Here we go again!

In the 80s, I started a magazine called “Animato!” that later grew quite large and popular. I got to meet and interview great animators like Chuck Jones and Ralph Bakshi but later sold the magazine, and it went on to even bigger successes until the internet killed all magazines.

So I’m still an animation fan, but it’s basically impossible to see all the films and all the animated TV shows these days unless you’re a full-time animator or animation historian, I guess.

These days, with so much CGI, we can debate what an “animated film” even is, but generally the accepted definition is that the main characters must be animated — not just the monsters or effects. (And “motion capture” doesn’t count.)

So here’s my annual end-of-the-year list of best and worst animated films (based on their Rotten Tomatoes score). Ties are broken by number of reviews, and you have to have at least 10 reviews to make my list.

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (100%)
Look Back (100%)
Flow (97%)
The Wild Robot (97%)
Memoir of a Snail (94%)
Paddington in Peru (93%)
Inside Out 2 (91%)
Transformers One (89%)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (86%)
Ultraman Rising (86%)
The Day the Earth Blew Up (85%)
Haikyu: The Dumpster Battle (75%)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (71%)
That Christmas (66%)
Thelma the Unicorn (63%)
Moana 2 (61%)
Despicable Me 4 (56%)
Saving Bikini Bottom (56%)
Mufasa: The Lion King (55%)
Hitpig! (55%)
The Tiger’s Apprentice (53%)
If (50%)
The Most Precious of Cargoes (50%)
Spellbound (46%)
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (44%)
The Garfield Movie (37%)
Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate (9%)