The 2020s did not treat animation like a Saturday-morning holding pen. A hand-drawn Irish wolf myth, a Pixar jazz afterlife that arrived on Christmas Day, a Colombian casita that sang its way into every kitchen, and a cat who survived a flood without speaking a word all showed up in the same decade. From Wolfwalkers and Soul to Across the Spider-Verse, Flow, and The Wild Robot, 2020s animated movies kept asking the same question: what does a drawn world still owe a living one?
This list gathers thirteen essential animated movies from the 2020s — studio blockbusters, stop-motion fairy tales, a Ghibli return, and one wordless Latvian fable. Every pick uses TMDB-backed metadata and a short guide to why it belongs on a 2020s animation watchlist.
1. Wolfwalkers
- Movie Title: Wolfwalkers
- Release Date: October 26, 2020
- Main Cast: Honor Kneafsey, Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean
- Director: Tomm Moore
- TMDB Score: 8.2/10
Why We Included Wolfwalkers on This List
Tomm Moore’s film is the 2020s animated movie that opened the decade by refusing to sand the pencil lines off a folk tale. Honor Kneafsey’s Robyn, Eva Whittaker’s Mebh, and Sean Bean’s hunter father who has already decided what a wolf is turn a Cromwell-era Ireland into a forest that still has a say. It belongs here because so many 2020s animations are about taming the wild, and this one is about becoming it. On a 2020s watchlist it is the hand-drawn film that treated a wolf pack as a culture, not a special effect.
Quick Wolfwalkers Summary
In a time of superstition and magic, when wolves are seen as demonic and nature an evil to be tamed, a young apprentice hunter comes to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last pack. Robyn wants to prove she can hunt. Then she saves a wild girl from the woods and learns what a Wolfwalker actually is — a person who runs as a wolf when they sleep. The assignment was to clear the forest. The friendship is what clears the assignment instead.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Wolfwalkers
Moore made this at Cartoon Saloon, the Kilkenny studio behind The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, and the film completes that informal Irish-folklore trio with the same love of ink and margin doodles. Kneafsey and Whittaker play the two girls as a rule-follower and a feral best friend who does not need a castle to feel royal. Wolfwalkers was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; Soul won that year. It is the 2020 animation people still recommend when they want a movie that looks drawn by someone who has actually been in the woods.
2. Soul
- Movie Title: Soul
- Release Date: December 25, 2020
- Main Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton
- Director: Pete Docter
- TMDB Score: 8.1/10
Why We Included Soul on This List
Pete Docter’s film is the 2020s animated movie that asked what a life is for and then refused to answer with a trophy. Jamie Foxx’s Joe Gardner, Tina Fey’s 22 who has spent eons avoiding Earth, and Graham Norton’s moonwind guide turn a jazz gig into a metaphysics problem you can watch with a kid. It belongs here because Pixar spent the previous decade mastering big feelings, and this one is about the quiet ones you miss while you wait for your big break. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Christmas Day movie that treated a middle-school band room like a cathedral.
Quick Soul Summary
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth. The spark he is chasing is not the same as the life he already had.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Soul
Docter, who also made Inside Out and Up, built Soul around a Black jazz pianist after years of Pixar films that had treated that kind of lead as someone else’s story. Foxx plays Joe as a man who can hear a perfect set in his head and still miss the afternoon in front of him; Fey’s 22 is the first soul in a long time who is not impressed by being born. The film arrived on Disney+ on Christmas Day 2020 and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It is the Pixar movie people still put on when they need a reminder that a good pizza slice can be a purpose.
3. Luca
- Movie Title: Luca
- Release Date: June 17, 2021
- Main Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman
- Director: Enrico Casarosa
- TMDB Score: 7.8/10
Why We Included Luca on This List
Enrico Casarosa’s film is the 2020s animated movie that treated a coming-out story as a summer you could ride a Vespa through. Jacob Tremblay’s Luca, Jack Dylan Grazer’s Alberto who already lives above the waterline, and Emma Berman’s Giulia who just wants a partner for the Portorosso Cup turn the Italian Riviera into a place where a secret dries off in the sun. It belongs here because so many animated 2020s films are about found family, and this one is about the friend who teaches you to stand up before you have decided what you are. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Pixar film that made sea-monster skin look like a weather report.
Quick Luca Summary
Luca and his best friend Alberto experience an unforgettable summer on the Italian Riviera. But all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface. A gelato town, a homemade scooter, and a race that the local bully thinks he already owns become the test of whether two kids can stay dry long enough to be seen. The water is not the villain. The fear of what happens when someone splashes you is.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Luca
Casarosa, a longtime Pixar story artist making his feature debut as director, drew the town from summers on the Ligurian coast and from the particular bravery of a kid who has not told his parents everything. Tremblay and Grazer play the pair as a cautious daydreamer and the louder older friend who already quit waiting for permission. Luca premiered on Disney+ in June 2021 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; Encanto won that year. It is the 2021 animation people still recommend when they want a friendship movie that does not need a prophecy, just a bicycle and a tide chart.
