Netflix is practically swimming in animated hits right now, none of which are Netflix originals. While Netflix has heavily invested in making some truly fantastic animated movies, the titles that break into the list of the 10 most popular movies on the streamer are often the films that had big runs in theaters. Two of our picks this month, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Chicken Run, fall under that category.
Our third film, Kubo and the Two Strings, may not have had the same level of success in theaters, but it’s a truly beautiful animated movie that returns to Netflix after a long time away. These aren’t just the best animated movies on Netflix; these are some of the films that redefined what an animated movie could be, like the Oscar-nominated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. You can find all of those films and more below.
Looking for something else? We’ve also rounded up the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, and best shows on Amazon Prime.
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Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
54%A lot of time has passed between Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 4, including the recently concluded Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight animated series on Netflix. Po (Jack Black) has had a very good life as the Dragon Warrior and the protector of the Valley of Peace. But now it’s time for Po to retire as a warrior, and assume a more spiritual role at the behest of his mentor, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).
Po doesn’t really want to step down, and his search for the next Dragon Warrior proves fruitless until he meets a thief named Zhen (Awkwafina), a fox who may be able to help him defeat the evil sorceress called the Chameleon (Viola Davis). Meanwhile, Po’s adoptive father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), and his biological dad, Li Shan (Bryan Cranston), are determined to help their son because they’re not convinced that he can beat the Chameleon alone.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
84%
7.7/10Bumblebee helmer Travis Knight made his directorial debut with the action-packed stop-motion animated film called Kubo and the Two Strings. Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a 12-year-old boy living in feudal Japan who never quite believed his mother’s warnings that if he ever stayed out after dark, his evil grandfather, the Moon King (Ralph Fiennes), and his mother’s sinister sisters, Karasu and Washi (Rooney Mara), would hunt him down and find him.
One day, Kubo breaks his mother’s rule and discovers that her stories were true all along. To defeat his evil family members, Kubo makes two unlikely allies, Monkey (Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Matthew McConaughey). However, this battle needs to be won by more than skill.
Chicken Run (2000)
88%
7.1/10You’ll believe a rooster can fly in the classic stop-motion animated film Chicken Run. At least the other chickens believe it after a rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) glides into the farm owned by Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) and Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth). Ginger (Julia Sawalha) and the other chickens see Rocky’s arrival as a sign of hope after all of their other escape attempts have failed.
The chickens beg Rocky to teach them to fly because the Tweedys want to make them into pies. To save these flightless birds, Rocky will have to find his better nature and come up with a plan fast. If Rocky isn’t careful, he may end up going in a pie too.
The Garfield Movie (2024)
31%
5.7/10Garfield has been around for the better part of five decades, and this lasagna-loving feline isn’t going away anytime soon. The Garfield Movie gives the beloved fat cat a reboot as Chris Pratt (The Super Mario Bros. Movie) takes over the title role. This movie also introduces Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), Garfield’s father.
Garfield and his best buddy, Odie, are happily living with their owner, Jon Arbuckle (Nicholas Hoult), when Garfield’s past comes back to haunt him. Because of Garfield’s reluctant connection with Vic, he and Odie are forced into a milk heist against their will. And if they don’t come through, then neither Garfield nor Odie will ever get to go home to Jon again.
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
74%
7.6/10Before he voiced Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Jack Black headlined his own animated franchise, which began in Kung Fu Panda. Black voices Po, an overweight panda who dreams about being a hero despite lacking any of the martial arts skills of The Furious Five and their mentor, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).
When Shifu’s renegade ex-student, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), threatens to destroy everything his former master stands for, Po is unexpectedly chosen to become the Dragon Warrior. As the Dragon Warrior, Po is the only one who can defeat Tai Lung. Much to Shifu’s annoyance, Po proves to be a poor student. But he’s also uniquely equipped to absorb Shifu’s teachings and become his own kind of hero.
Over the Hedge (2006)
67%
6.7/10Over the Hedge is one of the rare animated films that is based on a newspaper comic strip. The late Garry Shandling led the cast as Verne, a turtle who lives in a community of animals within a forest. Or at least they used to. After hibernation season, the animals discover that humans have turned most of their land into a new housing development.
A newly arrived raccoon named RJ (Bruce Willis) suggests that the animals can use this to their advantage by scavenging from the humans who live there. While Verne is reluctant to follow this course of action, the other animals are more enthusiastic. RJ is hiding a secret from the others. He owes a bear named Vincent (Nick Nolte) a large stockpile of food in exchange for his life. Additionally, a human exterminator, Dwayne LaFontant (Thomas Haden Church), may prove to be more dangerous to the animals than anyone else.
