Introduction
Hello fellow adventurers! Blaziker has returned for the final animation adventure of 2025. After covering 67 animated movies for this year, it is time we venture to the final 7 animated movies of 2025, so let’s see what we are ending off with!
The first movie, Hola Frida, is about a Mexican girl with a physical disability who has an imaginative mind of her own and sets out to face what life gets in her way with her imagination. Hola Frida was an interesting animated movie to look forward to, not just because it is an animated movie advocating for disability representation and rights, but one that has a creative mind of its own. Will this movie live up to its promises?
The second movie, Arco, takes place in a future where a kid accidentally got teleported back in time from his future to 2075, where he encounters and befriends a girl from that new era as he tries to return to his future. Arco is a movie I had been very looking forward, as this is the Annecy Cristal winner for this year’s Annecy Film Festival and with this getting a spot at this year’s Singapore International Film Festival, with director Ugo Bienvenu in attendance, did Arco deserve to win its Cristal award?
The third movie, Space Cadet, is a Canadian non-verbal animated movie about a relationship between an astronaut and her robot companion as the robot reflects on his time with her from her childhood to her space exploration trip. Yet another Annecy Film Festival 2025 animated movie I was looking to cover, Space Cadet is yet another animated movie that is hard to kind, that is, until ArtScience Cinema in Singapore is showcasing it for free as part of its exhibition, so of course I had to see it. Is this worth exploring for?
The fourth movie, Stitch Head, is based on a book series and centres on a creature created by a mad professor to protect the other monsters he created, but when a circus impresario arrives to offer him a role in his freak show, the creature takes his chance and go on a journey he never expect. There are a few reason why Stitch Head ruffles a few feathers for me: firstly, this was an animated movie produced by Assemblage Entertainment (responsible for traumatising me with their terrible animated movies, including Arctic Dogs and my least favourite animated movie of 2025 so far, Sneaks), Aniventure (responsible for producing one of my biggest guilty pleasures of last year with HitPig) and GFM Animation, the sales agent and distributor behind various animated movies, including this year’s The Day the Earth Blew Up. Bringing three different studios of varying track records together might sound like a disaster, but it with decent turnout at both the Annecy Film Festival this year and international markets, is Stitch Head gonna be a massive pleasant surprise for me?
The fifth movie, Another World, is about a spirit on a mission to guide a young girl back to reincarnation before she turns into a monster. Yet another Annecy Film Festival animated movie for me, but this is from Hong Kong, another country not that well known when it comes to animation. However, with Pakistan and the Dominican Republic producing a great animated movie from their countries last year despite their fledgling animation industries with The Glassworker and Olivia & the Clouds respectively, will Another World be a great animated movie from another emerging animation industry?
The sixth movie, Scarlet, also takes place in the afterlife just like in Scarlet, and is the latest creation from well-loved Japanese Mamoru Hosoda about a murdered princess waking up in a new realm where she must defeat her father’s killer and reach a sanctuary in time before her soul disappears forever. Hosoda already produced my most favourite animated movie of 2021 with his previous work, Belle, and I am excited to cover another one of his movies. However, with its lukewarm reception at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, and that I was able to jump the gun by seeing it on the same day as Another World in Hong Kong, will Scarlet be a disappointment for me?
The seventh and final movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, is the latest SpongeBob movie where SpongeBob and Patrick go into the very depths of the underworld and face off against the ghost of the Flying Dutchman. I had already covered one SpongeBob movie this year with Plankton: The Movie, so I was not that excited to cover another SpongeBob movie. Will this movie work out for me?
Are you ready, because we are about to begin our last animation adventure of 2025, so here we go!
Hola Frida!
Key Information
- Directors: Karine Vezina and Andre Kadi
- Animation Studio: Haut et Court and Du Coup Animation
- Country of Origin: France, Canada
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 12 February 2025 (in France)
Trailer
The Review
I honestly feel this is a straightforward review that does not need any unnecessary exposition, so I will head straight to the point: I enjoyed this lighthearted and well-executed animated biopic.
