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5 Animated Movies You Should Definitely See, If You Haven’t Already

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I love animated movies. Here are some that I love, that I think you should watch, too. And I’m putting them in no particular order.

PERSEPOLIS

Based on the graphic novel memoir of Majane Satrapi, Persepolis is a true story of growing up in Iran after the Islamic Revolution and during the Iranian war with Iraq. It’s gripping and scary, and retains the style of the original black and white illustrations. I highly recommend reading the book first, so you can appreciate the frames reproduced directly in the film. It’s sad and funny, and the feminist ideals of the author remain intact in the film version.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Before Peter Jackson’s sprawling adaptation, Ralph Bakshi’s animated condensing of Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings and The Two Towers were the only way to experience a film version of the fantasy epic. The film doesn’t stick to one animation style, utilizing rotoscoping, solarization live-action, and psychedelic lighting effects for a look that’s staggeringly unique. While significant cuts were made to fit the story into its two hour run time and the Rankin-Bass sequel was far inferior in comparison, this is worth watching, even if only to find the scenes that Peter Jackson blatantly cribbed for his version.

INSIDE OUT

The premise of Inside Out is fairly simple: your emotions are little creatures that live inside your head. Isn’t that quirky? Disney/Pixar could have gotten by on silliness alone, but instead they used the chance to show the effects of clinical depression on a preteen girl, in a way that audiences of all ages can understand. When Joy and Sadness go missing in Riley’s brain, only Disgust, Fear, and Anger are left to drive her through her day to day life. As Joy and Sadness struggle to help Riley, she shrinks from her old interest, friends, and finally her family. It sounds like a total bummer, but it’s packed with as much humor as sentimentality. As a bonus, it can give kids a better understanding of mental illness without the veneer of social stigma distorting the message.

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT

There are some stories that can just work better as animated movies. The scope of the story of the Exodus is huge, would require a cast of thousands or expensive CGI effects, and expensive locations. Dreamworks’s decision to animate it was a stroke of brilliance. Without the hindrance of having to pay extras or build elaborate sets, they were free to create a true cinema epic that, despite being marketed to families, pulls no punches depicting the brutality of slavery and the horrors of the biblical plagues. And while there are shockingly few Jewish actors or People of Color portraying Hebrew characters or character of color in the voice cast (off the top of my head, only Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, and Ofra Haza come to mind), the stylized visuals are stunning, the music is Broadway caliber, and the story proves powerful enough to resonate across cultural and religious lines.

THE LAST UNICORN

This is not only my favorite animated movie of all time, but it’s high in the running for my favorite movie overall. I rented this one over and over when I was a kid, but it was only after I watched it as an adult that I truly understood its themes of the destructiveness of possession, the danger of hubris, and longing to be something that you’re not. The visuals are enchanting, the voice cast is like this ridiculous cavalcade of talent, and I hardly ever watch it anymore because I can’t make it through the main titles (and the theme song, written and performed by America, as are all the tracks) before I burst into tears.

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52 Comments

  1. mk
    mk

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who cried at the Last Unicorn theme song! Recently rewatched that movie for the first time as an adult and it really holds up. Beautiful.

    September 10, 2015
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    • Siona
      Siona

      I saw a screening of the movie with a Q and A with the author. And then book signings. It was seriously one of the most magical things in my entire life. I will always love the Last Unicorn. Shmendrick is my favorite of all times.

      September 10, 2015
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  2. The Last Unicorn is awesome. Except for the singing. Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges are great but, unfortunately, they can’t sing =\ I’ve tried to get my kids to watch it and haven’t had any luck. But they’re boys so.

    Love the Bakshi version of LoTR. Bakshi’s “Wizards” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076929/?ref_=nv_sr_3) is also phenomenal.

    September 10, 2015
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  3. Arielle
    Arielle

    Add Brian Stokes Mitchell to the list of actors of color! He’s the (awesome) singing voice of Jethro.

    September 10, 2015
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  4. Deirdre
    Deirdre

    Yo watch A Monster In Paris, it’s on Netflix and it’s A+. It’s a french movie, but Netflix has the english-language dub and I watch it with my niece allll the time. Animation is gorgeous too.

    Here’s the trailer

    Okay bye.

    September 10, 2015
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    • Amanda
      Amanda

      I loved that movie. I thought it was going to awful when my kid picked it for movie night and I ended up loving it.

      September 10, 2015
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    • Heather
      Heather

      I loved it, too! The music alone is fantastic. La Seine is in heavy rotation in my house.

