Movie Auditor › Rankings › 2000s › Animation
Best Animation Movies of the 2000s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
75 animation films from the 2000s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Spirited Away (2001), at 8.6 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.3. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Brother Bear, 6.9 on IMDb against 48 on Metacritic.
Filter, sort and search this list live
| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spirited Away '2001 | Animation / Fantasy | 8.6 | 96% | 96 | 8.5 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 2 | WALL·E '2008 | Animation / Sci-Fi | 8.4 | 95% | 95 | 8.1 | Andrew Stanton |
| 3 | Up '2009 | Animation / Comedy | 8.3 | 98% | 88 | 8.0 | Pete Docter |
| 4 | Finding Nemo '2003 | Animation | 8.2 | 99% | 90 | 7.8 | Andrew Stanton |
| 5 | Monsters, Inc. '2001 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 8.1 | 96% | 79 | 7.9 | Pete Docter |
| 6 | Ratatouille '2007 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 8.1 | 96% | 96 | 7.8 | Brad Bird |
| 7 | Howl's Moving Castle '2004 | Fantasy / Animation | 8.2 | 88% | 82 | 8.4 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 8 | The Incredibles '2004 | Action / Animation | 8.0 | - | 90 | 7.7 | Brad Bird |
| 9 | Shrek '2001 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 7.9 | 89% | 84 | 7.8 | Andrew Adamson |
| 10 | Fantastic Mr. Fox '2009 | Animation / Comedy | 7.9 | 93% | 83 | 7.8 | Wes Anderson |
| 11 | Mary and Max '2009 | Animation / Comedy / Drama | 8.1 | 96% | 72 | 7.9 | Adam Elliot |
| 12 | Coraline '2009 | Animation / Fantasy / Horror | 7.8 | 91% | 80 | 7.9 | Henry Selick |
| 13 | Kung Fu Panda '2008 | Action / Animation / Comedy | 7.6 | 87% | 74 | 7.3 | Mark Osborne |
| 14 | Ice Age '2002 | Animation / Comedy | 7.5 | 76% | 61 | 7.4 | Chris Wedge |
| 15 | Shrek 2 '2004 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy / Romance | 7.4 | 89% | 75 | 7.3 | Conrad Vernon |
| 16 | Persepolis '2007 | Animation / Drama | 8.0 | 96% | 90 | 7.9 | Vincent Paronnaud |
| 17 | The Emperor's New Groove '2000 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 7.4 | 86% | 70 | 7.6 | Mark Dindal |
| 18 | Lilo & Stitch '2002 | Animation / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 7.4 | 86% | 75 | 7.6 | Dean DeBlois |
| 19 | Cars '2006 | Animation / Comedy | 7.3 | 75% | 73 | 7.1 | John Lasseter |
| 20 | The Simpsons Movie '2007 | Animation / Comedy | 7.3 | 87% | 80 | 7.0 | David Silverman |
| 21 | Corpse Bride '2005 | Romance / Fantasy / Animation | 7.4 | 85% | 83 | 7.6 | Mike Johnson |
| 22 | Ponyo '2008 | Animation / Fantasy | 7.6 | 91% | 86 | 7.8 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 23 | Paprika '2006 | Animation / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.7 | 87% | 81 | 7.8 | Satoshi Kon |
| 24 | Treasure Planet '2002 | Sci-Fi / Animation / Fantasy | 7.2 | 68% | 60 | 7.6 | Ron Clements |
| 25 | Chicken Run '2000 | Animation / Comedy | 7.1 | 97% | 88 | 6.9 | Peter Lord |
| 26 | Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit '2005 | Animation / Comedy | 7.5 | 95% | 87 | 7.1 | Steve Box |
| 27 | Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron '2002 | Animation / Drama / Western | 7.2 | 69% | 52 | 7.7 | Kelly Asbury |
| 28 | The Girl Who Leapt Through Time '2006 | Fantasy / Animation / Drama / Sci-Fi | 7.6 | 87% | 66 | 7.8 | Mamoru Hosoda |
