griggs's - Animated April 2025: (Ranked) List

Chico & Rita is an epic animated story of love and heartbreak, set against the colour and bustle of Havana, New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris in the late 1940s and early '50s.

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Jim and Hilda Bloggs (voiced by Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft) are a middle-aged couple, who believe that the British government is in control as they prepare for Nuclear War.

When the countdown begins, they roll up their shirtsleeves and follow government guidelines that were actually distributed to households around Britain in the 1970s. They paint their windows white, build a fortress of doors and pillows, take the washing in and put away two packets of ginger nuts, one tin of pineapple chunks and a good supply of tea. This cautionary tale is both humorous and macabre in its consideration of one of the most horrific possibilities of modern life.

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'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' premiered in Germany on 23rd September 1926, hailed as the first full-length animated film in the history of cinema.

Seventy-five years on, this enchanting film still stands as one of the great classics of animation - lively, delicate, inventive, stirring and romantic. Taken from "The Arabian Nights", the story tells of a wicked sorcerer who lures Prince Achmed onto a magical flying horse and sends him off on a flight to his death. The Prince foils the magician's evil plan, however, and flies headlong into a series of adventures - joining forces with Aladdin, doing battle with assorted ogres, monsters and spirits, and falling in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu.

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The first-ever full-length theatrical 'Lego' movie follows Emmet (voice of Chris Pratt), a perfectly average 'Lego' mini-figure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person in the world.

He is drafted into an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant and save the world, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously under-prepared.

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From DreamWorks Animation comes an adaptation of Peter Brown's award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, 'The Wild Robot'.

The epic adventure stars Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o (Us, the Black Panther franchise) as Roz, a robot that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must adapt to the harsh surroundings. Gradually Roz starts building relationships with the animals on the island, including a clever fox voiced by Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian), and becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling named Brightbill. 'The Wild Robot' is a powerful story about self-discovery, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature, and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things.

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"The Breadwinner" tells the story of Parvana (voice of Saara Chaudry), an 11-year-old girl growing up under the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. When her father is wrongfully arrested, Parvana disguises herself as a boy in order to support her family.

With dauntless perseverance, Parvana draws strength from the stories her father told her, and ultimately risks her life to discover if he is still alive. Equal parts thrilling and spellbinding, The Breadwinner is a timely and inspiring tale about the transcendent power of stories, and their potential to unite and heal us all.

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Pixar's Soul introduces Joe (voice of Jamie Foxx), who lands the gig of his life at the best jazz club in town. But one misstep lands Joe in a fantastical place: The Great Before.

There, he teams up with soul 22 (voice of Tina Fey), and together they find the answers to some of life's biggest questions.

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Michael Stone (David Thewlis), a husband, father and successful motivation speaker, is crippled by the mundanity of his life. On yet another business trip he checks into a clinically commonplace hotel once more.

But this time a chance meeting with Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an unassuming, small-town sales rep, throws the dullness into disarry and Michael feels he may have actually met someone who can make a change. From the mind of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and animation master Duke Johnson comes "Anomalisa", a tender, touching and achingly funny black comedy, filmed entirely in extraordinary stop motion animation.

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Mary and Max chronicles Mary's trip from adolescence to adulthood, and Max's passage from middle to old age and explores a "bond that survives much more than the average friendship's ups-and-downs.

Both hilarious and poignant Mary and Max is a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and many more of life's surprises.

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Based upon the graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is the biographical story following the poignant and often hilarious adventures of Marji.

From a rebellious, heavy metal loving tomboy experiencing the turmoil of adolescence during the tyrannical, Iranian revolution to a teenage exile in Vienna, Austria, where she discovers the benefits of freedom can be just as shocking as the repressive regime she was forced to leave behind. Returning to Iran as an alienated adult, Marji must now decide where it is her heart and her home must lay in this complex, insightful, honest and touching story, making Persepolis one of the most sublime animated feature films you're likely to experience.

After losing his mother, nine-year-old Icare (nicknamed "Courgette") is taken to a foster home to live with other kids his own age. Although he has trouble finding his place at first, Courgette soon learns to love those around him as he finds a new family of his own.

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Something huge is on the horizon. Hogarth Hughes just rescued an enormous robot that fell from the stars to Earth.

Now young Hogarth has a very big friend and an even bigger problem: How do you keep a 50-foot-tall, steel-eating (junkyard cars are especially tasty) giant a secret? It's even harder when a nosey government agent arrives in town to hunt down the 'alien invader' and the combined land, sea and air might of the U.S. military is sent to demolish the giant. The result: an incredible adventure that's part metal, part magic, all heart.

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One of the most visually dazzling, strikingly original and stunningly realised films about war ever made, this landmark in animation is an extraordinary, ingenious work of devastating intensity.

Based on the true story of director Ari Folman, an Israeli 1982 Lebanon War in which he fought, the film charts his deep into the mystery, fragments of memory creep up in surreal images as the truth of what happened behind to unravel.

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What does a scanner see? Into the head? Into the heart? From the novel by Philip L.

Dick - the sci-fi legend whose works-to-film include 'Blade Runner', 'Total Recall' and 'Minority Report' - comes 'A Scanner Darkly', brought to the screen by filmmaker Richard Linklater with an edgy graphic-novel look. The time: just beyond now. The place: suburbia. The story: a twisted, funny tale of people hooked on Substance D. And of a government that cheerfully destroys its citizens - their rights, their relationships - in order to save them. Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane play strung-out friends terrified of each other and of spies. Keanu Reeves plays a spy who's also one of the friends... until his two personalities begin to split. Enjoy the paranoia. Nobody's watching you. Really.

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Mitsuha and Taki have never met, but when the frustrated country girl wishes of a life in the big city, they will forge a connection both unexplainable and unforgettable. In their dreams, the two swap lives, cultures and genders as they learn more about, and grow closer to, each other.

What was once a shock becomes a joy-filled double life, but what will happen when they discover the red string of fate tying them together?