Twitter Users Pick Their Favorite Animated Features That Aren’t Big-Budget American Films

Twitter user AsleepTurnpike took to Twitter earlier this week asking other users for examples of animated features that transcend commercial American features that target kids.

if you truly believe animation is art i think you should at least try to name three great animated films that aren't mainstream western kids movies to prove that point. (hard mode is no ghibli either).

— Ed (@AsleepTurnpike) January 9, 2023

Thanks to Twitter’s new engagement monitoring system, we can see that the tweet has been viewed more than 850,000 times. The post has generated over 600 replies and 1,400+ retweets with animation fans offering up hundreds of personalized suggestions. On the other hand, some of the replies dismiss the original prompt as gatekeeping.

Regardless of how readers feel about the prompt, in the end, we have an amazing list of animated features that validate, as Guillermo del Toro says, animation’s stature as a medium and “not a genre for kids.”

Below, we’ve collected several replies and retweets with fantastic viewing suggestions:

Amberly Ferrule proposed The Triplets of Belleville, I Lost My Body, and The Secret of Kells:

The Triplets of Belleville, I Lost My Body, and The Secret of Kells

I love Sleeping Beauty but since that doesn’t necessarily count for the list, I went with other phenomenal movies pic.twitter.com/stK4LjpttC

— Amberly Ferrule 🐟✨ (@MayflyMayDie) January 10, 2023

Another Cartoon Saloon feature to get a lot of love was 2020’s Wolfwalkers:

watch (cannot stress this enough) Wolfwalkers pic.twitter.com/dgDWWE4nP7

— james cameron’s strongest soldier (@alexscandaddy) January 10, 2023

Takeshi Koike’s Redline got a big response:

THE
Best animated movie to come out of the late 00’s. Purely hand drawn art that flows like water. pic.twitter.com/1eQtkQwXNC

— Texas Red 🇮🇳 (@Ripfist) January 10, 2023

The trio of The Night is Short, Walk On Girl, Persepolis, and My Life as a Zucchini was a hit:

The Night is Short, Walk On Girl
Persepolis
My Life as a Courgette pic.twitter.com/ZhDXhnxRq6

— Lucas (@realPhoenixFire) January 10, 2023

Hundreds agreed with Pat’s list of Fantastic Planet, Yellow Submarine, and Heavy Metal:

Fantastic Planet
Yellow Submarine
Heavy Metal pic.twitter.com/sFRPwor95u

— pat (@saotomestan96) January 10, 2023

Cartoon Brew contributor Vincent Alexander offered up Son of the White Mare, Allegro non Tropo, and The Triplets of Belleville:

Way too many to name, but SON OF THE WHITE MARE (1981), ALLEGRO NON TROPPO (1976) and THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (2003) are all classics. https://t.co/Ell2yUzcpG pic.twitter.com/cXyjnntsAr

— Vincent Alexander (@NonsenseIsland) January 12, 2023

Other picks included Tale of Tales and Alice:

1. Tale of Tales, Yuri Norstein
2. Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo
3. The Triplets of Belleville, Sylvain Chomet
4. Alice, Jan Svankmajer pic.twitter.com/CkHHc7dkJk

— Earnest Tweets (@trevorflagstaff) January 10, 2023

Liz and the Blue Bird:

In this house we stan Naoko Yamada. She's a genius. Liz and the Blue Bird is one of my favorite movies of all time, animated or no pic.twitter.com/MLNz2uuOkj

— fffff (@RoosedInstitute) January 11, 2023

The Last Unicorn, Perfect Blue and A Silent Voice:

✨The Last Unicorn
✨Perfect Blue
✨A Silent Voice pic.twitter.com/1VkgKnZCVx

— Lovey Dovey Cassy🐻💕 (@cassyhoneybee) January 11, 2023

Besides Fantastic Planet, someone mentioned two other Rene Laloux films: Time Mastesr and Gandahar (aka Light Years):

God, I wish there were more Rene Laloux films… pic.twitter.com/exsI8u4f07

— 📼 ＨｅｍｍｓＦｏｘ 📼 (@HemmsFoxStudios) January 10, 2023

And we suggested Mind Game, Sita Sings the Blues, Consuming Spirits, and Adama:

Countless choices. Here's four amazing features from just the last 20 years:

Mind Game (2004) dir. Masaaki Yuasa
Sita Sings the Blues (2008) dir. Nina Paley
Consuming Spirits (2012) dir. Chris Sullivan
Adama (2015) dir. Simon Rouby https://t.co/0AYP7Fnhc6 pic.twitter.com/u1VHkTrxe8

— cartoonbrew.com – Animation News (@cartoonbrew) January 12, 2023

These films are just the tip of the iceberg and there’s many more great suggestions in the replies. We’d also love to hear what your favorite examples of non-mainstream animated features that push perceptions of what animation can be.