5 Underrated Animated Movies You Cannot Miss

Animated films sink or swim faster than most. Thus, it's no wonder that many gems fall through the cracks. However, given the brilliance of these movies, you wouldn't want to miss them.

With that in mind, here are five of the most underrated animated movies that you must watch.

Treasure Planet

This movie has the potential to be called a masterpiece. The characters are adventure movie staples. The animation is smooth, blending 19th century piratecore with stunning scores and cosmic visuals, for a plot with an empowering message and the usual dash of Disney's sing-alongs.

The premise is more or less similar to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. However, the setting is what makes it different. Solid characters, redemption arcs, and an intergalactic adventure later, it is still a wonderful movie.

The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is a movie that made me tear up. It has a rich, layered story steeped in realism. Although set in a timeline filled with fears, the movie never shies from breathing life into a junk food-loving robot, imbuing him with human-like emotions, and leading him to rebel against the very reason he was built.

The storyline explores the fear of the "what if" and the unknown, and the damage unfounded nationalist mentalities can do. It is a visual parable, one to look back on fondly.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Atlantis is one of the best movies I have ever watched. It is fast-paced, quirky, has a stunning blend of 2D and 3D animation, and just enough mythology to get kids intrigued.

On subsequent rewatches, it may seem like the film crammed way too much into its 95-minute runtime. Also, the finale, despite the build-up, is rather lacklustre. Despite this, the film deserves appreciation solely for its worldbuilding, heavy atmosphere, and depth. Atlantis: The Lost Empire is flawed but still enjoyable.

The Black Cauldron

While other movies on this list make rounds on r/underrated every now and then, The Black Cauldron is rarely seen, even on Disney threads. The art direction is great, but the story itself is very poorly paced. The film's atmosphere feels oddly empty, as if there's no world or characters beyond what shows up on screen.

The characters are fantasy staples: overzealous hero who wants to save the world, a princess who needs saving, and sidekicks galore. It definitely had a darker feel compared to other Disney movies, with a skull-headed villain with plain evil motives, and scenes with him raising an undead army. I quite liked this, the animation still holds up and although there's a lot of plot to squeeze in, it held my interest throughout.

Titan A.E.

Titan A.E. is basically space opera meets post-apocalyptic meets Asimov in yet another Don Bluth film in this list. I think it's one of many movies that were just way ahead of its time. It opened really strong, with a distinctive combination of gritty CGI and traditional animation setting the bleak panicky ambience of humanity losing earth to a mysterious alien race with little explanation as to why.

The romantic subplot seemed unnecessary, character development is stilted, and the plot twist was hardly a whiplash. What makes it worth the watch is the spectacular set pieces the characters visit in their quest, like the rusty planet with hydrogen trees, the ice crystal and the ensuing chase. The aesthetic is fresh, enticingly sci-fi, but not exclusionary in its genre. Just enough to hook you in with epic space battles and evil energy beings.

Sarah Wasifa sees life as a math equation: problematic, perhaps with a solution, and maybe sometimes with a sign to tear off a page and start over again. Help her find 'y' at sarahwf77@gmail.com