The 32 greatest '90s animated movies of all time

When you think about the greatest animated movies from the 1990s, chances are you're thinking of the Disney Renaissance, understandably so. Starting with the release of The Little Mermaid in 1989 and lasting until Tarzan capped off the decade in '99, it was a triumphant era for the iconic animation studio. However, Disney were hardly the only ones making incredible animated movies.

Other American studios were making some of the best animated movies of all time , many of which also began to push against the Western conception that animation was inherently for children. (The following decade would put this misassumption to rest for good.) Meanwhile, in Japan, several classic anime movies were proving the medium's breadth in visually stunning and thought-provoking ways. It wasn't the best decade for animation, but it was certainly an important one with no shortage of worthwhile films.

Here, then, are the 32 greatest animated movies from the '90s. You'll see classic Disney films, iconic anime movies, and even a few so-called "guilty pleasures."

32. Pokémon: The First Movie

Year: 1998
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama

Released in Japan just over a year after the premiere of the hit Pokémon anime series (and in the United States about a year after the show premiered in the States), Pokémon: The First Movie took full advantage of Pokémania to fill up movie theaters. The movie is fun as an exciting, super-sized episode with bigger stakes and the legendary Pokémon Mewtwo as a villain. However, it should be noted that the Japanese original is by far superior to the dubbed American release. There's a surprising amount of philosophy about the nature of good and evil, existentialism, and the ethics of cloning that's cut out of the US version of the flick.

31. Space Jam

Year: 1996
Director: Joe Pytka

For some reason, somebody in the '90s thought that basketball legend Michael Jordan and Looney Tunes(the iconic cartoon short series featuring Bugs Bunny that hadn't really been relevant in a few decades)were a natural pairing for a feature film that blended live-action and animation. What's crazy is that they weren't necessarily wrong. Space Jam is a bizarre mash-up that can't be called high art, yet is pretty clearly effective and harder to replicate than you'd think. Look only to the failure of the long-awaited sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, to see just how singularly special the original was.

30. Anastasia

Year: 1997
Directors: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman

Anastasia is often incorrectly considered a Disney Princess, which is understandable. The story structure and aesthetic of the film are very similar to some of the classic Disney flicks of this era, though Anastasia was made for Fox by noted Disney rival Don Bluth, an animation legend in his own right. Anastasia is, candidly, not as good as the best Disney movies of the '90s, though it's a beloved and well-done bit of alt-history, following Anastasia Romanov, the youngest daughter of Russia's last tsar, as she attempts to regain her memories.

29. Balto

Year: 1995
Director: Simon Wells

First things first: Justice for Togo! In real life, it was a relay of various teams of sled dogs who saved the day during the 1925 serum run to Nome. The real Balto merely led the final leg of the journey; a dog named Togo led the longest and most perilous stretch. That said, Balto (the movie) is a wonderful, exciting animal adventure. Kevin Bacon voices the titular pooch, a half-wolf with a good heart and the determination needed to save the day when a bunch of sick children desperately need medicine.

28. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

Year: 1998
Director: Jim Stenstrum

This revival of the Scooby-Doo franchise brought back the Mystery, Inc. gang, but this time, instead of a man in a rubber mask getting angry at these meddling kids who stopped him from getting away with it, they're facing real supernatural monsters, like Cajun voodoo zombies and werecats. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was a very smart way to modernize the '70s cartoon, giving the characters a new vibrancy while also delivering some legitimately spooky, kid-friendly horror.

27. A Goofy Movie

Year: 1995
Director: Kevin Lima

Who would've predicted that Goofy, of all the members of the classic Disney ensemble, would be such a richly developed character with so much pathos? A standalone spin-off to the Goof Troop TV show, A Goofy Movie follows Goofy and his teenage son, Max, as they go on a road trip, butting heads and bonding along the way as fathers and sons often do. An odd film with an odder story behind its production, A Goofy Movie nevertheless became a cult classic,and the soundtrack features some bops, too. (Powerline!)

26. Kirikou and the Sorceress

Year: 1998
Director: Michel Ocelot

Though overlooked compared to the United States or Japan, France is also a country with a rich animation history, and one of the best French animated films of the '90s tells a tale drawn from West African folk tales—a culture whose rich stories are also often overlooked. It's a beautiful, unique film that follows Kirikou, a young boy born in a village who can walk and talk as soon as he's born, and who must go on a quest to save his village from an evil witch. There's nothing else on this list quite like it, both in terms of its visuals and the way its narrative unfolds.

