Top 10 Animations on Disney+

Animation is where Disney+ stops being a streaming service and becomes a cultural archive. Everyone knows the Pixar titles, but it's also sitting on Fantasia 2000, Big Hero 6, Strange World, Zootopia — genuinely great films that get scrolled past. I had to leave out Luca, which deserved a spot, and Ratatouille, which is almost perfect but meanders in the third act. Also left out Brave because depending on your taste it's more adventure than anything else, even though Merida is the most interesting Disney princess they've ever made. These 10 made the cut. 🎬

Here we go:

1. Coco

   2017

   A boy sneaks into the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather and understand why music has been banned from his family for generations. Pixar's best film. The final act earns its emotion so completely that you cannot watch it without crying, and the worldbuilding is so rich it makes every other animated afterlife look lazy. The best movie about family, memory, and legacy that Pixar has ever made.

2. The Incredibles

   2004

   A suburban superhero forced into retirement has a secret midlife crisis that pulls his whole family back into action. Brad Bird made a better superhero film than any live-action Marvel movie — funnier, more emotionally honest, with more interesting things to say about mediocrity and greatness. Edna Mode is one of the great comedy characters in any genre. Still hasn't aged a day.

3. Up

   2009

   A grieving old man ties thousands of balloons to his house and floats to South America, accidentally bringing along a young wilderness explorer. The first ten minutes are the most devastating sequence in animation history, and then the film has the audacity to also be incredibly funny. Edward Asner's voice performance should have won every award it was eligible for.

4. Zootopia

   2016

   A bunny cop and a con artist fox team up to solve a missing-mammals case in a city where predators and prey live together uneasily. Disney smuggled a genuinely sharp film about bias, systemic prejudice, and the way good intentions can still cause harm inside what looks like a buddy-cop comedy. It works on both levels completely. The sloth scene is the funniest thing Disney has made in twenty years.

5. Moana

   2016

   A teenager defies her island's customs to sail across the ocean and restore the heart of a goddess, reluctantly joined by the demigod who caused the problem in the first place. The Disney princess film most willing to question what a Disney princess film is. Auli'i Cravalho is extraordinary. Dwayne Johnson is genuinely funny. Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs are better than you remember.

6. Soul

   2020

   A jazz musician has an accident on the day he gets his big break and has to navigate a cosmic bureaucracy to get back to his body before it's too late. Pixar made a film for adults about what makes a life worth living and released it on Disney+ on Christmas Day during a pandemic, which was either the worst or best possible timing depending on your emotional state. It's extraordinary either way.

7. Encanto

   2021

   A Colombian family where every member has been given a magical gift — except one — has to reckon with why things are starting to fall apart. "We Don't Talk About Bruno" became the most-streamed Disney song in history for a reason, but the film around it is also doing something genuinely interesting about family pressure, inherited trauma, and being the child who never measured up. Better than the discourse around it.

8. Big Hero 6

   2014

   A teenage robotics prodigy in a futuristic San Francisco–Tokyo hybrid city teams up with his late brother's medical robot to investigate a villain who stole his invention. Chronically underrated. Baymax is one of the most purely loveable characters Disney has ever created, the action is genuinely exciting, and the film handles grief with more care than most live-action dramas. Deserved a sequel years ago.

9. Fantasia 2000

   1999

   Eight animated sequences set to classical music, from Beethoven to Elgar to Stravinsky, ranging from abstract geometric forms to the Steadfast Tin Soldier to the original Sorcerer's Apprentice. The most purely cinematic thing Disney has done since the 1940s. Put it on a big screen with good speakers and it still astonishes. The Firebird sequence is twenty minutes of the best animation ever made.

10. Strange World

    2022

    Three generations of an explorer family venture into a bizarre underground ecosystem to save the energy source keeping their civilization alive. Flopped catastrophically at the box office and was promptly ignored, which is a shame, because it's Disney's most visually inventive film in years — saturated, strange, genuinely weird in the best way. The creature design alone is worth watching it for. The best hidden gem in Disney+ animation.

Also worth mentioning:

Four that hurt to cut. Luca (2021) — two sea monsters spend a summer on the Italian Riviera pretending to be human boys; quieter and more personal than most Pixar, and the friendship at its centre is genuinely moving. Ratatouille (2007) — a rat who wants to cook in Paris is almost perfect; left out only because the final act meanders slightly and Peter O'Toole's monologue can't quite save it. Brave (2012) — Merida is the most interesting Disney princess and the mother-daughter relationship is genuinely original; splits opinion more than it should. And Sleeping Beauty (1959) — not warm, barely a romance, it's a piece of gothic visual art; Maleficent is the greatest Disney villain by any measure.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best animated movie on Disney+ right now?

If you want something emotionally complete, Coco is the answer — it works as a comedy, a family drama, and a genuinely moving meditation on memory and legacy all at once. If you want something funnier and more purely entertaining, The Incredibles is the one. And if you want something the whole family can watch that holds up completely for adults, Zootopia or Moana. All are on Disney+ right now and all are worth your full attention.

Is Coco better than Up?

Yes. Up's opening sequence is the greatest single stretch of Pixar filmmaking ever put on screen, but the film around it is uneven. Coco sustains its quality for the full runtime and earns its ending more completely. Both are essential. But if you're only watching one, it's Coco.

Does Disney+ have good animated movies for adults?

More than people expect. Soul, Coco, Up, and Zootopia all work as well for adults as for children — arguably better. Soul in particular is a film about mortality and the meaning of a life that happens to be animated. The Incredibles is also doing more interesting things thematically than most live-action films released the same year.

What is the most underrated animated film on Disney+?

Strange World. It is visually unlike anything else Disney has made in decades, has the most interesting creature design in recent Disney history, and was buried so efficiently at the box office that almost no one saw it. It deserves a second chance. Also worth mentioning: Fantasia 2000, which most people have never sat down and actually watched properly, and which is extraordinary on a good screen with good sound.