5 Best Animated Movies Of 2026 (So Far)

2026 has been a wonderful year for animation (except when it comes to the industry overall, which is constantly on fire). Following the history-making success of the independent film “Flow” at the Oscars last year, this year saw cultural phenomenon “KPop Demon Hunters” take home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature after becoming the defining movie of 2025. Since then, we’ve gotten a plethora of great features within the animation medium, with heavy hitting studios like Pixar and DreamWorks finding ways to innovate and deliver fresh and visually stunning films like “Hoppers” and “Forgotten Island.”

But to truly see the best animated movies, you have to go beyond the big studios. In 2026, many of the best films have been produced by international studios that are able to experiment with the medium, incorporating tone, story, and visuals that deliver the kind of animated movies we haven’t seen before. These range from stop-motion musicals to heartbreaking dramas and more. Though there are still many animated movies coming in the rest of the year that might surprise us, here are the best animated movies of 2026 so far, which all deserve a spot on your watchlist.

Iron Boy

Louis Clichy, who got his start as an animator at Pixar, created a beautifully hand-painted coming-of-age film with a big heart and a compelling main character who is forced to wear an iron corset. “Iron Boy” is set in rural France and follows an 11-year-old named Christophe who gets diagnosed with scoliosis and ordered to wear an iron back brace, while his family’s farm faces financial ruin. The film features a stunning mix of naturalism and cartoonish expression with backgrounds that highlight the vast, empty skies of the French countryside, and the Chinese ink brush line work makes the simple designs of the characters and the environment feel expressive and carry huge emotions. 

When Christophe discovers a passion for playing the organ at his local church, it opens his entire world to new possibilities and the very idea of belonging. The film’s title, “Iron Boy,” refers not only to the iron brace that restricts Christophe’s movements, but to the ironclad restrictions he puts on his own life, not paying attention to the financial struggles of his family, and not opening up to other kids at school. But by the end of the film, this iron boy will make you believe he can soar through the skies.

Tangles

One of the most heartbreaking animated films in years, “Tangles” features a star-studded voice cast and a touching story about a woman dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Directed by Leah Nelson and based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel of the same name (Leavitt co-wrote the film’s script), this is not a movie you should watch without tissues nearby. It’s a showcase of the medium of animation and its ability to not only transport us to impossible worlds, but to capture our grounded reality. Indeed, “Tangles” takes full advantage of the possibilities of its medium to capture the headspace of cartoonist Sarah as her world turns upside down following her mother’s diagnosis. 

Told in monochrome, with occasional uses of color to emphasize a moment or a memory, the film plays with the expressiveness and rigidity of its visuals to represent the chaotic fluidity of the characters’ situations and how quickly their worlds change. The film’s star-studded cast is full of comedians, each of them delivering a heart-wrenching and compelling performance that makes this film more than just stunt casting. Particularly great is Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Midge, with her performance starting off vibrant and full of life before Alzheimer’s starts slowly taking away her warmth and personality.

The Last Blossom

Baku Kinoshita made a big splash back in 2021 with his anime series “Odd Taxi,” which felt like an anime made by the Coen brothers. Now, Kinoshita is following it up with his feature directorial debut, “The Last Blossom,” which feels like anime’s answer to Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” In the film, a taciturn aging mobster is serving a lifetime sentence in prison when suddenly a potted balsam flower starts talking to him. Nearing death, the mobster starts reflecting on his life and the choices that got him there. This is a fascinating drama with tear-jerking moments, hilarious magical realism, and a touching story of found family. 

Where many anime and animated movies in general rely heavily on visuals, “The Last Blossom” comparatively uses a lot of dialogue to drive its story and to develop the characters. In a way, this feels more like a live-action film in its approach, with very long shots that emphasize stillness and contrast against the stylized character designs. The film continuously goes back and forth between the present and the past, with the mobster revisiting old memories of finding love and starting a family, while struggling to balance it with a life of crime. The juxtaposition makes for a gripping drama that’s as tense as it is fun — especially when it focuses on the talking plant, whose big personality injects a level of levity to the film. It’s moving, it’s visually unique, and it’s unlike any animated film this year.

Coyote vs. Acme

This movie is a miracle — not only the fact that Ketchup Entertainment managed to release “Coyote vs. Acme” to the masses after Warner Bros. Discovery tried its hardest to bury the film, but that the movie is legitimately great. Much like Robert Zemeckis’ classic “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the film understands that the key to a live-action/cartoon hybrid is treating the animated characters not like celebrities, but like regular characters — just like Muppet movies do. Here, the film has a thrilling central conspiracy and a compelling underdog story. 

The Looney Tunes get to shine (without the need for Bugs Bunny to take the spotlight!) and be real characters rather than icons, making the world of “Coyote vs. Acme” feel fleshed out and alive. Each Looney Tune is portrayed perfectly, with just the right amount of screen time and development. This, after all, is a film that manages to make the silent Wile E. Coyote feel like the greatest underdog in cinema, and makes his relationship with the Road Runner into a nuanced friendship that might make you shed a tear by the end. Simply put, “Coyote vs. Acme” is a triumph of looney cinema, a great gateway into the Looney Tunes, and one of the best animated films of the year.

I Am Frankelda

Though it is technically a prequel to an established TV series (titled “Frankelda’s Book of Spooks”), “I Am Frankelda” is a phenomenal standalone film no matter your level of familiarity with the world that the Ambriz Brothers have created. This is a beautiful stop-motion movie with incredible sets and production design, containing vast worlds full of detail and nightmares. That’s because the film follows a very Mary Shelley-esque aspiring horror writer who finds herself in a parallel dimension where her spooky creations come to life. From there, the film delivers an epic dark fantasy musical with a royal romance, featuring incredible creature designs of all shapes and sizes. (A massive spider creature is particularly impressive.) 

Its music is catchy, its numbers visually stunning, and its characters are layered and memorable. The groundbreaking film is produced by Guillermo del Toro, and you can definitely feel his influence on the film’s tone and approach to dark fantasy, but it very quickly proves itself to be a unique vision for an original universe that deserves to be explored further in new titles. It’s a showcase for the magic of stop-motion, particularly when it comes to horror. Just like “The Dark Crystal” before it, “I Am Frankelda” shows that the medium is uniquely qualified to create spooky worlds and characters that are both tactile and nightmarish.