“Cartoons are for kids” is one of the most wrong opinions a person can hold. Some of the most sophisticated, moving, visually stunning films ever made are animated — they just happen to also work for children, which confuses people. If you’re looking for the best animated movies for adults — films that reward grown-up attention with complex themes, gorgeous craft, and emotional depth — here’s the canon, from arthouse masterpieces to mainstream triumphs.

What Are the Best Animated Movies for Adults? The Essential Canon

The masterpieces

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Not just the best animated superhero movie — arguably the most visually innovative mainstream film of the decade. Every frame is a comic book come alive, the story is genuinely moving, and it works whether you’re 8 or 48. The sequel is excellent too, but start here.

Spirited Away (2001). Miyazaki’s magnum opus and the greatest animated film ever made (fight me). A girl navigates a bathhouse for spirits — it’s about greed, identity, growing up, and it operates on dream logic that bypasses your adult brain and hits something deeper. If you’ve never seen a Ghibli film, this is the doorway.

WALL-E (2008). The first 40 minutes are nearly dialogue-free visual storytelling at its finest — a love story between robots told through pure cinema. Then it becomes a sharp satire of consumerism and environmental collapse. Pixar’s most ambitious film.

Persepolis (2007). Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical story of growing up during the Iranian revolution, in stark black-and-white animation. Funny, devastating, politically vital — proof that animation can carry the heaviest subjects.

The arthouse and international

Your Name (2016). Makoto Shinkai’s body-swap romance is visually breathtaking (every sky looks like the most beautiful sky you’ve ever seen) and emotionally devastating. The rare film that makes grown adults weep in theaters.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). Wes Anderson’s stop-motion Roald Dahl adaptation — deadpan, stylish, hilarious, with a midlife-crisis theme that lands harder at 35 than at 10. The animation is deliberately tactile; you can see the fingerprints of the craft.

Isle of Dogs (2018). Anderson again, even more visually ambitious — a dystopian fable about loyalty and political scapegoating, told through dogs. Gorgeous and surprisingly moving.

Waltz with Bashir (2008). An animated documentary about memory and war — a soldier reconstructing his suppressed memories of the Lebanon war. Formally daring, emotionally shattering. Animation as the only honest way to depict the undepictable.

Mind Game (2004). Masaaki Yuasa’s psychedelic explosion — a film that changes art styles mid-scene and treats reality as negotiable. Exhausting, exhilarating, unlike anything else.

The mainstream triumphs

Coco (2017). Yes, it’s “for kids.” It’s also a profound meditation on memory, family, and death that has reduced theaters full of adults to tears. The Land of the Dead sequence is a technical marvel.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021). The funniest animated film in years, with a genuinely touching family story underneath the chaos. The visual style — mixing 3D with 2D flourishes, memes, and hand-drawn effects — feels like the future.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022). Dark, mournful, beautiful — del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio is about grief, fascism, and what it means to be “a real boy.” Nothing like the Disney version, in the best way.

Ratatouille (2007). A rat who wants to be a chef in Paris — and somehow a profound film about art, criticism, and following your passion. Ego’s final speech (“Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”) is one of cinema’s great monologues.

The hidden gems

The Triplets of Belleville (2003). Nearly dialogue-free, grotesquely charming, utterly unique — a Tour de France kidnapping caper with the most distinctive character designs in animation. A cult classic for a reason.

Mary and Max (2009). Australian claymation about an unlikely pen-pal friendship. Dark, funny, deeply humane — and it will break your heart quietly.

Wolf Children (2012). Mamoru Hosoda’s story of a mother raising wolf-children alone. A parenthood film disguised as fantasy — parents will be wrecked by it.

Where to Start (By Mood)

  • Never watched “adult” animation? Start with Spider-Verse or Coco — accessible, spectacular, undeniable
  • Want to be challenged? Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir — animation as serious art
  • Want beauty? Spirited Away, Your Name — visual feasts
  • Want to laugh? Mitchells vs. the Machines, Fantastic Mr. Fox
  • Want to cry? Coco, Wolf Children, Mary and Max (bring tissues)

Going Deeper

If this list opens the door: explore Studio Ghibli’s full catalog (Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro are all essential), Satoshi Kon’s films (Perfect Blue, Paprika — psychological thrillers that influenced live-action cinema), and Cartoon Saloon’s Irish folklore trilogy (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers — hand-drawn beauty). The Criterion Collection includes several animated masterpieces, which tells you everything about the medium’s artistic standing — and their editions make excellent gifts for a movie lover.

For family viewing that bridges the gap, my family movie guide covers the all-ages animated greats — many of these films belong on both lists, which is exactly the point. Most of them stream on the best streaming services for families.

The Practical Takeaway

Best animated movies for adults: Spider-Verse for innovation, Spirited Away for the masterpiece, WALL-E for ambition, Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir for gravity, Mitchells and Fantastic Mr. Fox for joy. Animation isn’t a genre — it’s a medium, and these films prove it can do anything live-action can, sometimes better.

Watch Spirited Away this weekend if you haven’t. Then come back and tell me I’m wrong about it being the greatest. (I’m not.)

Animated Series for Adults (The Next Step)

If films leave you wanting more, adult animation series go even deeper. BoJack Horseman — starts as a washed-up-sitcom-star comedy, becomes one of the most profound explorations of depression and self-destruction ever animated. Arcane — the League of Legends series with painterly visuals and genuinely great writing; you don’t need to know the game. Primal — Genndy Tartakovsky’s dialogue-free prehistoric epic; visceral, beautiful, brutal. Over the Garden Wall — a 10-episode autumnal fairy tale that’s perfect in every way. Undone — rotoscoped reality-bending mystery about time and mental illness. These series prove the medium’s range even further — animation handling subjects live-action struggles with, precisely because the stylization creates emotional distance that lets hard truths land.