15 Best Animated TV Shows And Movies Of 2023 Ranked
When Guillermo del Toro accepted the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (“Pinocchio”) in 2022, he proclaimed during his speech, “Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre. Animation is ready to be taken to the next step, we are all ready for it.” Well, 2023 certainly heard him, because this year we were gifted an embarrassment of riches — all using the animated medium to push the limits of storytelling and visual artistry. At the same time, animated projects are constantly under attack by powerful millionaires in positions of power who can’t or refuse to see the value in animation and instead still operate under the false assumption that it’s nothing more than “kid’s stuff.” And even still, there was plenty of incredible animation this year specifically targeting young audiences, like the “Craig of the Creek” prequel film “Craig Before the Creek,” Apple TV+’s “The Snoopy Show,” and of course, the undisputed children’s champion, “Bluey.”
Animation is also one of the few mediums where global cinema is given an equal footing, with artistic visuals serving as a universal language. We were privileged enough to catch some genuine masterpieces out of Japan like “Blue Giant” and “The First Slam Dunk” or “Robot Dreams” from Spain which we will certainly be talking about again next year once the films are easier to access by a larger audience, but for the sake of this list, we focused on titles that you could see on this list and track down immediately after reading. This is also simply a showcase of 15 of the best animated shows and movies and by no means an exhaustive list.
Favorites were left off, darlings were killed, and intense debates were had in determining the best of the best. But by God, we did it.