The Best Animated Movies of the 2020s (So Far)

Animation in the 2020s has been wild. Not “safe family entertainment” wild, but genuinely, artistically ambitious in ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. The best animated movies of this decade have shattered the idea that cartoons are just for kids, delivering action sequences that put live-action blockbusters to shame, visual styles that feel like nothing you’ve seen before, and stories with real emotional weight. Whether you’re into anime epics, Pixar nostalgia trips, or scrappy indie projects, the 2020s have been delivering.

And we’re only halfway through. The first six-and-a-half years have already produced an absurd number of great animated films across styles, studios, and countries. From Puss in Boots: The Last Wish reinventing what a DreamWorks sequel could look like to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle obliterating box office records for anime, the range is staggering. Here are the ones worth your time.

1. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Nobody expected a Puss in Boots sequel to be one of the best animated films in years. The animation style, blending painterly textures with dynamic comic-book framing, completely reinvented what a DreamWorks movie could look like. And the Wolf? Voiced by Wagner Moura, this incarnation of Death is genuinely menacing, a villain who doesn’t monologue or scheme but simply shows up and waits. Antonio Banderas brings real vulnerability to a character who’s confronting mortality for the first time, and it hits harder than any kids’ movie has a right to.

2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025)

At two hours and thirty-six minutes, this is a commitment. But the Infinity Castle arc earns every minute. The shifting, M.C. Escher-inspired architecture of the castle itself becomes a character, rooms folding and rotating mid-battle as the Hashira face off against the Upper Rank demons. Ufotable’s production values remain unmatched in the anime film space, and the results speak for themselves: a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and one of the highest-grossing anime releases ever. This isn’t a niche import. It’s a global event film.

3. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc (2025)

MAPPA brought the Reze Arc to theaters and absolutely crushed it. The romance between Denji and Reze is heartbreaking precisely because you know it can’t last, and the animation during the bomb-hybrid fight sequences is some of the most fluid, kinetic work in modern anime. Tatsuya Yoshihara directs with a confidence that lets the quieter moments breathe before detonating into pure chaos. A 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.4 on IMDb for a Chainsaw Man movie. What a time to be alive.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Jeff Rowe’s TMNT reboot did something brilliant: it made the turtles actually feel like teenagers. The improvised dialogue, the sketchy animation style that looks like a high schooler’s notebook come to life, the genuinely funny humor. The turtles are awkward, insecure, and desperate to fit in. That scene where they nervously approach a pizza shop for the first time, rehearsing what to say like kids psyching themselves up to talk to a crush? That’s the movie in a single moment. It’s the most personality any TMNT adaptation has ever had, and the 95% Rotten Tomatoes score backs it up.

5. Toy Story 5 (2026)

Look, did we need another Toy Story? No. Did Toy Story 4 already give us a perfect ending? Yes. But Andrew Stanton’s take on what happens when a kid gets a tablet and forgets about physical toys entirely is surprisingly sharp. The new digital toy characters are clever antagonists, and there’s a melancholy running through the whole thing that feels honest about how childhood has changed. It doesn’t hit the emotional highs of the first three, but a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes says the execution is cleaner than most sequels manage. Toy Story 5 earns its spot.

6. Zootopia 2 (2025)

Disney’s return to the world of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde landed well. Ke Huy Quan voices a new character, and the mystery plot takes some darker turns than the original. The social commentary is a bit more on-the-nose this time around, but the animation is gorgeous and the buddy-cop dynamic between Judy and Nick, voiced again by Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman, still clicks. A 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and 73 Metacritic score put Zootopia 2 right alongside the original in quality.

7. ChaO (2025)

Yasuhiro Aoki’s sci-fi romance about a mild-mannered office worker named Stephan and Chao, a princess from the mermaid kingdom, is strange, beautiful, and unlike anything else on this list. Set in a futuristic world where humans and mermaids coexist, the animation style shifts between sequences to match emotional tone, moving from slick cyberpunk aesthetics to watercolor-soft intimacy. ChaO has a genuine sweetness that never turns saccharine, and the 85% on Rotten Tomatoes reflects a film that found its audience.

Anime’s Ongoing Dominance

One thing that defines the best animated movies of the 2020s so far is how dominant Japanese animation has become in global theaters. Films like Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man aren’t niche imports anymore. Demon Slayer pulled in massive box office numbers worldwide, and Chainsaw Man scored critical ratings that would make any Hollywood studio jealous. The quality gap between top-tier anime production and Western animation has essentially disappeared, and in terms of pure visual ambition, anime frequently outpaces it.

8. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Is this a great film? Not really. Is it a great Mario experience? Absolutely. Illumination nailed the look and feel of the Mushroom Kingdom, Jack Black’s Bowser steals every scene he’s in (that Peaches song lives rent-free in my head), and the Rainbow Road sequence is pure joy. The plot is tissue-thin, but The Super Mario Bros. Movie knows exactly what it is and delivers on that promise without apology. Over a billion dollars at the box office says audiences agreed.

9. The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act (2026)

The internet-born animated series made the jump to a feature-length film, and it’s surprisingly emotional. With Caine gone and the circus dark, the cast are left confronting the mistakes and traumas of their pasts, and the existential horror of being trapped in a digital world gets explored with real depth. The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act has a manic energy that fits the story’s mix of comedy and dread, and the fact that it started as a web series makes its quality all the more impressive.

10. GOAT (2026)

An animated sports movie about a small goat trying to make it in a full-contact animal sport shouldn’t work this well, but the voice cast (Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, David Harbour) brings real charm, and the roarball sequences are genuinely exciting to watch. GOAT isn’t reinventing the underdog formula, but it executes it with personality and enough visual flair to keep things interesting. The 82% Rotten Tomatoes score makes it one of the more surprising wins of the year.

The Fun Stuff and the Near-Misses

Minions & Monsters dropped last month, and Pierre Coffin’s latest entry in the Minions universe is a fun, weird departure. The Minions accidentally unleashing monsters onto Hollywood sounds like a fever dream, but the energy is infectious and Trey Parker’s voice work adds a layer of genuine comic absurdity. A 69 on Metacritic puts it squarely in “entertaining but not essential” territory.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) falls somewhere in the middle too. It’s fine. Awkwafina is fun as the new sidekick, and Jack Black still brings the energy as Po, but the story feels like a retread. After three films that each genuinely built on the last, the fourth just kind of exists. A 54 Metacritic score tells you everything.

And then there are the disappointments. Animal Farm (2026), Andy Serkis’s animated adaptation of Orwell with a stacked voice cast including Seth Rogen, Kieran Culkin, and Woody Harrelson, was a major letdown. A 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 33 Metacritic score suggest the satire got lost somewhere in translation from page to screen. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) couldn’t recapture the simple charm of its predecessor either, landing a rough 37 on Metacritic. Sometimes lightning doesn’t strike twice.

Just Hitting Theaters

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender just hit theaters yesterday, bringing the beloved world to animated film for the first time with Lauren Montgomery directing and a voice cast that includes Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, and Eric Nam. It’s too early to judge how it’ll land with audiences and critics, but the potential is enormous. The Avatar universe deserves an animated feature done right.

The best animated movies of the 2020s so far prove that the medium is thriving from every direction: Western studios taking bigger visual risks, anime reaching massive global audiences, and independent projects finding their footing. We’re only halfway through the decade, and the bar is already absurdly high. If you want to explore more, browse our full animation collection for everything from classics to the latest releases.