As an animated movie that focuses on disability representation, this is a fun animated movie that would please most audiences. In spite of its simplicity in terms of writing, this movie at the very least respects its audience by not overwhelming them with unnecessary details, and instead puts its focus on the girl and her imaginative mind, in spite of her disability. It is heartening we are getting better-quality family-friendly animated movies with good messaging this year, and while not the best, Hola Frida does the job. The characters are decently developed and I overall like the vibe.
The animation is also simple but well-appointed. I like that it was going for a 2D hand-drawn approach, blending Mexican art into this delightful looking animated movie that is filled with a lot of Mexican culture. The animation blends into the simplicity of the story well, and there are certain shots, especially during the imaginary segments. It is a movie that combines colours to great effect and shows not all family-friendly animated movies need to be just 3D CG, because the art-style in Hola Frida is solid.
The soundtrack is decent, and as for my level of enjoyment, I had my fun with it. Sure, we had seen much better animated movies this year, especially family-friendly animated movies with more mature messaging, but all that said, Hola Frida puts a smile on my face. It is quite enjoyable for what it is, nothing more, nothing less.
Overall, I did not have a lot of things to say about Hola Frida, but we needed a good animated movie pick-me-up that would delight most audiences, and Hola Frida is that type of animated movie. It is not aiming to win awards, but is instead sharing an inclusive message in an animated movie that did just it was told, and did so with relative ease.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Arco
Key Information
- Director: Ugo Bienvenu
- Animation Studio: Remembers, MountainA, Goodfellas Animation
- Country of Origin: France
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 27 November 2025 (in Singapore as part of the Singapore International Film Festival 2025)
Trailer
The Review
Given Arco won the Annecy Cristal this year instead of my current most favourite animated movie of 2025 so far with Little Amelie, I came in with high expectations about it and I got to say, I can understand why it won the Cristal even though this, like Little Amelie, was created by a team of newcomers who are passionate about showing a new kind of family-friendly animated movie.
We had seen so many French family-friendly animated movies that deviate away from the typical Americanisation formula and are instead forging a new identity in telling fun and interesting stories, great characters and top-quality animation hat felt more refined than the usual family-friendly foreign animated movie. Arco is yet another fantastic example and proves that France is the king of the family-friendly animated movie.
You can tell Arco takes inspiration from past animated movies and interprets those ideas into something new. Arco has an interesting futuristic fantasy with an environmental message that we had seen before, but here, it is a unique blend of old and new. Its world-building might stumble a couple of times, but the world-building is nevertheless so rich and interesting in spite of its slightly shorter than 90 minutes runtime, especially with its Ghibli-style environmental messaging that, while subtle, is so well-realised, especially towards the end.
In fact, the level of restraint within this movie stands out as it allows the moviegoers to focus just on a few but important elements within the story. Even with fewer elements, the writing is very immersive and well-paced, which was also helped by its unique and well-developed characters. Arco (Oscar Tressanini) is such a unique character as a time-travelling boy from the future who ended up in a futuristic past, but his carefree nature won me over. His time with Iris (Margot Ringard Oldra) felt genuine and heartwarming, and Iris also has certain characteristics that shone through as the movie progresses. You are genuinely witnessing two children who just met and found elements the other character has that they don’t, making such an interesting character dynamic. Iris’s robot companion Mikki (Swann Arlaud) also helps with the story (especially one scene between him and Iris that touched me), but I feel the three weird brothers of Dougie (Vincent Macaigne), Stewie (Louis Garrel) and Frankie (William Lebghil) won me over. It can be easy to give them annoying personalities, but here, their subtle quirkiness actually provides well-needed comedic relief without going way too far and is well-utilised throughout the story.
However, the animation is where this movie gets to fly, literally. Just like Little Amelie this year, Arco utilises colour to its fullest potential, providing such a vibrant animation style that blends both futuristic and retro elements into such a fun experience. Even though it would be their first animated movie for most of the animators involved, not only had they come up with interesting animation elements, but the amount of time and dedication spent on the animation shows in the final product. There was one glaring animation error I spotted, but I am willing to forgive the animators for this error, because the entirety of the animation is too amazing to look at. It does exude elements from Studio Ghibli and classic cartoons, but are blended to create a unique mix of the old and the new in the animation. The sequences are intense but well-realised, the character and background designs look amazing and, yeah, the colouring is spot on. I have nothing major to complain about in the animation whatsoever.