Migration (2023)
56%
6.6/10Migration features Kumail Nanjiani as the head of a fine feathered family of ducks, Mack Mallard. And as far as Mack is concerned, there’s nothing more important than keeping his wife, Pam (Elizabeth Banks), and their children — Dax (Caspar Jennings) and Gwen (Tresi Gazal) — safe from harm.
But after years of staying in the same place, Pam, Dax, and Gwen want to live a little and migrate to Jamaica. With some coaxing, they manage to get Mack and their Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) to agree to the trip. However, there are complications ahead for this family of first-time migrators. And they may not be entirely clear about how to get to their destination.
Shark Tale (2004)
48%
6.0/10Shark Tale is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024. And while critics never loved it, young fans do seem to enjoy the pairing of Will Smith and Jack Black. Smith plays Oscar, a small wrasse fish indebted to the shark mob. After Don Lino (Robert De Niro) sends his son, Frankie (Michael Imperioli), to collect the debt, the latter somehow winds up dead in a freak accident.
That gives Oscar the perfect opportunity to reinvent himself as a shark slayer, and even Frankie’s estranged brother, Lenny (Black), is willing to go along with the deception if it means he gets a fresh start. But this mismatched pair can’t keep up the pretense forever, especially when Don Lino wants revenge.
Trolls Band Together (2023)
53%
6.0/10When DreamWorks Animation picked the name Trolls Band Together for this movie, audiences probably didn’t immediately guess that the band in question was a literal Troll boy band. It turns out that Branch (Justin Timberlake) was part of BroZone with his brothers, John Dory (Eric André), Spruce (Daveed Diggs), Clay (Kid Cudi), and Floyd (Troye Sivan), years before the films. But BroZone went their own separate ways, and the family was fractured.
Now, Branch and his girlfriend, Poppy (Anna Kendrick), discover that Floyd has been kidnapped, and they have to accompany John Dory on a quest to find his other brothers if they want to rescue Floyd. Some hard feelings still remain among the bros, and Poppy is about to have an unexpected family reunion of her own.
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie (2024)
4.0/10Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) has been a part of the SpongeBob SquarePants show since the very beginning, but she finally gets the leading role in Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. Sandy is a flying squirrel who decided to live underwater years ago. But she’s forced to leave her chosen home, Bikini Bottom, when it is stolen out from under her by someone from the surface world.
To restore Bikini Bottom to its rightful place under the sea, Sandy has to take off her diving suit and return to her original home alongside SpongeBob (Tom Kenny). And if they fail in their quest, they won’t have a home of their own to go back to.
The Imaginary (2023)
66%
6.8/10While most of American animation companies have abandoned the hand-drawn style that used to define the medium, Studio Ponoc’s new anime film, The Imaginary, proves that this artistic approach still has a lot of life in it. Among hand-drawn films, only Studio Ghibli releases have been more visually impressive than The Imaginary. This film is just stunning to look at.
The story follows Rudger, an imaginary boy who was created by a young girl named Amanda to be her companion for made-up adventures. And while Rudger loves being with Amanda, he’s all too aware that as an Imaginary, his existence could be fleeting. Rudger eventually discovers that imaginary beings like himself could find sanctuary at The Town of Imaginaries. However, something unspeakable is preying upon the Imaginaries that live there, and Rudger may be the next target.
Ultraman: Rising (2024)
Ultraman is a Japanese superhero who has been around for nearly six decades. And the latest film in the franchise, Ultraman: Rising, veers off into some unexpected territory. Ultraman still grows to giant sizes and fights monsters, but now he has to raise a monster as well.
Ken Sato (Christopher Sean) is the latest Ultraman, and he defeats a female kaiju early in the film. But rather than harm the kaiju’s infant child, Ken adopts the baby and attempts to raise it himself. Now, Ultraman has an adoptive son. And bringing up this baby is going to require some new superheroic feats.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
62%
7.4/10In animation, time can stand still in a way that simply isn’t possible in the real world. That’s why Chicken Run: The Dawn of the Nugget can seamlessly take place a short time after the original Chicken Run despite 23 years between the two films. In the previous story, Rocky (Zachary Levi) and Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) were able to lead their chickens on a grand escape from the Tweedy farm. And now, Rocky and Ginger have a daughter named Molly (The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey).
