30 Best Animated Movies On Hulu

With animation, all things are possible. Without any of the limitations imposed by physical reality, filmmakers can let their imaginations go absolutely crazysauce in whichever style of story they choose. Even if we disregard the vast history of animated films and focus exclusively on what's available on Hulu, we can see a catalogue that ranges from dystopian cyberpunk to CG fairy tale satire and iconic staples of children's media, with quite a few other stops in between. 

So, if you're looking for something to watch, we've got you covered. After all, animation has something for everybody ... unless you definitely need to see live actors. Then we can't help you.

Updated on December 29, 2021: When it comes to colorfully animated, (mostly) family-friendly movies, Hulu is constantly changing the offerings in its catalog. In order to keep things current, we'll be updating this list each month so you can stay informed on all the animated action happening over on Hulu.

Ever since they first showed up in the pages of The New Yorker, the Addams Family have been a pop culture institution. They made their way to TV in the 1960s and showed up on the big screen in the '90s. And in 2019, the creepy, kooky, and altogether ooky family got the CGI treatment for a whole new generation of fans. In fact, we give the film big points for gelling the original 1930s designs with 2020s computer animation. (If you think "The Addams Family" is just ripping off Tim Burton, you've got it a little backwards.) So anyone in the mood for something sweet and spooky, well, "The Addams Family" is where it's at.

• Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz

• Director: Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 87 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45%

Right up there next to "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix" on the list of most influential cyberpunk films in history, "Akira" is an utterly engrossing onslaught of mind-melting visuals and an essential watch for folks with any fondness for high-concept sci-fi. It's got sociopathic biker gangs, a shadowy authoritarian government, grotesque body horror, a telekinetic antichrist, and a profoundly creepy teddy bear; plus, it's one of the only established genre IPs that Hollywood cannot seem to remake despite its best efforts.     

• Starring: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama

• Director: Katsuhiro Ohtomo

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

An adaption of Osamu Tezuka's classic manga, "Astro Boy" didn't exactly set the world on fire during its theatrical run. More than a decade later, however, it stands a much better chance of resonating with the sort of folks who appreciate the Wachowskis' "Speed Racer" and other modern takes on retro Japanese pop culture. Plus, it's fairly bonkers. Essentially the tale of Pinocchio merged with Marvel's Vision, the titular robot youth has to fight a giant iron nemesis voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. It's exactly as fun as it sounds.

• Starring: Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane

• Director: David Bowers

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

Charlie Brown is bad at baseball, a poor speller, and largely unsuccessful in romantic endeavors. But despite his many faults, his notoriety among American-made fictional characters is surpassed only by the likes of Batman, Darth Vader, and, uh ... his dog, Snoopy. 

The first cinematic foray of the "Peanuts" gang landed in the late '60s, but it might as well have been last week. Charlie Brown is timeless. Who can't relate to constant uphill battles, low self-esteem, and the looming suspicion that your animal companion is constantly upstaging you?  

• Starring: Peter Robbins, Pamelyn Ferdin, Glenn Gilger

• Director: Bill Melendez

• Year: 1969

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

There's more than a little live action in "The Congress" — a cautionary sci-fi mediation on celebrity and superficiality — but it takes a hard turn into a fully animated constructed reality after approximately 50 minutes. Robin Wright plays "Robin Wright" — the fading star of "The Princess Bride" — who funds treatments for her ailing son by selling her digital image and identity to a Hollywood studio. We suspect Disney corporate executives watched this and took notes.    

• Starring: Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm

• Director: Ari Folman

• Year: 2014

• Runtime: 122 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Technically, "A Very Monkey Christmas" premiered as a special extended-length episode of the long-running "Curious George" animated series — but if Hulu lists it as a movie, who are we to argue? 

Curious George lacks the capacity to comprehend the concept of language, which prevents him from telling the Man with the Yellow Hat what he wants for Christmas. Making matters worse, George can't buy the Man with the Yellow Hat a Christmas present because George has no idea what money is or how it works. Do not fret, for these problems have solutions, and the process that brings about their resolution is utterly freakin' adorable.    

• Starring: E.G. Daily, Frank Welker, Jeff Bennett

• Director: Scott Heming, Cathy Malkasian

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 59 minutes

• Rating: TVG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64% (Audience Score)

Don't you hate it when you find a tiny modernized society residing on a speck that's too small for the naked eye to discern, and everyone you try to tell about it calls you delusional? We sure do — and so does Horton the elephant. In the hands of the studio that conjured up 2008's "Ice Age," Dr. Seuss' art becomes an effortless fit for digital animation. The cast also happens to include Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, and Jim Carrey at the height of their powers.

