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

Hundreds agreed with Pat’s list of Fantastic Planet, Yellow Submarine, and Heavy Metal:
— Vincent Alexander (@NonsenseIsland) January 12, 2023
— fffff (@RoosedInstitute) January 11, 2023

— Amberly Ferrule 🐟✨ (@MayflyMayDie) January 10, 2023
— 📼 ＨｅｍｍｓＦｏｘ 📼 (@HemmsFoxStudios) January 10, 2023
Amberly Ferrule proposed The Triplets of Belleville, I Lost My Body, and The Secret of Kells:

— Ed (@AsleepTurnpike) January 9, 2023

Fantastic Planet
Yellow Submarine
Heavy Metal pic.twitter.com/sFRPwor95u
I love Sleeping Beauty but since that doesn’t necessarily count for the list, I went with other phenomenal movies pic.twitter.com/stK4LjpttC

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

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.”

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

Below, we’ve collected several replies and retweets with fantastic viewing suggestions:
— Earnest Tweets (@trevorflagstaff) January 10, 2023

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

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

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
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

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

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.

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

Takeshi Koike’s Redline got a big response:

Cartoon Brew contributor Vincent Alexander offered up Son of the White Mare, Allegro non Tropo, and The Triplets of Belleville:
Countless choices. Here’s four amazing features from just the last 20 years:

The Last Unicorn, Perfect Blue and A Silent Voice:

— pat (@saotomestan96) January 10, 2023
Liz and the Blue Bird:

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 Last Unicorn
✨Perfect Blue
✨A Silent Voice pic.twitter.com/1VkgKnZCVx
— james cameron’s strongest soldier (@alexscandaddy) January 10, 2023

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