| 29 | The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie '2004 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 7.2 | 68% | 67 | 7.1 | Stephen Hillenburg |
| 30 | 5 Centimeters per Second '2007 | Animation / Romance / Drama | 7.4 | - | - | 7.3 | Makoto Shinkai |
| 31 | The Cat Returns '2002 | Fantasy / Animation / Drama | 7.1 | 88% | 70 | 7.1 | Hiroyuki Morita |
| 32 | Atlantis: The Lost Empire '2001 | Animation / Sci-Fi | 6.9 | 48% | 52 | 7.1 | Gary Trousdale |
| 33 | The Road to El Dorado '2000 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 6.9 | 49% | 51 | 7.3 | Bibo Bergeron |
| 34 | The Princess and the Frog '2009 | Animation / Romance / Fantasy | 7.2 | 86% | 73 | 7.2 | Ron Clements |
| 35 | Madagascar '2005 | Animation / Comedy | 7.0 | 55% | 57 | 6.9 | Eric Darnell |
| 36 | The Animatrix '2003 | Animation / Sci-Fi | 7.3 | 88% | - | 7.2 | Peter Chung |
| 37 | Meet the Robinsons '2007 | Animation / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 6.9 | 68% | 61 | 7.0 | Stephen J. Anderson |
| 38 | A Scanner Darkly '2006 | Animation / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.0 | 68% | 73 | 6.8 | Richard Linklater |
| 39 | The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea '2000 | Animation / Comedy | 5.6 | 20% | - | 6.4 | Jim Kammerud |
| 40 | The Lion King 1½ '2004 | Animation / Comedy | 6.5 | 76% | - | 6.6 | Bradley Raymond |
| 41 | Dinosaur '2000 | Animation / Drama | 6.4 | 65% | 56 | 6.6 | Eric Leighton |
| 42 | 9 '2009 | Action / Animation / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.0 | 57% | 60 | 7.0 | Shane Acker |
| 43 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs '2009 | Animation / Comedy | 6.9 | 85% | 66 | 6.7 | Christopher Miller |
| 44 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs '2009 | Animation / Comedy | 6.9 | 46% | 50 | 6.8 | Carlos Saldanha |
| 45 | Surf's Up '2007 | Animation / Comedy | 6.7 | 78% | 64 | 6.5 | Ash Brannon |
| 46 | Brother Bear '2003 | Animation | 6.9 | 38% | 48 | 7.3 | Aaron Blaise |
| 47 | Ice Age: The Meltdown '2006 | Animation / Comedy | 6.8 | 56% | 59 | 6.7 | Carlos Saldanha |
| 48 | Return to Never Land '2002 | Fantasy / Animation | 5.8 | 46% | 49 | 6.5 | Robin Budd |
| 49 | Mulan II '2004 | Animation / Comedy | 5.7 | 0% | - | 6.5 | Lynne Southerland |
| 50 | Monster House '2006 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy / Horror | 6.7 | 75% | 68 | 6.7 | Gil Kenan |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
All animation movies
All movies of the 2000s
Animation in other decades
Animation of the 1920s Animation of the 1930s Animation of the 1940s Animation of the 1950s Animation of the 1960s Animation of the 1970s Animation of the 1980s Animation of the 1990s Animation of the 2010s Animation of the 2020s
Other genres in the 2000s
Action of the 2000s Comedy of the 2000s Crime of the 2000s Drama of the 2000s Fantasy of the 2000s Horror of the 2000s Mystery of the 2000s Romance of the 2000s Sci-Fi of the 2000s Thriller of the 2000s War of the 2000s
Directors on this list
Hayao Miyazaki Andrew Stanton Pete Docter Brad Bird Wes Anderson Dean DeBlois John Lasseter Ron Clements Richard Linklater Carlos Saldanha
Actors on this list
Christopher Plummer John Goodman Craig T. Nelson Holly Hunter Mike Myers Eddie Murphy George Clooney Meryl Streep Toni Collette Philip Seymour Hoffman Dakota Fanning Jack Black