Mind-Blowing Animation That Isn't Just For Kids

April 28, 2025

Buckle up for a dazzling ride through 19 animated films that prove cartoons aren’t just kid stuff—these are bold, breathtaking stories that hit hard for any age. Think Spirited Away, with its hauntingly beautiful dive into a spirit world, or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which redefined superhero flicks with its eye-popping visuals and heartfelt coming-of-age vibe. These movies don’t mess around, tackling heavy themes like loss, identity, and societal divides with a mix of stunning artistry and gut-punch emotion. From hand-painted masterpieces to quirky dystopian adventures, this lineup shows animation’s power to tell stories that stick with you long after the screen fades.

What makes these films stand out is how they blend jaw-dropping creativity with narratives that dig deep. One moment you’re marveling at a film that turns every frame into a work of art, the next you’re caught up in a tale of a kid navigating a world that feels all too real. Whether it’s a vibrant cultural epic or a quiet meditation on what it means to be human, these movies—like a certain robot finding her place in the wild or a band of misfit dogs on a trash island—push boundaries and spark wonder. This collection is proof that animation can be as profound as it is fun, delivering stories that challenge, inspire, and leave you absolutely speechless.

Note: The order is completely random—every show here is equally unmissable!

Finding Nemo (2003)

Animation,Family - 1h 40m

Nemo, an adventurous young clownfish, is unexpectedly taken from his Great Barrier Reef home to a dentist's office aquarium. It's up to his worrisome father Marlin and a friendly but forgetful fish Dory to bring Nemo home -- meeting vegetarian sharks, surfer dude turtles, hypnotic jellyfish, hungry seagulls, and more along the way.

Flow (2024)

Animation,Fantasy,Adventure - 1h 25m

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.

Inside Out (2015)

Animation,Family,Adventure,Drama,Comedy - 1h 35m

When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Adventure,Comedy,Animation - 1h 41m

In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an island used as a garbage dump. The outcasts must soon embark on an epic journey when a 12-year-old boy arrives on the island to find his beloved pet.

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Animation,Adventure,Family - 1h 42m

Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers.

Loving Vincent (2017)

Animation,Drama,Mystery,History - 1h 35m

A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.

Luca (2021)

Animation,Comedy,Fantasy,Adventure,Family - 1h 35m

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.

Moana (2016)

Adventure,Comedy,Family,Animation - 1h 47m

In Ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by Maui reaches an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out the demigod to set things right.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Fantasy,Animation,Family - 1h 26m

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

Persepolis (2007)

Animation,Drama - 1h 35m

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Animation,Adventure,Fantasy,Comedy,Family - 1h 43m

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.

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Animation,Family,Fantasy,Action,Adventure - 1h 47m

Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when an evil force threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, that same evil has returned and it’s up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the legendary last dragon to restore the fractured land and its divided people.

Soul (2020)

Animation,Family,Comedy,Fantasy - 1h 41m

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.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Animation,Action,Adventure,Science Fiction - 1h 57m

Struggling to find his place in the world while juggling school and family, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales is unexpectedly bitten by a radioactive spider and develops unfathomable powers just like the one and only Spider-Man. While wrestling with the implications of his new abilities, Miles discovers a super collider created by the madman Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, causing others from across the Spider-Verse to be inadvertently transported to his dimension.

Spirited Away (2001)

Animation,Family,Fantasy - 2h 5m

A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.

Up (2009)

Animation,Comedy,Family,Adventure - 1h 36m

Carl Fredricksen spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest. But at age 78, life seems to have passed him by, until a twist of fate (and a persistent 8-year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell) gives him a new lease on life.

WALL·E (2008)

Animation,Family,Science Fiction - 1h 38m

What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.

The Wild Robot (2024)

Animation,Science Fiction,Family - 1h 42m

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.

Zootopia (2016)

Animation,Adventure,Family,Comedy - 1h 49m

Determined to prove herself, Officer Judy Hopps, the first bunny on Zootopia's police force, jumps at the chance to crack her first case - even if it means partnering with scam-artist fox Nick Wilde to solve the mystery.