      September 10, 2015
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    • OMG! YES! Buying it as soon as I have money again. Also, the animated Hobbit and Return of the King are great too and I definitely recommend those as well.

      And am forever crying about The Last Unicorn

      September 11, 2015
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    • Petra47
      Petra47

      And try to find a copy of “The Elm-Chanted Forest,” I highly recommend it! It was my most favorite movie when I was a kid, and it’s basically just a huge acid trip. lol

      Trailer:

      September 18, 2015
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      • Petra47
        Petra47

        And actually, the full Elmchanted Forest is available on YouTube.

        September 18, 2015
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  5. Amelia
    Amelia

    Inside Out had to be the best film of the year for me, I actually ended up watching it three times with different friend groups, and each time noticed something I didn’t before. One of the things I really loved about it was the control panel. Did you notice that, when she’s a baby, there’s just one button? And when she gets older it gets more complicated, but even at that point, it can only comfortably accommodate one emotion at a time, where as the adults have panels large enough for each emotion to have equal input. I love details like that, its a subtle metaphor but it’s so beautifully done, and really reflects a child’s ability to handle their emotions. Its a silly thing to geek out over, I know, but I thought it was really cool.

    September 10, 2015
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  6. Melodie
    Melodie

    You have excellent tastes, my friend. I adored Persepolis, I’ve never read the novel but we watched the film in my graphic design class and I loved it. It was so compelling.

    I haven’t seen Inside Out yet but I definitely intend to.

    I’m not a fan of Lord of the Rings, I just can’t get into it. I did actually see the cartoon and thought it had a really unique style, though rotoscoping still looks weird to me at times.

    Prince of Egypt surprised me by how good it was, the story, the animation, the acting, all fantastic. I was kind of a snob about it when it first came out because of how anti-religious I was and thought that a bible story would be lame. I’m glad that I matured enough to give it a chance because it was wonderful.

    The Last Unicorn. Possibly my favourite ever. I cringe a bit when Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges sing because…wtf? But the rest is great. The most vivid memory I had of the movie when I was a kid was the boob tree, which I thought was hilarious. They remastered and re-released the movie in theatres recently and the author was there so I totally went and got my book signed as well as a few prints signed by him. I was not aware that Peter S. Beagle and George R. R. Martin were friends before going to the event but once I found that out, I simply had to get the picture of King Haggard sitting on the iron throne, which was signed by both authors. I had to.

    September 10, 2015
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  7. Mandi Rei Serra
    Mandi Rei Serra

    I introduced m kiddos to The Last Unicorn. My daughter lurves it.

    Have you seen The Secret of Kells? A retelling (in really stylized animation) of the Book of Kells and the Viking Incursion into Ireland. Aishling the forest sprite is awesome, and the magick she weaves with Pangur Ban is *sniffle* a song I sing to this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTiSak8r9P8

    Ponyo is good too– a Japanese take on The Little Mermaid. Ponyo is the daughter of (voiced by Liam Neeson, swoon) Guardian of the Ocean and the Goddess of the Ocean. In the shape of a wee fishie, she bounces out to explore. Gets saved by a little boy, and ends up using her magick to change herself into a human. However, since she isn’t experienced with her powers, the ocean’s tides get seriously out of wack and Devonian sea creatures are back. Plus, it has Lily Tomlin and Betty White as the old ladies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl_3N2n-Ie4 <– whole movie!

    Now, I need to get my hands on Persepolis, haven't seen it yet. Thank you for the suggestion!

    September 10, 2015
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    • Amanda
      Amanda

      I really liked Secret of Kells! They did a second film called Song of the Sea and it’s wonderful, but it made me cry.

      September 10, 2015
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    • Lindsay
      Lindsay

      I loved the Secret of Kells, the animation is so incredibly beautiful in that movie.

      September 11, 2015
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      • Mandi Rei Serra
        Mandi Rei Serra

        I want the oak forest for my own. Knotwork everywhere!

