2023 was a year of shifting movie trends, with surprise hits and misses from big studios. This pattern extended to animated movies, with audiences connecting more with offbeat films than the usual Disney/Pixar fare. With all that in mind, here are the best animated movies of 2023.
Blue Giant
The best-selling manga series Blue Giant by Shinichi Ishizuka was adapted into a feature-length anime film this year, receiving a North American release in October. Jazz-obsessed young man Dai Miyamoto moves to Tokyo to follow his dream of becoming a successful jazz musician, playing the saxophone at local clubs. He is joined by a pianist and drummer, with the trio building their band into a local favorite. And their talent is only outpaced by their passion for music.
Superbly animated, Blue Giant comes to life in its musical sequences, with the animators going more experimental and really delivering on the emotions of its main characters. Much of the film, especially the second half, features a framing device of older versions of the characters reflecting on the current events of the story, lending a sense of melancholy that just fits so well with jazz. Of all the manga adapted into feature films in 2023, the best movie of them all was Blue Giant.
Nimona
Of all the Netflix original movies to premiere in 2023, one of the best was the animated film Nimona, adapting the 2012 webcomic of the same name by ND Stevenson. Blending medieval fantasy and science fiction elements, the story has protagonist Ballister Boldheart framed for the assassination of the queen and forced to go on the run. Teaming up with a persecuted shapeshifter named Nimona, Ballister sets out to bring the true murderer to justice and clear his name.
Nimona features a deceptively complex and cutting-edge animation style that takes 3D animation and pushes it into a vaguely papery design quality. The production faced a number of hiccups, including the abrupt closure of its original studio, so it’s something of a small miracle that Nimona finally made it to the screen. Fortunately, the movie is well worth the wait and a complete joy to watch.
The Boy and the Heron
It’s been a decade since Hayao Miyazaki presumably retired from making feature-length films after 2013’s The Wind Rises, but fortunately, the venerable filmmaker emerged from retirement for The Boy and the Heron. Written and directed by Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron follows a boy named Mahito Maki, who loses his mother during World War II and seeks refuge in the Japanese countryside. As Mahito struggles with his grief and sudden changes to his home and family, he encounters a mysterious heron who leads him on a grand adventure spanning space and time.
Though themes of the loss of mothers and the end of innocence in the face of war are certainly prevalent in several of Miyazaki’s earlier films, The Boy and the Heron feels as if it hits incredibly close to home for Miyazaki this time. A lot of Mahito’s background mirrors Miyazaki as he comes of age in a surreal, imaginative take on reality, which one could ascribe to how Miyazaki has coped with similar trauma in his life. Autobiographical elements aside, The Boy and the Heron evokes the best elements of Miyazaki’s classic work, providing audiences with his most emotionally nuanced film yet.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
While the adjective is the first word of the franchise’s title, there aren’t a whole lot of depictions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that make the heroes in a half-shell actually feel like teenagers. That changes with this year’s animated movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which actually has the superhero siblings voiced by teenage or young adult actors as it reinvents them for a new generation. Directed and co-written by Jeff Rowe, Mutant Mayhem is the ultimate TMNT coming-of-age story while packing a thrilling superhero story to boot.
The animation style for Mutant Mayhem evokes a similar frame rate as the Spider-Verse films, while the redesigns are faithful to the source material while still making the characters a bit more distinct from each other. The original score, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, feels propulsive and concussive, matching the lovingly lo-fi sensibilities of the visuals. Mutant Mayhem is a love letter to the TMNT franchise as a whole, giving it a rousing shot in the arm.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a landmark movie for both animation and the superhero genre, deservedly winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Its eagerly anticipated sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, brings teenage hero Miles Morales into the heart of the multiverse to take on a new supervillain, The Spot. This leads Miles to question his place among his fellow Spider-Heroes when he is accused of being an anomaly among them.
Across the Spider-Verse feels like the perfect sequel, going deeper with its returning characters and sharing the spotlight, introducing new characters and environments, and dialing up everything to eleven as it fully embraces the possibilities of the multiverse. A whole host of animation styles are used to bring the movie to life, from the bleached colors in Gwen Stacy’s world to the roughly drawn, crumpled-up look of Spider-Punk. Across the Spider-Verse is one of the best animated movies in recent memory, with awe-inspiring action set pieces and an effective emotional story at its core.
For more of our Best of lists for 2023, check out the following:
