Best Achievements in Animation

This movie made Disney a studio, it made Walt Disney a visionary and industry leader, and it was the first full length feature animated movie ever made.

Warner Brothers will always have the Looney Toons and they will always be in my heart. This episode, in particular, pairs classic opera with classic Bugs Bunny to entertain and culture young viewers.

Though not the first sound cartoon, it was the first popularly distributed one that brought the gift of sound and Walt's Mickey Mouse to the masses.

Pixar broke out onto the scene in 1995 with 3D animation and lots and lots of heart felt characters and the animation industry has never been the same since. This was the first computer animated feature film and John Lasseter won a special honors Oscar for this achievement)

Breathtaking. Stunning. Fantasia is over 70 years old and those words still apply. (I especially like the Nutcracker Suite segment)

Beauty and the Beast was the first animated movie ever nominated for the best picture Oscar (the only other one being Pixar's 'Up') and it was one of the first to gain critical and public acclaim for its use of computer generated backdrops (the ballroom scene in particular).

Who ever said that an animated sitcom could not air in prime time is probably still in awe at the fact that Matt Groening is a multi-billionaire, 12 time Emmy winner with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Little Mermaid was an instant classic when it was released, is considered to be one of the best Disney animated films, and it brought upon the era of the Disney animation renaissance that brought to light such movies as 'The Lion King,' 'Aladdin,' and 'Beauty and the Beast.' Also, it's impressive to remember that in a time before computers, ever single character, setting, and bubble in this movie was drawn by hand.

South Park is a fowl and horrible cartoon and yet, satirically, is genius. Matt Stone and Trey Parker went on to create a South Park Movie (the highest grossing R rated animation of all time as well as oscar nominated for the song 'Blame Canada') and also created (with the creator of Avenue Q) the Broadway musical 'The Book of Mormon' which is the highest critically and publicly acclaimed musical currently on Broadway, won 9 Tonys including best musical, and the Grammy for best musical theater album. Matt and Trey are two talented individuals and South Park remains the start and progress of it all.

The first "billion dollor" movie brand (includes merchandising). Did you know that the opening sequence was just supposed to be the standard, short open and title but when the director heard "Circle of Life" for the first time, he decided it as too beautiful to cut down and re-boarded the opening sequence to include the entire song and is what we see today.

This movie helped bring wind back to the sails of animation as it showed that adult entertainment and animation was a popular (and profitable) venture. It also paired the gargantuan Warner Brothers and Disney animation studios together in an attempt to save both their craft and beloved characters, and I am very glad it worked.

A scientific study found Bambi to be the saddest movie ever made. It is also considered the best example of the "classic" Disney style of animation.

Brought to you by the incredible Hayao Miyazaki, this Japanese flick won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003, made a killing at the box office, and showed such an imaginative, beautiful, and heart-felt story that rivals any other story out there regardless of genera. It is ranked as one of the best animated movies and over all movies ever made, with a 94 metascore (based on critic reviews) and ranking #43 on IMDB.

This film received 13 Oscar nominations and took home 5 (including best special effects). It was also one of the first movies to pair live action characters with animated ones.

A year after 'Spirited Away', Hayao Miyazaki and Pete Doctor (director of 'Monster's Inc.' and 'Up') came out with this brilliant movie about a fantasy world at war and a young (and cursed) woman's transgressions through personal troubles and love. This is one of my personal favorites even though it is not quite as good as 'Spirited Away' I do find this movie to be incredibly entertaining.

This is my pick of the best Hanna-Barbera production, which also created Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, The Smurfs, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Tom and Jerry, The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and many more. All of these productions are great, but Scooby has always been my favorite one to watch (not to mention the most spun off and continued brand).

The Nightmare Before Christmas is the most well known stop animation movie out there and, in my opinion, is the best example of this tedious and specific art form (although The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a close second).

This was the first cartoon ever made using the new technology of three-strip Technicolor.

Quintessential Japanese anime, to put it simply. The first time I watched Akira, I honestly didn't understand a single thing about it. It was very weird and the story was strange and outlandish and, well, it was anime. In a world saturated with americanized cartoons like Pokemon and japanese mimics like Avatar: The Last Air Bender, Akira stands as the standard for the genera of true Japanese anime.

This was Brad Bird's first directorial big hit (where he later went on to direct Ratatouille and The Incredibles which won him the Oscar for best director). This movie also shows that even going into the 21st century, the soul and love of great animation was never lost.

The Luxo Jr. short was to Pixar and computer animation what Steamboat Willie was to Disney and 2D animation. This was the first critically acclaimed 3D animation piece that showed it could create characters with personality and interest and rival that of the 2D standard.

Wallace & Gromit, in my opinion, represents the most popular and well crafted claymation out there.

Everyone knows this theme song. I feel that Doug represents the best of 90's era cartoon series in both animation, story, and over all quality (and theme song, of course).

This may seem like a weird pick, as it really isn't a 'significant' TV series (after all, it was already canceled once before), but what I like about Futurama is that most of the writers and people who work on the show have PhD's in physics and math and a few other fields. Despite how crazy the stories are, they will show some outlandish equation on a chalk board in the background and it actually is a real equation related to the physics of the story's plot. If you keep a look out for them, there are quite a few jokes meant only for specific people educated in math or science to see and laugh at. One of my favorite stories with these guys is that there was an episode where the two main characters were on the moon and running away from the 'dark line' that represented the shadow of the dark side of the moon (obviously because once in the dark side of the moon they would freeze to death). A school teacher wrote into the Futurama show and said that they should be ashamed to show the moon's 'dark side' moving that fast as it was lying about the science of how the moon actually was (a topic she seemed to care about as a 5th grade teacher who taught the solar system). Well, one of the PhD's in physics wrote kindly back to the teacher and, very detailed, explained exactly how fast the moon rotates and the positioning of the sun/earth and how the 'dark side' shadow would actually move as fast as it did on their show.
Also, there are a few episodes that are so touching you will well up and possibly cry at (the one involving Fry's dog comes to mind).