25 Best Animated Movies On HBO Max

Of all the different styles and production methods that make movie magic possible, there's something truly special about animation. Knowing that a large team of skilled artists and storytellers got together and painstakingly made every frame from scratch, be it with traditional ink and paint or with computer-based technology, makes an animated movie all that more special, particularly if it's a well-written, superbly voice-acted entry. The best animated movies are the ones that couldn't have been presented in any other way, and these fictional worlds created from the minds of visionaries are just so engrossing.

HBO Max is home to numerous cartoon movies of the past and present. We're talking hits, obscure gems, and cult classics alike. Here are all the best ones — some for kids, some for adults, some for audiences of all ages — currently available on the streaming giant.

Updated on December 22, 2021: HBO Max changes its offerings often, so we'll keep this list updated to reflect those changes to the streamer's catalog. Check back each month to keep current with the best animated features available on the service.

A great animated movie presents a world that couldn't convincingly be presented via live-action filmmaking — one full of fantastical beings, objects, and scenarios rendered so beautifully that they wind up occupying some place between dreams and reality. "Castle in the Sky," co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki at his renowned Studio Ghibli in Japan, is one such film, as it involves sky pirates, magical stones, steampunk, and treasure. 

In a futuristic version of a late 19th-century mining town, teenage orphan Pazu catches the enigmatic Sheeta after she falls from the sky. Before long, they're on the run from air pirates and government agents who want her enchanted amulet that helps provide access to the magical floating kingdom of Laputa. Pazu and Sheeta must get to this promised land before any of the villains do so — or stop them.

• Starring (Original Voice Cast):  Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Minori Terada
• Starring (English Language Dub): James Van Der Beek, Anna Paquin, Mark Hamill
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Year: 1986
• Runtime: 124 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Tim Burton has carefully cultivated a visual palate and sensibility that could be labeled "cuddly goth," and his stop-motion-animated fairytale "Corpse Bride" certainly adheres to the aesthetic he established in works like "Edward Scissorhands" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas." In this deeply sad but equally sweet tale of romance and melancholy, nervous groom-to-be Victor is dragged into the realm of the dead and into the life of the lovelorn and deceased Emily. His new "corpse bride" serves as Victor's guide to the underworld, but eventually, she helps him return to the world of the living before his betrothed can marry Barkis Bittern, one of the most evil villains to ever appear in a Tim Burton film.

• Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson
• Director: Tim Burton and Mike Johnson
• Year: 2005
• Runtime: 77 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Through his clay-and-plasticine animation studio Aardman Animation, Nick Park has often chronicled and gently satirized stereotypically British things, such as pastoral farm settings with "Shawn the Sheep" and a low-key, cheese-loving dorks with his "Wallace and Gromit" shorts. With "Early Man," Park and company take aim at the great uniter of the English — soccer, or as they call it, football. The film is a fantastical and alternative historical take on the creation of the sport, taking place a million years ago, in which a group of ill-refined cavemen square off against fancy Bronze Age elites in an effort to preserve their way of life via a high-stakes game of soccer.

• Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams
• Director: Nick Park
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"Epic" is a huge adventure about tiny things. The forest is a vast universe unto itself, a rich ecosystem where plants, insects, animals, birds co-exist, along with fairies and tiny humanoid warriors called Leafmen. And in the middle of all this, there's M.K., a teenager grieving her recently deceased mother and growing ever distant from her father. Obsessed with proving the existence of miniature forest people, M.K. is soon magically whisked away to their pint-sized realm. And there, she finds herself in the midst of a war over the forest between the Leafmen, the fairy Queen Tara, and the wicked, power-mad Mandrake, ruler of the Boggans.

• Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Beyoncé
• Director: Chris Wedge
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 103 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

This 2011 Studio Ghibli film originally made for Japanese television is a period piece, set in 1963 when Japan was at a cultural and historical crossroads. A generation removed from World War II, the nation looked to move on and modernize from the crushing conflict and into a peaceful and illustrious future as it prepared to host the Summer Olympics. That's the backdrop for the story about the past and future colliding. Yokohama high school student Umi meets Shun, a school newspaper reporter, and together they aim to improve their local teen hangout, if only they can save it from the clutches of city redevelopers who have marked the building for demolition. It's sweet, it's nostalgic, it's absolutely delightful.

• Starring (English Dub): Sarah Bolger, Anton Yelchin, Jamie Lee Curtis
• Starring (Original Voice Dub): Masami Nagasawa, Junichi Okada, Jun Fubuki
• Director: Goro Miyazaki
• Year: 2011
• Runtime: 91 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

A lushly drawn fantasy from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, "Howl's Moving Castle" is a faithful adaptation of the fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones. It's about a young woman named Sophie who labors all day in her parents' hat shop, fantasizing about what life would be like with a mysterious, handsome, blond stranger she frequently encounters. But on a family trip, she runs afoul of the Witch of the Waste who, jealous of Sophie's youth and beauty, curses her to live out her days as an old woman. Sophie then catches up with that mysterious stranger, a wizard who lives in a castle he can transport through time and space at will and which is populated by a fireplace-dwelling demon named Calcifer. And with that, Sophie is living with the wizard named Howl and exploring a world of magic and mischief.

