The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Animated Movies From The ’80s

From Heavy Metal to The Black Cauldron, here are the five best, and five worst, examples of animated movies from the 1980s.

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The 1980s were an important decade for animation. The dawn of computer animation and the “Disney Renaissance,” or the flap of a butterfly’s wing that led to the Mouse House’s ongoing domination of Hollywood, didn’t take place until the 1990s, but the ‘80s paved the way for that as animation took huge leaps all around the world.

Although it’s not technically an animated movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? deserves an honorable mention, because it contains some of the most inspired animation of all time woven seamlessly into a live-action world with groundbreaking practical effects (and the movie as a whole is a masterpiece). Here are the five best and five worst animated movies from the ‘80s.

10 Best: Heavy Metal (1981)

Not a lot of animated movies aimed at adult audiences get made, so it’s always a sight to behold when they do. 1981’s Heavy Metal is a cult hit bringing some stories from the magazine of the same name to the screen in a truly unique fashion.

The movie used its anthology format spectacularly, taking audiences across all kinds of worlds and creative tones, all linked by a cosmic entity claiming to be the source of all evil.

9 Worst: Felix The Cat: The Movie (1988)

Adapted from the comic strip of the same name, Felix the Cat: The Movie is a listless attempt to make a classic character relevant in a contemporary media landscape that failed miserably.

An American-German-Hungarian-Polish-Bulgarian-Canadian co-production, the movie’s plans to reboot an old franchise (before rebooting old franchises was a thing) backfired dramatically as the movie instead killed Felix altogether.

8 Best: Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

The ‘80s for Hayao Miyazaki were like the ‘70s for Francis Ford Coppola. He pumped out masterpieces at an alarming rate throughout the decade, helming four of the greatest animated movies ever made: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

It tells the story of a young witch working as an air courier during her required year away from home with heartwarming ingenuity and stunning, but soothing visuals.

7 Worst: Pound Puppies And The Legend Of Big Paw (1988)

While Nancy Cartwright’s voicework in the role of Bart Simpson was still confined to shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, she played a supporting role in Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw, which was panned by critics and became a box office disaster.

Adapted from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon adapted from a Tonka toy line, it’s hard to digest Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw as anything more profound than a product.

6 Best: Grave Of The Fireflies (1988)

Animation is usually used for lighthearted children’s entertainment, but that seriously limits what this unique art form has to offer. Animation can be used to explore all kinds of themes and stories, exemplified beautifully in Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies.

It tells the very real, very painful story of two siblings desperately struggling to survive in Kobe, Japan in the last few months of World War II.

5 Worst: Starchaser: The Legend Of Orin (1985)

Although the fact that it was one of the first movies to introduce computer-animated sequences into traditionally animated cinema makes it technically groundbreaking, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is, sadly, a terrible movie.

Its technological leaps can’t make up for the fact that the script is just a shameless rip-off of Star Wars, and doesn’t make any attempt to hide it.

4 Best: Akira (1988)

Katsuhiro Otomo’s hugely influential Akira is a quintessential post-apocalyptic cyberpunk story. Its premise has pulp sci-fi vibes, as a biker gains telekinetic powers in a motorcycle accident and takes on the entire military complex, and the story is realized with beautiful animation and breathtaking dystopian worldbuilding.

In addition to being a masterpiece of science fiction, Akira marked a major pop culture milestone; it’s credited with popularizing anime outside Japan.

3 Worst: The Black Cauldron (1985)

Deviating wildly from Lloyd Alexander’s source material, Disney’s The Black Cauldron is a pretty by-the-numbers fantasy movie. At the time, it was the most expensive animated movie ever made, but it doesn’t have a compelling enough story to back up its spectacle.

In the Mouse House’s awkward fumbling-in-the-dark phase between Roy Disney’s 1971 death and the 1989 dawn of the Disney Renaissance, the studio graced moviegoers with a handful of lackluster offerings, and The Black Cauldron is one of them.

2 Best: My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Hayao Miyazaki has helmed his fair share of the greatest animated movies of all time (he has two on this list alone) and every movie that Studio Ghibli releases is close to perfect. But arguably the pinnacle of Miyazaki’s filmography and possibly even animated movies, in general, is his 1988 masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro.

The story parallels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland paved the way for some truly imaginative and surreal animation. But the real beauty of this movie – and the reason it resonates with audiences all over the world – is that it captures the wide-eyed, innocent optimism of childhood.

1 Worst: Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986)

The first Care Bears Movie was basically a feature-length commercial for the Care Bears, but it was at least an enjoyable movie that could distract kids for 75 minutes.

Its sequel, A New Generation, was very blatantly made to sell merchandise, and the quality of its animation is terrible. Despite its narrative roots in classical tales like Peter Pan and Faust, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation has no substance.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-worst-animated-movies-80s/