4. Encanto
- Movie Title: Encanto
- Release Date: October 13, 2021
- Main Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo
- Director: Byron Howard
- TMDB Score: 7.6/10
Why We Included Encanto on This List
Byron Howard’s film is the 2020s animated movie that put a miracle in a house and then asked what the house wanted in return. Stephanie Beatriz’s Mirabel, María Cecilia Botero’s Abuela Alma, and John Leguizamo’s Bruno who would rather not be the subject of the song turn a Colombian casita into a character that cracks when the family does. It belongs here because so many animation lists in this decade are about chosen ones, and this one is about the girl who did not get a gift. On a 2020s watchlist it is the musical that made a glowing door feel like pressure, not a prize.
Quick Encanto Summary
The tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family — every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family’s last hope. The miracle is older than she is. The question is whether a family can keep a miracle if they only love the people it made useful.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Encanto
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs, and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became the kind of earworm that does not care whether you have seen the movie. Encanto won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Beatriz plays Mirabel as a girl who is already doing the work of holding a family together before anyone admits that is a gift. It is the 2021 animation that people still put on in kitchens, which is a strange afterlife for a story about a house that can fall down if nobody tells the truth.
5. The Bad Guys
- Movie Title: The Bad Guys
- Release Date: March 17, 2022
- Main Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina
- Director: Pierre Perifel
- TMDB Score: 7.5/10
Why We Included The Bad Guys on This List
Pierre Perifel’s film is the 2020s animated movie that stole the heist picture back from live action and gave it to a wolf in a tuxedo. Sam Rockwell’s Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron’s Mr. Snake, and Awkwafina’s Ms. Tarantula turn a crew of career criminals into a comedy about whether you can reform if the world has already cast you. It belongs here because DreamWorks spent years chasing franchise comfort, and this one moves like a caper that actually enjoys the job. On a 2020s watchlist it is the slick animal movie that treated a good-guy makeover as another con — until it wasn’t.
Quick The Bad Guys Summary
When the Bad Guys, a crew of criminal animals, are finally caught after years of heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal to save them all from prison. The pitch is simple: look reformed, steal the city’s goodwill, walk out clean. A guinea-pig philanthropist, a pickpocket fox, and a city that loves a redemption story all sit in the same frame. The hard part is not the vault. The hard part is deciding whether the new act is still an act.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Bad Guys
Perifel adapted Aaron Blabey’s illustrated books, and the film keeps the graphic-novel snap — bold shapes, comic-panel gags, a wolf who talks like he has watched too many George Clooney movies. Rockwell’s Wolf is charming enough to sell a lie to himself; Maron’s Snake is the friend who will not let the lie finish. The movie was a theatrical hit in 2022 after two years of animation that had learned to live on living-room screens. It is the DreamWorks caper people still put on when they want Ocean’s Eleven energy without anyone over twelve having to explain the plot.
6. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
- Movie Title: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
- Release Date: November 9, 2022
- Main Cast: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann
- Director: Mark Gustafson
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio on This List
Mark Gustafson’s film is the 2020s animated movie that took a wooden boy and set him down in a country that already worshipped obedience. Ewan McGregor’s Sebastian J. Cricket, David Bradley’s Geppetto, and Gregory Mann’s Pinocchio turn Mussolini’s Italy into a fairy tale that does not flinch at coffins or military school. It belongs here because stop-motion in this decade kept proving it could be tender and monstrous in the same close-up. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Pinocchio that treats getting brought to life as a political problem, not just a wish.
Quick Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Summary
During the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father’s expectations. Geppetto carves a son out of grief. The boy who results is loud, disobedient, and impossible to kill in a country that would prefer children who march. Cricket is supposed to be the conscience. The wood has its own ideas about what a son is for.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Gustafson directed the film under Guillermo del Toro’s name on the title, and the puppets carry the fingerprints of a stop-motion shop that would rather show the joints than hide them. Mann’s Pinocchio is not cute in the old Disney sense; he is a kid who does not yet know that dying can be a lesson. The movie arrived on Netflix and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, beating Puss in Boots: The Last Wish among others. It is the 2022 animation people still point to when they want a fairy tale that remembers fascism had songs and youth camps too.
7. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Movie Title: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Release Date: December 7, 2022
- Main Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Harvey Guillén
- Director: Joel Crawford
- TMDB Score: 8.2/10
Why We Included Puss in Boots: The Last Wish on This List
Joel Crawford’s film is the 2020s animated movie that took a spin-off cat and gave him a panic attack worth a feature. Antonio Banderas’s Puss, Salma Hayek Pinault’s Kitty Softpaws, and Harvey Guillén’s Perrito who would like everyone to be friends turn a last life into a fairy-tale road movie with a wolf who does not joke. It belongs here because DreamWorks finally trusted painterly frames and silence the way the Spider-Verse films had. On a 2020s watchlist it is the sequel that treated mortality as a chase scene and still made it funny.
Quick Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Summary
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. A map, a dog, a rival, and a crime family that wants the same star all crowd the same fairy-tale forest. The wish is supposed to buy time. The wolf on the road is there to collect it.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Crawford and DreamWorks leaned into a storybook look — watercolor edges, still frames that hold a beat longer than a kids’ movie is supposed to — after years of smoother sequels. Banderas has voiced Puss since the Shrek years; this is the one where the boast has to share a scene with fear. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and became the rare franchise follow-up that people recommended to adults first. It is the 2022 animation that made a whistle in the dark feel like the scariest sound in a fairy tale.
8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Movie Title: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Release Date: May 31, 2023
- Main Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry
- Director: Kemp Powers
- TMDB Score: 8.4/10
Why We Included Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on This List
Kemp Powers’s film is the 2020s animated movie that treated a sequel like a dare to invent a new way of drawing every twenty minutes. Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy, and Brian Tyree Henry’s Jefferson who is still learning how to be the father of a Spider-Man turn the multiverse into a style guide and an argument. It belongs here because no other 2020s animated blockbuster made comic-book pages, watercolor, and punk collage feel like they belonged in the same chase. On a 2020s watchlist it is the superhero movie that asked whether canon is a duty or a cage.
Quick Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Summary
After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most. The society has rules. Miles has a father. Those two facts do not want to live in the same universe.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Powers is one of the directors credited on a production that built a different visual language for almost every world Miles falls into, from Gwen’s watercolor NYC to the spotless chrome of the Spider Society. Moore and Steinfeld play the two Spider-People as kids who would rather text than explain the multiverse. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; The Boy and the Heron won that year. It is the 2023 animation people still pause, frame by frame, the way earlier decades paused on oil paintings.
9. The Boy and the Heron
- Movie Title: The Boy and the Heron
- Release Date: July 14, 2023
- Main Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki
- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- TMDB Score: 7.4/10
Why We Included The Boy and the Heron on This List
Hayao Miyazaki’s film is the 2020s animated movie that proved a “last” Ghibli feature can still feel like a first walk into a room you should not enter. Soma Santoki’s Mahito, Masaki Suda’s gray heron, and Ko Shibasaki’s mother who is already gone turn wartime Japan into a tower full of pelicans, malnourished souls, and a man who wants a successor. It belongs here because the decade’s animation boom still needed a reminder that hand-drawn wonder does not have to explain itself. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Miyazaki film that treats grief as architecture.
Quick The Boy and the Heron Summary
While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother’s tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy’s mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the “long-awaited one.” The tower is older than the war. The heron is not a guide so much as a dare.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Boy and the Heron
Miyazaki came back to feature directing after The Wind Rises, and Studio Ghibli released the film in Japan with almost no marketing beyond the title How Do You Live? Santoki plays Mahito as a boy who would rather injure himself than accept comfort; Suda’s heron is the first creature in the house who will not pretend the dead stay put. The Boy and the Heron won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It is the 2023 animation people still argue about in the lobby, which is a compliment Ghibli has been earning since the last century.
10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
- Movie Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
- Release Date: July 31, 2023
- Main Cast: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu
- Director: Jeff Rowe
- TMDB Score: 7.2/10
Why We Included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem on This List
Jeff Rowe’s film is the 2020s animated movie that finally let the Turtles sound like actual teenagers instead of brand mascots. Micah Abbey’s Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr.’s Michelangelo, and Nicolas Cantu’s Leonardo turn a New York sewer into a hangout and a wish to be allowed above ground. It belongs here because reboot culture in this decade kept sanding properties smooth, and this one looks like a sketchbook that survived gym class. On a 2020s watchlist it is the mutant movie that treated acceptance as a pizza-party goal with real stakes.
Quick Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Summary
After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them. Splinter would rather they stay downstairs. The city is not ready for four brothers who still talk over each other in a fight.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Rowe, coming off work at Sony Pictures Animation, pushed a rough, scribbly look that makes every punch feel doodled in the margins of a notebook. Abbey, Brown, and Cantu are actual teens, which is why the banter sounds like a group chat instead of a writers’ room doing an impression of one. The film brought the Turtles back to theaters in 2023 without sanding off the slime. It is the reboot people still recommend when they want a childhood property that remembers childhood is loud, sticky, and desperate to be invited in.