• Starring (English Dub): Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Billy Crystal
• Starring (Original Voice Dub): Chieko Baisho, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashuin
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Year: 2004
• Runtime: 119 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

In this classic feature from Studio Ghibli, it's not quite clear if the gigantic, smiling, fuzzy creature who bellows his name as "Totoro" is a real but magical being or just a flight of fancy from sisters Satsuke and Mei. It's abundantly true, however, that Totoro comes along when the girls need him most. Sent to a country house with their distracted father while their mother convalesces from a serious illness elsewhere, Totoro — as well as tiny "soot sprites" and a furry, living cat-bus — provide all the joy, comfort, wonder, and distraction Satsuke and Mei can enjoy.

• Starring (English Dub): Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tim Daly
• Starring (Original Voice Dub): Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Year: 1988
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Animation was the only way to present this surreal, bewildering, and pleasantly disarming mix of comedy, romance, and the bloom of youth from filmmaker Masaaki Yuasa, an iconoclastic superstar in the Japanese animation industry. In this evocatively titled film, two female college students, known only as Junior and the Black-Haired Maiden, enjoy a wild night out in the big city. Meanwhile, a man identified as Senior wants to tell Junior he loves her, but as this is a romantic comedy, forces conspire to keep them apart. Those circumstances include fights, party-crashing, a drinking contest with a ghost monster, experimental theater, weirdos, and lots more alcohol.

• Starring (English Dub): Kellen Goff, Jackie Lastra, Eddy Lee
• Starring (Original Voice Dub): Gen Hoshino, Kana Hanazawa, Hiroshi Kamiya
• Director: Masaaki Yuasa
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

"Ponyo" is a wildly original, high-concept fairy tale — it's about sentient sea creatures, friendship, and childhood loneliness — but it's so charming and engaging that it feels familiar. Another entry from Studio Ghibli, it's about a princess of the deep sea realm (and also a goldfish) who secretly visits a human village on land, where she meets a little boy, Sosuke, who names her Ponyo. As their bond grows, so too does Ponyo's affinity for human culture and her desire to be a full-time person, partially so she can hang out with Sosuke and his mother and partially because she's got an insatiable desire for ham.

• Starring (English Dub): Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Tina Fey
• Starring (Original Voice Dub): Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Tomoko Yamaguchi
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

"Ride Your Wave," from the visionary animated filmmaker Masaaki Yuasa ("The Night is Short, Walk on Girl"), is a modern-day take on old tales of true love found and then tragically lost, like "Romeo and Juliet," only dreamy to the point of surreal and involving a lot more surfing and magical ghosts. 

Hinako moves to a seaside village to go to school but mostly to surf, and after her apartment catches fire, dynamic emergency worker Minato rescues her. They fall in love, particularly after Hinako teaches Minato to ride the waves, but the sport is ultimately what kills him — he dies after surfing in a storm and rescuing a drowning victim. Hinako is distraught, but not all hope is lost — whenever she sings her and Minato's favorite song, Minato appears as a being only Hinako can see. But just as tragically as Minato's death, the two realize that they can't quite keep going on in this way, straddling two opposite realms of existence.

• Starring (Original Voice Cast): Ryota Katayose, Rina Kawaei, Kentaro Ito
• Starring (English Language Dub): Joey Richter, Merit Leighton, Michael Johnston
• Director: Masaaki Yuasa
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

HBO Max is the streaming home of the animated features from Studio Ghibli, the storied Japanese production company long presided over by animation master Hayao Miyazaki. His often challenging and occasionally spooky films — based on novels, folklore, or some combination thereof — appeal to adults as much as, if not more than, children.

For example, take "Spirited Away." It's the haunting story of 10-year-old Chihiro, who moves to rural Japan and encounters an enchanted amusement park ... where her parents are turned into pigs and she's engaged into a life of servitude at a bathhouse for spirits. Making things even complicated, Chihiro has to navigate some tenuous relationships with a domineering old witch and an enigmatic figure known only as "No Face." It's such a beautiful story that in 2002, it became the second-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and for good reason.

• Starring (English Dub): Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden, Suzanne Pleshette
• Starring (Original Voice Dub): Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Year: 2001
• Runtime: 124 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

"Watership Down" is an allegorical tale about the evils and horrors of war, told in the form of a conflict between rival tribes of rabbits. A gritty, brutally animated version of Richard Adams' classic novel, it follows a group of bunnies led by Fiver (after he experiences a vision of the end times for his warren) as they seek out a new home. Unfortunately, along the way, they must contend with other vicious rabbits and encroaching humanity to boot. Despite the fact it's animated, it's just as graphic, bloody, and horrifying as a live-action war movie starring and made for adults. 

• Starring: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Michael Graham Cox
• Director: Martin Rosen and John Hubley
• Year: 1978
• Runtime: 91 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%