Your thoughts on the top 10 highest grossing animated films of all time?

[Matteo]

1. Frozen (2013) - $1,273,738,009
2. Toy Story 3 (2010) - $1,063,171,911
3. The Lion King (1994) - $987,483,777
4. Despicable Me 2 (2013) - $970,761,885
5. Finding Nemo (2003) - $936,743,261
6. Shrek 2 (2004) - $919,838,758
7. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) - $886,686,817
8. Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) - $877,244,782
9. Shrek the Third (2007) - $798,958,162
10. Shrek Forever After (2010) - $752,600,867


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_animated_films

I'm honestly quite surprised that 7 of the 10 films are sequels. Thoughts/ratings?

[SortaCreative]

It does surprise me that most of them are sequels too.

But at least for the top 3 (Finding Nemo never really appealed to me) I love them. The Lion King I grew up watching and it's really one of the only films I can go back and watch and not get bored, I know ever line, every song. It's in bedded in my childhood.

I grew up watching Toy Story and when Toy Story 3 came out it was a chance to go back and revisit a franchise from my childhood and appreciate what it meant to me then and just generally enjoy a wonderfully made film on top.

Finally, I really like Frozen. It's obviously not one I saw when I was a child but i took my niece to go and see it and I really enjoyed the film and I really enjoyed the bonding experience between me and her. It's kind of the first animated film i'm seeing from the side of the "parent".

[Hanley!]

I'm a little disappointed in the list. I'm actually a big fan of animated films. I find these days that most of my favourite films fall into the animated or coming-of-age genres. But most of these animated films aren't a particularly high standard.

Frozen, Toy Story 3, The Lion King and Finding Nemo are all very good and deserving of their success. Frozen and The Lion King are among my favourites. I'm really enjoying Disney's works at the moment, they seem to be enjoying a return to form at the moment - delivering a kind of quality we haven't seen since the Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin run back in the early 90s. Frozen was a nice progression of the Disney formula, updating it for the modern audience. It also had some of the best songs I've heard from a Disney film in some time.

Most of the others on the list were designed specifically for young children though, and can't really be enjoyed by an older audience. The quality isn't there. The first Shrek film was a pretty interesting deconstruction of fairytale tropes and it was an enjoyable film in its own right, but the sequels were just a cheap cash-in and not worth watching. Ice Age was pretty funny too, but with each sequel it got dumber and dumber.

[Kein]

I haven't seen a lot of these films, I am surprised how much Shrek is everywhere on there.

I feel like ToyStory3 is a high hitter, because it is targeted to everyone. Us older kids can relate because Andy is our age, he's going to college and it brings us back remembering when the first movie was made. It hits adults differently but still caters to kids.

Kinda surprised by the Ice Age sequels being on there but I can't say much since I never saw the third. I liked the first more than the second though.

[Kirbi]

There's some good movies on there, but I'd say at least half the list is fairly undeserving.

For merit, I'd take off the Shrek and Ice Age sequels straight away... maybe put on the first Shrek, Up or Wall-E, another 90's Disney classic, and most definitely a Studio Ghibli endeavor - My Neighbour Totoro or The Cat Returns for personal preference, although these films are obviously never really getting near the top of this kind of list.

I'd prefer to see The Incredibles (or Monsters Inc) instead of Finding Nemo, too, in terms of the more immediately accessible Pixar fare.

[Hanley!]

Obviously the best animated films and the most successful animated films were never going to be in direct alignment anyway. I think Avatar is still the highest grossing film generally and it's not like anyone thinks that's the best film out there. It'd just be nice to see a little more quality on the list.

There's only 2 Pixar movies on the list (and not two of the strongest Pixar movies in my mind, though they are great). There are only 2 Disney Animated Studios movies on the list, with only one from their Golden period in the 90s. I'm honestly a little surprised that Aladdin isn't on there. Or Beauty and the Beast which might be the studio's biggest critical success.

Would be nice to see some other more outside the box animated films making it onto lists like this too. Unfortunately, Studio Ghibli is unlikely to ever feature, but they make incredible films.

It's a bit disillusioning to see some of the mediocre stuff on this list grossing so highly, while great films like The Iron Giant wind up box office bombs.

[Kirbi]

^^^

Vin Diesel's best work.

[Westcoastvibes]

The ice age movies really surprised me. They are good movies in their own right but I never thought they would be that high on the list, with movies like up, wall e, Aladdin and others that drew far more attention and praise from media.