        September 11, 2015
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  8. Sheila
    Sheila

    The Prince of Egypt was specifically a labor of love by Spielberg, an is one of the few big screen, mainstream Hollywood productions to show an accurate Jewish perspective on the Bible (while being sensitive, thoughtful and modern at the same time). The song Miriam sings at the end absolutely marks it out as a Jewish perspective, I’ve never met a Christian who knew about the song. A lot of people are surprised at how matriarchal it is, and I’m like “Yes, that…is the actual story, yes, anyone who told you different doesn’t understand the story” And whatever you think about the voice actors, it’s a movie about the Bible which features, visually, a cast of animated characters that are 100 percent all people in shades of brown. The live action Ten Commandments is a fantastic piece of cinema history but I have to guiltily confess I find it poorly paced and the dated,unnatural style of acting is grating – but those are the two versions of the story worth bothering with

    September 10, 2015
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    • Gretchen
      Gretchen

      I’m fascinated to hear this perspective! I grew up in a Lutheran background, and while I LOVED the soundtrack (to the point where my parents probably wished it would “disappear” so I’d stop playing it on repeat) I always got off on how it wasn’t exactly an accurate telling. But looking back on it with a bit more life and study of religion under my belt, I think you’re absolutely right – it captures the *significance* of the story, regardless of whether or not any particular detail is precisely correct.

      September 10, 2015
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    • Hth
      Hth

      The original cut of Prince of Egypt apparently portrayed the voice of God as a shifty, semi-choral thing, layering male, female, and child voices when God spoke, which I thought was a phenomenally cool idea. Apparently it didn’t test well. Go figure. Anyway, they redid the vocals using the same actor who played Moses (Val Kilmer, wasn’t it?) — which is itself an interesting idea, God speaking to Moses in his own voice. But it wasn’t half so cool as the original concept.

      September 10, 2015
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      • The original concept sounds amazing (and much better) indeed.

        September 13, 2015
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      • KHon
        KHon

        If you listen to the dialogue closely, you can still hear the other voice actors juuust a little in the mix when God speaks (my ears pick out Michelle Pfiefer the most), so they carried out some of that idea so that Moses hears both his voice and the voices of the people he knows as the voice of God. I kinda wish the original choral version was around to compare, depending on who did the mixing I can see the shifting voices turning out very cool or very unpleasant.

        September 15, 2015
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  9. Melodie
    Melodie

    Oh, I’m just going to suggest Book of Life as a great animated movie. I watched it recently with my son and the animation is gorgeous, the story is great and fun, and the music is catchy as all hell. My son is a little young for the story, only being a year and a half, but any time the music was on he’d just get mesmerized by it.

    September 10, 2015
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    • Stephanie
      Stephanie

      I saw that one randomly on the airplane, and was glad I did. The three main characters are so likable.

      September 13, 2015
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  10. SamBeringer
    SamBeringer

    I can proudly say I saw all of these save for Persepolis (which, after reading the graphic novel, I definitely want to see at some point).

    If I may add another:

    Tokyo Godfathers — a film by the late Satoshi Kon which takes place on Christmas Eve in Tokyo where three homeless people — an alcoholic, a transwoman, and a runaway — find an abandoned baby and set out to find her mother. While nearly everything by Kon is worth watching, this one in particular is brilliant. The story weaves in the characters` backstories and makes what would normally be seen as contrivances into miracles. Speaking of characters, all three are complex but manage to pull out a decent amount of comedy; I was pleasantly surprised when most of the humor from Hana, the transwoman, came more from her overdramatics and interaction with Gin, the alcoholic, rather than simply mocking her for being trans. The only caveat to the movie is that, last I heard, there is no English dub, so you`ll have to settle for subs.

    September 10, 2015
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    • RodeoBob
      RodeoBob

      I was going to suggest looking at anything by Kon, but “Tokyo Godfathers” is probably the most accessible. “Paprika” is visually stunning, but goes off the rails pretty hard in the third act, and “Perfect Blue” is a little dated and leans a little too heavily on understanding Japanese pop-star culture.

      September 10, 2015
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      • SamBeringer
        SamBeringer

        Yeah… I remember when one guy got flak for criticizing Perfect Blue, but after watching it I mostly agreed with him. It had good, suspenseful moments and quite a few creepy ones (“I guess I went to Harajuku today”), but it’s still pretty dated and the ending didn’t feel right to me.

        Honestly, I think Black Swan did it better. *Hides behind flame shield*

        September 10, 2015
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    • Stephanie
      Stephanie

      I think subs are the way to go, unless the dub is particularly outstanding. Especially with a comedy, where the timing is important.