25. Memories

Year: 1995
Director: Kōji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, and Katsuhiro Otomo

This anthology anime film, based on three of the great Katsuhiro Otomo's manga short stories, isn't as good or as ground-breaking as his incredible 1988 movie Akira, but it's still an astounding feat of animation and sci-fi imagination. The segments, Magnetic Rose, Stink Bomb, and Cannon Fodder, are all worthwhile—especially the first one, a trippy sci-fi horror set in a seemingly abandoned spaceship whose script was written by anime great Satoshi Kon.

24. The Thief and the Cobbler

Year: 1993
Director: Richard Williams

Production on The Thief and the Cobbler began nearly 30 years before the film was released—and "released" rather than "finished" is an important word choice here. Conceived by Richard Williams, a legendary animator whose credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit's cartoon aspects, the movie was an entirely hand-drawn, profoundly detailed story based on Arabian legend. Due to production troubles and the sheer amount of work (and money) that went into animating the film, it took a long time to make, and Williams eventually lost control of his own movie. Various versions, including a 1993 release with the title The Princess and the Cobbler, have attempted to finish the story, but none quite capture the full potential of what The Thief and the Cobbler could have been. Still, it's on this list for the sheer artistry; there might not be a more astounding example of traditional animation.

23. James and the Giant Peach

Year: 1996
Director: Henry Selick

Henry Selick's stop-motion is a fitting medium for this adaptation of Roald Dahl's book of the same name, following a little orphaned boy who goes on a magical adventure inside a big ol' fruit with some bug buddies. Aesthetically, James and the Giant Peach looks unique; there's an edge and an uneasy vibe to all the big insects whom James shares his giant peach with. Compared to what it might have looked like had it been traditionally animated, the movie has just the right level of menace to it, which is appropriate for Dahl's stories. There's a danger and strangeness in his works, one that you've got to overcome if you want to be friends with lovable characters like Mr. Centipede and Miss Spider.

22. Ninja Scroll

Year: 1993
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

This extremely violent and explicit anime movie, following a swordsman as he battles a team of ninjas with strange supernatural powers, is not what you could call "tasteful." It does, however, absolutely rule, and Ninja Scroll deserves extra credit for helping to popularize adult-oriented anime in the West. The VHS release of Ninja Scroll was a hot commodity amongst action and horror-loving adults in the United States who had to have their buddies check this wild-as-heck movie out.

21. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

Year: 1996
Director: Mike Judge

The title characters of the MTV animated series go on a road trip across the US of A in search of a new television, a quest that soon has them mistaken for hitmen and unwittingly carrying a biological weapon while the feds try to chase them down. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is wonderfully, unapologetically stupid, while also being a very clever satire of American culture and government at the time, especially the rise of the security state with all its misguided failings.

20. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Year: 1993
Directors: Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm

The competition is fierce, but Batman: The Animated Series is quite possibly the best take on the Dark Knight. So it's no surprise that the feature-length movie the show spawned, Mask of the Phantasm, is great, too. A figure from Bruce Wayne's past reemerges at the same time as a new vigilante—one whose methods Batman can't approve of—arrives in Gotham. It's got all the Art Deco style the cartoon was famous for, and it's one of the more emotionally complex Batman stories. You will never care about Bruce Wayne as much as you do in this movie.

19. Pom Poko

Year: 1994
Director: Isao Takahata

One of the quirkier Studio Ghibli films, Pom Poko follows a community of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) as they face human encroachment on their home forest due to deforestation and a new development. The tanuki have one thing going for them, as they're magical shapeshifters according to Japanese lore. The bad news is that these tanuki haven't really used their magic much and, on the whole, are a little too lazy and distracted to get it together and use these abilities to effectively repel the humans.

18. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Year: 1996
Directors: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

Perhaps the most mature film to come out of the Disney Renaissance, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a loose adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel about Quasimodo, a deformed man who lives inside the famed Paris cathedral and longs for the outside world. Beautifully animated and surprisingly dark in its tones and themes, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is probably one of the less kid-friendly mainstream Disney movies despite the talking gargoyle comic relief characters. They actually are kind of jarring, especially since the movie also features Claude Frollo, one of the most human and most frightening Disney villains.