The minor elements are as equally impeccable, especially with the score and the sound design. It is important for them to set the pace and keep it as immersive as possible, and the sound in Arco is amazing. As for my level of enjoyment, for a family-friendly animated movie, this was a surprisingly massive sell-out crowd where the cinemagoers there are passionate film buffs like me who love filmmaking. The fact that a lot of us gave it a standing ovation goes to show that when family-friendly animated movies are produced with respect for the audience in mind, you get something that even adults can enjoy, and that is the power of most top-quality French family-friendly animated movies. I don’t know how they did it every time, but it seems most of their family-friendly aniamted movies can win even the adults over.
Overall, while I still prfer Little Amelie over Arco, Arco is still a fantastic animated movie that proves why family-friendly animated moveis need to move away from the typical Americanisation formula of manufacturing family-friendly animated movies. Arco felt like a work of art that is full of fresh ideas and colourful animation, and one that moviegoers would talk about for years to come. An absolute must-see if you just love a bit of rainbow sightseeing.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Space Cadet
Key Information
- Director: Eric San (aka Kid Koala)
- Animation Studio: Les Films Outsiders
- Country of Origin: Canada
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 1 November 2025 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
Throughout the entirety of 2025, we are seeing family-friendly animated movies that began deviating from the Americanisation formula that I highlighted when I explored Arco, and here, this is yet another fantastic example of it.
Despite being a relatively straightforward movie in terms of the plot, the simplicity of Space Cadet results in such a fantastic payoff when we get to the climax. Seeing the relationship between Celeste, the space cadet in question, and her robot companion, blossoming throughout the movie, even when they went their own ways, is what makes this movie so touching. While it reminded me of Lost in Starlight earlier this year, Space Cadet does this Robot Dreams style plot that suits the movie’s simplicity. The character development between those two characters resulted in such a fantastic ending, that while unexpected, is what keeps this movie so great, despite the movie not having any dialogue.
The movie also has fantastic animation. You can tell that despite the limited manpower and budget, the team behind Space Cadet stretched its budget to its limits with its imaginative animation style that has a stop-motion feel that differentiates this movie from most other CG animated movies. Given we are seeing even a few family-friendly foreign CG animated movies adopting different styles that feel different from the typical style, I will say that despite the simple-looking animation, the animation is very well done. There is an artsy feel into Space Cadet that feels more authentic to the story this movie was trying to tell, and for that, the animation did its job.
However, I will argue that the highlight of this movie has to be the soundtrack. Given Kid Koala is a musician who also directed this movie, I expected the soundtrack to be great, but he exceeded my expectations! This soundtrack combines a wide variety of music genres into one great soundtrack that has a mix of acoustic, low-fi and even binaural sounds that make up for one interesting and atmospheric soundtrack that fits into the movie’s themes of loneliness and space exploration. As for me, I love this movie. Despite its simplicity, this movie does not need to overcomplicate itself, and I enjoyed the movie from start to finish. Also, I got it for free since it is a free screening, and I appreciate that.
Overall, I have nothing major to complain about this tiny adventure. Space Cadet is a movie worth seeing, which admittedly is difficult to find given its limited distribution so far. Hopefully, more of you get the chance to see this fun detour that has it all.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Stitch Head
Key Information
- Director: Steven Hudson
- Animation Studios: Assemblage Entertainment, Aniventure and GFM Animation
- Country of Origin: Germany, France, Luxembourg, India, United States and United Kingdom
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 11 December 2025 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
If I were to be honest, given one of the animation studios involved already produced my least favourite animated movie of this year so far in Sneaks, I had very low expectations with this movie. This is especially when two other animation studios with patchy track records collaborated on this. However, to my surprise, I find this movie to be not that bad at all!
