Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for animated movies like Flow:
Robot Dreams
Suitable for children while also extremely relatable for adults, Robot Dreams is one of the most uncomplicatedly pleasant experiences I’ve had with a movie in 2024. It’s nice to relive an animation style that once was the norm, while also seeing it adapted in prescient and timely ways. Robot Dreams, while small scale and innocent, feels like the much needed break from convention.
Read our full review of Robot Dreams
WALL-E
Over fifteen years later, I’m not sure Disney Pixar Studios has made a movie nearly as insightful, colorful, and ambitious as WALL-E. As an allegory for corporate greed and environmental neglect, the film operates on such a concise and straightforward manner – Pixar’s strongest thematic statement in their catalogue.
Read our full review of WALL-E
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The glorious animation in the newest Shrek installment Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is enough to drive you to the theater by itself. Led by a star-studded cast and a script with enough heart, The Last Wish is one of the better animated movies of 2022.
Read our full review of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Wild Robot
The overall package of The Wild Robot is ultimately quite honorable and noteworthy. The animated genre offers just a few great movies a year, and The Wild Robot falls into that category. It’s probably the frontrunner for Best Animated Picture at the Academy Awards, and I’d add that we’ve had much worse winners should this take home the prize. It’s sweet and effortlessly likeable, even if you can see the mechanisms of it working behind the scenes.
Read our full review of The Wild Robot
ME
As reflexive, personal, and ambiguous as any animated movie made this decade, Don Hertzfeldt‘s 22-minute short film, titled ME, is an exploration into the ways society tries to shield ourselves from the atrocities that happen on a global scale, as well as a more personally mining tale of living for others as much as you live for yourself. Or at least that’s how I see it.
The Boy and the Heron
Hayao Miyazaki creates worlds where grief dances with wonder, where loss paves the way for discovery, and imagination reigns supreme. His latest movie The Boy and the Heron continues those trends to great lengths; it’s a symphony of animation, storytelling, and profound emotions that transports you to a realm of breathtaking beauty and exploration.
Read our full review of The Boy and the Heron
Nimona
Nimona tries to strike at the same imaginative core that worked so well for a few of Netflix’s animated releases from a year ago, namely The Sea Beast and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, but instead comes out overbaked – trying to have its way in so many directions that it just ultimately feels lost within so many ideas.
Read our full review of Nimona
Orion and the Dark
There’s enough to like in Orion and the Dark to recommend it as a worthwhile family movie. Charlie Kaufman is able to mold his signature style just enough to fit within the constraints of a movie targeted for children. Jacob Tremblay and Paul Walter Hauser headline the voice cast in this DreamWorks animated movie for Netflix.
Read our full review of Orion and the Dark
Predator: Killer of Killers
Predator: Killer of Killers isn’t a knockout, but it is a welcome risk. It continues the rejuvenation of the franchise that Prey began and suggests that Predator: Badlands could be the most expansive, adventurous installment yet. For fans of the series or genre animation in general, it’s worth the watch. It’s smart, visually distinctive, and interested in more than just the hunt.
Read our full review of Predator: Killer of Killers
Shrek
Shrek stays winning! I don’t think its in the pantheon of great animated movies this century (Pixar has made movies superior to this just in the last few years), but it’s pretty entertaining and funny for what it strives to be. Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy are terrific voice actors.