17. The End of Evangelion

Year: 1997
Directors: Kazuya Tsurumaki and Hideaki Anno

Although Neon Genesis Evangelion is regarded as one of the most acclaimed and best anime series of all time, the consensus is that the original finale was not a great ending for the show. Enter The End of Evangelion, a feature-length alternate ending that is itself regarded as one of the great anime films. Concluding the story of Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, and Asuka Langley Soryu and the giant bio-mechas they pilot to fight monsters known as Angels, End of Evangelion has exciting action and deep philosophy that borders on nihilism. It's not only a sci-fi masterpiece, but it's also one of the best portrayals of depression and the human experience in any animated project.

16. Mulan

Year: 1998
Directors: Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft

Based on the ancient Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, this 1998 Disney movie follows the title character, a headstrong young woman who disguises herself as a man to take her elderly father's place when he's drafted to help defend China against invading Huns. A very different sort of heroine than most Disney movies until that point, Mulan is inspiring, exciting, and quite funny—especially thanks to her little dragon sidekick/family guardian, Mushu (voiced by Eddie Murphy).

15. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Year: 1999
Director: Trey Parker

The foul-mouthed Comedy Central series South Park's movie is, as you'd expect, very vulgar and very funny. It is also one of the best musicals to come out of the '90s, which is really a feat considering this was the Disney Renaissance decade. Following Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and (briefly) Kenny as they attempt to stop a war between the United States and Canada while Satan and his lover Saddam Hussein try to take advantage of the chaos to rule the world, the movie is a knee-slapping epic with legitimately stirring musical numbers.

14. Only Yesterday

Year: 1991
Director: Isao Takahata

Ghibli is best known for its fantasy movies, but the acclaimed anime studio can achieve that same sense of awe and wonder in films that don't feature any forest spirits or fantastical elements. Only Yesterday follows Taeko Okajima, a 27-year-old who lives in Tokyo, as she visits family in the country. Along the journey, she thinks back to her own childhood when she was just a girl of 10. It's a touching, empathetic meditation on womanhood, growing up, and how we become the people we decide to be.

13. The Prince of Egypt

Year: 1998
Directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells

A couple of years before it made Shrek, DreamWorks Animation made The Prince of Egypt:a beautifully animated and profoundly moving adaptation of the Book of Exodus. Now, to be clear, Shrek is a ton of fun, but The Prince of Egypt is magnificent. It's a lavish, earnest take on a Biblical epic that can inspire a spiritual response from even a secular viewer thanks to the power of its storytelling. Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston doing a duet together certainly helps.

12. Whisper of the Heart

Year: 1995
Director: Yoshifumi Kondō

Despite the poster for this Studio Ghibli film, which has a young girl and a humanoid cat falling through the sky over a fantastical city, Whisper of the Heart is a very grounded, very lovely story. Shizuku Tsukishima is a 14-year-old student who wants to be a writer. The Hayao Miyazaki-penned film follows her as she meets Seiji Amasawa, a boy whose grandfather owns an antique shop and who wants to make violins. The two become friends and push each other to achieve their goals, even when they're not feeling so sure of themselves. It's a great coming-of-age movie and an ode to the beauty and the agony of creativity.

11. Toy Story

Year: 1995
Director: John Lasseter

Pixar's debut feature film is a groundbreaking piece of artistry and technology—the first full-length movie to be animated entirely by computer. That's an impressive feat, even if there are parts of Toy Story's animation that are showing their age a few decades later. But if Toy Story were just a technical achievement, it wouldn't have such a beloved legacy. It's a wonderful story about Woody and Buzz Lightyear, two toys who overcome their initial dislike of each other to become friends in this fully realized world of child playthings. Right from the start, Pixar's imagination and mastery of narrative and tone are on full display.

10. Ghost in the Shell

Year: 1995
Director: Mamoru Oshii

Ghost in the Shell is a cyberpunk masterpiece and an extremely influential bit of filmmaking, in anime and beyond. Set in a future where cybernetic enhancements have become the norm, Major Motoko Kusanagi is a human conscience inside an entirely artificial body. When a hacker threatens the peace, the Major is tasked with finding this mysterious "Puppet Master." The mission is exciting, as Ghost in the Shell features some of the best action of the decade (The Matrix is clearly indebted to this film), but it's also deeply philosophical, raising questions about humanity, technology, and the nature of one's self.

9. Porco Rosso

Year: 1992
Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki's charming adventure tells the story of an ace pilot who works as a bounty hunter fighting sky pirates for hire in the skies over the Adriatic in his seaplane. He also has a pig's head, thanks to a curse he sustained in his past. Porco Rosso is a delight (no other movie showcases Miyazaki's clear love of airplanes as much as this), balancing a whimsical sense of fun with moments of more somber reflection. Porco says it best: "I'd rather be a pig than a fascist.