Sure, there are other family-friendly foreign CG animated movies this year that are much better than this, but for Assemblage Entertainment’s standards, this was honestly way better than I thought. While the story is not well developed and it still adopts this generic looking foreign CG look that is quite tiring in today’s animation scene, the execution is not too shabby. The writing is at least decent and engaging from start to finish, and I find the characters to be quite charming even despite the lack of character development that kept me engaged to this movie.
However, the animation took me by surprise. Assemblage Entertainment’s animation is infamous for terrible rendering, but here, Stitch Head has decent rendering. Sure, the rendering work still needs polish, but this is quite decent looking and I liked the unique designs that made the movie quite interesting. Some animation sequences do stand out in a good way, and overall, I was not as frustrated with the animation quality as compared to Arctic Dogs and Sneaks.
Given this was a mini-musical, the soundtrack is fine but nothing special. A couple of musical numbers are good though not noteworthy unfortunately. As for my level of enjoyment, considering how much I berated at Assemblage Entertainment’s terrible work in the past, I’m honestly quite happy with the overall result. It’s not a great animated movie, don’t get me wrong, but Assemblage finally produced a passable animated movie that did not enrage me… Which cannot be said for their other animated movies.
Overall, Stitch Head is a decent scare that might not be worth recommending, but it nevertheless is a good animated movie that is better than expected given the studios involved in this movie. Let’s hope Assemblage Entertainment finally woke up and start producing more decent quality animated movies that are nothing like Arctic Dogs and Sneaks (starting with Groove Tails which is currently in production). We can only hope.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Another World
Key Information
- Director: Tommy Kai Chung Ng
- Animation Studio: Point Five Creations, Silver Media Group
- Country of Origin: Hong Kong
- Rating: PG13
- Release date: 29 October 2025 (in Hong Kong)
Trailer
The Review
Considering I was lucky to cover this and the next movie while visiting relatives in Hong Kong, I took the chance to see this in the morning screening where tickets are cheaper, and I am happy to report that the trek was well worth it, because Another World truly delivers.
What makes Another World is not just its concept about a world that straddles between life and death, but also the stories that interweave into such a well-realised story with a strong ending, even if the story can be confusing in the beginning. To play devil’s advocate on this, the confusing, non-linear story actually helps to transport its moviegoers into their world, which felt commendable. It also helped that the pacing is on point such that there is no boring moment throughout, and the characters are well-realised too. You feel the tension and conflict from Gudo (Chung Suet-Ying) whose role is to guide spirits to reincarnation, his clash of ideals with wraith slayer Dark Knight (Louis Cheung) and his guidance with Yuri (Christy Choi), a spirit whose rage could destroy his world and whom he wants to protect from her fate, sells this original concept well.
However, it was the animation that propelled this story to new heights. Another World has fantastic character and background designs that made you feel you are an observer into their world, with well-drawn and well-animated sequences that felt ethereal at times. You can tell that in spite of being from a country not known for its animation like Hong Kong, the team that worked on this movie cared a lot about producing such a beautiful and well-crafted animated movie that feels unique to their own.
The score is as excellent as the movie, and in spite of the movie releasing two months prior to me seeing the movie, the marketing is still strong and goes to show how much people cared about a movie made in their own country. As for my level of enjoyment, this was such a fantastic animated movie because everything works for me. Another World captivated me from start to finish, and for a country that rarely produces animated movies, this felt like water in the desert for me.
Overall, Another World deserves its spot at this year’s Annecy Film Festival due to how well-rounded and devastating this movie was. I am so happy I got to see this in its home country, because Another World is well worth seeing in theatres if you ask me.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Scarlet
Key Information
- Director: Mamoru Hosoda
- Animation Studio: Studio Chizu
- Country of Origin: Japan
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 5 February 2026 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
Man, I was looking forward to seeing a movie two months earlier than the Singapore release date, especially given this was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, one of the most prolific anime movie directors of his generation and that his previous animated movie, Belle, was my most favourite animated movie of 2021, I was looking forward to seeing how he adapts Shakespeare’s Hamlet into his own. My conclusion: What the absolute hell???
