framethrowerSign up for free

Best Animation Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of animation cinema — measured across 18,701 indexed frames from 216 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Animation films over-index on cape, fur and dog — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

    Joel CrawfordIMDb 7.8TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: He has burned through eight of his nine lives, leaving him with only one life left. Puss sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives.

  2. 2

    The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

    Chris RenaudIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    Max the terrier must cope with some major life changes when his owner gets married and has a baby. When the family takes a trip to the countryside, nervous Max has numerous run-ins with canine-intolerant cows, hostile foxes and a scary turkey. Luckily for Max, he soon catches a break when he meets Rooster, a gruff farm dog who tries to cure the lovable pooch of his neuroses.

  3. 3

    Kubo and the Two Strings

    Travis KnightDP Frank PassinghamIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior.

  4. 4

    The Croods (2013)

    Kirk DeMicco, Chris SandersDP Yong Duk JhunIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    The prehistoric Croods family live in a particularly dangerous moment in time. Patriarch Grug, his mate Ugga, teenage daughter Eep, son Thunk, and feisty Gran gather food by day and huddle together in a cave at night. When a more evolved caveman named Guy arrives on the scene, Grug is distrustful, but it soon becomes apparent that Guy is correct about the impending destruction of their world.

  5. 5

    Princess Mononoke (1997)

    Hayao MiyazakiDP Atsushi OkuiIMDb 8.3TMDB 8.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    While protecting his village from rampaging boar-god/demon, a confident young warrior, Ashitaka, is stricken by a deadly curse. To save his life, he must journey to the forests of the west. Once there, he's embroiled in a fierce campaign that humans were waging on the forest. The ambitious Lady Eboshi and her loyal clan use their guns against the gods of the forest and a brave young woman, Princess Mononoke, who was raised by a wolf-god. Ashitaka sees the good in both sides and tries to stem the flood of blood. This is met by animosity by both sides as they each see him as supporting the enemy.

  6. 6

    Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

    Genndy TartakovskyIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    The Drac pack is back for an all-new monster comedy adventure in Sony Pictures Animation's Hotel Transylvania 2! Everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania... Dracula's rigid monster-only hotel policy has finally relaxed, opening up its doors to human guests. But behind closed coffins, Drac is worried that his adorable half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn't showing signs of being a vampire. So while Mavis is busy visiting her human in-laws with Johnny - and in for a major cultural shock of her own - "Vampa" Drac enlists his friends Frank, Murray, Wayne and Griffin to put Dennis through a "monster-in-training" boot camp. But little do they know that Drac's grumpy and very old, old, old school dad Vlad is about to pay a family visit to the hotel. And when Vlad finds out that his great-grandson is not a pure blood - and humans are now welcome at Hotel Transylvania - things are going to get batty!

  7. 7

    Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

    Hayao MiyazakiIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    An animated fantasy-adventure. Set one thousand years from now, the Earth is ravaged by pollution and war. In the Valley of the Wind lives Nausicaä, Princess of her people. Their land borders on a toxic jungle, filled with dangerous over-sized insects. Meanwhile, two nearby nations are bitterly engaged in a war and the Valley of the Wind is stuck in the middle.

  8. 8

    Frankenweenie (2012)

    Tim BurtonDP Peter SorgIMDb 6.9TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    When young Victor's pet dog Sparky (who stars in Victor's home-made monster movies) is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them (and his parents) that despite his appearance, Sparky's still the good loyal friend he's always been.

  9. 9

    Tales From Earthsea (2006)

    Goro MiyazakiIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating. People are beginning to act strange... What's even more strange is that people are beginning to see dragons, which shouldn't enter the world of humans. Due to all these bizarre events, Ged, a wandering wizard, is investigating the cause. During his journey, he meets Prince Arren, a young distraught teenage boy. While Arren may look like a shy young teen, he has a severe dark side, which grants him strength, hatred, ruthlessness and has no mercy, especially when it comes to protecting Teru. For the witch Kumo this is a perfect opportunity. She can use the boy's "fears" against the very one who would help him, Ged.

  10. 10

    DC League of Super-Pets (2022)

    Jared SternIMDb 6.9TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    When the Justice League are captured by Lex Luthor, Superman's dog, Krypto, forms a team of shelter-pets who were given super-powers: A hound named Ace, who becomes super-strong, a pig named PB, who can grow to giant-size, a turtle named Merton, who becomes super-fast, and a squirrel named Chip, who gains electric-powers.

What animation films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a animation frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — cape is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • cape7.9×
  • fur5.6×
  • dog5.0×
  • girl3.1×
  • tunic3.0×
  • boy2.7×
  • clouds2.6×
  • child1.5×

How animation films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate animation from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 12%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 12%high anglevs 6% baseline
  • 20%high keyvs 12% baseline
  • 10%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
  • 14%closeupvs 21% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Shark Tale (2004) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 18,701 frames from 216 films carrying the animation label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/animation

What is FrameThrower?

Great films start with great references.

The numbers on this page come from the same index you can search directly. Every frame is tagged for lighting, lens, shot size, colour and mood — so you can find the reference you already have in your head, by describing it, by dropping in an image, or by picking a colour.

  • The largest film library in the world — searchable frame by frame
  • Search by light, colour, lens or mood — or by dropping in an image
  • Script to lookbook in an afternoon — a board for every scene, from real frames
  • Moodboards you can share on one link — your DP, designer and client see the same film
  • API and MCP access — for agentic and developer workflows
  • Free to start — no card required

A pitch trailer takes weeks of work and a budget most projects never get. The lookbook gets you there in an afternoon.

Start free — search the library7-day free trial of everything · cancel anytime

DiscoveryResearchReferencesEducation

These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used