8. The Iron Giant

Year: 1999
Director: Brad Bird

Heartwarming sci-fi tales don't get much better than The Iron Giant, which tells the story of the titular robot from outer space, an alien weapon who gets amnesia when he crash-lands in Maine in 1957. When Hogarth, a young boy, discovers him, he befriends the Iron Giant, setting up a beautiful story of kindness, not letting things define you, and heroism amidst a retro Cold War backdrop. The ending to The Iron Giant is also a world-class tearjerker.

7. Toy Story 2

Year: 1999
Director: John Lasseter

The first Toy Story is such an incredible movie that it's really saying something that the sequel is an improvement on just about every level. In just a few short years, the technology leveled up, and Toy Story 2 looks significantly better, and it's telling a more complex story to boot. Woody, always loyal to Andy, is confronted with the possibility that he could be special since he's a rare, vintage toy. Does he want to be famous in a museum, never to worry about getting abandoned? Or does he want to return to Andy and his friends?

6. Aladdin

Year: 1992
Directors: John Musker and Ron Clements

An exciting adventure that boasts several of Disney's best songs, Aladdin is one of the most important movies in animation history because of how it revolutionized voice acting. Prior to Aladdin, animated films typically didn't hire well-known celebrities or famous live-action actors to voice their characters. That changed when Robin Williams played the Genie, and after that, well, the genie was out of the bottle, so to speak. Regardless of whatever came next, Aladdin is an amazing film, and Williams' energetic performance is a huge part of that.

5. Perfect Blue

Year: 1997
Director: Satoshi Kon

It's hard not to invoke the word "prescient" when describing anime director Satoshi Kon's masterpiece, but Perfect Blue is uncanny in how well it predicted the impact that the internet would have on fame, fandom, and mental health. Following Mima, a pop star-turned-aspiring actress, Perfect Blue is a psychological thriller that has Mima plagued by doubts that she's making the right career move, as well as dealing with a violent stalker who appears to know a lot about her and whose obsession hits a bit too close to home for comfort.

4. Beauty and the Beast

Year: 1991
Directors: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

The Little Mermaid kicked off the Disney Renaissance in 1989. Although it's a wonderful movie, going back to watch it reveals that Disney hadn't totally figured out the musical and narrative framework that would propel the studio to new heights. After releasing 1990s The Rescuers Down Under (a fun film that's not a musical), it didn't take long to work out the kinks and make a darn-near perfect movie. Beauty and the Beast, a fairy tale about an unlikely love between a smart young woman and a reclusive prince who had been cursed to have the form of a horrible beast, was the first animated movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture, that's how impossible its perfection was to deny.

3. The Nightmare Before Christmas

Year: 1993
Director: Henry Selick

Sure, it's a little exhausting how much The Nightmare Before Christmas got co-opted by Hot Topic and tweenage goths, but none of that takes away from how magical the stop-motion movie is. Based on an idea created by Tim Burton (though directed by Henry Selick), The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wondrous tale of rival holidays, as Halloween Town's king Jack Skellington aspires to have some merry Christmas cheer—never mind that he is entirely unsuited to the yuletide vibe. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a perfect little film.

2. The Lion King

Year: 1994
Directors: Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff

A riff on Hamlet featuring lions instead of Danes, The Lion King is epic filmmaking with a richly emotional story, gorgeous animation, and several classic songs. If there's a word to best describe The Lion King, the story of a young lion who flees his home of Pride Rock before growing up to return to overthrow his uncle and retake his rightful place, that word is majestic. It's the king of the Disney Renaissance, and it might just be Disney's best movie, this decade or otherwise.

1. Princess Mononoke

Year: 1997
Director: Hayao Miyazaki

One of Hayao Miyazaki's most adult films is also one of his best. A fantastic epic that's up there with the greatest the genre has to offer, Princess Mononoke is a thrilling, poignant adventure story. When Prince Ashitaka is cursed defending his village from a demon boar, he is forced to leave home for good, searching for a possible cure. Along the way, he meets industrious humans whose town is encroaching on the wilderness. He also meets forest spirits and San, the adoptive human daughter of a wolf goddess. Crucially, neither side is purely good or purely bad, and Princess Mononoke explores this nuance to great success.