In all honesty, Scarlet felt like a movie that borderlines on insane and genius, given its high-risk approach to its story. Not all story elements gel well, and there were moments where I burst into tears laughing over the unexpected and confusing moments in this movie (you will see if you see this movie for yourself). This is a revenge story that is not your average movie, and you can tell there were huge swings into making the story happen, just that not everything works out even if the ending actually makes a lot of the confusing elements make sense personally.
The main characters between Scarlet (Mana Rashida) and her otherworld companion in Hijiri (Masaki Okada) do clash at first, but you can tell that their chemistry deepens the more the movie progresses, though the movie could have been a bit better in developing that chemistry further which is a nitpick I had with this movie’s writing. The other characters, such as the main villain in Claudius (Koji Yakusho), mostly do work, but some may require a further rethink.
As for the animation, this was the most amount of CG animation put into a Hosoda movie, and while the back and forth between Scarlet’s 2D and 3D style can get confusing at times, both styles are well-animated and have distinct enough personalities to stand out. The backgrounds are the highlight as the vastness and expansive backgrounds make this movie feel more like a proper epic, which I believe is what the movie was going for, anyway. The mixed animation style also results in interesting action sequences that feel very cinematic and exciting when needed.
However, I am surprised that the score is the biggest reason why I enjoyed this movie. The epicness of this score makes for such an exciting cinematic experience and the songs are great too. As for my level of enjoyment, even though I was the only person in my screening of Scarlet, I honestly had a good time with this movie despite how confusing this movie was. Scarlet took a lot of risks and original ideas to make the movie stick, and while not all land, the ones that do make Scarlet a good time, despite it being perhaps my biggest disappointment of 2025.
I will say this: I rather have animated movies like Scarlet that try to push the envelope and take risks in its story and its animation. We need more animated movies that are done playing safe and do something different and unique once in a while. Since I was the only person that was in my screening of Scarlet, maybe you need to see it to support more risk-taking in future animated movies and make animation much more interesting.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
Key Information
- Director: Derek Drymon
- Animation Studio: Paramount Animation, Reel FX
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 25 December 2025 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
If I were to be very honest, I was not looking forward to seeing another SpongeBob SquarePants animated movie, especially considering the previous SpongeBob movie in the form of Plankton: The Movie was not good personally. However, despite me not enjoying Search for SquarePants as much as some of my personal favourites, I found myself liking a few more elements that make this movie worthy of its theatrical release.
Honestly, you could apply the same issues I applied for Plankton: The Movie into this movie, as this movie felt more like an extended episode of SpongeBob SquarePants stretched a bit too thin, with not enough story and character development to justify the movie release. Additionally, this was movie filled with gags and jokes that do not connect to the story, which resulted in the slow pacing that make for such a bore at certain moments, especially since this movie also utilised past gags from the original animated series and other SpongeBob animated movies.
However, there are a few redeeming elements that justify its theatrical release. Compared to the other SpongeBob animated movies I had already seen, such as Saving Bikini Bottom last year and The Plankton Movie, mainly that this movie pokes fun at certain meta elements that actually work well (including a dig at Paramount which is very brave of this movie given what is going on at Paramount now), and the animation has a more cartoony feel that feels like an homage to the classic SpongeBob episodes that are better quality, with more creative character designs and upgraded visuals. Honestly, Search for SquarePants is the SpongeBob movie that feels most appropriate to be put in theatres compared to most of the SpongeBob CG animated movies. The minor elements are decent, and despite my reservations, I enjoyed Search for SquarePants for what it was trying to accomplish, despite me still not being convinced over this movie.
Overall, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants felt like a proper SpongeBob animated movie more than some of the previous SpongeBob animated movies, which is its biggest accomplishment. Fans of SpongeBob will enjoy this one, but if you want more exciting and better-quality animated movies, there are better options than this one.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
So… We finally did it! All 74 animated movies of 2025, completed! I might have covered 10 less animated movies compared to 2024, but given the better quality of the 2025 animated movies in general, I am honestly quite satisfied with how many adventures we have done this year!
It is time we take a step back and look forward to the future, as next time, we chart our course for 12 non-mainstream animated movies that I am looking forward (and hoping) to cover in 2026. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
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