      September 13, 2015
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  11. VegasJellyFish
    VegasJellyFish

    I have seen all of these movies, but PERSEPOLIS. I think I may have to look into that one. The Last Unicorn is my favorite and I wish I could get those songs on to my MP3 player so I could listen to them whenever. I own that movie on VHS, DVD, and Bluray. I just love it. I bought the graphic novel for it and the regular book for it. They sit on my special “I LOVE THESE THE MOST” shelf. LOL. I only wanted the Lord of the Rings one 1 time, but my oldest son has watched them over and over again. He loves them all. I loved Inside Out and think it is a great movie. The Prince of Egypt was an amazing movie. My oldest son loves that movie and my two younger ones have watched it a few times. They love the music. I used to own the country music Prince of Egypt soundtrack at one time. I loved to listen to it over and over again.

    September 10, 2015
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    • M
      M

      I got the soundtrack off Amazon. Look under the German title, “Das Letzte Einhorn.”

      I skip the Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges tracks, of course.

      September 12, 2015
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    • M
      M

      I just replied regarding the soundtrack (my comment hasn’t popped up yet), and it turns out all these years I’ve been skipping the Mia Farrow stuff for no reason — someone else sings her part on the soundtrack! Yay! (And if an anonymous poster somewhere is to be believed, that’s the cut that should have been in the movie as well, but Farrow insisted they use hers. Sounds plausible — I’d love to see confirmation of that.)

      September 12, 2015
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  12. Lucy
    Lucy

    I’ve only seen The Prince of Egypt, but you’ve made me curious about the rest.

    I would like to add The Secret of NIMH. That movie was a huge part of my childhood, and I realised how much I didn’t get when I watched it again when I was older.

    September 10, 2015
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    • Sarah
      Sarah

      I was going to say the Secret of Nimh. I haven’t seen it for years but loved it when I was little. I loved the books as well.

      September 11, 2015
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  13. Aimee
    Aimee

    I will have to watch Persepolis – I have seen all the others.

    I love a lot of the other movies listed in the comments – Secret of Nimh! And would like to add one that few people I know watched – Dragon Hunters. It was a French cartoon but the movie was released in English (perhaps also French, I am not sure). It is really visually beautiful, with a melancholy surrealism. For a taste, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52GAt_fPX1k.

    September 10, 2015
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  14. RodeoBob
    RodeoBob

    Miyazaki’s films are great stuff (“Howl’s Moving Castle”, “Princess Mononoke”, “Ponyo”, and “Spirited Away”) if you’ve never seen any of them. If you know something about Japanese culture, there are a lot of details that work really well, but even if you don’t, the films work just fine. In an interview, Miyazaki said about “Spirited Away” that the film was made to appeal to 9-year-old girls; I use that movie as an example that yes, this can be a winning strategy.

    Someone mentioned Satoshi Kon upthread, and I think those films are good too, but they have some problematic elements. But Kon’s work plays around a lot with ideas of identity and self and connections with others, and has a really nice visual style.

    Brad Bird’s “Iron Giant” is another fun one if you missed it the first time around. It’s a nice period piece that shows his affection for the visual and design styles of the ’50s with a fun anti-war message and Vin Diesel’s best voice acting prior to “Guardians of the Galaxy”. (“Superman”) It looks like a hybrid of cell animation and CGI, and while a lot of sequences are trope-tastic, they’re executed with style and flair and work well.

    September 10, 2015
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  15. Caz
    Caz

    If you want another Satoshi Kon recommendation, a glorious (and less problematic) option is Millennium Actress. Brilliant theme, great music, and always makes me cry at the end. Follows the story of an actress through the 1920s to the 1960s or so, flitting into and out of real life and her film roles, melding the two. Love it.

    Plus another big thumbs up for The Last Unicorn and Prince of Egypt. I’m a priest, and have always found PoE a fantastic illustration of the Exodus story. Especially love the burning bush scene.

    September 10, 2015
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  16. Cherry
    Cherry

    I LOVE The Last Unicorn! That movie was my childhood (Which probably explains a lot, actually.)

    September 10, 2015
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  17. Sushi
    Sushi

    I have seen none of these but I shall put them on my to-watch list because I love animated movies. I seem to recall reading somewhere that The Last Unicorn was produced by the same company that did Flight Of Dragons, which I love, so I’ll try that one first. I also really like Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists, and Watership Down, although it frightened me when I first saw it; probably because I was about 5 and my parents had thought ‘ah yes, cartoon bunnies, what could go wrong?’

    September 10, 2015
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    • RodeoBob
      RodeoBob

      The production company behind “The Last Unicorn” went bankrupt , but the employees from that studio would go on to found Studio Ghibli, so yeah, there’s good talent involved.

      Source for this.

      September 11, 2015
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  18. Inside Out YASSSSSS….

