191 Best Animation Movies to Watch (Page 13)

There's a strong moral focus to Dee & Friends in Oz that helps keep it from being just a distraction for young children. The series logically continues the theme of outsiders learning to overcome their insecurities and courses this lesson through "Dorothy" herself—with much less peril and wicked witches involved, of course. But the show also finds itself stuck in the ways it expresses itself; the world of Oz here is both colorful and too ordinary, and its storytelling is both sincere and too rigid in its structure. For example, when Dee comes back home to the real world at the end of each episode, it's meant to feel as if she's applying the moral lessons to her daily life, but the connection is just too flimsy and makes these scenes feel more like unrelated epilogues.

Genre: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Judah Edwards, Layla Capers, Sevien Desuyo, Sid Kamat

Rating: TV-Y

With the ingredients of a standard sci-fi animated series, Mech Cadets almost shines with its thoughtful approach to grief, parental expectations, and self-discovery for its child-to-teen audience. From Stanford losing his father and his dream of being a pilot to Frank becoming a Robo pilot despite his prosthetic leg, the series tries to build something substantial beneath the generic giant mechas and alien antagonists. But with so many mecha/robot franchises coming to mind, the show has no distinctive qualities to stand apart. It's an overall straightforward animation that carries expected lessons on responsibility and teamwork, which kids will surely enjoy, that is, until the next Transformers-esque show is released. 

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Family

Actor: Anairis Quinones, Aparna Brielle, Brandon Soo Hoo, Josh Sundquist, Victoria Grace

Rating: TV-Y7

While it certainly has a gorgeous world to show off, with lots of colorful art direction and varied landscapes to explore, Unicorn Academy can't help but buckle under its own weight. Its first couple of episodes (starting with a feature-length premiere) want to establish fun relationships between its characters; set up an epic, world-ending conflict; reflect on its protagonist's grief; and sell merchandise all at once. But the show is both too aimless with its writing and too sluggish in its pacing to allow these disparate parts to cohere under a unified tone. It constantly feels like it's having trouble deciding what to be—which isn't helped by the fact that the first episode has two, awkwardly-placed musical numbers, and the second episode features no singing whatsoever.

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Kids, Music, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Kamaia Fairburn, Kolton Stewart, Sara Garcia

Science fiction imagines new worlds we’ve never seen before, but the world of Synduality: Noir doesn’t feel that way. Noir feels like it presents a familiar world, except with an added touch of AI assistants called Maguses. The fighting piloted mecha robots are reminiscent of Gundam and Pacific Rim. At times, the action looks like automated 3D animation made to cut costs. However, even if the world-building was stronger, Synduality: Noir doesn’t feel like a show that wants to tell a story. There aren’t enough moments that we get to spend with the main characters Kanata and his Magus Noir to justify creating a whole series around it. We don’t even need to get into the icky slave-like dynamic between the (mostly) male Drifters and their (mostly) female Maguses.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Aoi Koga, Ayaka Ohashi, Fuminori Komatsu, Mao Ichimichi, Nagisa Aoyama, Taito Ban, Takeo Otsuka, Yusuke Kobayashi

With an unusual premise, unique characters, and surprising writing, the original 2010 Megamind film had a genuine message all about accepting one’s self, and doing good despite the lack of acceptance, even as a big-headed blue alien. After 14 years, Dreamworks has released the series Megamind Rules! as sequel to the hilarious superhero comedy, naturally dealing with his journey to maintain his hero status, with a new villain to defeat every episode, along with a main plotline of increasing his influence through social media. There could have been a funny thread here, showing how careers have become fodder for content, as well as the contrast between evil habits he once had versus the heroic ideals he hopes to espouse. However, the series pays out in the most generic fashion, without any of the heart or timing the original film had that made it so compelling.

Genre: Animation

Actor: Emily Tunon, Josh Brener, Keith Ferguson, Laura Post, Maya Tuttle

Rating: TV-G

Children's TV doesn't always require a great story, nor does it need to break free from a repetitive pattern to be good. But there's still a difference between an episodic kids' show that places its focus on learning and good morals first, and one that's blatantly designed to generate interest in purchasing physical toys. It feels like so much of Hot Wheels Let's Race is spent showing off different models of cars, explaining their special abilities, and presenting various tracks on which they can race, that any moral lessons they do shoehorn in barely make a dent in the grand scheme of things. And the show's characters aren't endearing enough or fun enough to make up for it, despite the admittedly kinetic racing scenes.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Kids

Actor: Amari McCoy, Grey DeLisle, Griffen Campbell, Jakari Fraser, Josh Keaton

Rating: TV-Y

Being reincarnated as a vending machine is, admittedly, a good hook. But when you're watching a machine fight frogs in a new dimension, the plot starts to lose you. At its core, it's an easy watch, without any nefarious characters (yet), but even though Boxxo always finds a way to utilize the powers of his new vending machine body and has a genuine, endearing personality, the gimmick doesn't hold attention past that. It is a wholesome isekai adventure, but the vending machine-loving vending machine isn't as memorable as you'd think.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Jun Fukuyama, Kaede Hondo