30 Best Animated Movies On Netflix [December 2023] - Looper (2024)

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ByBen KayeandBrian Boone/July 24, 2021 1:25 am EST

With streaming services like Netflix filling our homes with endless amounts of content on a weekly basis, it can sometimes be a chore to even find what you want to watch at any given moment. So when you're in the mood to move away from the "real world" and immerse yourself in a film filled with imaginative, visual splendor, where can you turn? What can you do? What possible options do you have?

Well, never fear because we've got you covered on all the best animated feature films that are waiting for you on Netflix! From family favorites and adult masterpieces to television adaptations and original stories crafted for the silver screen, the world of feature animation is rich and varied. And compiled for your viewing pleasure, here are the best of the best for your perusal on Netflix at this very moment!

Updated on November 30, 2023:Because Netflix is constantly updating their expansive catalog, we'll be refreshing this list each month with new animated flicks for your enjoyment. So whether you're looking for a cartoon that's for the whole family or a film that's a little more grown-up, we'll keep things current each month with new selections.

Paramount

The French-language comics by Belgian cartoonist Hergé about an intrepid young reporter namedTintin and his dog Snowy are immensely popular, and have been adapted into most every other kind of media. This includes a big-budget, motion-capture/CGI animated film from Steven Spielberg. In "The Adventures of Tintin," Tintin buys a model ship at a market, and is promptly pursued by sketchy figures keen to buy the toy off of him. He turns them down and discovers why they desire the model so much: It contains clues to hidden treasure. Tintin considers seeking it out and is just about forced to do so — along with fighting for his freedom — when he's kidnapped and turned over to a ship's captain, who has a personal link to the long-lost treasure.

• Starring: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Year: 2011
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

Netflix

Richard Linklater is a masterful indie filmmaker of many talents, and with "Apollo 10 1/2," he combines the dreamlike animation of his "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly" with the tender unflinching approach to adolescence in "Boyhood," creating a joyful, fun-for-all-ages celebration of the Apollo space program. "Apollo 10 1/2" is a period piece set in suburban Houston, not far from the NASA command center in 1969 in the lead-up to the moon landing. A fantastical take on real events, the plot concerns NASA recruiting a kid to travel to the moon first because they goofed and built the lunar module so small that only a child can use it to travel into space.

• Starring: Jack Black, Bill Wise, Lee Eddy
• Director: Richard Linklater
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 90 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Netflix

Though this new direct-to-Netflix release may have gone fairly under the radar, it's absolutely worth seeking out the darling musical adventures of "Arlo the Alligator Boy." Arlo's just your typical half-human, half-alligator kid, yearning to find where he came from. And just his luck, on his 15th birthday, he learns the truth of who his father might be. So off we go on a magical, singing adventure, and with a cast of fun-loving characters and wonderful lessons to be learned along the way about accepting who you really are, "Arlo the Alligator Boy" is the earnest, joyful new movie you've been looking for.

• Starring: Michael J. Woodard, Mary Lambert, Jonathan Van Ness
• Director: Ryan Crego
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: TV-Y7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

DreamWorks

The gentle, cheeky, stop-motion-animated "Chicken Run" is an action-packed prison escape movie about funny fowl that's fit for the whole family. The chicken residents of a farm in the English countryside have contently settled into their fate as egg layers. But then a rogue and co*cky rooster named Rocky moves onto the farm — just in time to save the chickens from certain death. The humans have brought in an automatic meat-pie making machine, and the flightless birds must look to Rocky to help them get off the farm and to a safe island paradise.

• Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson
• Directors: Peter Lord, Nick Park
• Year: 2000
• Runtime: 85 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Sony Pictures Releasing

After Phil Lord and Chris Miller took a bizarre children's book and turned it into an animation success, the sequel door opened wide for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2." After turning his home island into a giant food depository, inventor Flint Lockwood learns that his food-generating device is creating sentient food creatures, and he must journey back to the island to halt even further impending doom. Mixing the heightened action of a "Jurassic Park" film with the delightful puns you might find on an episode of "Veggie Tales," this delicious sequel is able to heighten the absurdity of its predecessor to mouth-watering results.

• Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Will Forte
• Directors: Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 94 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Netflix

Created by and starring Kid Cudi, feature-length animated special "Entergalactic" serves as an accompaniment to and expansion of the rapper's same-named album. Animated with a combination of styles and techniques that make for lush and engrossing imagery, "Entergalactic" is a sweet romantic comedy-drama that juxtaposes love with the grit and stress of trying to make a living as a creative in New York City. Kid Cudi voices Jabari, an artist on the verge of recognition, who falls in love with his new neighbor, a photographer named Meadow. But it comes at a potentially very bad time. Is love worth it, even at such a cost?

• Starring: Kid Cudi, Jessica Williams, Timothée Chalamet
• Director: Fletcher Moules
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Netflix

"Flavors of Youth" is comprised of three short vignettes, each of which explores a different necessity of life: food, clothing, or shelter. In the first story, a man grown nostalgic for his long-gone childhood desperately recreates the rice noodle dish he fondly associates with that time. The second shows two distant sisters attempting to reconnect. The third follows a young man who's moved back to his hometown as he recaptures memories of an old girlfriend by listening to her cassettes. Each chapter is a luminous delight.

• Starring: Mariya Ise, Hiroki Yasumoto, Haruka Shiraishi
• Directors:Li Haoling, Yosh*taka Takeuchi, Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 75 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Netflix

Carlo Collodi's 19th-century tale of Pinocchio, the puppet transformed into a real boy by the wish of a lonely toymaker, has been adapted to films several times. But it's never felt quite as poignant or been quite as visually arresting asthe 2022, Oscar-winning version by Guillermo del Toro. Told via beautiful stop-motion animation, this Netflix Original finds Pinocchio going on a dark journey ofhis brand new soul, learning moral lessons as he gets into dangerous situations under the watchful eye of Sebastian J. Cricket, all while his father, Geppetto, grieves the death of his biological son, Carlo. Meanwhile, every character deals with life under the rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

• Starring:Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley
• Directors:Guillermo del Toro
• Year:2022
• Runtime:117 minutes
• Rating:PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score:97%

Netflix

"The House" is an anthology of animated featurettes. Though they're directed by different artists, each takes place in the same innocuous house. All three stories of this adult-oriented, surreal, and deeply unsettling feature explore themes like anxiety, dread, and emotional claustrophobia. In one story, the house, constantly in disrepair, overtakes its overwhelmed residents with mind games, fire, and disorientation. In another (in which everyone is a rat), a developer is powerless in the face of creepy squatters. The final episode portrays the house as a respite in a world-destroying flood.

• Starring: Mia Goth, Matthew Goode, Claudie Blakley
• Directors: Paloma Baeza, Emma De Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Marc James Roels
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 97 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Rezo Films

An Academy Award-nominated piece of gorgeous and electrifying animation, "I Lost My Body" is the surreal story of young Naoufel and his severed hand (it's a long story). The film charmingly tracks these two in tandem — Naoufel and his life leading up to the moment he lost his hand and the present-day hand journeying across France to reunite with his body. As surreal as it is painfully down-to-earth, "I Lost My Body" is a perfect piece of adult animation that's both visually and emotionally compelling.

• Starring: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d'Assumcao
• Director: Jeremy Clapin
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 81 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Netflix

Invader Zim can sometimes feel like the neglected stepchild of the Nicktoons family. Embraced by many long after its cancelation, this idiosyncratic piece of outsider animation finally got turned into a Netflix-exclusive, feature-length adventure, with the chaotic, invasion-craving alien Zim and his trusty manic robot sidekick, GIR, on the verge of finally taking over the planet Earth, despite the best intentions of skeptical Earth-child Dib. Featuring the gorgeously jarring humor and art style of series creator Jhonen Vasquez, "Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus" is a welcome return to the screen for one of Nickelodeon's most mind-bending animated creations.

