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Best Live action and animation Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of live action and animation cinema — measured across 2,438 indexed frames from 28 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Live action and animation films over-index on creature, rock and hat — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Pete’s Dragon (2016)

    David LoweryDP Bojan BazelliIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace, who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales... until she meets Pete, a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie, an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.

  2. 2

    Okja (2017)

    Bong Joon HoDP Darius KhondjiIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    For 10 idyllic years, young Mija (An Seo Hyun) has been caretaker and constant companion to Okja-a massive animal and an even bigger friend-at her home in the mountains of South Korea. But that changes when a family-owned multinational conglomerate Mirando Corporation takes Okja for themselves and transports her to New York, where image obsessed and self-promoting CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) has big plans for Mija's dearest friend. With no particular plan but single-minded in intent, Mija sets out on a rescue mission, but her already daunting journey quickly becomes more complicated when she crosses paths with disparate groups of capitalists, demonstrators and consumers, each battling to control the fate of Okja...while all Mija wants to do is bring her friend home. Deftly blending genres, humor, poignancy and drama, Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) begins with the gentlest of premises-the bond between man and animal-and ultimately creates a distinct and layered vision of the world that addresses the animal inside us all. Okja is a Plan B Entertainment, Lewis Pictures and Kate Street Picture Company production in association with Netflix.

  3. 3

    Pinocchio (2022)

    Robert ZemeckisDP Don BurgessIMDb 5.1TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    A wooden puppet embarks on a thrilling adventure to become a real boy.

  4. 4

    The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

    Peter JacksonDP Andrew LesnieIMDb 8.9TMDB 8.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    An ancient Ring thought lost for centuries has been found, and through a strange twist of fate has been given to a small Hobbit named Frodo. When Gandalf discovers the Ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, Frodo must make an epic quest to Mount Doom in order to destroy it. However, he does not go alone. He is joined by Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn, Boromir, and his three Hobbit friends Merry, Pippin, and Samwise. Through mountains, snow, darkness, forests, rivers and plains, facing evil and danger at every corner the Fellowship of the Ring must go. Their quest to destroy the One Ring is the only hope for the end of the Dark Lords reign.

  5. 5

    Pokémon Detective Pikachu

    Rob LettermanDP John MathiesonIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    The story begins when ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry's former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City--a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world--they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.

  6. 6

    Mary Poppins (1964)

    Robert StevensonDP Edward ColmanIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    When Jane and Michael Banks are faced with the prospect of a new nanny, they are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins. Embarking on a series of fantastical adventures with he and her Cockney performer friend, Bert, they try to pass on some of her sunny attitude to their preoccupied parents.

  7. 7

    Dumbo (2019)

    Tim BurtonDP Ben DavisIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Holt was once a circus star until he went off to war and returned terribly altered. Circus owner Max Medici hires him to take care of Dumbo, a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him the laughingstock of the struggling circus troupe. But when Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, silver-tongued entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere and aerial artist Colette Marchant swoop in to make the little elephant a star.

  8. 8

    Christopher Robin (2018)

    Marc ForsterDP Matthias KoenigswieserIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Christopher Robin, the boy who had countless adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood, has grown up and lost his way. Now it’s up to his spirited and loveable stuffed animals, Winnie The Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and the rest of the gang, to rekindle their friendship and remind him of endless days of childlike wonder and make-believe, when doing nothing was the very best something.

  9. 9

    The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)

    Stephen HillenburgDP Jerzy ZielińskiIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    There's trouble brewing in Bikini Bottom. Someone has stolen King Neptune's crown, and it looks like Mr. Krab, SpongeBob's boss, is the culprit. Though he's just been passed over for the promotion of his dreams, SpongeBob stands by his boss, and along with his best pal Patrick, sets out on a treacherous mission to Shell City to reclaim the crown and save Mr. Krab's life.

  10. 10

    James and the Giant Peach (1996)

    Henry SelickDP Pete KozachikIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    James' happy life at the English seaside is rudely ended when his parents are killed by a rhinoceros and he goes to live with his two horrid aunts. Daringly saving the life of a spider he comes into possession of magic boiled crocodile tongues, after which an enormous peach starts to grow in the garden. Venturing inside, he meets not only the spider but a number of new friends including a ladybug and a centipede who help him with his plan to try to get to New York.

What live action and animation films are made of

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

  • creature8.0×
  • rock2.4×
  • hat2.1×
  • boy2.0×
  • clouds1.8×
  • girl1.8×
  • fedora1.7×
  • smoke1.6×

How live action and 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 live action and animation from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 21%high keyvs 12% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Cinderella (2015) 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 2,438 frames from 28 films carrying the live action and animation 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/live-action-and-animation

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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