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Best Cartoon Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of cartoon cinema — measured across 1,772 indexed frames from 22 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

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

  1. 1

    The Lion King (1994)

    Roger Allers, Rob MinkoffIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    A young lion prince is cast out of his pride by his cruel uncle, who claims he killed his father. While the uncle rules with an iron paw, the prince grows up beyond the Savannah, living by a philosophy: No worries for the rest of your days. But when his past comes to haunt him, the young prince must decide his fate: Will he remain an outcast or face his demons and become what he needs to be?

  2. 2

    Madagascar (2005)

    Eric Darnell, Tom McGrathIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    Longing to roam free in the vast landscapes of Mother Africa, Marty, the bored and dejected zebra of the famous Central Park Zoo, escapes his prison on the night of his tenth birthday celebration. However, after a botched rescue attempt by Marty's companions--Alex, the content lion; Melman, the skittish giraffe, and Gloria, the resolute hippo--the friends will find themselves crated up and shipped off to a remote wildlife preserve, only to end up on the sandy shores of exotic Madagascar. At last, Marty's dream will come true; nevertheless, what does it really mean to be a truly wild animal?

  3. 3

    Robin Hood (1973)

    Wolfgang ReithermanIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    An imaginative Disney version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John (Sir Peter Ustinov) and his partner as they put the tax squeeze on the poor.

  4. 4

    Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)

    Eric Darnell, Conrad VernonIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still trying to get back to the Big Apple and their beloved Central Park zoo, but first they need to find the penguins. When they travel to Monte Carlo, they attract the attention of Animal Control after gate crashing a party and are joined by the penguins, King Julian and Co., and the monkeys. How do a lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe, four penguins, two monkeys, three lemurs travel through Europe without attracting attention and get back to New York? They join a traveling circus. Their attempts to get back to New York are consistently hampered by the Captain of Animal Control who wants to make Alex part of her collection. Once they make it back to New York Marty, Alex, Gloria and Melman realize that they want to be part of the traveling circus.

  5. 5

    Sleeping Beauty (1959)

    Clyde GeronimiIMDb 7.2TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    After the beautiful Princess Aurora is born into royalty, everyone gathers to celebrate. Everything is perfectly fine until an unwanted guest appears, the evil fairy Maleficent. Maleficent curses the young princess and announces that she will die by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel before sunset on her 16th birthday. Fortunately, one of the good fairies, Merryweather, changes the spell so Aurora will fall into a deep sleep instead, and the only way to wake her from her sleep is true love's kiss. Finally the day comes.

  6. 6

    Aladdin (1992)

    John Musker, Ron ClementsIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Aladdin is a poor street urchin who spends his time stealing food from the marketplace in the city of Agrabah. His adventures begin when he meets a young girl who happens to be Princess Jasmine, who is forced to be married by her wacky yet estranged father. Aladdin's luck suddenly changes when he retrieves a magical lamp from the Cave of Wonders. What he unwittingly gets is a fun-loving genie who only wishes to have his freedom. Little do they know is that the Sultan's sinister advisor Jafar has his own plans for both Aladdin and the lamp.

  7. 7

    Penguins of Madagascar (2014)

    Simon J. Smith, Eric DarnellIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Super spy teams aren't born - they're hatched. Discover the secrets of the greatest and most hilarious covert birds in the global espionage biz: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private. These elitists of the elite are joining forces with a chic undercover organization, The North Wind. Led by handsome Eurasian wolf Agent Classified (we could tell you his name, but then - you know). Together, they must stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine, from destroying the world as we know it.

  8. 8

    Superman: Red Son (2020)

    Sam LiuIMDb 6.4TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    Set in the thick of the Cold War, Red Son introduces us to a Superman who landed in the USSR during the 1950s and grows up to become a Soviet symbol that fights for the preservation of Stalin’s brand of communism.

  9. 9

    Moana (2016)

    John Musker, Ron ClementsIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Moana Waialiki is a sea voyaging enthusiast and the only daughter of a chief in a long line of navigators. When her island's fishermen can't catch any fish and the crops fail, she learns that the demigod Maui caused the blight by stealing the heart of the goddess, Te Fiti. The only way to heal the island is to persuade Maui to return Te Fiti's heart, so Moana sets off on an epic journey across the Pacific. The film is based on stories from Polynesian mythology.

  10. 10

    Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

    Malcolm D. LeeDP Salvatore TotinoIMDb 4.5TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    When LeBron and his young son Dom are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes to victory over the A.I.'s digitized champions on the court. It's Tunes versus Goons in the highest-stakes challenge of his life.

What cartoon films are made of

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

  • lion133.9×
  • fur9.0×
  • cape8.2×
  • dog5.3×
  • tunic3.8×
  • rock3.0×
  • clouds2.7×
  • sand2.1×

How cartoon 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 cartoon from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 11%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 11%closeupvs 21% baseline
  • 11%high anglevs 6% baseline
  • 25%low keyvs 40% baseline
  • 19%high keyvs 12% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) 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 1,772 frames from 22 films carrying the cartoon label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 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/cartoon

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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