• Starring: Richard Horvitz, Rosearik Rikki Simons, Kevin McDonald
• Directors: Hae Young Jung, Young Kyun Park, Jhonen Vasquez
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 71 minutes
• Rating: TV-Y7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Netflix

Barely two years old and already an instant holiday classic, "Klaus" puts a new spin on the origin story of old Saint Nick himself, taking us along on the journey of a selfish postman named Jesper, whose blooming friendship with a reclusive toymaker — the titular Klaus — becomes the basis for Christmas traditions across the globe. With gorgeous hand-drawn animation, fun character design, and a heart of gold, "Klaus" is that perfect film to give you the Christmas spirit at any time of the year.

• Starring: Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones
• Director: Sergio Pablos
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 98 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Netflix

For nearly a decade now, Adam Sandler has exclusively made movies for Netflix. Most of them are in his unique comic style, created with a regular band of collaborators. "Leo" feels like another goofy, character-and buffoonery-driven Sandler vehicle — albeit CGI animated, about talking animals, and appropriate for all audiences.Sandler voices Leo, an acerbic and irascible classroom pet desperately tired of living behind glass. He thinks that going home with a kid will allow him to escape and spend the rest of his life in freedom. Instead, his host discovers he can talk, and before long, Leo becomes a friend and mentor to a bunch of amusingly misunderstood tweens.

• Starring:Adam Sandler, Bill Burr, Jason Alexander
• Directors:Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, and David Wachtenheim
• Year:2023
• Runtime:102 minutes
• Rating:PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score:80%

Netflix

One of 2021's most genuinely surprising comedy hits, "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" is a jam-packed, utterly hysterical film from Sony Pictures Animation that's not only one of the best animated movies of the year but one of the best movies, period. In a last ditch effort to bond with his college-bound daughter, Rick Mitchell tosses his family's plane tickets and trades them in for a cross-country road trip, which just so happens to coincide with a robot apocalypse uprising. Together, it's up to the Mitchell family to save the planet while also learning to be a great family.

• Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph
• Director: Michael Rianda
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 114 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Netflix

Like a combination of "E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial," "Big Hero 6," and various movies about charismatic but evil tech geniuses, "Next Gen" is an exciting, eye-popping, futuristic bit of CGI animation with something to say. Mai and her mother live in the city of Grainland, in a near-futuristic world where robots perform a number of everyday tasks. After getting agitated at a product presentation at IQ Robotics (for a line of designed-to-explode products), Mai finds a robotics lab, where Dr. Tanner Rice has created a war droid named 7723. Mai inadvertently brings the bot to life, which instantly imprints on her and follows her home, despite the police giving chase and the machine damaging his core. Things quickly escalate, and soon Mai and 7723 — who forge a powerful and touching bond — are fighting the very people who brought the robot into existence.

• Starring: John Krasinski, David Cross, Charlene Yi
• Director: Kevin R. Adams and Joe Ksander
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 104 minutes
• Rating: TV-PG
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 83%

Netflix

Based on the popular comic of the same name, comedic adventure "Nimona" takes place in a tech-heavy future world that also harkens back to the romanticized medieval days of kings, quests, and chivalry. A once-noble knight named Ballister Boldheart sees his reputation diminished when he's wrongfully accused of an awful crime. In order to clear his name, he must seek out the assistance of Nimona, a teenaged agent of chaos and monstrous shapeshifter he's actually been ordered to kill. Alliances and goals shift quickly as heroes become villains, villains become heroes, and Nimona gleefully destroys stuff.

• Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, Eugene Lee Yang
• Directors: Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
• Year: 2023
• Runtime: 99 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Netflix

From legendary animator Glen Keane, this film — initially inspired by the Chinese myth of Chang'e — tells the story of young Fei Fei and her quest to prove her worth to her family by traveling to the moon. While the film finds itself in wonderfully fantastical settings, it's all based in an overwhelming emotional core, and it never forgets that. From the moment Fei Fei launches her rocket into orbit, you know you're in for the adventure of a lifetime.

• Starring: Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong
• Director: Glen Keane
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Universal

In this second "Puss in Boots" movie, rogue feline hero Puss in Boots embarks on one last daring adventure when he realizes he's lost eight of his nine feline lives. In order to retrieve them, he seeks out the Wishing Star in the Black Forest. But, unable to exercise his usual brand of reckless bravery, he has to rely on tenuous partnerships with friend-turned-rival Kitty Softpaws and the annoyingly happy dog Perrito. Their hunt for the Wishing Star takes them on a journey through fairy tale send-ups, like a villainous Goldilocks, a crime syndicate run by the Three Bears, and the Big Bad Wolf, now a tenacious bounty hunter.

• Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Olivia Colman
• Director: Joel Crawford
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Netflix

Animation directorChris Williams, known for his work on "Moana," "Big Hero 6," and "Bolt," returns to the world of legends and folk tales with "The Sea Beast." It's a beautifully rendered story of long ago, when fearsome beasts stalked the sea, threatening wayfarers and attracting the attention of monster hunters looking to vanquish them. Or at least, that's the story everyone believes — including the greatest monster hunter of all, Jacob Holland. But this swashbuckler is thrown for a loop when a child named Maisie stows away on his ship for a transformative journey and a memorable encounter with an actual sea beast.

• Starring: Karl Urban, Zaris-Angel Hator, Jared Harris
• Director: Chris Williams
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 119 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

StudioCanal

Shaun the Sheep — the lovable wooly critter introduced in Wallace and Gromit's "A Close Shave"– is back on the big screen after his wildly popular first cinematic outing "The Shaun the Sheep Movie." Naturally, things have taken a turn for the extraterrestrial here in "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon" as Shaun and his animal pals must help their new alien friend, Lu-La, return home and avoid getting in the hands of nefarious forces. As is typical with the "Shaun the Sheep" franchise, this is a film filled with hilarious slapstick humor, charming stop-motion animation, and all the heart you can expect from a lovable sheep named Shaun.

• Starring: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Kate Harbour
• Directors: Richard Phelan & Will Becher
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 86 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Universal Pictures

Like the first "Sing" movie, "Sing 2" features plenty of adorable and sassy CGI animals singing well-known pop songs with the familiar voices of various celebrities. Following the success of his musical competition — the focus of the first film — theater owner and koala Buster Moon wants to break into the mainstream. Sadly, he's rejected by entertainment gatekeepers. The solution: Con his way into an audition in the big city and impress media mogul Jimmy Crystal, while also enlisting the help of rock star Clay Calloway. But Calloway isn't keen on assisting, as he hasn't shown his face in public in more than a decade. Watching Buster and his troop of talented performers wrestle with this as they attempt to put on a great show is bubbly, toe-tapping fun.

• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson
• Director: Garth Jennings
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 110 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Sony Pictures Releasing

Meta, inventive, and visually stunning, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is one of the most ambitious and entertaining superhero movies ever made. Picking up where "Into the Spider-Verse" leaves off, the mind-bending epic begins with Miles Morales, the Spider-Man of his world. After a surprising reunion, he traverses the multi-verse with Gwen Stacy, aka her universe's Spider-Woman. Soon, they meet the Spider-Society, which brings together Spider-oriented superheroes from many other realities. They've got to stop bad guy the Spot while being careful to not undo the fabric of everyone's realities. But not everyone in the Spider-Society is who they seem to be, and the rules of the multiverse are more complicated than Miles realizes.

• Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac
• Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
• Year: 2023
• Runtime: 140 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Fox

The little dolls with the wild hair receive an elaborate backstory and mythology in "Trolls." Troll Village is a place of constant dancing, singing, and partying among Troll-kind — unless they arouse the attention of the Bergens, who love to ritualistically eat Trolls. After one such Troll celebration invites a Bergen attack and kidnapping, the effervescent Princess Poppy and her grumpy companion Branch must get along long enough to embark on an adventurous quest. High-energy music, innovative animation, and a whole lot of fun ensues.

• Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
• Directors: Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

Netflix

From the staggering imagination of Guillermo del Toro, "Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans" hit Netflix in 2021, bringing the epic "Tales of Arcadia" saga to a satisfying conclusion. Granted, you'll have to be familiar with the TV series "Trollhunters," "3Below," and "Wizards" to truly appreciate this gem, but once you're up to speed, you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat as all your favorite heroes take on the Arcane Order and try to save the world from the — you guessed it — rise of the titans. With voice work from beloved figures like Steven Yeun, Nick Offerman, Tatiana Maslany, Kelsey Grammer, and Diego Luna, this is a truly magical adventure for the whole family.

