Animation from the 1980s: the best movies
24 animation films from the 1980s, ranked by audience rating. The best of the decade, and it still holds up tonight. Updated 25 September 2026
Grave of the Fireflies leads with 8.5 out of 10, ahead of My Neighbor Totoro (8.1). Ratings range from 7.4 to 8.5. All were released between 1980 and 1989.
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Grave of the Fireflies
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
My Neighbor Totoro
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
The Man Who Planted Trees
The story of one shepherd's single-handed quest to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the French Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century.
Once Upon a Time, There Lived a Dog
Based on the Ukrainian folktale, the old dog of a village family is not as keen as he once was, and is sent away after he fails to guard their house during a robbery. In the woods, he meets the wolf he protected his masters against long ago, who decides to pay a favor to get his old enemy's rightful place back in the doghouse.
Castle in the Sky
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
Warriors of the Wind
After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.
Akira
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.
Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth
The Sun God Abel returns to life, bent on punishing the humans and cleansing Earth from their presence. When Athena joins him, leaving humans to their fate, the Bronze Saints must defend the world in their greatest battle yet.
Vincent
Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams that annoy his mother.
Kiki's Delivery Service
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
The Plague Dogs
Two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, struggle to survive in the countryside after escaping from an animal research laboratory. They're pursued by search parties and then the military after rumours spread that they could be carrying the bubonic plague.
The King and the Mockingbird
A young shepherdess and a chimneysweep plan to get married and escape the clutches of a tyrannical king in love with her, assisted by the guile of a cheeky mockingbird, the king's archenemy.
Angel's Egg
In the ruins of a strange city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in her arms. She bonds with a boy who is searching for a bird he saw in a dream.
Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods
Hyoga is missing somewhere in Asgard... When Seiya and the others are looking for him, Athena is kidnapped and they have to rescue her from Dolvar and some mysterious warriors.
Mickey's Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge is far too greedy to understand that Christmas is a time for kindness and generosity. But with the guidance of some new found friends, Scrooge learns to embrace the spirit of the season. A retelling of the classic Dickens tale with Disney's classic characters.
Barefoot Gen
A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
Dimensions of Dialogue
Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.
The Snowman
A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect.
When the Wind Blows
With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II.
Balance
The setting is on a floating platform where a group of evenly and carefully placed men live. Each man is aware that the platform is not stable and in order not to fall to their deaths, they maintain a careful balance of weight to prevent the platform from tipping too far and cause them all to fall.
The Secret of NIMH
A widowed field mouse must move her family -- including an ailing son -- to escape a farmer's plow. Aided by a crow and a pack of superintelligent, escaped lab rats, the brave mother struggles to transplant her home to firmer ground.
Alice
A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be.
Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle
The plot involves the coming of Lucifer to the Sanctuary, where his underlings systematically dispose of the surviving Gold Saints. Athena goes to Lucifer to ask for peace, placing herself in peril. The Bronze Saints must then come to her rescue, destroying Lucifer's Fallen Angels (Seima Tenshi in Japanese) in the process.
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 catalogue.
The 1980s produced the grammar of the mainstream film as we still know it. It is also the decade with the widest gap between the best and the worst films, because production was massive and budgets wildly uneven. Read the ratings here alongside the vote counts: a well-rated, heavily voted 1980s film has passed forty years of examination.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalogue, 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?
Grave of the Fireflies (1988), with 8.5 out of 10 from 6,826 audience votes.
Where can I watch these films?
Taro eira shows, film by film, which platforms carry it in the UK 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, catalogues 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 2000s
- Animation from the 1990s
- Animation from the 1970s
- Animation before 1970
- Action from the 1980s
- Adventure from the 1980s
- Comedy from the 1980s
- Crime from the 1980s
- Documentary from the 1980s
- Drama from the 1980s
- Family from the 1980s
- Fantasy from the 1980s
- Biopic from the 1980s
- Horror from the 1980s
- Musical from the 1980s
- Romance from the 1980s
- Sci-fi from the 1980s
- Thriller from the 1980s
- War from the 1980s
- Western from the 1980s
How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalogue, 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.