But just as the chickens are settling into their new peaceful lives, their old owner, Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson), has some vile plans for them. In order to secure their future, Rocky and Ginger are going to have to stage a break in to discover Tweedy’s secrets and defeat her once and for all.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023)
50%
5.7/10Life’s not a beach for the title character of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. In fact, Ruby (Lana Condor) isn’t even supposed to get in the water due to a rule imposed by her strict mother, Agatha Gillman (Toni Collette). Ruby only discovers the reason why after she saves the life of a boy that she likes named Connor (Jaboukie Young-White). The ocean water triggers a transformation that turns Ruby into a giant Kraken.
This is the legacy that Ruby has inherited from Grandmamah (Jane Fonda), and she also discovers that her people, the krakens, have a long-standing feud with mermaids. But the only mermaid that Ruby knows is Chelsea Van Der Zee (Annie Murphy), who is eager to be friends with her. However, there are secrets under the sea that Ruby doesn’t know yet, and they could prove to be devastating for her family and the world.
Orion and the Dark (2024)
75%Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind screenwriter Charlie Kaufman may seem like an odd choice to adapt Emma Yarlett’s children’s novel Orion and the Dark, but Kaufman and director Sean Charmatz have delivered one of Netflix’s best original animated films to date. There’s also a very good chance that it could be a contender when next year’s Oscar season comes around.
The film follows Orion (Jacob Tremblay), a kid who is frightened out of his mind by just about everything, especially the dark. Over time, this becomes very annoying to Dark (Black Bird‘s Paul Walter Hauser), the literal embodiment of darkness. In a conciliatory gesture, Dark not only reveals himself to Orion but also offers to help him conquer his fears by taking him on an unforgettable adventure that may change both of their lives.
Minions (2015)
56%
6.4/10All the Minions want to do is serve the most evil humans alive. Is that so wrong? Well, it is the way they do it! Minions is a Despicable Me spinoff that reveals just how lucky Gru has been over the years because almost all of his predecessors were killed by the incompetence of these little yellow nincompoops (all of whom are voiced by Pierre Coffin).
In 1968, three Minions — Kevin, Stuart, and Bob — go out and search for a new master to serve. They soon settle on Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), the world’s first female supervillain. Regardless, the trio of Minions soon wreck things by making an enemy out of Scarlet herself, and she’s not the forgiving type.
Leo (2023)
66%
7.0/10If you’re old enough to remember Adam Sandler’s animated film, Eight Crazy Nights, rest assured that Leo is a much better movie. Sandler stars as the voice of Leo, a tuatara who has lived as a fifth-grade classroom pet for 74 years. But when Leo learns that his life expectancy is only 75 years, he decides that he needs to be free for his last year.
What Leo doesn’t realize is that the students in his classroom really do care about him. And once Leo accidentally exposes the fact that he can talk and understand English, the students embrace him as a key part of their lives. Now, Leo can either embrace their love or escape as he originally planned to do.
Wish Dragon (2021)
59%
7.2/10If you think that Wish Dragon seems suspiciously like Aladdin, then you aren’t wrong. They share very similar stories, but they are not exact copies. The film is set in modern Shanghai, and follows Din Song (Jimmy Wong), a struggling college student who discovers an all-powerful wish dragon named Long (John Cho). And it turns out that as Long’s tenth and final master, Din can set him free by making three wishes.
All Din really wants is to reconnect with his childhood flame, Li Na Wang (Ahsoka’s Natasha Liu Bordizzo), and win her heart. Yet the temptation of three wishes means that some very bad men want to take Long away from Din, by any means necessary.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
86%
8.7/10In the highly-anticipated sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) find themselves at turning points in their lives that could have grave consequences for the entire multiverse. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse doesn’t just up the stakes, it also features the best superhero story of 2023.
Without meaning to, Miles has antagonized a would-be supervillain, The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), into becoming a genuine threat to the Spider-Men and Spider-Women from across all of the worlds. However, the most alarming revelation is that Miles faces a personal tragedy if he can’t prevent The Spot from fulfilling his destiny.
The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
43%
6.3/10After spawning a wildly successful video game series, the Angry Birds get cinematic in The Angry Birds Movie. This animated film acts as an origin story for Red (Ted Lasso‘s Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), and Bomb (Danny McBride), as their collective anger issues have left them as outcasts on Bird Island.
The birds’ quiet life on the island is interrupted by the arrival of Leonard Mudbeard (Bill Hader) a.k.a. King Pig. Despite Red’s warnings that Mudbeard and the pigs can’t be trusted, his predictions are ignored. And if you thought that Red was angry before, just wait until he learns what the pigs really want to do to Bird Island.
