Animation from the 2000s: the best movies
24 animation films from the 2000s, ranked by audience rating. The best of the decade, and it still holds up tonight. Updated September 25, 2026
Spirited Away leads with 8,5 out of 10, ahead of Howl's Moving Castle (8,4). Ratings range from 7,8 to 8,5. All were released between 2000 and 2009.
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Spirited Away
A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.
Howl's Moving Castle
Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king.
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card
All of the Clow Cards have been captured, and Sakura Kinomoto, the new Master of the Cards, is preparing to play the lead in the play for the town festival. However, a new evil force is causing mysterious events all over Tomoeda, including the disappearance of Sakura's cards. With Syaoran's help, Sakura must figure out the cause of these events, and save her town.
WALL·E
After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E— a robot designed to clean up the earth—discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.
The Legend of the Nahuala
Leo San Juan, an insecure child of nine years old, lives eternally frightened by horror stories that Nando tells his older brother. Within these stories it is 'The Legend of Nahuala', according to which, an old abandoned Casona is possessed by the spirit of an evil witch known as the Nahuala.
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
The villains of the Kids Next Door, lead by Father, join forces to resurrect the Ultimate Evil, Grandfather, a tyrant who once ruled the world many years ago when most of the villains were themselves kids. However, Father disgraced him that he can't even try to destroy the KND and the Villains were quickly betrayed when they are turned into Senior Citizombies, creatures that are immortal and can transform any living creature into one of them and slaves who are forced to make Tapioca to refuel Grandfather so he can find and destroy the Book of K.N.D.
Up
Carl Fredricksen spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest. But at age 78, life seems to have passed him by, until a twist of fate (and a persistent 8-year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell) gives him a new lease on life.
Coraline
Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.
Tokyo Godfathers
On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.
La Maison en Petits Cubes
La Maison en Petits Cubes tells the story of a grandfather's memories as he adds more blocks to his house to stem the flooding waters.
Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo
After a battle with a high-tech villain named, Saiko-Tek, the Teen Titans travel to the city of Tokyo where they find themselves embroiled in a conflict with an ancient enemy.
Mary and Max
A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.
Persepolis
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God
When rogue shinigami Ryuk leaves his Death Note in the human world, he has no idea how far the one who finds it will take his new-found power. With the Death Note in hand, brilliant high school student Light Yagami vows to rid the world of evil. A recap of Death Note episodes 1–26, with alternate footage.
A Movie of Eggs
A small egg named Toto decides that he wants to fulfill his purpose in life and become a chicken instead of dying in a frying pan; so he starts a quest to return to the farms along with his new friend, the noisy egg Willy and a crazy bacon stripe. The three friends will face lot of obstacles in their quest.
Millennium Actress
Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life... but also his own.
Monsters, Inc.
Lovable Sulley and his wisecracking sidekick Mike Wazowski are the top scare team at Monsters, Inc., the scream-processing factory in Monstropolis. When a little girl named Boo wanders into their world, it's the monsters who are scared silly, and it's up to Sulley and Mike to keep her out of sight and get her back home.
Ratatouille
In one of Paris's finest restaurants, Remy, a determined young rat, dreams of becoming a renowned French chef. Torn between his family's wishes and his true calling, Remy and his pal Linguini set in motion a hilarious chain of events that turns the City of Lights upside down.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Fantastic Mr. Fox, bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family.
Finding Nemo
Nemo, an adventurous young clownfish, is unexpectedly taken from his Great Barrier Reef home to a dentist's office aquarium. It's up to his worrisome father Marlin and a friendly but forgetful fish Dory to bring Nemo home -- meeting vegetarian sharks, surfer dude turtles, hypnotic jellyfish, hungry seagulls, and more along the way.
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
Under constant attack by monstrous creatures called Angels that seek to eradicate humankind, U.N. Special Agency NERV introduces two new EVA pilots to help defend the city of Tokyo-3: the mysterious Makinami Mari Illustrous and the intense Asuka Langley Shikinami. Meanwhile, Gendo Ikari and SEELE proceed with a secret project that involves both Rei and Shinji.
Paprika
Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a research psychologist who uses a device called the DC Mini to enter her patients' dreams, wherein she adopts the alter-ego "Paprika". When the device is stolen, she must stop rogue elements from merging the dream and waking worlds.
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
Four talented alien musicians are kidnapped by a record producer who disguises them as humans. Shep, a space pilot in love with bass player Stella, follows them to Earth. Reprogrammed to forget their real identities and renamed The Crescendolls, the group quickly becomes a huge success playing soulless corporate pop. At a concert, Shep manages to free all the musicians except Stella, and the band sets out to rediscover who they really are — and to rescue Stella.
Another Egg and Chicken Movie
Toto, now a chicken, tries to live as such, while Willy and Bibi deal some problems between them. A sorcerer egg desert needs a chicken heart to cast a spell. He sends his armies of eggs vulture, ostrich and scorpion to kidnap Toto. His friends embark on a journey through the desert to rescue the chicken, where they live countless adventures
What to know before choosing
Animation is not an audience, it is a technique — and confusing it with "films for children" means missing half the genre. This list therefore mixes family films with films that are nothing of the kind. Ratings here run structurally higher than in other genres: people rarely watch animation by accident, and an audience that chose rates better. Compare ratings within the genre, never against the rest of the catalog.
The 2000s are the digital tipping point: the decade in which effects stopped being remarkable and became invisible. Its films therefore age better than those of the decade before, whose computer imagery gives the date away instantly. It is also the last decade conceived entirely for the cinema rather than the home screen.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and on a minimum number of votes — without that second filter, a film rated 9 out of 10 by eleven people would outrank a classic. No place is for sale: no platform, distributor or studio can enter this list other than by being well rated.
Which film in this list is rated highest?
Spirited Away (2001), with 8,5 out of 10 from 18,934 audience votes.
Where can I watch these films?
Taro eira shows, film by film, which platforms carry it in the US and at what price — subscription, rental or purchase. The per-platform lists are further down this page.
How often does this list change?
It is recomputed every day. Ratings move slowly, catalogs move fast: availability is what mostly pushes titles in and out.
Do I need an account?
No. Taro eira is free, asks for no account and no subscription, and the two-or-three-question flow works without installing anything.
See also
- Animation
- Animation from the 2020s
- Animation from the 2010s
- Animation from the 1990s
- Animation from the 1980s
- Animation from the 1970s
- Animation before 1970
- Action from the 2000s
- Adventure from the 2000s
- Comedy from the 2000s
- Crime from the 2000s
- Documentary from the 2000s
- Drama from the 2000s
- Family from the 2000s
- Fantasy from the 2000s
- Biopic from the 2000s
- Horror from the 2000s
- Musical from the 2000s
- Romance from the 2000s
- Sci-fi from the 2000s
- Thriller from the 2000s
- War from the 2000s
- Western from the 2000s
How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and vote count, then cross-checked against real availability in the country. No paid placement, no partnerships. How we choose the films.
Film data and posters: TMDB. This app uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.