After Pixar pioneered computer animation in the mid-‘90s and gave audiences the first entirely computer-animated feature film with Toy Story, studios began pumping out similarly styled films like it was nobody’s business. Throughout the 2000s, this animation style was perfected as Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, and all their rivaling studios got to work on the hottest new way to make a movie.
There were still beautiful 2D animated films getting made, like the works of Studio Ghibli. As always, the decade brought both great and terrible animation. So, here are the five best and five worst animated movies from the 2000s.
Best: Shrek 2 (2004)
It’s a debate that’s been raging on for years: which is better, Shrek or Shrek 2? They’re both undeniably great movies, with plenty of heart, humor, and fun subversions of fairy tale tropes. But the sequel is arguably better, and that doesn’t happen very often.
After the first Shrek movie made the characters beloved icons and introduced audiences to a delightful fantasy world, the sequel developed those characters further and expanded the worldbuilding. It took everything that was great about Shrek and built on it.
Worst: Eight Crazy Nights (2002)
Like a lot of Adam Sandler’s worst movies, Eight Crazy Nights was made with good intentions — in this case, to give Jewish audiences a Hanukkah movie amid the annual slew of Christmas fare.
Unfortunately, Eight Crazy Nights has all the hallmarks of a bad Sandler movie, like crass jokes and blatant product placement, as well as an unusually dreary attitude toward the holidays.
Best: Up (2009)
When Pixar announced a movie in which an old man makes his house fly with a ton of balloons, skeptical fans thought that the studio had finally run out of ideas. But as soon as the first awe-inspiring trailer was released, those fans shut their traps.
The plot of Up builds beautifully to that house taking flight, and then it becomes a spectacular adventure. The opening eight-minute prologue is emotionally devastating, with the rest of the movie exploring grief in real human depth.
Worst: The Wild (2006)
A year after DreamWorks released Madagascar, a movie about New York zoo animals escaping captivity and heading into the wilderness, Disney released The Wild, a movie about New York zoo animals escaping captivity and heading into the wilderness.
It’s impossible to watch The Wild and not see a shameless rip-off of Madagascar, and all the differences are negative: The Wild has a less interesting plot, a less impressive voice cast, lower-quality animation, and it’s 100% less original.
Best: Spirited Away (2001)
One of the many animated masterpieces that Hayao Miyazaki has helmed for Studio Ghibli, the beloved animation house he co-founded, Spirited Away tells the fantastical story of a young girl taking a job at a bathhouse after a witch turns her parents into pigs.
The animation is gorgeous, as is the case with every Studio Ghibli outing, with dazzling visuals bringing this unique, slightly unsettling fairy tale to life.
Worst: Brother Bear (2003)
The result of Michael Eisner telling the Disney animation team to set a movie in North America, Brother Bear tells the story of a hunter being turned into a bear as some kind of cosmic punishment.
The movie has the best of intentions, but it’s frightfully boring, the plot is predictable, and it leans too heavily on the dramatic side of things to be fun animated fare.
Best: The Simpsons Movie (2007)
The combined efforts of every Simpsons writer made sure that the screenplay for The Simpsons Movie was packed with as many jokes as possible. The team used the feature-length runtime to explore what would happen if Homer screwed up so badly that it couldn’t be fixed in 21 minutes.
The voice actors are spectacular as usual, with Julie Kavner in particular giving a moving performance as Marge. The aspect ratio changes and large-scale Under the Dome-spoofing storyline give The Simpsons Movie a really cinematic feel.
Worst: Titanic: The Legend Goes On (2000)
Three years after James Cameron’s $200 million dramatization of the sinking of the Titanic became the highest grossing movie ever made, the story was retold in animated form under the title Titanic: The Legend Goes On.
It’s one of the worst animated movies of all time, taking a historical tragedy and populating it with banal cartoon concepts like a rapping dog.
Best: Finding Nemo (2003)
Pixar brought the oceans to life with the gorgeously animated Finding Nemo, which uses a story about fish to touch on universal human emotions as an overprotective father searches for his missing son against all odds.
The movie has all the trademarks of an animated classic: lovable characters, a powerful message, a tragic opening scene, etc.
Worst: Shark Tale (2004)
While Pixar brought the sprawling under-the-sea world to life in breathtaking fashion in Finding Nemo, DreamWorks’ attempt to do the same in Jeffrey Katzenberg’s rip-off, Shark Tale, fell flat.
Pixar told the deeply human story of an overprotective parent’s worst nightmare coming true; DreamWorks made a parody of mob movies that survives on references to films that kids have never seen, like The Godfather, and it’s not funny enough for adults who have seen those movies to enjoy.