Every year without fail, Hollywood and other foreign markets bring unforgettable cinematic experiences to the masses, feeding our senses with creativity, imagination, and in rare instances, the impossible. In many cases, we’re spoiled when it comes to live-action offerings, but what about animation? Today, we’re looking back on 2016, the year the all-female Ghostbusters made bustin’ feel good at the box office despite fan uproar, Daughter let loose one of my favorite albums of all time with their second studio album, “Not to Disappear,” and Margot Robbie had everyone falling in love with Harley Quinn all over again.
Looking back, there are several wild pop culture milestones to mark the year everyone got their dicks out for Harambe. Still, today, we’re setting our sights on the greatest animated films of 2016, with a Top 5 list that’s sure to make you feel nostalgic and appreciative of the leaps we’ve made in the cinematic art form since then.
5) Zootopia
While there are many interpretations of Disney‘s 55th animated feature film, one thing remains true: Zootopia is a conversation starter. The film focuses on the idealistic Judy Hopps and her partner in crime, Nick Wilde, a street-smart fox forced to help solve a city-wide conspiracy. The animation is impressive, and the world feels alive in ways that bring beauty and depth to a robust setting. Still, it’s the way Zootopia approaches systemic discrimination, fear-mongering, and prejudice that makes it special.
Disney has avoided risks for most of its history, but Zootopia pushes the envelope in ways the House of Mouse typically avoids at all costs. As I said, opinions vary on whether the film’s approach to these issues is sound, but the fact that these important topics are there at all is worth a few words. Beyond its interpretive storytelling, Zootopia is a looker. I love the character design, high-energy animation, and busy soundtrack. Disney will never wash away the sins of its past, but at least there’s one franchise that’s saying the quiet parts out loud in its own way.
4) My Life as a Zucchini
Animation helps filmmakers explore a wide range of sensitive topics, though it rarely addresses abuse and neglect. While studios tend to shy away from darker themes, Claude Barras’ My Life as Zucchini is an emotionally complex stop-motion animated feature about personal tragedy, found family, and healing invisible wounds. In the film, a boy who prefers to go by the nickname “Zucchini” is spiraling after accidentally causing the death of his alcoholic mother. With no one else left to give him the love and understanding he deserves, a sympathetic police officer named Raymond brings Zucchini to an orphanage, where the young boy meets other children whose lives have been shaped by trauma. Together, they discover that blood isn’t the only thing that makes a family.
At only 66 minutes long, Barras’ film is a unique-looking stop-motion marvel with colorful and distinctive character designs and inspired storytelling that packs a punch, using hard-hitting subject matter to tell an honest tale of survival that trusts its audience to carry the weight. While the film is not for the faint of heart, with themes like parental loss, addiction, deportation, and abuse explored through a variety of orphans, it never condescends or sanitizes its content to spare audiences from confronting what could happen behind closed doors. It’s a beautiful, tragic, and inspiring film that deserves to be seen by everyone.
3) Kubo and the Two Strings
While ParaNorman remains my favorite of LAIKA‘s stop-motion spectacles so far, Travis Knight’s Kubo and the Two Strings is a close second, though I’m impatiently waiting to see Wildwood later this month. Set in a mythical Japan, Kubo and the Two Strings follows a young, eye-patch-wearing storyteller who brings origami to life with his magic shamisen, caring for his ailing mother until a vengeful ghost from her past tears his world apart. Forced into a quest across a treacherous, wintery landscape, Kubo teams up with a fierce, no-nonsense Monkey and a goofy, shell-shocked Beetle warrior to locate three enchanted pieces of armor.
Kubo and the Two Strings isn’t just a technical flex; it’s a profoundly moving exploration of grief, memory, and the enduring power of storytelling that runs circles around the assembly-line narrative formulas clogging up modern multiplexes. Dario Marianelli’s sweeping, shamisen-led score carries an emotional weight that anchors Kubo’s tragic quest, balancing genuine mythological terror with a quiet, poetic grace that trusts its audience enough to engage with complex themes of loss and legacy.
Kubo is a grand film that pushes stop-motion to new heights while telling a timeless tale that will undoubtedly resonate with audiences for generations to come.
2) The Red Turtle
There’s nothing I love more than an animated film with a gripping narrative that tells an emotional tale while letting the art do the heavy lifting. In Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle, a man shipwrecked on a deserted tropical island finds that no matter how many times he tries to leave, a mysterious giant red turtle destroys his vessel, forcing him back into a life of toil and survival among crabs, birds, and the elements. In time, the turtle transforms into a beautiful woman, and the man can’t help but succumb to her enigmatic charm. What follows is a powerful story about unconventional love, nature’s wrath, and the song that emerges when two hearts beat as one.
Featuring no dialogue whatsoever, The Red Turtle is a shining example of powerful storytelling told through visual splendor, an atmospheric and exhilarating score, and a fable-like narrative that urges you to let go of conventions that keep us tethered to normalcy. With gorgeous charcoal vector linework, breathtaking backgrounds, and a minimalist approach mixed with Studio Ghibli-esque wonder, The Red Turtleis a gold-standard animation that offers something mesmerizing and eternal.
1) Your Name.
Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. is the romantic fantasy epic that took the animation community by storm. Universally praised for its charming characters, otherworldly visuals, and inspired take on the fragility of memory. In Your Name, high schoolers Taki and Mitsuha suddenly find themselves swapping bodies across space and time. This cosmic glitch kicks off as a chaotic, body-swapping comedy of errors before pivoting into a heart-stopping race against fate. As Taki navigates Mitsuha’s quiet rural existence and Mitsuha gets a taste of Tokyo’s fast-paced hustle, their connection deepens through handwritten notes and phone updates, only for the swaps to abruptly stop. What follows is an epic journey across time and memory to break temporal bounds and rewrite history before it’s too late.
Your Name. is a visually arresting, soul-stirring masterwork that takes a simple body-swapping concept and weaves it into an intricate, time-bending tale of cosmic longing. I found myself holding my breath as one of Shinkai’s most celebrated films tugged at my heartstrings with a gripping story about love and the indelible connections that tether us across space and time. There’s no question as to why this film struck a chord with so many across the globe. It’s a film that reminds you to live in every moment we’re given, because it could all get ripped away as our memories turn to glass with time.
There you have it, folks. What do you think about our Top 5 Animated Films of 2016 list? Are your favorite films represented here? Are there any grievous omissions? Leave us a comment and let us know what your Top 5 Animated Films of 2016 are! Until next time. Cheers!
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