What Are Your 5 Favourite Lesser Known Animated Movies?

[jolldan]

Animation is a truly incredible art form. It's brought life to now timeless classics like Snow White, The Lion King, Toy Story and many more.

But not every film can be the mammoth hit that these were so I thought it was time to give some love to our favourite animated films that never quite reached the levels of success or popularity that the previously mentioned ones did.

Only rule is it can't have been one of the 5 biggest movies of that year.

Peter And The Wolf (1946)


The Secret Of NIMH (1982)


Freddie As F.R.O.7 (1992)


The Pagemaster (1994)


Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)


Honourable Mentions: The Black Cauldron (1985), Heavy Metal (1981), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)



What would your 5 be?

 

[Boom]

A Troll in Central Park (1994)
Heidi's Song (1982)
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)
The Pagemaster (1994)
The Princess and the Goblin (1991)

 

[jolldan]

A Troll in Central Park (1994)
Heidi's Song (1982)
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)
The Pagemaster (1994)
The Princess and the Goblin (1991)

Another classic I forgot. If I ever have kids they are getting these are the movies they are getting I refuse to be subjected to Peppa Pig & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

 

[samsnee]

I loved Nimh.

Don Bluth wasn't afraid to go a little darker in his movies and it was a nice balance to the happy go lucky world of Disney.

I wish we had more animated movies in that vein instead of them all following the same template these days.

 

[Boom]

There's also Once Upon a Forest (1993), which is actually quite horrifying if you can believe it.

 

[samsnee]

I don’t know if it’s lesser known but the Last Unicorn was also a classic.

 

[Boom]

I also vaguely recall an animated movie that had to deal with frogs and a water sprite. I want to say it's Thumbelina, but it looks like there are two animated versions and I'm drawing a blank on which one I'm thinking of.

I want to say one of the characters gets hurt when exposed to water.

 

[2kt09]

 

[Abudefduf]

You said lesser known so I'm going to avoid saying movies that didn't do well at the box office but still have a large cult following, like Iron Giant, Brave Little Toaster, Land Before Time, the LAIKA movies etc.

The Scarlet Flower (1954)
A Russian movie. It's a bit dated but also visually gorgeous and a perfect adaptation of the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.

The Enchanted Boy (1955)
From the same studio that made The Scarlet Flower, it's an adaptation of the book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. It's about a kid who gets cursed by a gnome after pissing him off.

Jack and the Beanstalk (1974)
A japanese adaptation of the famous tale. It's obviously a movie for little kids but it has some surprisingly scary moments. And its songs are the very definition of earworms.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1982)
Another japanese movie... I loved this movie as a kid, I rewatched it recently and it's really not that good. But it's a much more faithful adaptation of the tale than the Disney movie.

Lucky and Zorba (1998)
Probably the most (and also the only?) famous Italian animated movie... it's about a seagull who is adopted by a gang of cats. I haven't watched it in at least 15 years, who knows if it still holds up.

Honorable mention: the first half of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. Not because it's good (it's not), but because it's hilarious.