• Starring: Emile Hirsch, Lexi Medrano, Charlie Saxton
• Directors: Johane Matte, Andrew L. Schmidt, Francisco Ruiz Velaco
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• Rating: TV-Y7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Netflix

Lin-Manuel Miranda is having one heck of a 2021. Between the marvelous film adaptation of his stage musical "In the Heights," his latest song contributions to the upcoming Disney feature "Encanto," and his feature directorial debut "Tick, Tick... Boom!," the multi-award-winning composer/performer is inescapable in his artistic pursuits. Now, you can add "Vivo" to that list — a charming new animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation about the titular kinkajou (voiced by Miranda), a musical mammal prodigy who must travel from the streets of Havana to the heart of Miami, Florida. With songs penned by Miranda himself and featuring a supporting cast including Zoe Saldana, Brian Tyree Henry, and Gloria Estefan, "Vivo" is another delightful entry in the remarkable year of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

• Starring: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldana, Brian Tyree Henry
• Director: Kirk DeMicco
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score:86%

DreamWorks

The team at British claymation studio Aardman received Academy Award nominations and statuettes in the early 1990s for their series of shorts starring cheese-loving nerd Wallace and his hyper-intelligent, heroic dog Gromit. Aardman won another Oscar for the feature-length, gently spooky "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." In this not-too-scary spoof of old monster movies, a quaint British village is beset by a monster rabbit, who eats all of its crops. Wallace and Gromit, working as pest control professionals, must put a stop to the humongous, ridiculous, floppy-eared menace. In the meantime, they've got to defeat another bad guy, Victor, who wishes to woo Wallace's one true love, Lady Tottington.

• Starring: Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter
  
• Directors: Nick Park, Steve Box
• Year: 2005
• Runtime: 82 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Netflix

It took the dazzling animation of stop-motion master Henry Selickto reunite "Key & Peele" stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The result, Netflix's "Wendell & Wild," is delightful. A deliciously dark fairy tale comedy that pits good against evil, "Wendell & Wild" complicates things from the outset: The "good" side isn't squeaky clean, and the "bad" guys are layered and compelling. Wendell and Wild are demons, and they must prepare to battle their nemesis. They soon find unlikely allies in a nun named Sister Helley and a teenage girl named Kat, their guide to the realm of the living. But Kat has problems of her own — problems the demonic duo might be able to help her with.

• Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Angela Bassett
• Director: Henry Selick
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Netflix

One of the most widely read and enduring books published by early 20th-century novelist Jack London, "White Fang" is told from the point of view of a young wolf pup, and this all-animated adaptation (that looks like a living painting) faithfully adheres to the source material. After finding himself separated from his mother in the wild, the little wolfdog sets off on a journey of discovery and adventure, adopted into an Indigenous community as a sled dog, stolen and forced into a fighting ring, then freed and rescued by a the human who will become his closest ally.

• Starring: Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones, Paul Giamatti
• Director: Alexandre Espigares
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 87 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Netflix

A charmingly bizarre Netflix film that may have gone under the radar for some, "The Willoughbys," based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry, follows four wayward children and the parents who would give anything to have a life without them. In an effort to rid themselves of their vicious parents, the Willoughby children arrange to send them on a "dream vacation" to the most dangerous destinations on the planet where nothing but hilarity ensues. Crafted with a gorgeous and fun animation style, and filled to the brim with memorable voice performances, "The Willoughbys" is a delightful and deadly journey worth taking.

• Starring: Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara
• Director: Kris Pearn
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Netflix

Sony Pictures Animation is having a rather busy 2021, with "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" already wowing audiences earlier this year and another "Hotel Transylvania" film ready to delight audiences in theaters in just a few months. Not to be forgotten, though, is "Wish Dragon," a charming new film about a young man who finds a dragon in a teapot and has three wishes all to himself. Even if you think the whole three wishes story device isn't so fresh anymore, the film'stake on the "genie" legend — mixed with a lush, rich color palette — provides some much needed new perspectives in this not-to-be-missed animated adventure.

• Starring: Jimmy Wong, John Cho, Constance Wu
• Director: Chris Appelhans
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%