11. Inside Out 2
- Movie Title: Inside Out 2
- Release Date: June 11, 2024
- Main Cast: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman
- Director: Kelsey Mann
- TMDB Score: 7.5/10
Why We Included Inside Out 2 on This List
Kelsey Mann’s film is the 2020s animated movie that took Pixar’s most elegant metaphor and invited a panic attack to sit at the console. Amy Poehler’s Joy, Maya Hawke’s Anxiety, and Kensington Tallman’s Riley turn puberty into a demolition of headquarters you thought was finished. It belongs here because sequels in this decade often repeated a hit, and this one added a new emotion that a lot of teenagers already knew by name. On a 2020s watchlist it is the blockbuster that treated a hockey camp like an existential emergency — because it is.
Quick Inside Out 2 Summary
Teenager Riley’s mind headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone. The console is getting crowded. The sense of self that Joy spent a whole first movie building is suddenly up for renovation.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Inside Out 2
Mann, a Pixar veteran making his feature-directing debut, inherited Pete Docter’s original emotion crew and then had to justify why a sequel needed more of them. Hawke’s Anxiety is the new voice that will not stop running projections; Poehler’s Joy has to learn that suppressing a feeling is not the same as parenting one. Inside Out 2 became the highest-grossing animated film ever and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; Flow won that year. It is the 2024 animation that filled theaters with parents who recognized the new character before their kids did.
12. Flow
- Movie Title: Flow
- Release Date: August 29, 2024
- Director: Gints Zilbalodis
- TMDB Score: 8.1/10
Why We Included Flow on This List
Gints Zilbalodis’s film is the 2020s animated movie that won the decade’s loudest animation prize without a line of dialogue. A cat, a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog share a boat after the world floods, and the camera stays close enough that you start reading ears the way other movies read speeches. It belongs here because independent animation in this decade kept proving a small team could out-imagine a committee. On a 2020s watchlist it is the wordless fable that made rising water feel like the only plot you needed.
Quick Flow Summary
A solitary cat, displaced by a great flood, finds refuge on a boat with various species and must navigate the challenges of adapting to a transformed world together. There is no owner coming back. There is a secretarybird that does not want company and a dog that wants too much of it. The flood does not explain itself. The animals have to decide whether a boat is a territory or a truce.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Flow
Zilbalodis made the film in Latvia with a small crew and no spoken language, which is why the performances have to live in posture, pupil, and the way a cat refuses to be held. Flow won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a rare win for a non-English, dialogue-free independent. It is the 2024 animation people still recommend when someone says they are tired of quips — a reminder that a look between a cat and a capybara can do the work of a monologue.
13. The Wild Robot
- Movie Title: The Wild Robot
- Release Date: September 12, 2024
- Main Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor
- Director: Chris Sanders
- TMDB Score: 8.3/10
Why We Included The Wild Robot on This List
Chris Sanders’s film is the 2020s animated movie that took a helper robot and asked what help looks like when the island did not order one. Lupita Nyong’o’s Roz, Pedro Pascal’s fox who would rather not get attached, and Kit Connor’s gosling who thinks a machine is his mother turn a survival story into a parenting manual written by weather. It belongs here because the decade’s animation kept circling found family, and this one makes the found part feel like work you could fail. On a 2020s watchlist it is the DreamWorks film that treated a factory setting as something you can outgrow.
Quick The Wild Robot Summary
After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose. The task list was supposed to be simple. The goose does not care about the task list, and the island is not a customer. Learning to be useful becomes the same as learning to stay.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Wild Robot
Sanders, who directed Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, adapted Peter Brown’s novel into a film that looks painted rather than polished — impressionist trees, weather that feels hand-brushed. Nyong’o plays Roz as a voice that starts in customer-service cadence and has to invent warmth from scratch; Connor’s Brightbill is the reason the experiment cannot stay theoretical. The Wild Robot was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It is the 2024 animation people still finish quietly, the way you finish a story about a parent who was never supposed to be one.
The 2020s gave animation a wolf girl, a jazz afterlife, a singing house, a wooden boy in a dictatorship, a cat with one life left, a Brooklyn Spider-Man who would not follow the canon, a Ghibli tower, a wordless flood, and a robot who learned to raise a goose. If this list sent you toward a hand-drawn forest, a Pixar feeling, or a movie that treats cartoons as serious art, stay on thebestmovielists.com — the fantasy, sci-fi, and comedy 2020s lists are already live, and the next genre-and-decade pile is never far from the one you just finished.