A Whisker Away (2020)
6%
6.7/10It should never be forgotten that many of the best animated movies in the world come from Japan. The anime film, A Whisker Away, was released in the U.S. as a Netflix original, and it really does stand out among the more family-oriented films on this list. In this movie, Miyo “Muge” Sasaki (Mirai Shida) is a young Japanese girl who is hopelessly in love with her classmate, Kento Hinode (Natsuki Hanae).
Miyo is heartbroken when Hindode doesn’t return her feelings, which is why she accepts a magic mask that transforms her into a cat named Tarō. As Tarō, Miyo finally receives the love and affection that she desires from Hinode. But if Miyo isn’t careful, she may be trapped as a cat for the rest of her life.
The Monkey King (2023)
59%
5.8/10Netflix never lets a summer go by without a few blockbusters of its own. The Monkey King is Netflix’s big animated movie of the season, and it takes a very famous Chinese novel and adds new life to it. Jimmy O. Yang stars as Monkey, the brash young monkey who defies the Dragon King (Fire Island‘s Bowen Yang) and steals a weapon from him in order to face a demon and win the adoration of his tribe.
After Monkey declares himself the Monkey King, a young girl named Lin (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) volunteers to work as his assistant. However, Lin has a dark secret and the Dragon King is out for revenge on Monkey for stealing from him. And if Monkey isn’t careful, he may find himself alone during the fight of his life.
Nimona (2023)
75%
7.7/10Nimona is an animated film that escaped cancellation in the wake of the Disney and Fox merger. It’s widely believed that the movie’s LGBT themes made Disney reluctant to go forward with the movie after the merger. However, Netflix had no problem with a leading man, Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), who is in love with another man, or a non-conforming heroine like Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz).
In a futuristic medieval world, Ballister is framed for murdering Queen Valerin (Lorraine Toussaint). While forced to go on the run, Ballister is befriended by Nimona. She may be Ballister’s last ally in the kingdom, but Nimona is more than she seems. And her secret could destroy her newfound friendship with Ballister.
The Magician's Elephant (2023)
The Summit of the Gods (2021)
This gorgeously animated French-language film from director Patrick Imbert chronicles a Japanese photojournalist’s quest for the truth regarding a mysterious mountain climber and his connection to one of the first teams to attempt to climb Mount Everest.
A Cannes Film Festival darling praised for its beautiful visual achievement and compelling story, The Summit of the Gods is the rare adaptation of a Japanese manga series that does right by its source material — which was itself based on a 1998 novel by Baku Yumemakura. Fascinating and emotional, the film makes it tough not to be pulled along on the characters’ epic journey.
The Sea Beast (2022)
Chris Williams, the co-director of Disney’s Big Hero 6 and Moana, takes the helm on this animated high-seas adventure about a young girl who stows away on a famous monster-hunting ship, only to discover that everything she thought she knew about monsters and hunters might be wrong.
Zaris-Angel Hator portrays aspiring monster-hunter (and stowaway) Maisie, while Karl Urban voices legendary hunter Jacob Holland in this all-ages feature that’s exciting, funny, and much deeper than its premise suggests.
Bubble (2022)
This animated feature from Attack on Titan director Tetsuro Araki is set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where a mysterious event has affected the laws of gravity, leaving strange bubbles and urban debris floating throughout the city. Skilled racers compete in parkour-like competitions for food and supplies, and when one gifted young man encounters a strange girl while exploring the epicenter of the gravity-twisting “bubble event,” their relationship changes the lives of everyone around them.
A gorgeous spectacle of sights and sounds, Bubble begs to be seen on a high-end entertainment system, as it delivers remarkably detailed scenes of the characters traversing the city and a powerful score that accentuates its most thrilling — and quietest — moments.
The Willoughbys (2020)
68%
6.4/10A family tale made for those who wish they could get away from their family, The Willoughbys is a Netflix original that has gone somewhat under the radar.
When the four Willoughby children are abandoned by their selfish parents, they must adapt to the contemporary world. Their old family was very old-fashioned, and now they have one mission in life: become the ultimate modern family.
Klaus (2019)
Netflix’s first original animated feature film, Klaus is an alternative and entertaining Santa Claus origin story. When a selfish young postman is assigned to a remote Scandinavian town, his unlikely friendship with a recluse leads to the accidental creation of an incredible (and familiar) toymaker.
Klaus features the voice talent of Jason Schwartzman (who really carries the film), J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Norm MacDonald, and Joan Cusack. The film earned a 2020 Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
