered a great flood. A group of animals, led by a precocious black cat, put their differences aside and band together on a boat, determined to survive the unseen cataclysm. “Flow” doesn’t feature dialogue and the animals are allowed to act like animals instead of humans in animal costumes. And the animation was produced entirely on Blender, a free-to-use software that anybody can buy, with sequences composed in long, unbroken shots. It’s an uncanny sensation, like getting sucked into another dimension, with the stylized imagery feeling like the middleground between animation and video games. The fact that Zilbalodis was able to make the movie so nimbly is a testament to his vision as a filmmaker and the talent of his crew. “Flow” is a magic trick that never draws attention to itself, instead content to dazzle you until the very end … and then some (yes, there is a post-credits scene).
Somehow, the Looney Tunes returned. The beloved Warner Bros. animated property hasn’t had the best luck recently: The live-action/animation hybrid “Coyote vs. Acme” was quietly shelved after it was finished and the less said about “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” the better. But “The Day the Earth Blew Up” proves there’s plenty of gas left in the “Looney Tunes” tank. Director Pete Browngardt, a veteran of recent “Looney Tunes” shorts, brings together a warm-hearted story of Daffy and Porky (Eric Bauza), who live on a farm with Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore) and whose existence is threatened by the arrival of an alien menace. It somehow mixes 1950s sci-fi parody with genuine emotion and some of the very best gags in the history of the franchise (including Farmer Jim, an icon-in-waiting). It’s absolute insanity and every second just works. Somewhat tellingly, Warner Bros. dropped the movie after it was finished, but Ketchup has swooped in to pick it up. It’ll get a wider release at the beginning of 2025. Don’t miss it.
The first fully animated “Transformers” movie since 1986’s “The Transformers: The Movie” (indelible to countless youth for the death of Optimus Prime) was one of the year’s biggest and best surprises. Unburdened by the live-action films that started with Michael Bay’s original in 2007, “Transformers One” was allowed to be light and fun, as it should be. It’s an origin story of sorts, tracing the beginnings of Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry), who start out as friends before becoming enemies. They live in a giant mechanized world and befriend some other outcasts (played by Scarlett Johansson and Keegan-Michael Key), who uncover the truth about the planet’s ruling party and the secrets they keep (there’s a lot going on here). “Toy Story 4” director Josh Cooley stages set pieces ingeniously – a runaway race in the city, a journey to the surface of the planet, a rock ‘em sock ‘em climax – while never losing sight of the characters and their inner, emotional journey. The animation by Industrial Light & Magic, which harkens back to the ’80s designs while adding much richness and texture, is also jaw-dropping. With “Transformers One,” there’s more than meets the eye.
If you’ve never heard of “Ghost Cat Anzu,” don’t worry. This French/Japanese co-production, directed by Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita and based on a manga by Takashi Imashiro, is an absolute charmer – a bizarre, utterly intoxicating mixture of “Lilo & Stitch” and “Uncut Gems.” The story concerns a young girl, who has lost her mother and whose father is a degenerate gambler, and her ethereal pal, a ghostly cat spirit who also works as a smalltown masseuse (this is the actual storyline). “Ghost Cat Anzu” has an odd, offbeat sensibility, enhanced by its 2D animation and the fact that the entire movie was filled with real actors before the process began. Some of these sequences were rotoscoped, but most were simply used for the dialogue, which sometimes feels like you’re listening to a stage production. It’s almost impossible to describe how funny and wonderful this movie is, but with its supernatural overtones and sweet conceit about the preciousness of life, it ended up being a better “Beetlejuice” sequel than the actual “Beetlejuice” sequel that came out this year. All hail “Ghost Cat Anzu,” we love you so.
Wallace and Gromit have, mercifully, returned. And the inventor (now voiced by Ben Whitehead) and his silent dog companion are just as wonderful as they’ve ever been. The first true follow-up in the duo’s history, “Vengeance Most Fowl” is, among other things, a continuation of the story that began with their Oscar-winning 1993 short “The Wrong Trousers.” The villain from that movie, Feathers McGraw, is plotting his revenge from behind bars, using Wallace’s new robotic gnome as the pathway to achieving his goals. The stop-motion animation retains the charm and expressiveness of the original shorts, with a climax that both pays homage and playfully subverts the iconic train chase from “The Wrong Trousers.” (Yes, a movie about the dangers of AI being done in the most painstakingly handmade way is really something.) Directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham have created a film that is worthy of the series’ lineage, while also introducing the characters to a whole new audience – the Netflix audience. Cracking, indeed.
The character of Ultraman debuted in Japan back in 1966. But somehow, this is the first animated feature built around the character, who in “Ultraman: Rising” is imagined as an egotistical baseball phenom who returns to Japan after his dad (the original Ultraman) can no longer do the job. While fighting a giant monster, he winds up with custody of the creature’s egg, which promptly cracks open, revealing a kaiju baby that he must now take care of. “Ultraman: Rising,” co-written and directed by Shannon Tindle, is a story about fathers and their children – the way that the specific relationship can be strained and how, with a little time and energy, it can be mended. It might not have been what everyone wanted from an animated Ultraman movie, but it’s more rewarding for being able to subvert so many of the tropes while still being so satisfying in other places. And the work of Industrial Light & Magic, animating their first full feature since “Rango” in 2011 and “Strange Magic” in 2015, should be singled out. Mixing influences from anime, manga and the original series, ILM was able to concoct a wholly original and unique look and feel that emphasizes the supersized emotions of “Ultraman: Rising.” Don’t let your color timer run out on this one.
Maybe the single most emotional experience we had at the movies in 2024 was with “The Wild Robot.” The movie marked the return of writer/director Chris Sanders, one of the most idiosyncratic voices in mainstream animation, who had previously made “Lilo & Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon” with his frequent creative partner Dean DeBlois and dipped into live-action with an underrated “Call of the Wild” adaptation that had the misfortune of opening right before the world shut down in 2020. Based on the best-selling book by Peter Brown, “The Wild Robot” follows Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a high-tech robot that washes ashore on a deserted island populated exclusively by animals. There, she tasks herself with raising a young goose, whose family Roz accidentally destroyed. She also befriends a rascally fox with the voice of Pedro Pascal. If the story didn’t already suck you in, then the animation style surely will. The entire thing is rendered in a painterly art style that is frequently jaw-dropping. It never takes you away from the heart of the movie, instead enhancing everything going on between the characters. And what makes it particularly astounding is the fact that “The Wild Robot” was made at DreamWorks Animation, a studio that celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. It’s that creative restlessness that has helped them endure. And “The Wild Robot” is the very best movie the studio has ever released. It’s a towering achievement, not because it’s epic or overly complex (although there are certainly those elements, for sure), but because of the way that it makes you feel – so deeply, so fully and so completely. It’s a new animated classic. We’re wild for “The Wild Robot.”
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