    It would have been so easy to screw this premise over, but I absolutely admire the story work on this movie. So beautiful. So mature. So accessible. So clever. I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD/Blu-Ray. More chances for me to ball my eyes out and geek about the story structure/presentation. 😀

    September 11, 2015
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  19. OMG Prince of Egypt love that movie, and OMFG I can STILL remember the lyrics from “Frodo of the Nine Fingers”.

    September 11, 2015
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    • BB
      BB

      That’s not from the Ralph Bakshi one though, thats from the Rankin/Bass one, Return of the King.

      September 12, 2015
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  20. Kayla
    Kayla

    Inside Out absolutely broke me. I’ve been dealing with clinical depression since around age 10, and my family moved from a small college town in northern Illinois to Phoenix, Arizona that same year. The scene where Riley’s family piles into the car in the middle of a corn field was a punch to the gut, and the car driving through the Sonoran was a sucker punch while I was down.

    My poor boyfriend had to hold me while I ugly cried through the credits.

    (And add me to the list of people who cry through The Last Unicorn.)

    September 11, 2015
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  21. Jessica
    Jessica

    I have always been a huge fan of The Secret of Nymm. It creeped me out intensely, but I watched it over and over as a child.

    September 11, 2015
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  22. I’ve only seen Inside Out, so I must watch the others! Thanks for the recos!

    September 11, 2015
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  23. Heather S.
    Heather S.

    I love all of these movie! Especially Last Unicorn. It has been a staple of my childhood, and I am certain to pass it on to any munchkins if/when I have said munchkins.

    September 11, 2015
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  24. BB
    BB

    If you liked the The Last Unicorn film, you’d probably enjoy the book. There’s actually quite a bit in the book that was cut for the film (but they made the movie flow so well you’d never really know, probably because it was Pete S Beagle himself that made those changes because, as he said at the screening I went too, that sitting around a table talking doesn’t work very well in an animated film).

    September 12, 2015
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  25. I took a group of kids to see Inside Out, and they all got another message out of it. The got the message that it’s okay to feel sad, and that we need to embrace all our emotions instead of thinking we need to feel happy all the time. That movie is so incredibly well written that there are many things to get out of it. There’s that, there’s an understanding of depression, learning about core memories, just so much, and it’s a shame that animated movies have their own best category now since I honestly believe that’s one of the best, if not THE best, movie of 2015 solely for the impact of its many messages and lessons alone.

    Prince of Egypt makes this militant atheist cry. I love religiously based movies that are done well enough that you don’t have to share the religion to still have your heart touched. That takes skill. To enjoy anything Kirk Cameron touches these days (mind out of the fundamentalist gutter), you have to be strongly Christian, and they bank on that. But Prince of Egypt, Sister Act, and others like them put a lot more thought into them. They’re like Pope Francis compared to Joel Osteen.

    September 12, 2015
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  26. Carolina West
    Carolina West

    The Prince of Egypt actually has a prequel, Joseph: King of Dreams. It’s not as well-known, and I’ll admit it’s not quite as good, but it’s still worth watching!

    And I’m with everyone who loves Secret of NIMH. I can’t even remember when I first saw it, but it is amazing! I even have an original movie poster my old neighbor got me for my birthday a few years ago. ^.^

    September 12, 2015
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  27. The Prince of Egypt is my favorite animated movie of all time. One other take on the Passover story I would recommend is, believe it or not, the Rugrats version (not a movie, but what the hell): It’s much more light-hearted, but it tells the story in a way that’s both accurate and accessible to younger kids, and the depiction of a seder held by a contemporary Ashkenazi family is spot on.

    September 13, 2015
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  28. Tenko
    Tenko

    I haven’t seen Inside Out or The Last Unicorn, but I’ve seen the rest.

    I remember being terrified when Marjane threw up blood. Then, the doctor said to quit smoking. I was surprised to see her still smoking in the DVD extras. I couldn’t do that myself. I remember thinking I was dying the two times I coughed blood, but then, it turned out, those were from a cut up mouth and nose bleeds respectively.

    September 15, 2015
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  29. Last Unicorn! My favorite movie since I was like, 4 (I’m now 32). I watched it again after Christopher Lee died and goddamn, it was still every bit as enchanting as when I was a child. Lee’s King Haggard is just…oh my God. Amazing. Wonderful. So many other words that fall far short.

    This might make me weird but I saw Prince of Egypt while on a date in 9th grade with a guy who later almost became a priest.
    It’s a great movie, like Jenny said, but that’s my Prince of Egypt story.

    September 22, 2015
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