Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for animated movies like Elemental:
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.
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.
Sing 2
Sing 2 is occasionally more entertaining than the first movie, but it rarely competes with some of animation’s recent bests. Hopefully someday they’ll make Kids Bop-adjacent animal movies that are better than this.
Turning Red
Despite feeling a bit like Pixar is borrowing heavily from their contemporaries, Turning Red is the first movie from the studio to actually move the needle in a while. It’s a story for generations to enjoy, and I always prefer when Pixar aims to appeal to older audiences in conjunction with the usual kids demographic.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse continues what the first film did so well – feel like something you’ve never seen before. An intense thrill ride that explores carving your own path and not staying constrained to the expectations set before you.
Elio
Conceived by Adrian Molina and then handed off to Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, Elio bears the fingerprints of multiple creative voices. You can feel the push and pull in its structure. Elio (voiced with wide-eyed sincerity by Yonas Kibreab) is accidentally identified as the leader of Earth and whisked to the Communiverse, a galactic council where rival species debate, posture, and search for common ground. Back home, a clone holds his place while his guardian, Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an Air Force major who shelved astronaut dreams to raise her nephew, tries to keep life steady. The movie toggles among coming-of-age comedy, interstellar diplomacy satire, and family melodrama, which gives Elio scope, but also leaves it feeling overstuffed and under-shaped.
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.
Paddington in Peru
Paddington in Peru had an uphill climb from the start. Making a third Paddington movie without director Paul King—who turned the first two into modern family classics—already felt risky, and replacing Sally Hawkins with Emily Mortimer as Mary Brown only heightened that sense of change. King’s films struck a rare balance: sharp British wit, slapstick CGI bear hijinks, and an almost radical kindness that landed at a moment when audiences were desperate for warmth. Without him, it’s no surprise this third outing feels different.
Incredibles 2
Incredibles 2 is about as action packed, well-conceived, and carefully executed as sequels can get in the superhero (and animated) genre. Brad Bird and Pixar Studios manage to inject new life into a world we haven’t visited in well over a decade.
Luca
Whether its shortcomings are the result of its direct-to-streaming release or broader creative decisions, Luca ultimately stands as Pixar’s weakest effort of the 2020s so far. It’s not a misfire, but it is a forgettable entry in a filmography that typically sets the standard for original animated storytelling. For all its good intentions and lighthearted charm, Luca just doesn’t make much of a splash.