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The 15 Best Animated Movies According to Real People
Studio Ghibli dominates the top 5. Pixar fills the rest. Here's what everyday audiences think.
Published March 18, 2026 · ThumbScore Editorial
Animation is a genre that bridges generations. A great animated film can make a five-year-old and a fifty-year-old feel the same emotions. But which ones do everyday audiences love the most?
Key finding: Studio Ghibli films hold 5 of the top 15 spots despite having a fraction of the TMDB votes of Pixar/Disney films. When people watch Ghibli films, they overwhelmingly love them.
1Spirited Away (2001)Hayao Miyazaki's universally beloved masterpiece
👍 95%18,061 votes
2Your Name. (2016)Makoto Shinkai's body-swap romance that broke records
👍 95%12,351 votes
3Princess Mononoke (1997)Miyazaki's epic battle between nature and industry
👍 93%8,836 votes
4Toy Story 2 (1999)Pixar proves sequels can surpass originals
👍 92%14,724 votes
5Howl's Moving Castle (2004)Ghibli's magical war-time fantasy
👍 92%10,890 votes
6WALL·E (2008)A love story told mostly without dialogue
👍 91%20,007 votes
7My Neighbor Totoro (1988)Pure childhood magic from Miyazaki
👍 91%8,678 votes
8Ratatouille (2007)Anyone can cook — and everyone can love this film
👍 90%18,265 votes
9Beauty and the Beast (1991)Disney's most beloved Renaissance musical
👍 90%10,551 votes
10The Lion King (1994)Hakuna Matata — beloved by 89% of audiences
👍 89%19,465 votes
11Shrek 2 (2004)The rare comedy sequel that outdoes the original
👍 89%13,270 votes
12The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)Is it Halloween or Christmas? It's both.
👍 89%10,221 votes
13Coco (2017)Pixar makes everyone cry about family and death
👍 88%20,739 votes
14Finding Nemo (2003)Just keep swimming through this beloved adventure
👍 88%20,355 votes
15Toy Story 3 (2010)The emotional gut-punch that hit a generation
👍 88%15,545 votes
The Ghibli Effect
Studio Ghibli's dominance of this list is remarkable. Despite being a Japanese studio with smaller global audiences than Pixar or Disney, their films consistently achieve ThumbScores of 91-95% — higher than any Pixar film except Toy Story 2. When people actually watch Ghibli films, they almost universally love them. The challenge isn't quality — it's discovery.
Where's Frozen?
Despite being one of the highest-grossing animated films ever, Frozen (2013) scored 79% — good, but not great. Its massive cultural footprint doesn't translate to universal audience love. Compare that to Spirited Away at 95% with far less mainstream marketing. Sometimes the quiet films win the hearts.