• Starring: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler

• Director: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

On one hand, when people say they don't like anime, they're essentially talking about endeavors like "Fairy Tail...The Phoenix Priestess." And sure, fine, maybe not every element of the manga adaptation is wildly original, the plot occasionally wanders into incompressibility, and the casual sexualization of its characters is a little problematic. But if you're hunting for escapism stuffed with swords and sorceries, you could easily do worse.     

• Starring: Tia Lynn Ballard, Colleen Clinkenbeard, R. Bruce Elliott

• Director: Masaya Fujimori

• Year: 2012

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81% (Audience Score)

Proof that horrendous box office performance is no indication of quality, "Missing Link" provides Hugh Jackman a chance to showcase his underutilized creative timing alongside Zach Galifianakis in an update on the adventure genre template. Explorer Sir Lionel Frost (Jackman) is charged with escorting Mr. Link (Galifianakis) on a quest to find other members of his species in Shangri-La — a location that doesn't exist in the real world, but might exist in the "Missing Link" shared universe?      

• Starring: Hugh Jackman, Zach Galifianakis, Zoe Saldana

• Director: Chris Butler

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Blu, a domesticated exotic bird, is the last male Spix's macaw on the planet. He is, therefore, his species' only hope for another generation. If the story of "Rio" was as simple as putting Blu on a plane to Brazil and introducing him to a female macaw with a rebellious spirit, his life would be easy. Instead, Blu must contend with an attempted kidnapping, his own embarrassing inability to fly, and plenty of additional shenanigans.

• Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Jemaine Clement

• Director: Carlos Saldanha

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Charlie Brown has a dog who can use a typewriter and is also a master surfer. Basically, he gets to live with this creature who has literal superpowers, but all he ever does in complain. Maybe Charlie Brown deserves to be miserable. But forget him — luckily for the rest of us, the ongoing musical adventures of the "Peanuts" gang continue in "Snoopy Come Home," the critically lauded sequel to "A Boy Named Charlie Brown." 

• Starring: Chad Webber, Robin Kohn, Stephen Shea

• Director: Bill Melendez

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Superhero films have been basically the most popular thing in the world for two decades, and animated movies about talking animals never seem to go out of style. So the fact that "StarDog and TurboCat" is a relatively rare melding of the two genres seems like pure insanity. Hollywood loves money — therefore, we should already have dozens of big budget movies where cats are Batman, right?

Not only does "StarDog and TurboCat" address the public's demand for crime-fighting kitties, it's also a pretty decent animated flick for the whole family. Sure, critics are split on the film, but if you or your kids are looking for something in the delightful vein of "PAW Patrol," then this is the perfect film for you.

• Starring: Luke Evans, Nick Frost, Gemma Arterton

• Director: Ben Smith

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

Fair warning — without any pre-existing familiarity with the "Sword Art Online" (SWO) light novels, manga, or anime, "Ordinal Scale" may render you instantly lost in the wilderness of franchise mythology. On the bright side, Hulu also supplies the SWO series, which we'll oversimplify as a "Matrix"/"Ready Player One"/YA hybrid. Ergo, if one wishes to make sense out of "Ordinal Scale," the necessary context is very available.  

• Starring: Haruka Tomatsu, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Ayana Taketatsu

• Director: Tomohiko Ito

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75% (Audience Score)

The lone feature-length film entry of the "Trigun" franchise, "Badlands Rumble" presents us with an anachronistic sci-fi setting in the spirit of old school Hollywood Westerns. Naturally, it's loaded with outlaws and trigger-happy knuckleheads with absurdly awesome names like "Vash the Stampede," "Millions Knives," and "Dominique the Cyclops." Best viewed after consuming the 26-episode anime which, conveniently enough, you can also find on Hulu.  

• Starring: Shô Hayami, Tsutomu Isobe, Masaya Onosaka

• Director: Satoshi Nishimura

• Year: 2010

• Runtime: 90 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80% (Audience Score)

Formerly the final hurrah of "Animaniacs" until the oddball '90s afterschool staple returned in 2020, "Wakko's Wish" entails a seemingly downtrodden Wakko Warner scrounging to afford surgery younger sister Dot needs quite urgently, apparently. But we can assure you, this film's plot synopsis makes it sound much more dire than it is. "Wakko's Wish" is actually a whole bucket of silliness and shenanigans, to tell you the truth.   

• Starring: Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille

• Director: Liz Holzman, Tom Ruegger, Rusty Mills

• Year: 1999

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes score: 79% (Audience Score)