After the success of Toy Story, the trend of computer-animated films slowly made its way to the mainstream throughout the 2000s, and the release of The Princess and the Frog in 2009 marked Disney's last 2D animated film. That meant big changes in the 2010s. Big studios went into the new decade with software far more advanced than in the 2000s, abandoning the disconcerting unfinished appearance with higher-quality renders, marking the 2010s as an era of animated triumph.
Most everyone recalls the cultural impact of Disney, Frozen (2013) being a notable example. But Disney wasn't the only studio releasing culturally impactful and innovative animated films. Some of the most loved animated films were released in the 2010s and praise is also deserved for those not created by Disney, including some with traditional animation styles.
2010 - How to Train Your Dragon
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Co-directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the directors of Lilo and Stitch (2002), How to Train Your Dragon follows the meek Hiccup, son of the leader of the Vikings, as he feels the pressure to prove his worth by killing a dragon only to actually befriend one. Created by DreamWorks, this movie became the first of a successful trilogy.
With high ratings, this movie continues to be praised over a decade later. Many who watched this as kids the movie fondly and consider it one of the greatest animated films of all time. The score also became culturally significant, with the theme song returning to trend on social media many years after its release.
2011 - Rango
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Rango is directed by Gore Verbinski and was released by Paramount. This animated flick follows a lost chameleon named Rango, voiced by prolific actor Johnny Depp, who ends up in the town of Dirt and becomes the sheriff.
The animation was beautifully done, with texturing and composition that holds up even after a decade. The film was praised by critics and audiences alike and received numerous accolades, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This is notable because only a handful of non-Disney animated films have received that Oscar.
2012 - Hotel Transylvania
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Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania had a collection of notable actors voicing the characters including Adam Sandler as Dracula and Selena Gomez voicing his daughter Mavis. In it, Dracula hosts a magnificent hotel for monsters to safely unwind and vacation, but his reputation is threatened when a human wanders in.
The film was a success, breaking box office expectations and would go on to become a franchise of four films. Although reviews were mixed, especially among the sequels, children loved the film and it's certainly a notable picture many will recall from their childhood.
2013 - The Wind Rises
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A Studio Ghibli production, The Wind Rises was directed by Hayao Miyazaki and was his final film before retiring that same year (however he would come out of retirement to direct a film projected to release later in the 2020s). It's a fictionalized of Jiro Horikoshi in his development of a plane that would eventually be used by Japan in World War II.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as well as dozens of other awards, this film was well-received critically. Although not one of Ghibli's most popular animations, stills from the film have become culturally significant and it is well ed by many.
2014 - How to Train Your Dragon 2
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Only four years after the release of its predecessor, How to Train Your Dragon 2, directed by Dean DeBlois, had Hiccup returning to the big screen to face off against an army of dragon-trappers and their leader Drago.
Although this sequel was not as successful as the first in the franchise, the film was still an enormous success. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature with much praise from critics and audiences.
2015 - Anomalisa
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Directed by Charlie Kaufman, the writer behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and Duke Johnson, Anomalisa is a stop motion surrealistic story of Michael Stone who sees everyone's face as exactly the same until he meets a woman named Lisa who looks different than everyone else.
This film was a revolution with 3D printed puppets designed to mimic realism in the appearance of real people, which is directly oppositional to the classic stop motion films like Coraline (2009) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), which draw on extremely stylized designs. It also defies stereotypes of animation in successfully catering to an adult audience, with an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
2016 - Your Name.
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This Japanese production directed by Makoto Shinkai follows students Mitsuha and Taki who don't know each other but begin randomly waking up in the other's body. With gorgeous animation, a notable soundtrack, and a solid script, the film became an artistic triumph.
The movie was an enormous success in Japan, at the time becoming one of the highest-grossing films in Japan ever. But the movie was not only a domestic success but an international one as well, topping charts in America.
2017 - The Lego Batman Movie
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2017's In this animated movie, Batman learns to work with a team to defeat the Joker.
The Lego Movie (2014), had been such a widespread success that many were nervous about following it up with The Lego Batman Movie, but fans were pleasantly surprised when the film proved to be unique. A success amongst audiences, the movie wasn't just a comedic triumph, as critics also enjoyed the cinematic merit of the film as well.
2018 - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
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Not only the most popular film of 2018, but also the most popular animated film of the entire 2010s, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was co-directed by Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, and Bob Persichetti. It follows Miles Morales, newly Spider-Man, as he learns of the multiverse when Kingpin's supercollider draws alternate versions of Spider-Man into his reality.
This revolutionized hybrid animation. Films had been taking advantage of 3D elements in 2D animation since the late 1900s, mostly just to make animation easier for large, complicated objects that would take too much effort to animate by hand. But this film took advantage of the meritable qualities of both animation styles, with 3D animated characters and 2D effects to mimic a comic book style. It won 40 awards, including the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, receiving praise as one of the best superhero movies.
2019 - Klaus
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) may have revolutionized hybrid animation, but it wasn't the only film to experiment with mixed animation forms. a 2D animated Christmas film following a spoiled postman named Jesper who is sent to the bleak village of Smeerensburg with the impossible task of establishing a post office where everyone hates each other, only to help spawn the legend of Santa Claus.
Where Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse used 2D elements on a 3D foundation, Klaus completely flipped preconceptions in animation circles that 3D is a structural element and 2D a supplementary design tool. A technological triumph, Klaus used 2D animation with a new 3D lighting engine, where the technology needed to learn how to light a 2D image as if it were 3D. A beautiful and innovative animation, Klaus was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and received critical and audience praise.
